Frankenstein's Daughter (1958) User Reviews

My First

[tl12 · 5/10 · 2 November 2011]

Everyone remembers "their first time" of doing many things. So when people ask me why this movie is in my collection, I just tell them "It was my first". It was the first time I ever saw a horror movie in a theater. It was a double bill with Frankenstein's Daughter and The Man Without a Body. My cousin who was six years older than me took me. I was 8 or 9 I think.

I was absolutely terrified. I had just barely enough guts not to put my hands over my eyes and show my cousin what a coward I was. I never saw the movie again till I was in my 50's. Hmmm, no so scary but when I let my imagination go I could still remember the night in the theater and how I felt.

The best advice I can give others on this film is that my 5 was generous. It is, however, not just bad. It is wonderfully bad! If you want to have your own Mystery Science Theater, invite some friends over, serve plenty of drinks and laugh your way though the film. But watch out that there are no little ones in the room because they may react as I did in the theater all those years ago.

Horror of Horrors!

[Harold_Robbins · 5/10 · 6 September 2004]

Along with SHE DEMONS, this is one of those movies that used to scare the heck out of me as a kid in Brooklyn watching Chiller Theater on Channel 11 on Saturday nights. It was part of the new hybrid of films that came in during the mid-to-late 1950s, horror movies aimed at a teenaged audience. Movies like FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER were of the low-budget 'schlock' variety, made on shoe-string budgets by poverty-row independent studios. Now, as an adult, it's fun to pop these movies in and have a good laugh at the sometimes over-the-top performances cheesy sets and 'special' effects.

Watching the movie this time, I was aware of its incredibly slow pacing, which seemed to be exacerbated by the incredible awful performance of Felix Locher as Carter Morton. He seems to be reading his lines phonetically off of cue cards, as though he's never seen them before in his life! I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, but I'm sure his is the WORST performance I've seen in ANY film, ANYWHERE, EVER!!!! He's so bad that he makes everyone else look brilliant!

This film has several 'horrors' on offer - the two 'monsters,' Locher's performance, and two dreadful teenage musical numbers. Take your pick!

Butt-ugly in a Bathing Suit

[RetroRoger · 4/10 · 11 December 2004]

You can take a Frankenstein out of the Old Country, but you can't take the Old Country out of a Frankenstein.

Yet another of Victor's descendants, Oliver, trucks his mad experiments all the way to the suburbs of L.A.

Charting the family tree of the randy Frankenstein clan is daunting. Ollie would seem to be the son of Wolf (the titular 'Son of Frankenstein'), perhaps the older brother of Dr. Freddie ("Frahn-ken-SHTEEN!), nephew of the lusty Lady Tania Frankenstein, and either nephew or cousin of Maria Frankenstein (think she was fudging on her age to Jesse James).

Though he hides his identity behind a truncated last name, Oliver is full-blooded Frankenstein, with a healthy dose of his forefathers' urbane insanity and his aunts' horn-dog chromosome.

Oliver can barely keep his mind on monster-building while Trudy Morton is around. Trudy is the niece of his employer, Carter Morton, a tottering mad scientist with a perplexing Germanic accent. (played by Felix Locher, who portrayed Frenchmen, Spaniards, and even Sitting Bull -- twice -- during his long career.)

Oliver adds a whole new dimension to sexual harassment by slipping Trudy fruit-punch mickeys laced with Digenerol, an apparent early version of Rohypnol.

Trudy keeps waking from nightmares where she's been running around the suburbs in her bathing suit or blue nightie, with bug eyes, Bubba teeth, and a profuse amount of facial hair.

When other members of the community begin to describe seeing the same scantily-clad creature, Trudy deduces that she must be the monster, and proceeds to tell just about everyone she knows. They all pooh-pooh the notion, because, after all, the movie still has 65 minutes to fill.

At this point, we get to know a little more about Trudy's close friend, Suzie (played by February 1957 Playmate, Sally Todd). Seems Suzie is still sore because Trudy stole her boyfriend, Johnny. Suzie can see that live-in employee Oliver has a thing for Trudy, so she plans to get a piece of that action for herself.

Date night comes, and Suzie gets more of Ollie than she wants. Slapping a Frankenstein is a capital offense, and the mad scientist salvages Suzie's brain for his brand new monster.

Exposition ensues, as Mad Doctor Frank explains to his henchman Elsu that he is placing a female brain in his male monster's head because, "the female brain is conditioned to a man's world, and therefore takes orders ...". Ollie forgot that this particular brain just got done slapping the snot out of him.

Elsu, who must be older than dirt, also assisted Granddaddy and Daddy Frankenstein when they brought their own creatures into the world, and gets the notion that Oliver's motives are less honorable than his predecessors. Not good at taking constructive criticism, Dr. Frank tells his henchman, "From here on in, I decide what's evil."

While the mad scientist works hard to spark life in his creature, old man Morton picks that inconvenient moment to have a heart seizure. Hearing his cry for help, and needing to keep him from staggering in on their secret experiment, Oliver and Elsu rush out to aid Morton. As Trudy runs downstairs to see what's the matter, Morton makes a miraculous recovery.

Wouldn't you know it, just when the mad doc is out of the room, the monster gets the jump-start he/she needs, and shambles out of the laboratory. We get our first good look at the new Suzie, and wish we hadn't. Androgyny wasn't in vogue in 1958, so instead of giving us a Prince or a Sting, the director resorted to the old sideshow freak trick of putting lipstick and make-up on the right side of the monster's face, while the scarred left side is that of a man (specifically, Hollywood tough guy Harry Wilson).

Apparently gender-confused, the monster makes a point of ripping the frilly curtains off the window before busting through the front door into the night.

