A low budget, low brain-power film that is nevertheless quite entertaining. This film was a staple of late night and afternoon horror/SF movie shows when I was growing up. I never missed it. Disappointing at first, since there is no "Frankenstein" to speak of, only the android "Frank". But the Spacemonster is low-budget gruesome. The crash-burned android looks sufficiently frightening but is still sympathetic. The Martian invaders are something out of a low-grade exploitation film and make me giggle every time I watch the film. If you're looking for production values and crisp scripting, you probably ought to look somewhere else. If you're looking for a light-weight romp, something to swill soda and eat popcorn to on a rainy evening, then you could do much worse.
70 Reviews
Let me be Frank.
Hey_Sweden15 January 2019
The science and the military plan to send astronaut Frank Saunders (Robert Reilly) into space to do some exploring; the catch is that Frank is actually a robot. However, Martian villains, led by icy Princess Marcuzan (Playboy Playmate Marilyn Hanold, "The Brain That Wouldn't Die") and her elfin toady Dr. Nadir (Lou Cutell, a.k.a. Amazing Larry from "Pee-wee's Big Adventure"), have arrived on Earth. The women of their planet have been decimated, and they need Earth women for breeding stock. But they didn't count on Frank, who's turned into a monster after receiving damage from a Martian weapon.
"Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster" is fairly amusing 1960s cheese, and is reasonably entertaining for any schlock lover. It can be dull and talky at times, but it does have some fun moments. Of course, ANY movie that features the late, great James Karen (beloved for playing Frank in "The Return of the Living Dead") as a heroic, Vespa-riding scientist CANNOT be all bad. One of a few people from this production who managed to have a solid career after this, Karen is typically solid. Nancy Marshall is mostly just cute as his associate Karen Grant. Hanold and Cutell are entertaining baddies in the schlock movie tradition. Reilly is adequate as the "Frankenstein" of the title. Another great character actor, Bruce Glover ("Diamonds Are Forever"), has two of his earliest screen roles as he plays both one of the Martians and their pet "spacemonster" Mull (wearing a hilarious, fanged and shaggy costume).
A fair amount of stock footage mixes with new material in what is pretty enjoyable material, at least as far as this kind of movie goes. Ultra-cheap sets and special effects likewise make this endearing to the bad movie fanatic. The makeup on Frank (done by John Alese) isn't bad for a movie filmed over 53 years ago on a $60,000 budget.
Partly set in Puerto Rico, although largely filmed in Cocoa Beach, Florida.
Costume designer Anna Hill Johnstone went on to bigger and better things; her 1970s credits include "The Godfather", "Serpico", and "Dog Day Afternoon".
Five out of 10.
"Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster" is fairly amusing 1960s cheese, and is reasonably entertaining for any schlock lover. It can be dull and talky at times, but it does have some fun moments. Of course, ANY movie that features the late, great James Karen (beloved for playing Frank in "The Return of the Living Dead") as a heroic, Vespa-riding scientist CANNOT be all bad. One of a few people from this production who managed to have a solid career after this, Karen is typically solid. Nancy Marshall is mostly just cute as his associate Karen Grant. Hanold and Cutell are entertaining baddies in the schlock movie tradition. Reilly is adequate as the "Frankenstein" of the title. Another great character actor, Bruce Glover ("Diamonds Are Forever"), has two of his earliest screen roles as he plays both one of the Martians and their pet "spacemonster" Mull (wearing a hilarious, fanged and shaggy costume).
A fair amount of stock footage mixes with new material in what is pretty enjoyable material, at least as far as this kind of movie goes. Ultra-cheap sets and special effects likewise make this endearing to the bad movie fanatic. The makeup on Frank (done by John Alese) isn't bad for a movie filmed over 53 years ago on a $60,000 budget.
Partly set in Puerto Rico, although largely filmed in Cocoa Beach, Florida.
Costume designer Anna Hill Johnstone went on to bigger and better things; her 1970s credits include "The Godfather", "Serpico", and "Dog Day Afternoon".
Five out of 10.
Cheesy Sci-Fi Fun
Ken S.25 April 2003
This is one of those movies you have to watch with an open mind. I remember seeing it during the 70s on the local television show "Creature Feature" and marveled at how something so cheap be so bad, yet fun.
