It has apparent that I liked this film a bit more than most. Yes, it has a ludicrous premise behind its story of a man frozen alive and then brought back to life afterward whilst an impending murder investigation looms overhead unbeknownst to him. Yes, it has some bizarre love triangle between a scientist with some floozy of a wife(but a buxomly, beautiful blonde floozy of a wife)and a German scientist helping out on a project involving freezing chimps. Well, the wife becomes suspicious of her husband and the German Girl Helen(played by the attractive Marianne Koch)thinking that there is more to their monkeying around. Things go into melodramatic mode and what we have really is more of a melodrama with science fiction overtones than a science fiction movie. It's cheesy; it's campy and fun - at least to me. The acting is fairly good for the most part: Mark Stevens looks incredible tired though through most of the movie. His wife is played by Delphi Lawrence giving a good portrayal(in a movie like this it must be emphasized)of the unstable doctor's wife. Koch is attractive and adequate. British character actor John Longdon is very good as Dr. Hubbard a friend to the two scientists and their work. I knew he was familiar to me when I saw him and then heard him speak. This was his last film. The director Bernard Knowles was a journeyman television director in Britain and this film has that look and feel for the most part plus a low budget. The real annoying part, if you will, was that when I started out to watch the film I had no idea it was a foreign film. Afterall it was called Frozen Alive on my DVD box and showed Mark Stevens on the cover. The film opens and we get Longdon, Stevens, and a girl who is said to be German, but then all the auxillary characters appeared to be German with the thick accents. Oh well, that is one over me. Most of them were not great thespians either. Frozen Alive is a poor film in many regards, but I enjoyed the tense atmosphere of emotion and the story despite its legion of flaws. It is one of those classic bad films that can be so much fun to sit down and watch.
29 Reviews
A Cool Characterization from Delphi Lawrence
wes-connors28 June 2008
Warning: Spoilers
"A scientist is working on a suspended animation process where a human being is frozen and then revived later. Deciding to use himself as a guinea pig, the scientist has his assistant place him into suspended animation to prove the process works. While in the process, the scientist's ex-wife (sic) is murdered (sic) and he becomes the prime suspect in her death," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.
Actually, the woman is not "the scientist's ex-wife", and nobody is conventionally "murdered".
The scientists in question are dedicated veteran Mark Stevens (as Dr. Frank Overton) and his attractive young assistant, Marianne Koch (as Dr. Helen Wieland). They are drawn to each other at work , a fact first noticed by Mr. Stevens' perceptive wife, Delphi Lawrence (as Joan Overton). The cybernetics storyline seems most interesting, initially; but, Ms. Lawrence's characterization is the best part of "Der Fall X701" (re-titled "Frozen Alive"). Lawrence pouts, shouts, drinks, and smokes up the screen; she not only steals her scenes, but also the entire movie.
Actually, the woman is not "the scientist's ex-wife", and nobody is conventionally "murdered".
The scientists in question are dedicated veteran Mark Stevens (as Dr. Frank Overton) and his attractive young assistant, Marianne Koch (as Dr. Helen Wieland). They are drawn to each other at work , a fact first noticed by Mr. Stevens' perceptive wife, Delphi Lawrence (as Joan Overton). The cybernetics storyline seems most interesting, initially; but, Ms. Lawrence's characterization is the best part of "Der Fall X701" (re-titled "Frozen Alive"). Lawrence pouts, shouts, drinks, and smokes up the screen; she not only steals her scenes, but also the entire movie.
"When life is suspended, time has no meaning at all."
classicsoncall18 December 2005
Warning: Spoilers
"Frozen Alive" plays it straight throughout it's eighty minute running time, and that might be it's biggest downside. With no pseudo scientific jargon to camp it up and little in the way of action, the film offers an early look at the field of cryogenics with a slight detour into a murder mystery.
Dr. Frank Overton (Mark Stevens) and his assistant Dr. Helen Wieland (Marianne Koch) are about to make a significant breakthrough in their research after chimpanzees frozen to eighty below zero are revived unharmed after three months. The next step is to find a human volunteer to undergo the same deep freeze treatment and prove that medical science can benefit from the process. However Overton's wife Joan (Delphi Lawrence) is extremely jealous of her husband's lab time with Helen, and seeks comfort from former flame Tony (Joachim Hansen) and refuge in a bottle. Giving new meaning to the term soused, Joan shoots herself in Tony's apartment and makes her husband a widower. He doesn't know it yet, because he's advanced the cause of science by becoming a guinea pig for his own experiment.
Everything just described occurs in a rather monotone and understated fashion, and without even the help of a musical score to emphasize the high points, the film fails to deliver. The detectives who arrive at the lab wishing to interrogate Overton as a suspect in his wife's death seem virtually uninterested in the fact that he's a human popsicle. Keeping her own feelings for Overton in check, Dr. Wieland almost pulls the plug on him by botching the revival, while colleagues just stand around performing her instructions. At least the rhythm of Overton's heartbeat keep things suspenseful until it's learned that Mrs. O's gunshot wound was self inflicted.
This film offered the hope of much more in the way of mystery and thrills but comes up short in both departments. As far as a recommendation, I would advise to keep this one on ice until you've exhausted the rest of your movie library.
Dr. Frank Overton (Mark Stevens) and his assistant Dr. Helen Wieland (Marianne Koch) are about to make a significant breakthrough in their research after chimpanzees frozen to eighty below zero are revived unharmed after three months. The next step is to find a human volunteer to undergo the same deep freeze treatment and prove that medical science can benefit from the process. However Overton's wife Joan (Delphi Lawrence) is extremely jealous of her husband's lab time with Helen, and seeks comfort from former flame Tony (Joachim Hansen) and refuge in a bottle. Giving new meaning to the term soused, Joan shoots herself in Tony's apartment and makes her husband a widower. He doesn't know it yet, because he's advanced the cause of science by becoming a guinea pig for his own experiment.