Cut to the two unluckiest dockworkers since Abbott and Costello met Dracula. Suzie the monster does a Mummy shuffle along the dock, and catches the attention of one of the workers, who demands to know "Who are you?". Suzie tries to use her new monster vocal chords to say, "Miss February, 1957", but it all comes out as a grunt. Frustrated that she can't make the crowbar-wielding worker understand, she leans on her best feminine wiles, and repeatedly bitch-slaps him. In this new monster body, though, Suzie bounces him all over the dock.

Tired of killing for the night, Suzie heads home to her mad doctor. A little humanity shines through, as the monster stops and politely knocks at the very same door he/she had smashed through just an hour before.

Expecting boyfriend Johnny, the hapless Trudy answers the door and collapses in a total wiggins at the sight of her new dead best friend, Suzie.

The monster gets whisked away by his/her maker, Trudy is revived and duly convinced by concerned loved ones that she's nuts, and Uncle Carter urges her to have a teenage rock-n-roll dance party barbecue by the backyard pool, just to calm her nerves.

The viewer is invited along, as the four-man (?) Page Cavanaugh Trio plays jazzy, hep hits for the come-as-you-are teen party-goers. This is the way life should be. There should always be combos playing in the backyard while newspaper headlines scream "WOMAN MONSTER MENACES CITY!" Not even Godzilla should keep us from grabbing a little gusto. Hollywood filmmakers should resurrect the tradition of musical interludes in horror movies, so we can relive great moments like this and the barn dance in 'Giant Gila Monster'.

This movie adds a timeless tune, 'Daddy Bird' to the teenage horror movie hit list -- right up there with 'Beware the Blob', 'Ghoul in School' from 'Werewolf in a Girls Dormitory', and 'Kiss My A--' from 'Zombie High'. 4 out of 10.

So much fun it's scary!

[reptilicus · 20 March 2002]

For many years people derided this film as the worst Frankenstein movie ever made. Of course that was before things like FRANKENSTEIN '80 or FRANKENSTEIN'S CASTLE OF FREAKS came along. I grew up watching this film on "Chiller Theatre" and now I have a beautiful sepia tinted print on video so it is indeed a pleasure of mine, and not a guilty one either. I like this film and I am not ashamed to admit it, so there! What a cast, Felix Locher, real life father of actor Jon Hall, as a dedicated but misguided scientist; Donald Murphy as yet another "last of the Frankenstein's" (the third one the movies offered us in the space of a single year!); Harold Lloyd Jr as the comedy relief, Sandra Knight (future Mrs. Jack Nicholson) as both the girl in distress AND the fill-in monster; and last but not least John Ashley as the hero. Two men played the title monster: mostly he (she?, it?) was played by Harry Wilson, former stunt double for Wallace Beery (you can see Mr. Wilson briefly in THEM! in the hospital scene. He is in the bed next to the one occupied by Olin Howland) and for the scene where the Monster is on fire stuntman George Barrows takes over. Ms. Knight is memorable as the crusty faced, bug eyed monster who dominates the first half of the movie. If she had just gone on one date with Mr. Murphy perhaps he would not have experimented on her; but of course the plot had to advance. It's the title monster that gets me. An ostensibly male body with the severely mutilated head of a female hit-and-run victim grafted on; talk about gender confusion! Mr. Murphy gets a classic bit of male chauvinism when he declares "The brain of a female is conditioned to a man's world, therefore it takes orders." Wanna bet? The first thing the monster does after it wakes up is wander out on its own and kill someone! It is polite enough to knock when it returns home at least. You have to love the party scene. Harold Lloyd Jr (backed by Paige Cavanaugh and his Trio, a jazz combo trying to ease into rock and roll) sings "Special Date" and "Daddy Bird" and nearly steals the second half of the movie. Oh, and for your trivia folder, that burned face makeup on Mr.Murphy that was immortalised in the opening credits of "Chiller Theatre" was accomplished in less than 5 minutes thanks to some clear gel, lens paper, and chocolate syrup. Director Richard Cunha made other features, but I do believe this is his best.

She had the doctor's eyes!

[Aaron1375 · 3/10 · 15 December 2020]

Saw this film and it pretty much stuck to the basic Frankenstein formula with some deviations. I just found myself getting a bit restless as this one could have shaved fifteen minutes off its running time and still told the story it wanted to tell. I do not mind a film with a long running time mind you, but when a lot of it is pointless filler it makes the film very dull and at times stupid as this thing turns into a rocking teen musical during a cookout near the end of the film as it seemingly keeps going and going...

The story, a woman is making out and then refuses to go farther. The man drives away angrily and suddenly an ugly woman runs up to the blond and we have our title sequence! Seems there is an uncle doing experiments at his home; however, his assistant seems to know more about the experiments than does the uncle and seems to be doing his own thing including turning the uncle's niece into the strange monster! That is not all as he kills the blond from the beginning to create his very own daughter who has no resemblance to the blond whose head is supposedly used. The cops could put a stop to the madness, but let things play out as they know sooner or later that monster will be engulfed in flames!

About the only things that make this film any different than other Frankenstein movies is the strange inclusion of the cookout party and two songs. We go from a rather serious film to Horror at Party Beach and back again in the blink of an eye. Meanwhile, the blond's boyfriend seems to care little that his girlfriend is missing and cares even less when they know she is dead as they go back to swinging teen movie there at the very end.

The film did have some good effects for the time as the monster did look quite monstrous and the good doctor died in very epic fashion, hit by a very badly aimed vial of chemicals. Still, too often we are watching police speculate, the doctor speculate and the Johnny kid flirting and sort of believing Trudy, the niece, and then sort of not. Surprised Johnny got top billing as he did not really seem that important through most of the film, though I guess he really knows how to use a gurney to keep a monster at bay!

The monster looks like a 'lunch lady.'

