DECEMBER 26 VHS MOVIE REVIEW : FRANKENSTEIN 80
From sideorderofninjas.com
What the IMDB says: A mad scientist creates a monster called "Mosaico," who breaks out of the laboratory to hunt down and kill beautiful women.
Plot:
The news radio announces of Doctor Scwartz's new anti-rejection organ transplant serum which would be a boon to the medical field. Elsewhere later a woman is attacked and gutted. The police find the body, and the investigation begins.
Doctor scwartz receives a heart for a donor transplant, Julie. The new serum is important to insure Julie accepts the heart. Unfortunately, the serum is stolen before the surgery and Julie dies. Scwartz allows Julie's brother, Karl, a crime reporter, to investigate the hospital about the stolen serum.
The killer strikes again butchering a lady butcher.
Another doctor listens to a report on Mosaic, the killer, who has been going out to get the organs to build himself up. The doctor has the serum but not tested the serum yet..
Karl starts looking for Dr. Frankenstein to help him with case. Elsewhere, Mosaic is discovering that not quite not all of his parts are dying as fast as others and starts hunting the less than savory parts of the city. Frankenstein finds Mosaic and takes him back to the lab.
The police are puzzled by finding 2 sets of fingerprints on the same hand of a murder victim.
Karl is talking with Sonia, Frankenstein's niece, about organ transplants and her uncle whose reputation was ruined after an accident on a surgery which has demoted him to a pathologist, a coroner.
At the hospital, Frankenstein is talking with Scwartz when Mosaic goes wild and kills the good doctor. Frankenstein transplants an eye from to Swcartz to Mosaic. Dr. Frankenstein sends Mosaic after hospital nurse, Fritz.
Karl being the investigative reporter finds some of Frankenstein's audio reports on Mosaic. He manages to get the police to help him find the secret lab.
Mosaic sneaks out again and heads to Frankenstein's house and chases Sonia. Good Dr. Ottot can't stop Mosaic who dispatches him.
The police head to Otto's house and listen to the medical tapes of how Mosaic has to keep getting new organs to replace the ones that are being continually rejected including the brain in the next few days. As the city contends with Mosaic striking randomly in theaters, junkyards, and drag races.
Mosaic is stalking Karl and Sonia. The monster is tossing Karl around the room as the police head there. Finally, Mosaic keels over from the rejecting brain. The happy couple escape as the police pull up and let the credits roll.
What I say:
We continue to keep learning that Frankenstein must keep up the family tradition of reanimating the dead. It probably has something to do with genetics. After all, mad scientists are required to have medical degrees. Unfortunately, SideOrderofNinjas has been unable to contact the Dr. Herbert West, Re-Animator, for any information concerning this field of medicine. Most mad scientists have to tamper with life rather than the more scientifically crazed maniacal physicists who accidentally create giant killer bugs of the 1950s.
With a title like Frankenstein '80 for a movie made in 1972, would you think there might at least be a little bit of time travel? If so, you'd be WRONG...Good Ole' Doc Otto steals apparently the only sample of the anti-organ rejection serum (the stuff that doesn't seem to have any other samples or it's chemical formula written down anywhere) and never tests the stuff on his monster that keeps breaking out to get his own fresh internal organs. Frankenstein movies aren't exactly known for logic and practicality (well neither is SideOrderOfNinjas).
It's hard to think of this Dr. Otto Frankenstein as any good compared to say Colin Clive of the original Frankenstein or Peter Cushing's truly sociopathic Frankenstein from the Hammer movies. Well, he has to be something of an improvement to Frankenstein General Hospital's Bob Frankenstein, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter, or Lady Frankenstein.
Living up to legends is a pretty good description of anyone's performance after Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee. Mosaic, this movie's Frankenstein monster, looks scarred, pale, and disfigured as an unmasked Darth Vader. OK, maybe not quite that bad or even as David Prowse who was the body of Darth Vader and Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein and the Monster of Hell.
Having Frankenstein's monster runs around the city's theaters, butcher shops, and Grand Prix races has to be an improvement to the typical country villages with plenty of torch-wielding angry villagers ready to chase any monster to the nearest castle. Mosaic seems to be an avid ladies' man and very firm supporter of his own organ procurement and/or organ collection.
It was hard to keep track of a number of the characters when the movie had the chief detective acted more like the newspaper editor J Jonah Jameson with a dash of Perry White. With the dubbing, it wouldn't be hard for them to continually keep changing characters occupations. Early 1970s Euro-horror wasn't known for its great acting or scripts.
Yes, more public domain DVD movie diving always lead into these movies that are best forgotten...Well, after the last few, almost anything would seem better... Thankfully, this didn't dragged quite as much as the others. Have to say, this is not the movie anyone would really want to ever hunt down to find.
2 1/2 NINJAS
Quotable Dialogue
"I must just wait."
"You're performing a duty to mouthwash."
"Maybe a little late for the liver."
"2 sets of fingerprints on 1 hand?!?!"
"It's good for my complexion."
Morals of the Story
Organ donor serum looks like blue mouthwash or aftershave.
"Frankenstein" is an ordinary last name.
Doctors have hidden labs behind bookcases.
Doctors record their secret medical reports on audio cassettes in the 1970s.
A severed head found in a fridge is commonplace.
Live dance performances introduce movie westerns.
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