Everything just described occurs in a rather monotone and understated fashion, and without even the help of a musical score to emphasize the high points, the film fails to deliver. The detectives who arrive at the lab wishing to interrogate Overton as a suspect in his wife's death seem virtually uninterested in the fact that he's a human popsicle. Keeping her own feelings for Overton in check, Dr. Wieland almost pulls the plug on him by botching the revival, while colleagues just stand around performing her instructions. At least the rhythm of Overton's heartbeat keep things suspenseful until it's learned that Mrs. O's gunshot wound was self inflicted.
This film offered the hope of much more in the way of mystery and thrills but comes up short in both departments. As far as a recommendation, I would advise to keep this one on ice until you've exhausted the rest of your movie library.
Is his future put on ice?
michaelRokeefe18 May 2004
Are you ready for this? A scientist(Mark Stevens)and his attractive assistant Dr. Helen Wieland(Marianne Koch)are working with suspended animation and while trying to prove their theory he subjects himself to the big freeze. Meanwhile his jealous and drunkard wife(Delphi Lawrence)is murdered and being in a frozen state does not an alibi make. In spite of a cult following this chunk of ice is hardly worth defrosting. Suspended interest. Unanimated suspense. Predictable story line. Still it is fun to watch. Also in the cast are: Joachim Hansen, Walter Rilla, John Longden and Wolfgang Lukschy. Lawrence is over-the-top and her character is so easy to dislike. On the other hand it is obvious to see why she would be jealous of her husband's assistant. Catch this as part of AMC Monsterfest.
Pretty Tame Stuff
Hitchcoc13 April 2007
As someone already said, this is a silly melodrama. It's more about a triangle with two scientists and the drunken wife of one of them. The fact that they are performing experiments in suspended animation using low temperatures is really not an issue. It is secondary to the efforts of the man to continue to live with this unstable women. At least her character is pretty believable. She is pathetic and unpredictable. The man is more than patient. The subplot has to do with the determination to perform these experiments on human subjects, which is met with resistance by the head of the lab. Even that is poorly portrayed and uninteresting.
Don't freeze, freezing only makes you look guilty!
Anonymous_Maxine9 August 2008
I must have seen a lot more bad movies than the other reviewers who have reviewed this movie on the IMDb, because while it's definitely a long defunct sci fi flick, it wasn't THAT bad. In the world of bad movies, Frozen Alive is nowhere near the bottom of the barrel, but it's still pretty unendurable. The story is flat as a pancake and is never interesting, but the main problem is that it is so clearly two different kinds of movies squeezed into one, and the result just doesn't work.
A scientist is working on a system of deep-freezing monkeys, and then decides to use himself as a human test subject. Unfortunately, just before his own deep freeze, his wife dies a violent death and he becomes the prime suspect. The police investigators, of course, come knocking just as he is entering deep freeze, which is not exactly a quick catnap that he can be shaken awake from.
One half of the story deals with the scientist, a mid-50s or so man with salt and pepper hair and intense facial features, and his enormously alcoholic wife, a blonde bimbo who looks no less than 30 years his junior. It's too bad that they have no chemistry on screen whatsoever, otherwise this portion of the story would have been slightly less pathetic. The scene where he is holding her in his arms and telling her he wants them to try for a baby is highly disturbing.
The other half of the story deals with the deep freeze experimentation. This is the part that would make this a sci fi movie, although there is nothing really sci fi about it. If he had frozen himself and woken up in another time, then you have sci fi. Instead, he just freezes himself and then wakes back up. Who cares? As a result, it comes off as nothing more than a goofy crime drama soap opera about a guy trying to design a perfect cryogenetic freezer. And it's a shame, because there's a chance that there could have been two separate, and much better, movies made with this story...
A scientist is working on a system of deep-freezing monkeys, and then decides to use himself as a human test subject. Unfortunately, just before his own deep freeze, his wife dies a violent death and he becomes the prime suspect. The police investigators, of course, come knocking just as he is entering deep freeze, which is not exactly a quick catnap that he can be shaken awake from.
One half of the story deals with the scientist, a mid-50s or so man with salt and pepper hair and intense facial features, and his enormously alcoholic wife, a blonde bimbo who looks no less than 30 years his junior. It's too bad that they have no chemistry on screen whatsoever, otherwise this portion of the story would have been slightly less pathetic. The scene where he is holding her in his arms and telling her he wants them to try for a baby is highly disturbing.
The other half of the story deals with the deep freeze experimentation. This is the part that would make this a sci fi movie, although there is nothing really sci fi about it. If he had frozen himself and woken up in another time, then you have sci fi. Instead, he just freezes himself and then wakes back up. Who cares? As a result, it comes off as nothing more than a goofy crime drama soap opera about a guy trying to design a perfect cryogenetic freezer. And it's a shame, because there's a chance that there could have been two separate, and much better, movies made with this story...
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Brain Freeze!