[flapdoodle64 · 4/10 · 3 October 2011]

Capitalizing on the 'teenage monster' craze of the late 1950's, this is one is weak even by the modest standards of the teenage schlock horror school of film. It's better than 'Teenages From Outer Space,' but that's not saying much.

The eponymous monster, Frankenstein's Daughter, does not appear even vaguely female, instead looking like one of the lunch ladies from my grade school cafeteria, or perhaps the great thespian William Frawley.

I suspect the producers of this film must have figured out that they had Fred Mertz Monster on their hands, because there is a really strange and tangential subplot which involves making a temporary monster out of a cute young bathing-suit clad ingénue. This time the monster make up is good (by schlock-horror standards) and there is some interesting footage of a nice-looking bathing suit clad female body with a horrible monster face.

The other interesting thing in this film is the creepy, murderous and sexually predatory Dr. Frankenstein. He attempts to date rape one teenage girl, and he turns another one temporarily into a monster (see above). Oh, and the one he attempts to turn into a monster...well, he tries to put the moves on her as well.

The son of the great silent film comedian Harold Lloyd plays a part in this film, but damned if I can remember him. The guy who played the boyfriend of the ingénue/monster girl later showed up in a few of the Annette Funnicello/Frankie Avalon beach movies. There is also some obligatory teenage music and scenes by the swimming pool.

As an adult connoisseur of schlock horror and bad movies, this film is mildly enjoyable. Whereas some of the better teenage schlock horror films can also be enjoyed for their aesthetic value as well.

For bad movie lovers only

[dbborroughs · 4/10 · 8 November 2009]

Drive in classic about a decedent of Frankenstein turning a woman into a monster.

Painful bad movie used to be a staple on late night TV and in the drive ins across the country. I've seen this film I don't know how many times and every time I do I can't believe I'm actually sitting through it. Don't get me wrong its great fun in a bad movie sort of a way, but at the same time there is no way to get around the fact that the film is a stinker. Its silly and goofy and everything you really don't want in any sort of movie. And yet there is a certain amount of charm that makes this the sort of thing that in the right frame of mind or with a bunch or witty friends can be a great deal of fun.

Recommended for bad movie lovers

Not quite the worst horror movie ever,...but it came pretty close!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 22 April 2007]

The film starts with a silly looking "monster" running around a suburban neighborhood scaring the locals. The special effects artists involved spared no expense--giving an actress a set of hillbilly teeth and a giant uni-brow (like Bert from Sesame Street). At first, I thought this was Frankenstein's daughter, but instead she was just a diversion--a DIFFERENT experiment by the doctor. No, apart from creating a formula to make people look like they could use a bit of dental work and electrolysis, he also was secretly working on making a monster--just like his father. You see, this sexually frustrated man is trying once again to prove the Frankenstein name and come up with his own freakish experiment. The problem is, the lady he creates looks more like a melted candle than Boris Karloff and she just didn't get around to doing all that much. And in the end, it pretty much wraps up as you'd expect--with no twists or turns to provide any interesting diversions or subplot. In fact, there's very little to like about this movie unless you enjoy seeing bad films and laughing at them (which I occasionally like to do). In this case, then this film is for you! Horrible acting, a horrid script and some of the worst makeup I have ever seen on a monster combine to make a truly horrible horror film.

Frankenstein you've got a lovely daughter

[bkoganbing · 1/10 · 7 September 2014]

When Universal gave Dracula a daughter, Gloria Holden was quite genuinely creepy in Dracula's Daughter. But the franchise of Frankenstein got away from Universal and when Frankenstein got a daughter she was just the subject of a horribly bad movie, not a good horror picture.

Sandra Knight's uncle Felix Locher is a scientist doing some home experiments with a new lab assistant Donald Murphy aiding him. But Murphy is a descendant of those Frankensteins back in Europe and you know what they were experimenting with. He works for Locher so he can use the lab facilities for some experiments of his own. He's got a human body stitched together, but if he only had a brain.

We learn here that the Frankensteins were nothing if not male chauvinists. Murphy thinks why not try a female brain and the brain he gets is a friend Locher's niece Sandra Knight, Playboy centerfold Sally Todd.

This one ranks right down there among the worst films ever made. The monster's just as gruesome even if one of Hugh Hefner's monthly delights is the brain. But she does kill on command and the end confrontation between Murphy and his creation and Knight and boyfriend John Ashley will have you rolling up the aisles.

It occurred to me that since he only got the idea for a female brain and the original monster was a male, Frankenstein may have created the first deliberately made transgender individual. If the monster had lived the sexual reassignment surgery would have truly been historic.

Transgender rights however were certainly not advanced with Frankenstein's Daughter. Nor was film entertainment in general.

Frankenstein's Daughter (1958) **1/2

[JoeKarlosi · 6/10 · 19 August 2006]

**1/2 out of ****

My earliest memory of seeing FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER was somewhere back in the early 1970s when I was very young. I was living in Queens, New York and back in those sweet days I used to bounce between TV stations to catch a Saturday night horror film on either Channel 5's "Creature Features" or Channel 11's "Chiller Theatre." Well, "Chiller" won out on that particular evening. It was the heart of summer and my street was having a festive block party. I can still hear the sounds of music and kids laughing and playing, as someone would frequently run inside and ask me why I wasn't outside joining in all the fun. As much fun as I knew the family and neighbors were having outside, I couldn't have cared less; I was riveted to an old-fashioned television set watching FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER and adding this night to my memory banks. I'm sure they've all since forgotten their block party...

It's strange to think that this film was only a dozen or so years old when I first saw it! Since we weren't yet too jaded by gore and splatter, I found some genuinely powerful moments in FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER: There was blood on some of the the victims, we got a glimpse of a dismembered hand, and we were also treated to mangled and meaty body parts. The icing on the cake was a shot of a character's face virtually melting away after being splashed with acid. Pretty potent stuff compared to what I was already accustomed to.