The only real name here is James Karen, however Lou Cutell is an accomplished character actor in several movies. I only wish they would show this movie more as I haven't seen it in more than 20 years. I remember the monster the Martians had was big, furry and ugly and later the "Creature Feature" would use his mug in the stills promoting the show.
Since the plot is pretty much covered by other posters, I'll spare my interpretation, however I will add that the Play-Do ears on Cutell's effeminate character (he looks like a crazed, pedophilac Vulcan) make the movie along with Frank's "Two-Face" part.
All in all good fun to watch. Just don't take it seriously.
The only real name here is James Karen, however Lou Cutell is an accomplished character actor in several movies. I only wish they would show this movie more as I haven't seen it in more than 20 years. I remember the monster the Martians had was big, furry and ugly and later the "Creature Feature" would use his mug in the stills promoting the show.
Since the plot is pretty much covered by other posters, I'll spare my interpretation, however I will add that the Play-Do ears on Cutell's effeminate character (he looks like a crazed, pedophilac Vulcan) make the movie along with Frank's "Two-Face" part.
All in all good fun to watch. Just don't take it seriously.
It's Alive
and kicking butt in space!
Coventry30 June 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Once every so often, you encounter a movie that leaves you completely dumbfounded
With a title like "Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster" you can already safely derive that you won't be seeing a highly intellectual work of cinematic art, but still the film was at least five times as demented as I could ever have imagined! This movie is the epitome of cheap & trashy 60's Sci-Fi/horror. No plot was grotesque enough, no set design looked cheesy enough and you simply didn't have a satisfied drive-in audience if the movie didn't feature any extended footage of dancing bikini girls! There's something ridiculous to behold at any given moment during the film, whether it's a passive acting performance or a hilarious attempt at special effects, and the plot appears to get sillier with every minute that passes. Somewhere just outside the our stratosphere, there's a Martian ship floating around and nuking earth's spaceships because they're war declarations. The Martians are all bald guys with pointy ears and there's one queen who stole Cleopatra's wardrobe. The crew is on a mission to capture earth babes (preferably in bikini) because they urgently need to repopulate their planet! Meanwhile, the pointdexters over at NASA are running out of living astronauts and decide to skyrocket an android into space instead. The android's name is Frank and he looks quite nasty when half his face gets blown off, so his creators inventively nickname him Frankenstein. To make the title fully relevant, there's also a hideous monster aboard the Martian ship that Franky has to overthrow before he can rescue the babes. Put all these crazy plot elements together, add a swinging 60's score and some cardboard scenery, and you've got yourself a genuine drive-in favorite. This movie is probably a very unwise choice if you swear by the repertoires of Sci-Fi luminaries like Andrei Tarkovsky or Stanley Kubrick, but it's a delightful treat for us fanatics of kitschy smut.
Hoo-Boy, What a Mess... :=8P
MooCowMo1 December 1999
Wacky cheapie that is part "Plan 9", part "Mars Needs Women", in which Dr. Evil and Cleopatra decide to invade the earth; fortunately, they get stopped by "Frank", the Frankenstein robot-astronaut who is film's hero with 1/2 face, and the annoying tendency to throttle innocent people randomly. Dr. Evil and Cleopatra send their evil bald henchmen armed with hair dryers to abduct bikini-clad females for "breeding purposes". They make them lie on a board, drape cheap curtains over them, and pull them away for "electro-purification". Mull, a shaggy, snaggle-tooth monster, is also on hand, and is the titular space monster for "Frankenstein" to fight. Frank blows himself up, along with the evil bald aliens, and Cape Kennedy and Puerto Rico and Korea are all saved. Various pointless chunks of raw, oozing stock footage are spliced together in a vain attempt to insinuate that this film has some sort of a plot. The stock footage ranges from Korean War battles to, old NASA footage, to Civilian Air Patrol film strips, all cut up and sprinkled liberally throughout the film, like so much salt and pepper. In fact, stock footage makes up a good 50% of the moovie, and it does constitute an improvement over actually paying attention to the story. Much of the film involves the "actors" stumbling about in the bushes at night, so you can't actually see what they do. In fact, the film is as murky as a septic tank, and sports some of the worst post-production (looping, editing)this cow has ever seen. Toss in some rockin' 60's surf moosic, and you've got an almoost passable plate of schlock. First-time Director Frank Gaffney never directed again, and the world breathed a sigh of relief. Marilyn Hanold("The Brain that Wouldn't Die")plays the ditsy, Cleopatra-like Princess Marcuzan, who wears a hat made of kleenex and cardboard. Lou Cutell("Pee Wee's Big Adventure") plays Nadir, the effette, smiling bald dwarf who ogles the stolen babes. Long-time bit actor James Karen("Poltergeist", "Invaders from Mars") plays Dr. Adam Steele, the bland, un-appealing scientist who creates Frank & goes off to find him when Frank gets his face turned into a tuna melt. This film is a mumbling, stuttering, incoherent, indigestible pile of celluloid that only professional devotees of schlock-theater cud love, so says the MooCow. As ol' Princess Marcuzan says, "This is clearly a failure". You said it, babe. :=8P
Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster - how'd MST3K miss this?