Coventry5 November 2007
This completely worthless piece of cheap European-produced 60's guff is available in a DVD box-set called "Tales from the Future", along with eleven other titles that really don't deserve to be seen by anyone. In fact, a more suitable albeit less appealing title for the collection would have been "Tales that belong in Oblivion for being so crappy". "Frozen Alive" is a boring, overly talkative, tension-free and soporific romantic melodrama that only just pretends to be a Sci-Fi story. A scientist and his attractive female German colleague are performing scientific experiments on chimpanzees, like putting them in the deep freezer for three months, but what they are really doing is fall madly in love with each other. Meanwhile, the scientist's alcoholic wife is killed by her lover and he gets blamed for it. Of course, it's rather suspicious of him to volunteer as the first human guinea pig immediately after his wife goes missing. Everything about this tiresome little production is insufferably mundane, from Bernard Knowles' motionless direction over the incredibly wooden acting performances of the two leads onto the irritatingly clichéd dialogs. Delphi Lawrence's performance as the arrogant wife in a seemingly permanent state of drunkenness is believable, but boring & pointless nevertheless. If you want to see nonsensical stories about triangular relationships and married people nagging to each other, you're probably better off watching "The Bold & the Beautiful" or any other randomly sappy Soap Opera show, instead of wasting money on a DVD-collection that supposedly contains Sci-Fi movies. Bah!
overlooked mst3k fodder...
highway23423 June 2009
Warning: Spoilers
In any case I don't think the ever did it. But for all its mediocrity it has tons of what makes a movie riffable... tons of German accents to mimic, old guys to make fun of, lines like "you don't think we've been conducting these experiments for the benefit of a half dozen monkeys do you?" and most importantly, lots of scenes featuring an aggressively drunk lady, many of which even involve the flagrantly irresponsible brandishing about of loaded firearms.
SPOILERS that said, i didn't think it was as dreadful as a lot of the people here do. if you're in the mood for a talky retro drama you could do much worse. it IS rather slow though. it takes an hour yor the inevitable freeze-drying of the lead doctor guy to even happen. minor correction to a comment above: joan is not murdered but kills herself accidentally in a very darwin award-y moment. although it could be argued what's his name set her up by making her think the gun was empty and taking forever and a frickin' day to call an ambulance.
SPOILERS that said, i didn't think it was as dreadful as a lot of the people here do. if you're in the mood for a talky retro drama you could do much worse. it IS rather slow though. it takes an hour yor the inevitable freeze-drying of the lead doctor guy to even happen. minor correction to a comment above: joan is not murdered but kills herself accidentally in a very darwin award-y moment. although it could be argued what's his name set her up by making her think the gun was empty and taking forever and a frickin' day to call an ambulance.
One of the dullest
Leofwine_draca20 July 2016
Well it's a great title for a B-movie, but this simply has to be one of the dreariest and dullest films of all time – a film that even comes close to rivalling the obscure Filipino flick THE THIRSTY DEAD in terms of sheer awfulness. Although the title makes it sound like an engaging little thriller and the advertising sells it as a science fiction movie, in reality this is a boring little crime thriller from West Germany. Now, I'm all for German films from this period – the '60s krimi adaptations of Edgar Wallace stories were atmospheric and excellent – but this flick totally misses the ball, coming across more as a stilted soap opera rather than anything else.
British director Bernard Knowles was a celebrated cinematographer in his day, shooting movies for Hitchcock, before turning his hand to direction with many television series during the 1950s. Unfortunately those TV episodes seem to have rubbed off in terms of this talky, plot-free mess. After an inordinate amount of time, a leading scientist decides to test his new suspended animation gear on himself, only for his wife to accidentally shoot herself at the same time. The police, naturally, suspect the scientist of murder...
The problem is that this storyline doesn't actually happen until the hour mark – and before then we get talk, more talk, and some dialogue thrown in too. The script is unappealing, the characters unendearing and the actors frankly awful – there's more ham here than on your local chiller shelf at Tesco's. Delphi Lawrence as the drunken wife is the worst culprit, while other cast members veer between wooden and hammy. There's absolutely nothing in the way of action in the entire movie and the ending, while rushed, manages to feel dragged out in itself. This really is a non-starter of a film, with the short running time – 75 minutes – easily feeling like three times that amount. It took me three goes to finish watching FROZEN ALIVE and I consider myself somebody with a good attention span, so my advice is to give this one a miss...
British director Bernard Knowles was a celebrated cinematographer in his day, shooting movies for Hitchcock, before turning his hand to direction with many television series during the 1950s. Unfortunately those TV episodes seem to have rubbed off in terms of this talky, plot-free mess. After an inordinate amount of time, a leading scientist decides to test his new suspended animation gear on himself, only for his wife to accidentally shoot herself at the same time. The police, naturally, suspect the scientist of murder...
The problem is that this storyline doesn't actually happen until the hour mark – and before then we get talk, more talk, and some dialogue thrown in too. The script is unappealing, the characters unendearing and the actors frankly awful – there's more ham here than on your local chiller shelf at Tesco's. Delphi Lawrence as the drunken wife is the worst culprit, while other cast members veer between wooden and hammy. There's absolutely nothing in the way of action in the entire movie and the ending, while rushed, manages to feel dragged out in itself. This really is a non-starter of a film, with the short running time – 75 minutes – easily feeling like three times that amount. It took me three goes to finish watching FROZEN ALIVE and I consider myself somebody with a good attention span, so my advice is to give this one a miss...
Huge disappointment.
DanielWRichardson13 June 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Here's the problem with this picture. The description on the back of the case (AMC Monsterfest Collection: Cult Classics- Collection 2) indicates a good movie. The description mislead me and this movie became a huge disappointment. This is what the description says (more or less): 'A scientist freezes himself. His wife is murdered. He becomes the prime suspect.' Now I thought that would be a good movie. Heck, it could have even been a great movie. I thought the husband would thaw out and then he'd be accused of murder. He'd go on the run. Case of mistaken identity. You know, Hitchcock stuff. No. You wanna know what we get. We get an hour of his wife complaining about her husband's hot assistant, the wife cheating on her husband, and then the wife shooting herself! Are you kidding me? Of course, now the husband is frozen (Alive!) and has no idea his wife is dead. But the police think he did it. So now I'm thinking alright, I had to wait through a bunch of crap, now to the good stuff. No good stuff! The man who his wife was having an affair with (He was there when she accidentally shot herself) goes to the police and tells them what happened. So the police stop the investigation and the husband thaws out. The end. That's it. No man-hunt. No interrogations. They don't even have a scene where they tell him is wife is dead. It just ends. It was truly a bad movie. You see these are the kind of movies that should be remade. You know the old saying: Don't fix it if it ain't broke. Well Hollywood needs to quit trying to fix good (sometimes great) films and remake garbage like this and try to make it better. That should be the definition of a remake. Heck, the Sci-Fi Channel could remake this into a TV movie and it would be better than the original and most of the bad movies they usually have on there. Overall, it's just a bad movie.