The 1958 feature seemed very relative to me at the time. My Queens block looked very much like the residential streets in the movie, and the basement laboratory could very well have been my own cellar, had I dressed it up with some test tubes and a large table. The added fact that the story was about teenagers (okay, so they looked more like thirty-something's) also gave me a point of identification. A backyard barbecue scene again struck a chord, and was particularly appropriate on this festive evening where a noisy shindig was actually occurring a few feet away, just outside my own screen door.

The movie starts with a pre-credits sequence: Sandra Knight is prowling the neighborhood in cheap (but effective) monster make-up, with bushy eyebrows and decaying buck teeth. One of her girlfriends (the sultry Sally Todd) is just getting home from a date with her boyfriend and screams at the very sight of her. The next morning, Knight awakens as a normal-looking girl with no memory of what went on the previous evening, though when she meets Sally for tennis, her friend insists that she saw some sort of monster last night. This strange revelation triggers memories of bad dreams for Knight, and she soon thinks that she could have been the creature in question.

Meanwhile, Knight's elderly Uncle (played with hilarious ineptitude by the always-funny Felix Locher) is experimenting with a formula to render man ageless. He has acquired a young assistant named Oliver Frank (short for Frankenstein, of course) who is supposedly aiding him, but who would rather see the old man dead so he can gain full use of the laboratory to concentrate on his own masterful experiment. Donald Murphy plays Oliver, and he's one of the most detestable snakes ever to slither down the Frankenstein Family Tree. He's a joy to watch at work, using the "nutty old man's" formula on his own niece by spiking her nightly glasses of fruit punch, thereby turning her into the grotesque monster from the opening sequence!

Later, Oliver connives his way into a date with Sally Todd and tries in vain to make out with her, only to be slapped across the face by the stuck-up vixen... "Hey," Oliver protests from Lover's Lane, "you agreed to park here with me!" Soon he has a better idea: he gets even by mowing her down with his car as she tries to run away! Then, taking her body to the basement lab, Frank decides to use her head on the hulking carcass he's assembling behind the old doc's back. When the automation comes to life, it's actually a male actor (Harry Wilson) who portrays her with a toasty-looking face (reportedly, nobody bothered to tell makeup artist Harry Thomas that the monster was to be female, so he solved the dilemma by smearing some lipstick on its kisser!) Amidst the rampages of Frankenstein's Daughter, we are treated to the aforementioned evening backyard barbecue. Still wondering where their friend Sally Todd vanished to, the other teens ease their pain between hamburgers and frankfurters while enjoying the live music of "Page Cavanaugh and His Trio". The band treats us to two '50s gems: "Daddy Bird" and -- my own guilty favorite -- "Special Date." I have since memorized all the words, and it's a riot!

With lovable horror clichés, gooey monsters, and funny dialog, this is a cult classic of its type from director Richard Cunha. It's a lightly-paced thrill ride from start to finish and one of the best teenage monster movies of them all. It's easily Cunha's masterpiece (if such a word applies here). At its worst, FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER is a harmlessly funny exploitation farce; at its best, it's one of the most underrated monster classics of the 50s. I'd love to give it three or four stars just based on sheer cheesy enjoyment value!

Different

[13Funbags · 4/10 · 30 July 2018]

I have seen the majority of Frankenstein movies and this is nothing like any of them. It's very similar to lots of other movies though. The end was ridiculous but it's still a decent Stein movie.

Fun twist on the Frankenstein tale

[babeth_jr · 8/10 · 29 May 2007]

I love this take on the "man creates monster" tale. This 1958 movie stars Donald Murphy as Oliver Frank (short for Frankenstein), grandson of the original monster maker. It is 1958, Los Angeles, and he is living with Dr. Carter Morton (Felix Locher) and assisting him with his experiments. Unbeknownst to Dr. Morton, Oliver is using the lab for not just legitimate experiments, but to try to carry on the "family business", creating a human being from body parts.

Sandra Knight portrays Trudy Morton, Dr. Morton's teenage niece. John Ashley is her good guy boyfriend, Johnny. To make a long story short, Oliver creates a woman monster using the head of Trudy's va va voom friend Suzy (played by 1957 Playmate of the Year, Sally Todd) who was killed by Oliver in a jealous rage, and various other body parts, mostly male. The resulting monster with a female head, all be it butt ugly, and male body is hilarious to say the least. There is also a side story where Oliver is drugging Trudy with a drug that turns her into a monster because she won't play hide the salami with him. The monster make up on both monsters is not scary, but laughable.

All teen oriented movies in the 1950's had to have a few dance/song sequences with that new music, rock and roll, and this movie is no exception. Surprisingly enough, John Ashley doesn't perform (he was a singer and sang in several 1950's movies, most noticeably to 50's scary movie fans in the movie "How to Create a Monster"). Instead, Harold Lloyd Jr. sings two songs with the Page Cavanaugh Trio. The songs are funny although I think they were meant to be serious back when the movie was released.

This movie has everything you would expect from a 1950's low budget horror movie...cheap sets, grade b actors, crapola make up and cheezy song and dance routines. In other words, everything for a fun movie!

In my opinion, this is one of the best "worst" movies.

[Arlo-2 · 7/10 · 28 November 1998]

If you enjoy bad movies, then Frankenstein's Daughter is a film that you should see. The original Frankenstein's grandson is assisting a scientist in his research to find a cure all drug. On the sly, he is continuing in the family tradition, conducting his experiments in an unused wine cellar off the basement lab. This is one of many teenagers vs the monsters type fare of the late fifties. The Frankenstein monster is one of the hokiest monsters ever seen. In addition to all of this, you are treated to some rock and roll performances during an outdoor barbecue. The dialogue is hilarious.

FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER (Richard E. Cunha, 1958) **

[Bunuel1976 · 4/10 · 31 March 2011]

In time for last Halloween (which I subsequently skipped!), I acquired scores of horror/sci-fi fare from the genre's Grade-Z heyday; this, obviously, was one of them – which I decided to get hold of in spite of Leonard Maltin's unflattering BOMB rating! Anyway, the late 1950s saw favorite Gothic/fantasy themes being brought up to date and mixed with such topical fads as juvenile delinquency (I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF [1957]) or, as here and in BLOOD OF Dracula (1957), rock'n'roll music! Curiously enough, in the space of a year we had a number of films on the same theme (and they were also comparably substandard): I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN (1957), FRANKENSTEIN - 1970 (1958) and, the last to be released, FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER itself!

Incidentally, there are some definite points of interest to the title under review but these do not make it a good picture. First of all, we have not one but two monsters – and they are both female and incredibly ugly (like the afore-mentioned BLOOD OF Dracula and DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL [1957], one of them – played by Sandra Knight, the future Mrs. Jack Nicholson! – is drugged into turning hideous and, frankly, it is simply a case of the makers having their cake and eating it…since these scenes basically serve to pad out the running-time and little more)! The official, titular creature is one of the most memorable of the era for all the wrong reasons: one, the fact that the make-up was devised to be applied on to a man (so what transpires has nothing at all to do with who the character, a luscious girl, had been beforehand!) but also because she is attired in a spaced-out costume (complete with robotic motions) as Michael Jackson would frequently adopt during his performing tours some 30 years later!!

The last and, possibly, most entertaining thing is the trio of dabblers in the unknown (one is the heroine's elderly uncle who is not above stealing vital ingredients from the government in his search to stall the aging process, the others a direct descendant of the Frankenstein name and his condescending aide and the latter's forebears' own assistant now passing off as the old man's gardener) who spend so much time at each others' throat one wonders how they ever got anything cooking at all in the lab! Interestingly, Frankenstein has a secret workspace within where he is assembling yet another creature from dead body parts: missing only the head, he mows down the heroine's sluttish friend (who, in the very first scene, comes face to face with the one Knight herself had inadvertently become!) with his car…but no sooner has the monster been revived that it runs out of control and out of the house!

Knight suspects the truth about her 'sleep-walking' activities (since she wakes up each morning with a hazy recollection of events but sporting the clothes described in the papers as having been worn by the monster) yet she never fingers the sleazeball Frank as the culprit…while her thick-headed boyfriend merely (and continually) scoffs at her nightmarish accounts! The rock'n'roll element comes into play here during a barbecue given at Knight's house (even if her uncle had just suffered a near-fatal heart attack!) and incorporates a couple of tunes sung by, of all people, Harold Lloyd Jr.(!) who, naturally, also handles the intentional comedy-relief angle throughout the film (but, as I said, the lab antics provide the real giggles here!).

Also on hand are a couple of cops who have their hands full trying to cope with the many misdeeds (not to mention, egos and anxieties). The film is noted for not skimping on the gore front: we get to see a couple of severed hands, the mangled legs of the monster's last donor, and even the villain's face being ravaged by acid when the hazardous liquid thrown at the creature by the hero (whom he had somehow been keeping at bay with the lame, repeated shoving of a stretcher!) misses its mark completely…after which the monster expires, too, when clumsily setting itself on fire when coming in contact with an active Bunsen burner!

P.S. Now...where to get hold of an English-friendly copy of SANTO VS. FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER (1972)?

Vastly Entertaining!

[BaronBl00d · 24 May 2000]

Well, words are hard to come up with to describe this routine premised monster film of the 50's. A descendant of the late Victor Frankenstein, his son Oliver to be exact, is hiding his identity and working as a lab assistant for a kindly scientist. The scientist is working on something beneficial to mankind, whilst his assistant secretly works his own experiments on his benefactor's niece. These experiments hideously disfigure her face and cause her to walk the streets scaring people at night. But soon we see that all this is really secondary to Oliver's real plans of recreating life...keeping the family tradition alive so to speak. With the aid of a disgruntled gardener related to Igor(or someone like that), Ollie and friend end up killing people and fusing dead body parts with the end result being the creation of a barely woman-like played by man being. Ollie is not just worried about creating life, however. He is a randy sort of chap who has the hots for the delectable niece and then her also delicious friend, played by playmate Sally Todd.

The rest of the film is how he is discovered by the niece and her boyfriend, with some implausible and disgusting music sequences thrown in. The acting is decidedly over the top by most concerned. Donald Murphy terrifically hams it up as Ollie. John Ashley is painful to watch as the boyfriend. Saying he has limited acting ability would be an understatement! Notwithstanding the complicated, highly ridiculous plot, the hammy performances, the cheap sets, the bizarre make-up, this is a fun one to watch. It grabs you early, has some fun sequences, and some lovely, lovely heavenly bodies to feast your eager eyes on.

A Ridiculous Looking Monster

[Uriah43 · 3/10 · 16 June 2015]

"Professor Carter Morton" (Felix Locher) is an elderly scientist attempting to create a drug that will halt the aging process. Working with him is his assistant "Oliver Frank" (Donald Murphy) who has very little regard for either Professor Morton or the experiment he is working on. Instead, Oliver's real last name is Frankenstein and he is the grandson of none other than Dr. Frankenstein himself. So although he works with Professor Morton during the day he secretly uses the laboratory at night to continue the legacy his grandfather by attempting to create life from death. Since he already has a dead body what he now needs is a brain from a subject freshly deceased. Unfortunately, he has experienced great difficulty in obtaining one until one night he takes matters into his own hands. Now rather than reveal any more of this film and risk ruining it for those who haven't seen it I will just say this movie initially started off rather well. However, things fell apart after the introduction of the so-called "monster" which looked extremely ridiculous for a supposed member of the female gender. Conversely, Sandra Knight (as "Trudy Morton") looked quite nice and her presence was definitely most welcome. Regrettably, it just wasn't enough. Below average.