daniel-17592 September 2008
Warning: Spoilers
The film involves a mission to Mars scheduled to be manned by a single crewmember, Capt. Frank Saunders. Like many a low-budget sci-fi film, NASA is run by two or three people at the most. In NASA's headquarters, which bears a striking resemblance to any given high school with a "John F. Kennedy Space Center" banner drapped over the entrance, Frank is unveiled in a press conference the day before the historic mission to no less than three, semi-attentive reporters. In the middle of the conference, Frank completely freezes, and is rushed off by two scientists. The reporters are curious, but quick thinking General Bowers offers them drinks, and their desire for a good story is outweighed by the urge to get some free booze.
It turns out that our boy Frank is really a half-man robot (pronounced "robut" by his creator, Adam Steel), a sort of modern Frankenstein, if you will. Despite the fact that Frank has malfunctioned and become completely unresponsive two minutes into his unveiling at a press conference, he is sent out into space the next day as planned after some mild tweaking.
Meanwhile, a malicious, insipid race of aliens is coming to Earth for a single purpose. It seems their planet has been destroyed by a nuclear holocaust, and these saps are the lone survivors. The aliens are led by, Princess Marcuzan (who, you would think would be queen now) and Dr. Nadir, who informs the crew: "We are extinct as a race, unless of course we can find some good breeding stock to repopulate the planet." Wow.
The aliens mistake Frank's spaceship for an attack, and blow it up. Frank crashes somewhere in Puerto Rico, where he emerges damaged and begins to wander the countryside attacking random people. (Incidentally, Frank at no point resembles a classic Frankenstein or the guy on the cover of the DVD he looks more like a bargain-basement version of Batman villain Two-Face than anything else.) The aliens also land in Puerto Rico, and start capturing girls that don't look Puerto Rican in the slightest.
The film's idea of incorporating a Puerto Rican into the story comes when hero-scientist Adam Steel (love that name!) needs to make a phone call and struggles to communicate with a native. "Telephone?" Steel says, and the native is confused. Steel puts his hand to his ear in traditional phone-mime and says, "El telephono?" and the guy understands. Yikes. I'm one of the whitest white people alive and I'M offended.
Fortunately for our evil alien friends, all the Earth girls are remarkably easy to capture, and beyond shrieking periodically they provide no resistance whatsoever. The first girl is caught while on a beach in a bikini, sees her boyfriend edited out of the movie before her eyes (I think it was implied that he was blown up via ray gun), and once on the ship is totally compliant and mute. She doesn't even get cheesy lines like, "Gee! Are you from outer space?" Instead, she just kind of stands there and does as she's told as the Princess and Dr. Nadir leer at her in creepy, exploitation movie fashion.
It goes without saying that the aliens have themselves a monster locked up in a cage, which looks like a Mexican wrestler in an ornate costume.
Naturally Steel and Karen find Frank in some isolated cave and calm him down a little, leading us to assume that his killing spree is over and he's somehow "good" again.