Looks very realistic!
RodrigAndrisan3 February 2019
A very interesting, well-played, directed subject. Marianne Koch (beautiful Marisol from Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars" achieved a year before), which even has studied medicine in real life, performs excellently a Doctor of Science.
The movie is too good for just 3.6 stars, so I'll give it 10.
Much better British chiller suspense film than cinephiles would readily admit!
talisencrw14 April 2016
Yes, I'm probably giving it way too many stars, but I really have a proclivity both for British films of the 60's and sci-fi thrillers about cryogenics and suspended animation. I didn't pay too much for this (it was part of my now-infamous Mill Creek 50-pack called 'Nightmare Worlds'), it wasn't very long (around 70 minutes in my cut), had jazzy, African and crooning music that I found highly enjoyable, had two gorgeous actresses at its core and a bizarre plot (which intercut plot lines of becoming the first to safely freeze and re-animate a human being, with an accidental shooting death that the scientist/first human subject is the main suspect of), and though it was rather predictable, I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would easily recommend it to anyone that likes B-movies from the 60's. You could do a heck of a lot worse.
Somewhat relatedly, I would to see any other films that either Marianne Koch or Delphi Lawrence were in. I loved both of them dearly in this film.
Somewhat relatedly, I would to see any other films that either Marianne Koch or Delphi Lawrence were in. I loved both of them dearly in this film.
Freezer Burn
henri sauvage14 February 2008
Warning: Spoilers
There's a Monty Python sketch called "The Adventures of Ralph Mellish", in which the mind-numbingly ordinary routine of a file clerk's morning commute is paired with feverishly dramatic narration and an ominous score. But the joke is that despite all the build-ups, nothing exciting happens to Mr. Mellish: By the side of the road, there's no dismembered trunk of a man in his late 50s ... no head in a bag ... nothing ... ("not a sausage", as our wacky friends across the water put it).
It was a hilarious premise for a short comedy skit, but for this excruciatingly dreary 75-minute-long West German import (one hesitates to call it a "drama") it blows economy-size chunks.
Dr. Frank Overton and colleague Dr. Helen Wieland have just been awarded a prize for their successful experiments in suspended animation via cryogenic freezing, using chimps as subjects. They believe the process is ready to be tested on humans, but the higher-ups are reluctant.
Dr. Overton's wife Joan feels neglected because her husband's been working those long hours at the lab. The fact that he's spending them with hottie Dr. Helen (and that she can see Helen has a major crush on oblivious Dr. Frank) doesn't help, either.
So Joan has taken to drowning her sorrows in drink, while stepping out with her old flame, journalist Tony Stein. "Aha!" you say: "Jealous lover murders her in a fit of passion, then tries to pin it on the scientist." No such luck.
Joan finds an old Colt .45 pistol while drunkenly rummaging through a desk in Tony's flat. Tony tells her to leave it alone: it's an unregistered firearm. He could get in big trouble as well as embarrass his uncle (who's some kind of high muckity-muck in the department) if the police found out about it. When Tony -- who's just been given a tight deadline for an article -- finally gets fed up with her and kicks her out so he can get to work, Joan sneaks the pistol out in her handbag.
She then staggers over to the lab for a shrieking showdown with Helen (although she doesn't quite work herself up to pulling the gun on her rival). Frank manages to calm Joan down, and takes her home. When Helen -- in what's either a stunningly clueless or a nastily passive-aggressive move -- calls up Frank to reassure him that Joan's embarrassing scene is all forgotten now, Joan finds out who's on the phone and flies into another jealous, hysterical rage. She threatens to kill herself with Tony's pistol.
Over the phone, Helen hears Frank order his wife to give him the gun, then she hears a shot, and a scream. After a moment, Frank returns to the phone, tells Helen everything's OK now, and hangs up.
So did Joan really kill herself, or did Frank shoot her by accident (or accidentally on purpose) while trying to take the gun away? Will we wait til Act Three to find out what actually happened?
Not in this film, buster! We quickly learn that Joan's OK: Frank took the gun away from her, while she was still in shock over having just missed accidentally shooting herself. (She thought it wasn't loaded.)
Frank removes the ammo clip, sees it's empty, replaces it and tells Joan the gun's "safe" now. Oddly, Dr. Frank is familiar enough with semi-automatic pistols to know how to eject the clip, but he neglects to check if there's a bullet left in the chamber (there is) or even ensure that the safety's on (it isn't). After a tearful reconciliation with Joan, Frank decides to return to the lab and take the experiment to its final stage, by freezing himself for the weekend. He promises Joan that after he's revived, they'll go off on a second honeymoon.
Meanwhile, Tony's missed his pistol and comes looking for it, shortly after Frank leaves. Joan tells him their affair is over; she's going away with Frank. Then she finally manages to fatally shoot herself, once again by accident. (Ok, I'll admit that's tragic irony, in a sort of Darwin Award-ish way. Or maybe this was intended as slapstick humor, from the country which gave the world Dachau and Buchenwald.)
Tony panics and bugs out without notifying the police. Meanwhile, back at the lab, unsuspecting Frank has himself quick-frozen. (FOR SCIENCE!!!)