Just another monster in the basement

[evilskip · 3/10 · 1 November 1999]

Oliver Frankenstein, grandson of the Baron is working as a lowly lab assistant for a nutty old professor.The professor wants to cure aging but his formula destroys the exterior cells of the body.

Well old Ollie has been working on a secret of his own.I noticed that the Frankenstein family not only put bodies together, they bred like rabbits.Ya' keep tripping over them everywhere.Ollie has been experimenting with a drug that changes Susie(the old man's niece) into a buck toothed, bushy eyed monster.Hmmm sounds like my Prom date.Also Ollie has been putting together, you guessed it, a body.

Keeping in the family tradition, Ollie is a horny guy.He hits on the niece and a few of her friends.After an aborted necking session with a young lady, Ollie runs her down and uses her pretty head/brain for the monster.

Guess he left it in the oven too long as it comes out split faced with a seemingly five o'clock shadow and nasty lipstick. Of course this terror loves to kill and obeys Ollie.In the end it is the clean cut teenagers versus Ollie & his creation.

The acting is over the top by the gent playing Ollie.He is convincingly evil and mad.John Ashley is the hero and that doesn't say much for the movie.Once again there is terrible rock and roll numbers that will have you rolling on the floor screaming in agony.Use the mute on the remote.The monsters are okay but this movie is another Richard Cuhna stinker.

Why is this movie called "Frankenstein's Daughter"? Damn if I know.Maybe Frankenstein's Looney Grandson was too long to fit on the marquee.The best way to watch this is if it has a horror host that breaks into the movie and makes fun of it.Better yet, watch it with your eyes closed.Or with the television off.

"Who is the monster in your neighborhood?"

[mark.waltz · 1/10 · 10 October 2018]

Both the script of this film and the bolts in the monster's neck were held together with shoe strings and Elmer's glue, and within just a few reels of this ridiculously bad horror film, it all falls apart to shreds. The local teen crowd is gossiping amongst themselves about the bikini clad monster that has been seen roaming the area, keeping it to themselves simply because they were supposed to stay at home that night. The issue is, other than the fact that these alleged teens look like they are past college age, that it becomes completely obvious that one of the girls swearing she saw a monster is actually the haggard looking creature, going in and out of monster make-up as if she was the daughter of the werewolf, not Frankenstein. Here, Sandra Knight is really the doctor's niece, and somehow his experiments have impacted her. The presence of creepy Donald Murphy reveals that the Frankenstein legacy did not end when Abbott and Costello met the monster, as well as Dracula and the Werewolf, and when somehow Murphy is cured, the very buxom Sally Todd becomes the next patient to get the big bolts on her neck.

The film is extremely silly throughout with Knight and her boyfriend John Archer trying to figure out what is going on, and at one point, the bikini/mask clad Knight being shot at by the police while she runs around trash cans like a duck in a shooting gallery. As the film goes on, Murphy becomes more and more unglued, sicking the plaster of Paris covered Todd on intended victims including Knight's uncle. There's a few songs as well, one of them sung by silent film actor Harold Lloyd's son, Harold Lloyd Jr., playing an annoying friend of Archer's. This results in the usual fiery finale that is only climaxed by a truly ridiculous add on segment involving Lloyd. Films like this played better at the drive-ins when they came out because audiences weren't paying attention to every detail like they do today. The horrid script is overshadowed by the even more horrendous acting, glued cereal like make-up jobs and an attempt at horror that is never even remotely scary.

The monster is a DUDE

[Wuchakk · 5/10 · 20 January 2015]

The DVD cover of 1958's "Frankenstein's Daughter" makes it look like it's a goofy, campy horror/comedy, but that's not the case at all. It may be black & white and low-budget, but this is actually a serious modernization of the Frankenstein story ("modern" in terms of the late 50s, that is). The story revolves around the original Dr. Frankenstein's handsome grandson (Donald Murphy) in the suburbs of Los Angeles. He carries on his grandfather's gruesome work while boarding at an old scientist's house where his beautiful niece also stays (Sandra Knight), unbeknownst to both of them. Some of his initial tests are on the young woman, but he ultimately creates a female monster from dead body parts. Havoc ensues.

I'd like to give this film a higher rating because the first two-thirds are quite good; unfortunately, the last act fumbles the ball. It's like the filmmakers put all their effort into the set-up, but lost their way with the last half-hour. No matter, those first 55 minutes make "Frankenstein's Daughter" worth catching and the final act isn't all that bad; it's just not good, like the first two acts.

They do a pretty good job on the female front, starting with Knight, who – interestingly – was the only woman to marry Jack Nicholson, which lasted from 1962-1968. The film also features two quality blondes – Sally Todd as Suzie and a nameless curvy dancer at the backyard pool party. Speaking of that party, the movie's worth viewing just to catch a glimpse at life back in the late 50s. It's very entertaining on this front.

While the monster make-up on Sandra is actually quite effective for 1958, the main monster is a different story and is another reason I can't give this film a higher rating. For one, the creature is supposed to be a female and they keep referring to it as "her" and "she," but it's clearly a burly dude with no breasts. This is corroborated by the fact that the monster was played by a guy – Harry Wilson. I'm sure they did this because they wanted the creature to appear formidable and intimidating, but couldn't they have hired the nearest Brunhilda on the lot? It's not like the role required any acting talent since the face is covered by a grotesque (and funny) mask and all the monster does is awkwardly walk around and occasionally raise its arms. Trying to pass this obvious dude off as a female monster is offensive to the intelligence of the viewer because IT'S OBVIOUSLY NOT A FEMALE, monster or no monster. They could've AT LEAST given it breasts or made the mask look more female-ish.