Steel sends Karen off to get help, but she is nabbed by those pesky aliens and taken to their spaceship. Speaking of the spaceship, it's one of those cases where the exterior makes the ship appear no bigger than a one bedroom efficiency, but the interior seems to have endless room for cockpits, hallways, and holding cells. Then again, we're talking about Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster, so who am I to complain about such technicalities? The pulse-pounding chuckle-inducing conclusion sees Frank freeing the Earth girls and Karen, and fighting the spacemonster. This is where the title feels like false advertising, because Frank and the spacemonster do not meet, per se, as the title promises; they just start fighting. What a rip-off! One can only imagine the stimulating conversations these two might have, but instead they do some lackluster fighting that would have benefited from REAL Mexican wrestlers in those costumes. Frank finally gets a ray gun and starts firing randomly, until he blows up the whole idiotic alien race in what is intended to be a self-sacrificial moment.
The special effects are pretty hideous even by B-movie standards. I know they had no budget, but the spaceship in flight appears to resemble a Christmas ornament leaking gas. The director intersplices stock footage of the military liberally, which only makes his sets and actors look all the more fake. To really put things in perspective, Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster was released in 1965. Four years later, Stanley Kubrick's epic 2001: A Space Odyssey was made, with special effects that hold up better than the "state of the art" digital effects in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
This cheap, exploitative schlockfest actually tries to deliver an anti-nuclear war message, a la a genuinely excellent science fiction classic The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951). Sadly, such attempts are thwarted by the fact it is a dim-witted movie titled Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster. If you are a Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan (like me), or if you enjoyed Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space (like me), you need to see this movie. For the rest of you: Stay very, very far away.
Daniel J. Roos (film.ispwn.com)
It turns out that our boy Frank is really a half-man robot (pronounced "robut" by his creator, Adam Steel), a sort of modern Frankenstein, if you will. Despite the fact that Frank has malfunctioned and become completely unresponsive two minutes into his unveiling at a press conference, he is sent out into space the next day as planned after some mild tweaking.
Meanwhile, a malicious, insipid race of aliens is coming to Earth for a single purpose. It seems their planet has been destroyed by a nuclear holocaust, and these saps are the lone survivors. The aliens are led by, Princess Marcuzan (who, you would think would be queen now) and Dr. Nadir, who informs the crew: "We are extinct as a race, unless of course we can find some good breeding stock to repopulate the planet." Wow.
The aliens mistake Frank's spaceship for an attack, and blow it up. Frank crashes somewhere in Puerto Rico, where he emerges damaged and begins to wander the countryside attacking random people. (Incidentally, Frank at no point resembles a classic Frankenstein or the guy on the cover of the DVD he looks more like a bargain-basement version of Batman villain Two-Face than anything else.) The aliens also land in Puerto Rico, and start capturing girls that don't look Puerto Rican in the slightest.
The film's idea of incorporating a Puerto Rican into the story comes when hero-scientist Adam Steel (love that name!) needs to make a phone call and struggles to communicate with a native. "Telephone?" Steel says, and the native is confused. Steel puts his hand to his ear in traditional phone-mime and says, "El telephono?" and the guy understands. Yikes. I'm one of the whitest white people alive and I'M offended.
Fortunately for our evil alien friends, all the Earth girls are remarkably easy to capture, and beyond shrieking periodically they provide no resistance whatsoever. The first girl is caught while on a beach in a bikini, sees her boyfriend edited out of the movie before her eyes (I think it was implied that he was blown up via ray gun), and once on the ship is totally compliant and mute. She doesn't even get cheesy lines like, "Gee! Are you from outer space?" Instead, she just kind of stands there and does as she's told as the Princess and Dr. Nadir leer at her in creepy, exploitation movie fashion.
It goes without saying that the aliens have themselves a monster locked up in a cage, which looks like a Mexican wrestler in an ornate costume.
Naturally Steel and Karen find Frank in some isolated cave and calm him down a little, leading us to assume that his killing spree is over and he's somehow "good" again.
Steel sends Karen off to get help, but she is nabbed by those pesky aliens and taken to their spaceship. Speaking of the spaceship, it's one of those cases where the exterior makes the ship appear no bigger than a one bedroom efficiency, but the interior seems to have endless room for cockpits, hallways, and holding cells. Then again, we're talking about Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster, so who am I to complain about such technicalities? The pulse-pounding chuckle-inducing conclusion sees Frank freeing the Earth girls and Karen, and fighting the spacemonster. This is where the title feels like false advertising, because Frank and the spacemonster do not meet, per se, as the title promises; they just start fighting. What a rip-off! One can only imagine the stimulating conversations these two might have, but instead they do some lackluster fighting that would have benefited from REAL Mexican wrestlers in those costumes. Frank finally gets a ray gun and starts firing randomly, until he blows up the whole idiotic alien race in what is intended to be a self-sacrificial moment.