The next day, after the maid discovers Joan's body, the police show up at the lab with some very pressing questions. Especially after Helen reluctantly informs them of that incriminating little phone conversation with Frank.
So, is our hero going to escape once he's defrosted, and prove his innocence while eluding the police, a la "The Fugitive"?
Look, this film is only 75 minutes long, and the majority of these have already been chewed up by this irrepressibly drab and awful plot. While Frank's being revived, Tony's guilty conscience prompts him to call up the police and tell them the truth. So Frank's suspected of murder for considerably less than ten minutes of screen time, and cleared of it even before he's been thawed out.
Hitchcock could have learned a thing or two from this director.
There's a tiny morsel of something suspense-like embedded in the final moments of this dog, as Frank apparently got freezer burn (or something) and it takes a bit of a struggle to revive him. Unfortunately, by this point the viewer's interest is definitely DOA.
There. In just a few minutes (unless you're a very slow reader) I've saved you from a fate far worse: squandering an irreplaceable hour and fifteen minutes of your life on this anti-thriller.
It was a hilarious premise for a short comedy skit, but for this excruciatingly dreary 75-minute-long West German import (one hesitates to call it a "drama") it blows economy-size chunks.
Dr. Frank Overton and colleague Dr. Helen Wieland have just been awarded a prize for their successful experiments in suspended animation via cryogenic freezing, using chimps as subjects. They believe the process is ready to be tested on humans, but the higher-ups are reluctant.
Dr. Overton's wife Joan feels neglected because her husband's been working those long hours at the lab. The fact that he's spending them with hottie Dr. Helen (and that she can see Helen has a major crush on oblivious Dr. Frank) doesn't help, either.
So Joan has taken to drowning her sorrows in drink, while stepping out with her old flame, journalist Tony Stein. "Aha!" you say: "Jealous lover murders her in a fit of passion, then tries to pin it on the scientist." No such luck.
Joan finds an old Colt .45 pistol while drunkenly rummaging through a desk in Tony's flat. Tony tells her to leave it alone: it's an unregistered firearm. He could get in big trouble as well as embarrass his uncle (who's some kind of high muckity-muck in the department) if the police found out about it. When Tony -- who's just been given a tight deadline for an article -- finally gets fed up with her and kicks her out so he can get to work, Joan sneaks the pistol out in her handbag.
She then staggers over to the lab for a shrieking showdown with Helen (although she doesn't quite work herself up to pulling the gun on her rival). Frank manages to calm Joan down, and takes her home. When Helen -- in what's either a stunningly clueless or a nastily passive-aggressive move -- calls up Frank to reassure him that Joan's embarrassing scene is all forgotten now, Joan finds out who's on the phone and flies into another jealous, hysterical rage. She threatens to kill herself with Tony's pistol.
Over the phone, Helen hears Frank order his wife to give him the gun, then she hears a shot, and a scream. After a moment, Frank returns to the phone, tells Helen everything's OK now, and hangs up.
So did Joan really kill herself, or did Frank shoot her by accident (or accidentally on purpose) while trying to take the gun away? Will we wait til Act Three to find out what actually happened?
Not in this film, buster! We quickly learn that Joan's OK: Frank took the gun away from her, while she was still in shock over having just missed accidentally shooting herself. (She thought it wasn't loaded.)
Frank removes the ammo clip, sees it's empty, replaces it and tells Joan the gun's "safe" now. Oddly, Dr. Frank is familiar enough with semi-automatic pistols to know how to eject the clip, but he neglects to check if there's a bullet left in the chamber (there is) or even ensure that the safety's on (it isn't). After a tearful reconciliation with Joan, Frank decides to return to the lab and take the experiment to its final stage, by freezing himself for the weekend. He promises Joan that after he's revived, they'll go off on a second honeymoon.
Meanwhile, Tony's missed his pistol and comes looking for it, shortly after Frank leaves. Joan tells him their affair is over; she's going away with Frank. Then she finally manages to fatally shoot herself, once again by accident. (Ok, I'll admit that's tragic irony, in a sort of Darwin Award-ish way. Or maybe this was intended as slapstick humor, from the country which gave the world Dachau and Buchenwald.)
Tony panics and bugs out without notifying the police. Meanwhile, back at the lab, unsuspecting Frank has himself quick-frozen. (FOR SCIENCE!!!)
The next day, after the maid discovers Joan's body, the police show up at the lab with some very pressing questions. Especially after Helen reluctantly informs them of that incriminating little phone conversation with Frank.
So, is our hero going to escape once he's defrosted, and prove his innocence while eluding the police, a la "The Fugitive"?
Look, this film is only 75 minutes long, and the majority of these have already been chewed up by this irrepressibly drab and awful plot. While Frank's being revived, Tony's guilty conscience prompts him to call up the police and tell them the truth. So Frank's suspected of murder for considerably less than ten minutes of screen time, and cleared of it even before he's been thawed out.
Hitchcock could have learned a thing or two from this director.
There's a tiny morsel of something suspense-like embedded in the final moments of this dog, as Frank apparently got freezer burn (or something) and it takes a bit of a struggle to revive him. Unfortunately, by this point the viewer's interest is definitely DOA.
There. In just a few minutes (unless you're a very slow reader) I've saved you from a fate far worse: squandering an irreplaceable hour and fifteen minutes of your life on this anti-thriller.
Static and dull...
planktonrules24 May 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Wow...from the description from Netflix, this sure sounded a lot more interesting than it was. The story was supposedly about cryogenic suspension and I was hoping for a kitsch classic like "The Frozen Death" or "The Brain That Wouldn't Die". Instead, it was a very slow story that bored me half to death.