Still, in light of the goofy DVD cover, I was actually impressed by "Frankenstein's Daughter," the first two-thirds anyway.

The movie runs 85 minutes and was presumably shot in the L.A. area.

GRADE: C+

"... can't hardly get those bathing beauty monsters anymore."

[classicsoncall · 3/10 · 7 July 2021]

What the heck were the film makers even trying to do here? The story line suggests there might have been not one, but two daughters of Frankenstein, vastly different in appearance and disposition. The first was pretty teenager Trudy Morton (Sandra Knight) after she was slipped a mickey by her father's lab assistant Oliver Frank (Donald Murphy). Turning into a hillbilly with buck teeth, she managed to terrorize a few folks who caught a glimpse of her wandering around in the night. But Frank's real mission was to recreate his grandfather's original creation, but this time complete with a female brain, because by his own admission, women who have been conditioned to a man's world will do what they're told! I think the seeds of women's lib were planted right there.

You see, Oliver Frank's grandfather was the creator of the first Frankenstein monster and in following the famed scientist's footsteps, he considers himself eminently more capable than the man he's working for, Professor Carter Morton (Felix Locher). Morton secretly breaks into Rockwell Labs to make off with a substance called Digenerol, but doesn't know that it hasn't been perfected yet, as it degenerates tissue and cells. No matter, Frank in his haste, uses the stuff on the corpse he's been hanging on to until he had the chance to procure a female brain, which he does by running over one of Trudy's friends. It shouldn't come as a surprise that every now and then, Frank gets the most crazed look in his eyes as he forges ahead with his experiment.

In the midst of all this, there's time out for a break at the hop with Page Cavanaugh and His Trio, which gave me pause, because I had to question the accuracy of his little group's name. While performing a couple numbers for the local teens at the soda shop, I'm thinking to myself, if the band leader had three musicians backing him up, shouldn't they be the Page Cavanaugh Quartet?

chiller theater classic

[vampi1960 · 7/10 · 9 November 2006]

as a kid in Paterson new jersey i loved channel 11's chiller theater,the claymation hand coming out of the grave grabbing the letters that spell chiller,anyway Frankensteins daughter is a wonderfully cheesy b-movie that scared me as a kid,but now its one of my favorite cheesy monster films.the monster is supposed to be a woman but looks like a man monster with lipstick.the spooky music was used in missile to the moon the same year which was a remake of the 3d movie cat-women of the moon.harold Lloyd Jr plays a descendant of Dr Frankenstein,so he decides to create a monster in the basement of his doctor employer,whose niece(Sandra knight)is unknowingly used as a guinea pig for Dr franks experiments.she turns into a bug eyed big toothed monster that looks amazingly like one of the she demons.no surprise it was made at the same studio as she demons,Astor films. john Ashley the king of b-movies from the 50's and later star of the Filipino monster movies plays the girls boyfriend.i actually thought this was better then the usual b-movies.Sandra knight went on to star in the terror with her future husband jack Nicholson,and the legendary Boris karloff.7 out of 10.a good bad movie.

Stupid creature feature

[preppy-3 · 1/10 · 10 September 2011]

ANOTHER Frankenstein descendant (Donald Murphy) is hiding under the name Dr. Frank (how clever). He's trying to make yet another human like dear old dad. He's hiding out at the home of kindly Dr. Morton (Felix Locher) and his beautiful niece Trudy (Sandra Knight). Naturally things all go from bad to worse in a boring and absolutely stupid manner. Bad movie veteran John Ashley has the thankless role of Trudy's boyfriend.

Pretty horrible. It's never a good sign when a horror movie shows a monster right off within the first MINUTE! Unfortunately it's one of the dumbest looking monsters you'll ever see! It was Knight under all that makeup and you have to give her credit for going along with it. Later on Frank DOES make a full grown monster which is nothing more than a man (even though everybody calls it a woman) in a silly dime store mask with lipstick applied! This is one of those movies where victims of the "monster" just stand there politely so the slow-moving monster can kill them. Even more hilarious is when the monster politely knocks on a door to enter a house...even though "she" had broken through it the day before! To make this truly unbearable there are two or three terrible music numbers added--no doubt to pad out the running time. To its credit some of the acting isn't bad. Locher, Knight and Murphy are actually pretty good. Ashley is terrible but he's given nothing to do. Also Harold Lloyd Junior (who gets a "and introducing" in the opening credits) has a few funny moments. But, all in all, pretty dismal. A 1 all the way.

The Movie That Almost Killed Me

[ferbs54 · 10/10 · 15 May 2008]

This is the movie that almost killed me. Watching it many years ago, at NYC's Thalia Theatre, as part of an amazing double feature with "The Monster From Green Hell," I laughed so uproariously that I really thought I was going to rupture my spleen. It has been my favorite "bad movie" ever since, and I love it to this day, for many reasons. First of all, we have to wait a mere 20 seconds or so before we see one of the film's two impressive monsters. That first one is Trudy, who, when we first see her, is an ugly, bucktoothed, bushy-browed horror in a nightgown. Come morning, Trudy is as pretty as can be, but retains memories of the previous night. Could all this have something to do with the presence of her uncle's research assistant, Otto Frank (nee Frankenstein), in the house? What would you think? As it turns out, ol' Otto, the grandson of the original good Dr., is using Uncle Carter's lab for some projects of his own. The creature he ultimately creates looks like a wrinkled mass of toadstools, while the monster's female brain "is conditioned to a man's world; therefore takes orders where [19th century ones] didn't." (This line always brings the house down in theatres!) Fifties stalwart John Ashley provides his usual sturdy support to the befuddled Trudy, director Richard Cunha remarkably brings in his fourth awesome film of 1958 ("She Demons," "Giant From the Unknown" and "Missile to the Moon" being the others), and the Page Cavanaugh Trio performs two swinging rock 'n' roll numbers. Indeed, the song with the refrain "Shaba-labba-lop, bobba-lobba lobba-lop" (which I now know to be called "Daddy-Bird") was the one that almost killed me back at the Thalia. This really might be the most entertaining teen/horror/rock 'n' roll movie ever made, nicely presented on this crisp-looking Image DVD.