The special effects are pretty hideous even by B-movie standards. I know they had no budget, but the spaceship in flight appears to resemble a Christmas ornament leaking gas. The director intersplices stock footage of the military liberally, which only makes his sets and actors look all the more fake. To really put things in perspective, Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster was released in 1965. Four years later, Stanley Kubrick's epic 2001: A Space Odyssey was made, with special effects that hold up better than the "state of the art" digital effects in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
This cheap, exploitative schlockfest actually tries to deliver an anti-nuclear war message, a la a genuinely excellent science fiction classic The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951). Sadly, such attempts are thwarted by the fact it is a dim-witted movie titled Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster. If you are a Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan (like me), or if you enjoyed Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space (like me), you need to see this movie. For the rest of you: Stay very, very far away.
Daniel J. Roos (film.ispwn.com)
Campy chaos
MartianOctocretr522 July 2009
The budget was about $1.99, probably spent mostly at garage sales.
It's outrageously campy and just plain mindlessly fun. This is the stuff that drive-in "B-movie" classics are made of. The acting is at the utmost hammiest, the sets are in the director's back yard, the props (such as ray guns) are obviously from a toy-store, and the rubber costumes are probably from an "After-Halloween" clearance sale. Loved the '60's surf ballads, especially during the romantic motor scooter ride.
Pick your favorite character: there's a lot of funny ones. My favs would include the 2nd-in-command alien guy (who has a white face and wears lipstick) that makes a pixie grin whenever he slowwwllyyyy a-nun-ci-ates lines like "The lucky ones are dead!" The princess femme fatale is comical too, as she drones on about how much she wants to slaughter Earthlings. Finally, the alien monster, even with a bobbing camera and low lighting trying to hide its cheap and phony appearance, still looks cheap and phony.
A few aliens try to take over the world, using a space ship that looks like it's made out of tin with silver paint (in blast-off sequences, it looks suspiciously like Project Mercury newsreel footage). They capture a few models with big '60's hair, and try to take them back to space for (ready?) breeding stock. The Earthlings have a Frankenstein monster (formerly a pilot), and one comic scene leads to another until the hilarious monsters' fight scene. The alien guy's expression when he meets the kidnapped females is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
You've got to see this one to believe it.
It's outrageously campy and just plain mindlessly fun. This is the stuff that drive-in "B-movie" classics are made of. The acting is at the utmost hammiest, the sets are in the director's back yard, the props (such as ray guns) are obviously from a toy-store, and the rubber costumes are probably from an "After-Halloween" clearance sale. Loved the '60's surf ballads, especially during the romantic motor scooter ride.
Pick your favorite character: there's a lot of funny ones. My favs would include the 2nd-in-command alien guy (who has a white face and wears lipstick) that makes a pixie grin whenever he slowwwllyyyy a-nun-ci-ates lines like "The lucky ones are dead!" The princess femme fatale is comical too, as she drones on about how much she wants to slaughter Earthlings. Finally, the alien monster, even with a bobbing camera and low lighting trying to hide its cheap and phony appearance, still looks cheap and phony.
A few aliens try to take over the world, using a space ship that looks like it's made out of tin with silver paint (in blast-off sequences, it looks suspiciously like Project Mercury newsreel footage). They capture a few models with big '60's hair, and try to take them back to space for (ready?) breeding stock. The Earthlings have a Frankenstein monster (formerly a pilot), and one comic scene leads to another until the hilarious monsters' fight scene. The alien guy's expression when he meets the kidnapped females is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
You've got to see this one to believe it.
Hilarious!
deranger-16 August 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I actually found this movie so funny that I was in danger of splitting a side. I don't know if the movie was intended to be serious or not but I saw it as a spoof and really, really got some good laughs out of watching it. A war on mars is won by the martian queen's forces but kills so many martians that they will need to capture earth women for breeding stock to help re-populate their planet. That isn't an easy task as the martian males all bear a remarkable resemblance to Nosferatu the vampire. They are not likely to attract a lot of females so must go on the offensive, hunting the women out and kidnapping 'em. The martian queen wants good breeding stock, not just any female will do but luckily the group has apparently landed in an area full of sexy babes. There is so much more.... the astronaut robot, the monster in the martian ship.... you gotta love it!