The film will have the viewer wondering what so many in the film have German accents. This was apparently a German-British production but why all the Germans spoke English and why there were so many never really was explained. The star of the film is Mark Stevens--an American most viewers won't recognize. The rest of the cast are British and German unknowns.
As the movie begins, you see that the nice scientist interested in cryogenics (Stevens) has a hopelessly unstable and alcoholic wife. It's actually rather hard to understand what he sees in her--she's really awful. In fact, much of the first portion of the film is more soap opera than anything else--with some amazingly shrill and over-the-top performances and a script that seemed dull and confusing. Later, when the wife accidentally kills herself, the blame is placed on Stevens who has the worst luck trying to find an alibi, as he was in cold storage at the time--and this, sadly, is the only element of cryogenic freezing in the film. No mad monster, no raising the dead--just a soapy murder mystery which happens to include cryogenics.
Frankly, this film isn't worth your time. It's not campy enough to be fun, has a lot of bad acting, is a very dull script and inspires yawns instead of interest. Skip this one--life is too short to waste your time with this.
The film will have the viewer wondering what so many in the film have German accents. This was apparently a German-British production but why all the Germans spoke English and why there were so many never really was explained. The star of the film is Mark Stevens--an American most viewers won't recognize. The rest of the cast are British and German unknowns.
As the movie begins, you see that the nice scientist interested in cryogenics (Stevens) has a hopelessly unstable and alcoholic wife. It's actually rather hard to understand what he sees in her--she's really awful. In fact, much of the first portion of the film is more soap opera than anything else--with some amazingly shrill and over-the-top performances and a script that seemed dull and confusing. Later, when the wife accidentally kills herself, the blame is placed on Stevens who has the worst luck trying to find an alibi, as he was in cold storage at the time--and this, sadly, is the only element of cryogenic freezing in the film. No mad monster, no raising the dead--just a soapy murder mystery which happens to include cryogenics.
Frankly, this film isn't worth your time. It's not campy enough to be fun, has a lot of bad acting, is a very dull script and inspires yawns instead of interest. Skip this one--life is too short to waste your time with this.
Frozen Limits
richardchatten2 October 2016
Made and set in Berlin under a veteran British director with a largely German cast and crew (the stern presence of Walter Rilla is always a sure sign during this period that we're watching an Anglo-German co-production) and a characteristically noisy Germanic jazz score; the title 'Frozen Alive' suggests an early film on the then hot (if you'll pardon the expression) subject of cryogenics: a word never actually used in the film itself. Unfortunately it proves disconcertingly similar to the previous year's 'The Mind Benders' (1963), which showed far less interest in the potentially fascinating subject of sensory deprivation than - as with this film - the marital problems of the scientist at the centre of the narrative.
Delphi Lawrence is, however, a blast as Dr.Overton's glossy blonde wife - supposedly a famous fashion journalist, and with distinctly Germanic dress sense - first seen pouring herself the first of many, many drinks with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth as she also pours out her heart to her long-suffering German lover (Joachim Hansen). The film's production values, photography and pacing feel more like a TV production of the period; and even at just 75 minutes it feels wearisomely drawn out (such as a bizarrely irrelevant sequence in a bar with Joan Overton and her lover watching a fire-eater, of all things). Occasionally the film cuts back and forth between Overton in his lab and his wife's drunken maunderings as if something sufficiently dramatic is happening that actually calls for such emphatic editing, and even Ms. Lawrence begins to outstay her welcome when she starts waving her lover's gun about as if it's a toy - although it results in a wonderful death scene; both ludicrous and then moving as it finally sinks in on the poor woman just how completely she's screwed up...
After meandering for so long, the film then suddenly rushes headlong towards an extremely abrupt conclusion - as if director Bernard Knowles has finally realised that if it's going to be sold as science fiction, 'Frozen Alive' needs some laboratory footage to include in the trailer and on the posters. Wolfgang Lukschy (reunited with his recent 'Fistful of Dollars' co-star Marianne Koch), as Inspector Prenton goes out of his way to be as boorish and unprofessional as only the detective in a German crime film can be (while his sidekick provides one of the film's occasional flashes of mellow humour by actually showing an interest in what the scientists are getting up to and ruefully pleading with his boss "Can't I watch, sir?" when instructed to watch the door while Overton is defrosted).
Apart from Ms. Lawrence, the other Brit in the film is the veteran actor John Longden as the avuncular Professor Hubbard, making his final film appearance 35 years after starring in Hitchcock's 'Blackmail' (1929).
Delphi Lawrence is, however, a blast as Dr.Overton's glossy blonde wife - supposedly a famous fashion journalist, and with distinctly Germanic dress sense - first seen pouring herself the first of many, many drinks with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth as she also pours out her heart to her long-suffering German lover (Joachim Hansen). The film's production values, photography and pacing feel more like a TV production of the period; and even at just 75 minutes it feels wearisomely drawn out (such as a bizarrely irrelevant sequence in a bar with Joan Overton and her lover watching a fire-eater, of all things). Occasionally the film cuts back and forth between Overton in his lab and his wife's drunken maunderings as if something sufficiently dramatic is happening that actually calls for such emphatic editing, and even Ms. Lawrence begins to outstay her welcome when she starts waving her lover's gun about as if it's a toy - although it results in a wonderful death scene; both ludicrous and then moving as it finally sinks in on the poor woman just how completely she's screwed up...
After meandering for so long, the film then suddenly rushes headlong towards an extremely abrupt conclusion - as if director Bernard Knowles has finally realised that if it's going to be sold as science fiction, 'Frozen Alive' needs some laboratory footage to include in the trailer and on the posters. Wolfgang Lukschy (reunited with his recent 'Fistful of Dollars' co-star Marianne Koch), as Inspector Prenton goes out of his way to be as boorish and unprofessional as only the detective in a German crime film can be (while his sidekick provides one of the film's occasional flashes of mellow humour by actually showing an interest in what the scientists are getting up to and ruefully pleading with his boss "Can't I watch, sir?" when instructed to watch the door while Overton is defrosted).
