Director: Richard Cunha
Writer: H.E. Barrie
Producers: George Foley, Marc Frederic
Cast: John Ashley, Sandra Knight, Donald Murphy, Sally Todd, Harold Lloyd, Jr., Felix Locher, Wolfe Barzell, John Zaremba, Robert Dix, Harry Wilson, Voltaire Perkins, Charlotte Portney, Bill Coontz, George Barrows, Page Cavanaugh and His Trio (the band as themselves)
In the suburban residence of elderly Dr. Carter Morton (Felix Locher), his assistant Oliver Frank (Donald Murphy) is conducting secret experiments in Morton’s home laboratory. Frank is actually a descendant of the legendary Frankenstein family that created life from the dead. He tests a serum on Morton’s niece Trudy (Sandra Knight) that temporarily disfigures and deranges her. He soon creates an even more horrible being.
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- There are trigger-happy police immediately blasting away at anyone ugly enough to be a monster.
- Then the same cops being conveniently blind enough to run right past the fence that the monster girl and Oliver Frank are barely hiding behind.
- Elsu (Wolfe Barzell), the crusty old gardener in the Morton household, is treated like some lower form of life by both Dr. Morton and his niece, though they both seem to be otherwise decent people.
- Elsu inexplicably thinks Trudy is “sweet,” though we never see her show him any emotion except obvious discomfort. Of course, Elsu is assisting Oliver Frank in his vile experiments, so maybe he just exudes some kind of creep factor.
- You have got to hand it to that slick operator Oliver Frank/Frankenstein managing to get the assistant to his father’s experiments placed in the Morton household with him.
- When Oliver Frank puts the female brain of his murder victim into his creation, he assumes it will be obedient and not bear him any grudge.
- The female brain in a very ugly male body is a new spin on mad science.
- A monster that would take an hour to walk around the block manages to leave the Morton house and commit a murder at a nearby warehouse and make it back the next evening without being seen.
- The monster has damaged the front door when leaving, but the next night the door is undamaged. It is just possible for it to have been repaired the next day, or it is also possible that it is a continuity error. Surely, even if the Mortons were not aware of a monster in their house, they would be concerned about what appears to be a break in. Trudy does ask Oliver Frank if he knows who did this, as he is acting very strangely, but no more is made of it.
- There is the pool party barbecue and jam session going on at the Morton place while Frankenstein’s latest creation is chained up in the attic.
- As the film ends, the horrendous events of the story have just made the local headlines and the surviving main characters are full of fun and joy, regardless of the people they were close to that did not survive. I guess Johnny Bruder (John Ashley) must have gotten that promotion to assistant manager; that surely makes everything come up roses.
It may seem like I am bashing Frankenstein’s Daughter, but that’s not the case at all. I like these reckless and absurd elements. I also enjoy the almost constant conflict between characters in this movie. Even when there is no “horror stuff” going on, there are interesting and often-uncomfortable situations happening, and Oliver Frank is usually at the center of them.
There’s never a dull moment with Oliver Frank around. He is contentious and insubordinate with his employer Dr. Morton. When he’s not doping her fruit punch with experimental drugs, Oliver Frank sexually harasses Morton’s niece Trudy. Oliver Frank has the audacity to be building a monster in his spare time in his employer’s home lab and storing the results in an unused wine cellar with no one the wiser. He nearly date-rapes Trudy’s friend Suzie (Sally Todd). When she spurns him, Oliver Frank really shifts his villainy into high gear. Oliver Frank decides to try and strangle old Dr. Morton in his own home to get the run of his lab. Within minutes of the police knocking on the Morton household door and interrupting his attempted murder of the “nutty old man,” Frank manages to get the police to arrest Dr. Morton and suggest that he is senile. Oliver Frank/Frankenstein is frankly one of the greatest and most enjoyable jerks in movie history.
Donald Murphy as Oliver Frank/Frankenstein really takes the acting honors in Frankenstein’s Daughter. His character is an absolute sociopath and egomaniac, and Murphy certainly must have had the most fun of all the cast in the film.
The other principals in the cast play the material sincerely and for what it’s worth. John Ashley and Sandra Knight make a likable couple. They are the two we are supposed to be rooting for and they never become cloying or obnoxious. Sally Todd is fun as the hard-to-get tease Suzie Lawler. She and Murphy share the best scene in the film when their necking session in a lover’s lane takes a really nasty turn. The tension builds, as we know that Oliver Frank is going from horny to homicidal. I actually feel sorry for Suzie in that moment.
Director Richard Cunha cranked out three other horror and sci-fi films the same year as this one. His She Demons (1958) is much wackier than Frankenstein’s Daughter, and I highly recommend it to all vintage schlock cinema fans.
One of the things I always appreciate in Frankenstein movies is the new look that will be given the featured monsters. After Universal’s classic monster design for Boris Karloff and other actors in their films of the '30s and '40s, it was mandatory that other filmmakers not imitate Jack Pierce’s work, or risk legal action. Make-up man Harry Thomas’ monster designs are certainly distinctive. In a six-day shoot that was only budgeted at about $65,000, Thomas has complained that he was always rushed and often not given clear direction about just what the director needed. After he had created his stitched-together creature, he was mortified to learn that it was supposed to have the head of a female. All he could do was smear lipstick on it. Thankfully, his suggestion to put a blonde wig on this monster was not allowed. During the film’s climax, Thomas’ hurry-up-and-get-it-done acid burn makeup is very effective and a gruesome highlight.
Frankenstein’s Daughter works for me due to the extremes of behavior and horror happening in the midst of a cozy suburb; those contrasts create interest. The appealing and accessible world everything takes place in allows me to invest much more involvement in the crazy yarn unfolding. The absurd and the horrific presented sincerely may be one person’s trash or this flashback fanatic’s treasure.
This has always been a big favorite of mine. I agree with you that anyone who dismisses it is an utter fool!! The first time I saw it was in the early 1960's on a local TV late night horror show called Way Out. This show introduced me to all of the old Universal classics, the Monogram quickies, and lots of cool stuff from the 1950's. As soon as I saw Sandra Knight's horrific face at the beginning, I was hooked. And you can't go wrong with any flick featuring John Ashley. The monster was a real trip. A trifle slow, however. But who's complaining?
ReplyDeleteFortunately, we both grew up with local, late night television horror movie programming. Such a fount of culture has kept us both from becoming utter fools.
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