Delightfully twisted 60s camp
jimtinder10 December 2001
"Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster" deserves more than the small cult following it has attracted. Due to the lack of its inclusion on "Mystery Science Theater 3000," the movie is not widely known.
The story (what there is of it) concerns Earth's first mission to Mars. A scientist (Jim Karen) has decided a robot would be better sent than a human, considering the enormous risks involved in interplanetary travel. Unknown to NASA, a ship containing the inhabitants of a doomed planet is orbiting Earth, seeking women to repopulate their species. The ship considers the Mars mission an attack, and destroys the ship, but not before Col. Frank (the robot) escapes the explosion and lands in Puerto Rico(!)
This film, simply put, is a hoot to watch. From Dr. Nadir's Play-Doh ears, to the most stock footage I have ever seen in a movie (featuring the groovy song "That's The Way It's Got To Be" by The Poets), to the toy air-guns used by the aliens, to common drapery being used to incubate the captured women, "Space Monster" delivers many delciously awful moments.
The story (what there is of it) concerns Earth's first mission to Mars. A scientist (Jim Karen) has decided a robot would be better sent than a human, considering the enormous risks involved in interplanetary travel. Unknown to NASA, a ship containing the inhabitants of a doomed planet is orbiting Earth, seeking women to repopulate their species. The ship considers the Mars mission an attack, and destroys the ship, but not before Col. Frank (the robot) escapes the explosion and lands in Puerto Rico(!)
This film, simply put, is a hoot to watch. From Dr. Nadir's Play-Doh ears, to the most stock footage I have ever seen in a movie (featuring the groovy song "That's The Way It's Got To Be" by The Poets), to the toy air-guns used by the aliens, to common drapery being used to incubate the captured women, "Space Monster" delivers many delciously awful moments.
While a terrible film, it doesn't quite sink to the lowest depths of awfulness!
planktonrules9 December 2007
As you can tell by my summary, this isn't among the finest films ever seen! However, I just couldn't give it a score of 1 because there are just so many terrible films that are even more terrible than FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACEMONSTER. In fact, the worst thing about this silly film is probably the title--as there is no Frankenstein in the film at all!! Of course, the over-use of grainy and pointless stock military footage didn't do a lot to make this a film worth seeing, nor did the horrid makeup on the alien men.
These horny men have extremely cheesy makeup (complete with bald wigs with obvious seams and ears made of cardboard) but at least they are smarter than the usual aliens in films. They have come to Earth to steal pretty women for use as sex slaves since the only woman they seem to have left is their leader, Marilyn Hanold (who was the Playboy Playmate of the Year in 1959). Plus, this is a much better use of people than the usual anal probing, so as I said, these aliens aren't so dumb (just dumb looking).
At about the same time these aliens land in Puerto Rico (yes, I did say 'Puerto Rico'), NASA sent a rocket to Mars that was piloted by a super-realistic looking robot (who the press and the rest of the world think is a real man). When the aliens make this ship crash, the astronaut is still functional but his face is severely burned--hence the name 'Frankenstein'--though he in no way acts like the monster and looks less like Franky but more like a cheesy actor with glop dumped on half his face. In the end, the cybernetic astronaut and a monster that the aliens have brought aboard their ship have a big fist fight and everything ends happily ever after for the Earth.
By the way, there are a few things to look for in this film. First, the amazing acting ability of most of the women kidnapped by the horny aliens. Most of these ladies do great imitations of pieces of lint, though they have less charisma or acting talent. Second, the crappy alien spaceship (you've got to see it to believe it) is about 20 times bigger inside than outside! I guess it's like a Tardis (from "Dr. Who") or maybe it's just due to lousy production values (I'll let you decide). Third, while most everyone in this film were no-name actors, Jame Karen was in one of the leading roles. While his is not a household name, he has a face most will immediately recognize from other films and television--so apparently this terrible film didn't ruin his career!! Fourth, for anyone who is a fan of Disney World, extensive clips from this film are shown to patrons while they eat at the Disney-MGM park's restaurant, Sci-Fi Dine-In. So it's a bad film, but one not so bad that it will ruin your appetite or induce vomiting!