Apart from Ms. Lawrence, the other Brit in the film is the veteran actor John Longden as the avuncular Professor Hubbard, making his final film appearance 35 years after starring in Hitchcock's 'Blackmail' (1929).
Too bad icy wives can't be thawed.
mark.waltz29 October 2023
Warning: Spoilers
An over-the-top performance by the Tallulah Bankhead like Delphi Lawrence makes this soapy melodrama with science fiction elements unintentionally campy. She's the alcoholic, suicidal wife of scientist Mark Stevens whose anger over his assistant (Marianne Koch) has her acting out jealous rages, leading to her waving a loaded gun around while drunk and ultimately her accidental death.
As Stevens and Koch experiment with cryptography on chimpanzees, he decides that he's going to try it on himself but the police instantly want him defrosted. By this time , Lawrence is dead, and life has pretty much gone out of the film as the surviving characters are dour and far too serious. It's obvious how this is going to unfold, so it becomes pretty predictable. The science fiction elements are major but not really interesting so that aspect isn't to the movie's element either.
As Stevens and Koch experiment with cryptography on chimpanzees, he decides that he's going to try it on himself but the police instantly want him defrosted. By this time , Lawrence is dead, and life has pretty much gone out of the film as the surviving characters are dour and far too serious. It's obvious how this is going to unfold, so it becomes pretty predictable. The science fiction elements are major but not really interesting so that aspect isn't to the movie's element either.
Entertaining, but hardly inspired.
Hey_Sweden8 July 2017
American star Mark Stevens ("The Dark Corner") stars in this German sci-fi flick as an American scientist, Frank Overton, working for the World Health Organization. He and his associate Helen Wieland (Marianne Koch) are performing experiments on chimps, putting them in deep freeze for a while and then resuscitating them. At roughly the time that Frank gets the bright idea to become a human guinea pig, something unexpected happens that lands him in trouble.
Screenwriter Evelyn Frazer and director Bernard Knowles don't have as much fun with this premise as one might hope they would. "Frozen Alive" is a classic case of "more talk than action", focusing on the personal problems of the characters (Overtons' wife Joan (Delphi Lawrence, "The Man Who Could Cheat Death") is resentful and an alcoholic) and not spinning a particularly interesting yarn. It's fairly static, and lacking in style, and one can see that this was done on a low budget. It starts to get better in its last half hour with its amusing twists of fate. Its opening credits are a gas, as the music segues from traditional ooga-booga sci-fi music to much more jazzy stuff.
The characters are reasonably engaging; nobody here is particularly dislikable. Stevens may be slumming, but he gives the material a straight faced go. Buffs will automatically realize that Koch and co-star Wolfgang Lukschy were also utilized in the legendary Spaghetti Western "A Fistful of Dollars" around this time. Joachim Hansen ("The Boys from Brazil"), Walter Rilla ("Day of Anger"), and John Longden ("Quatermass II") are among the solid supporting cast.
"Frozen Alive" is nothing special, but does offer a mild amount of fun.
Five out of 10.
Screenwriter Evelyn Frazer and director Bernard Knowles don't have as much fun with this premise as one might hope they would. "Frozen Alive" is a classic case of "more talk than action", focusing on the personal problems of the characters (Overtons' wife Joan (Delphi Lawrence, "The Man Who Could Cheat Death") is resentful and an alcoholic) and not spinning a particularly interesting yarn. It's fairly static, and lacking in style, and one can see that this was done on a low budget. It starts to get better in its last half hour with its amusing twists of fate. Its opening credits are a gas, as the music segues from traditional ooga-booga sci-fi music to much more jazzy stuff.
The characters are reasonably engaging; nobody here is particularly dislikable. Stevens may be slumming, but he gives the material a straight faced go. Buffs will automatically realize that Koch and co-star Wolfgang Lukschy were also utilized in the legendary Spaghetti Western "A Fistful of Dollars" around this time. Joachim Hansen ("The Boys from Brazil"), Walter Rilla ("Day of Anger"), and John Longden ("Quatermass II") are among the solid supporting cast.
"Frozen Alive" is nothing special, but does offer a mild amount of fun.
Five out of 10.
What Der heck is this? (caution: spoilers)
silentgmusic16 March 2004
Warning: Spoilers
I saw this one on a 4-film DVD set under the title "Frozen Alive." CAUTION: SPOLIERS This is a slow-moving melodrama masquerading as a horror film. A scientist's wife is cheating on him while he is conducting experiments, placing animals in suspended animation. The scientist decides to experiment on himself (his assistant pouts: "No! There's too much risk!")but he persists. While undergoing suspension, the annoying wife dies from a gunshot with the scientist the key suspect. The scientist isn't the only one in suspension as the audience becomes enraptured in disbelief. This amazing West German/England production is cheap and kinda seedy, and pretty dull. I ultimately shrugged at the end. Films like this are "programmers," films made merely to fill the needs of film promoters and distributers, likely used to fit into a double or triple-bill horror film package. While I've seen worse films (sometimes I think perhaps too many), this one is not at the bottom. Still, "Frozen Alive" is a film that should have appeared on "Mystery Science Theater 3000," a missed opportunity. I'm still not sure exactly what kind of film this is supposed to be.