Those Darn Frankenstein's, When Will They Ever Learn!

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 2 September 2004]

****SPOILERS**** Reviving the timeless adventures of the Frankenstein boys grandson Oliver Frank , Donald Murphy, who shortened his name from the famous Frankenstein, tries to succeed where his old man and grandpa failed, to create life, this time with the help of a female brain.

Getting a job as an assistant to Dr. Carter Morton, Felix Locher, Oliver with the aid of his helper the Morton's creepy gardener Elsu, Wolf Barzell, who Oliver brought with him collect body parts, plans to finish what grandpa started; create life out of the dead. Oliver had already secretly succeeded in putting together a complete body and top it all off installed in it's skull a female brain or head from local girl Suzie Lawler, Sally Todd. Suzie was dopey enough to go out on a date with the dangerous and crazy Oliver and paid for it with her life as well as her head.

It's the very annoying Dr. Morton who's giving Oliver a king-size headache and has to be eliminated for Oliver, with the help of Elsu, to finish his experiments in the creation of life. Unknown to everyone in the outside world Dr. Morton has his own secret experiment going on at the same time:The rejuvenation of dead or decaying cells that if successful will create the miracle of eternal youth. Oliver is worried of Dr. Morton's crazy attempts to steal the drug Digeneral from the Rockwell Labs and his actions may very will bring the police to the lab and find out what he's doing.

It turns out that one night as Oliver, sick and tired of Dr. Morton's obstructing his work and driving him even more crazier then he already is, tried to strangle him! A moment later the police knock on the door looking for a old man, Dr. Morton, who was seen in the neighborhood running from the Rockwell Labs with a bottle of Digeneral that he just stole, what a stroke of luck for Oliver.

Telling the cops that it was indeed Dr. Morton who their looking for and Dr. Morton is so unconvincing trying to tell the police that Oliver just tried to murder him he's taken away to the can to spend the night. It's later that evening it's reported by the police that Dr. Morton died in police custody.

Oliver now having the run of the lab goes into high gear as well as goes nuts putting his version of the "Frankenstein Monster" together. which breaks out and kills a number of people in the town before Oliver and Elsu captures it ties it up and hides it in the lab. The hot blooded Oliver has the hots for Dr. Morton's pretty niece Trudy, Sandra Night, and after being rebuffed by Trudy, when he tried to make out with her, wants in revenge to make her part of his experiment. Elsu just about had enough with the insane Oliver when he wanted to turn Trudy into another dead girl walking This has crazy Oliver turns the monster, who looks like a cross between a 1950's spaceman and Santa Clause, on Elsu who ends up killing him.

With the police and Trudy's boyfriend the goody goody sensitive drop-dead handsome as well as courageous Johnny Bruder, John Ashley, coming to her rescue the monster has it out with the fearless Johnny who throws a bottle of acid on it! Johnny misses and the bottle hits Oliver who's skin melts off his face and body killing him. The Monster trying to comfort the dead Oliver, it's creator, catches fire from an open flame in the lab that was heating up the test-tubes and burns to death. So ends another episode in the adventures of the Frankenstein Boys.

You can take "Frankenstein's daughter" for what it is and enjoy watching it instead of throwing a chair through the TV screen; an unintentional funny rip-off of the Frankenstein story this time set in 1958 in the USA. I have to say the girls, Trudy & Suzie, were very pretty and kept you interested watching them whenever they were on the screen. The movie also had some wild songs and music by the Page Cavanaugh Trio & Band.

John Ashley was his usual good-guy lady-killer, not in the criminal sense of the word, self and Donald Murphy did over do it a bit as the crazed Oliver Frank, Frankenstein, with his insane actions as well his groping, Ollie just couldn't keep his hands off both Suzie and Trudy, of the girls in the movie. It was the two oldsters Felix Locher & Wolf Barzell, who stole the acting honors in the picture. Both came across as if they really took their parts in the movie seriously and acted as if they were Caesar and Mark Anthony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

Well, at least Sally Todd looks good

[scsu1975 · 2/10 · 14 November 2022]

Another in the long line of Frankenstein offspring movies ( "Frankenstein's First Cousin, Once Removed" has yet to be released), this 1958 clunker sports an oddball cast, including Harold Lloyd's son, Richard Dix's son, and Jon Hall's father.

Donald Murphy plays Oliver Frank (your first clue), lab assistant to old geezer Felix Locher. Locher is so stupid he has no idea what is going on in his own lab; he's also unaware of a secret entrance to his lab. Apparently, he never consulted the blueprints. Murphy alternates between psychotic, psychopathic, and just plain "ic." He is experimenting on Locher's daughter, played by the cute Sandra Knight. Apparently, Murphy's potion turns Knight into Stockard Channing.

John Ashley, that walking advertisement for Brylcreme, plays Knight's boyfriend. He is useless for most of the film, but his hair looks magnificent. Former Playmate Sally Todd plays the town mattress. First she dumps Harold Lloyd, Jr., then accepts a date with Murphy. This does not end well, since Murphy is seeking a brain to complete his latest experiment.

Oddly, the monster-woman is played by a man. With his black outfit and bandaged head, he/she looks like a nun on HGH. Voltaire Perkins has a bit as a chemist; I kept thinking he should be presiding over "Divorce Court."

But the film's most terrifying moments occur when Harold Lloyd, Jr. Fronts for the Page Cavanagh trio (yeah, I never heard of them either).