Dullsville
By-TorX-130 December 2019
Frozen Alive is an odd mishmash of science drama, murder mystery and soap, but the narrative never really reconciles any of the threads. Moreover, when the frozen solid 'action' finally arrives, the pace is so slow that you may think that your screen has frozen. In this context, the creakiness of the film often makes it feel like a film made much earlier than the 1960s. Perhaps it was made earlier and kept in suspended animation? Anyhow, 1960s low-budget potboilers are often fun, but I'd recommend that if you get the chance to see this frozen-based caper, let it go.
Ice Cream Melts Faster
Rainey-Dawn19 January 2017
The film is slow, ice cream melts faster that this film goes. I like some slower films but this one is too slow. I also like movies that put people on, or rather, in ice - frozen. The Man with Nine Lives (1940) with Boris Karloff is an example of a film I think is good concerning someone being frozen (or in a form of cryogenics).
It's just like the plot reads: A man is working in a form of cryogenics, a state of suspended animation and decides he needs to test it. Just before he is frozen, his wife is killed and he is suspected of murdering her. - The film holds true to this description.
It's nothing special, just a simple low grade B film that needed some spicing up and a little more speeding up to make it more interesting to me.
2/10
It's just like the plot reads: A man is working in a form of cryogenics, a state of suspended animation and decides he needs to test it. Just before he is frozen, his wife is killed and he is suspected of murdering her. - The film holds true to this description.
It's nothing special, just a simple low grade B film that needed some spicing up and a little more speeding up to make it more interesting to me.
2/10
Quirky.
plan9930 March 2024
Not a lot exciting goes on in this film and it just plods along a bit too slowly for most people I suspect. A not too bad plot with a bit of a twist but I think that they went for the wrong ending, I would have gone for the other one.
The good choice of title probably got plenty of people into cinemas when it came out but I think that many of those who paid to see it would have been disappointed in it, even in 1964 this was not a great film.
Not one of the better suspended animation films around but as as a Sci-Fi film fans of such must see it at least once but it's probably not watching a second time.
The good choice of title probably got plenty of people into cinemas when it came out but I think that many of those who paid to see it would have been disappointed in it, even in 1964 this was not a great film.
Not one of the better suspended animation films around but as as a Sci-Fi film fans of such must see it at least once but it's probably not watching a second time.
Makes the best of a shoestring budget
hollywoodshack15 March 2019
I thought the movie was quite good and gets a lot of mileage in the final half when we have to keep guessing if the assistant will pull the plug on the scientist frozen alive while all fingers seem to point to him being guilty of murdering his wife. The direction makes the most of each simple plot point. Mark Stevens once again plays a romantic lead where the ladies think he's handsome. I don't know why he got so many parts like these in the fifties when he looked like he was born with age wrinkles on his face.
More than just a chemistry kit saga
Chase_Witherspoon9 April 2012
Amiable Mark Stevens and scientific partner, the enigmatic Marianne Koch combine to tackle malignant diseases through cryogenics, but their experiments on apes are just a prelude to their ultimate test on a live human being which Stevens himself undertakes shortly following a murder in which he's implicated in absentia. Koch attempts to resuscitate Stevens to answer the allegations under the watchful eye of a Detective (Lukschy) and an independent observer (Lohde), concerned she may sabotage the experiment to protect Stevens from punishment.
Capable German-US-British cast deliver realistic dialogue and create a genuine tension that is based less upon the primary plot (cryogenics) and more on Delphi Lawrence's character as Steven's almost perpetually inebriated wife, jealous of his working relationship with Koch, seeking solace in the scotch bottle and that of her old flame and work mate Joachim Hansen. Lawrence's performance dares to be bold and obnoxious, and while sometimes intense, doesn't become melodramatic. I thought her performance injected a maturity that was a welcome diversion to what could have become a simple science experiment gone awry picture.
While the momentum is not always fluent, the pace sometimes stilted, and the suspense often telegraphed too early, the acting compensates to some degree, Stevens and Koch enjoying a on-screen rapport that serves the narrative well. My only significant criticism is the overly-simplistic conclusion - the elements are present for a firecracker ending, but it's resolved too quickly and conveniently to do the rest of the movie justice. Should have been better, but in my opinion still superior to the average 3 rating it currently attracts.
Capable German-US-British cast deliver realistic dialogue and create a genuine tension that is based less upon the primary plot (cryogenics) and more on Delphi Lawrence's character as Steven's almost perpetually inebriated wife, jealous of his working relationship with Koch, seeking solace in the scotch bottle and that of her old flame and work mate Joachim Hansen. Lawrence's performance dares to be bold and obnoxious, and while sometimes intense, doesn't become melodramatic. I thought her performance injected a maturity that was a welcome diversion to what could have become a simple science experiment gone awry picture.
While the momentum is not always fluent, the pace sometimes stilted, and the suspense often telegraphed too early, the acting compensates to some degree, Stevens and Koch enjoying a on-screen rapport that serves the narrative well. My only significant criticism is the overly-simplistic conclusion - the elements are present for a firecracker ending, but it's resolved too quickly and conveniently to do the rest of the movie justice. Should have been better, but in my opinion still superior to the average 3 rating it currently attracts.
Freezer Burned
bnwfilmbuff6 October 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Drop-dead beautiful Marianne Koch is nonplussed that Mark Stevens' wife is seething with jealousy despite spending every waking moment with her husband freezing monkeys. Steven's wife ultimately commits suicide while Stevens submits himself to the deep freeze unknowingly dodging the suspected murder rap . By this point I was in a state of suspended animation waiting for something interesting to happen. It never does! Ugh!
Watchable but underwhelming
Red-Barracuda13 September 2021
This one is a little misleading, as the sci-fi is really no more than a Maguffin which complicates an accidental killing. Really, they should have ramped up the sci-fi angle and done something a lot more interesting with it. The acting and the characters aren't too bad but this one fell short on account of it just not adding up to much by the ending. Watchable but underwhelming.
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