These horny men have extremely cheesy makeup (complete with bald wigs with obvious seams and ears made of cardboard) but at least they are smarter than the usual aliens in films. They have come to Earth to steal pretty women for use as sex slaves since the only woman they seem to have left is their leader, Marilyn Hanold (who was the Playboy Playmate of the Year in 1959). Plus, this is a much better use of people than the usual anal probing, so as I said, these aliens aren't so dumb (just dumb looking).
At about the same time these aliens land in Puerto Rico (yes, I did say 'Puerto Rico'), NASA sent a rocket to Mars that was piloted by a super-realistic looking robot (who the press and the rest of the world think is a real man). When the aliens make this ship crash, the astronaut is still functional but his face is severely burned--hence the name 'Frankenstein'--though he in no way acts like the monster and looks less like Franky but more like a cheesy actor with glop dumped on half his face. In the end, the cybernetic astronaut and a monster that the aliens have brought aboard their ship have a big fist fight and everything ends happily ever after for the Earth.
By the way, there are a few things to look for in this film. First, the amazing acting ability of most of the women kidnapped by the horny aliens. Most of these ladies do great imitations of pieces of lint, though they have less charisma or acting talent. Second, the crappy alien spaceship (you've got to see it to believe it) is about 20 times bigger inside than outside! I guess it's like a Tardis (from "Dr. Who") or maybe it's just due to lousy production values (I'll let you decide). Third, while most everyone in this film were no-name actors, Jame Karen was in one of the leading roles. While his is not a household name, he has a face most will immediately recognize from other films and television--so apparently this terrible film didn't ruin his career!! Fourth, for anyone who is a fan of Disney World, extensive clips from this film are shown to patrons while they eat at the Disney-MGM park's restaurant, Sci-Fi Dine-In. So it's a bad film, but one not so bad that it will ruin your appetite or induce vomiting!
IGNORE the low rating on this 60's sci-fi classic. Excellent entertainment!
gsh99915 December 2006
This is a really low-budget b/w movie but it is very entertaining. This movie has really aged well. Many sci-fi fans that see this movie for the first time will know what I'm talking about. I saw this 1965 movie for the first time in 2006 and loved it. I guess this one fits into the category "so bad it's great." But I consider this a damn good effort, especially considering the budget.
The movie is tons of laughs. The alien invaders have an Uncle Fester-looking adviser to a hot-looking queen, who looks kind of like Barbara Steele. They come invading Earth and run into a cyborg ("Frank") built by the good old USA to explore space. This movie even has a helicopter air assault in vintage transport choppers! AWESOME! They had to send the Army to help the cyborg defeat the bat-people aliens and their weapon of last resort - a fanged monster that the aliens themselves can barely control!!!!! This movie has EVERYTHING and any fan of classic sci-fi and 60's bikini party horror should really love it.
The movie is tons of laughs. The alien invaders have an Uncle Fester-looking adviser to a hot-looking queen, who looks kind of like Barbara Steele. They come invading Earth and run into a cyborg ("Frank") built by the good old USA to explore space. This movie even has a helicopter air assault in vintage transport choppers! AWESOME! They had to send the Army to help the cyborg defeat the bat-people aliens and their weapon of last resort - a fanged monster that the aliens themselves can barely control!!!!! This movie has EVERYTHING and any fan of classic sci-fi and 60's bikini party horror should really love it.
Lame but Delightful to See
claudio_carvalho11 May 2012
In outer space, a Martian spacecraft commanded by Princess Marcuzan (Marilyn Hanold) and her assistant Dr. Nadir (Lou Cutell) is traveling to Earth to abduct women to breed a new race, since an atomic war has annihilated Martian women.
Meanwhile in NASA, Dr. Adam Steele (Jim Karen), his assistant Karen Grant (Nancy Marshall) and General Bowers (David Kerman) are in a press conference presenting the astronaut Colonel Frank Saunders (Robert Reilly), who will participate of an extended space travel on the next morning. However they do not disclose to the press that Colonel Saunders is an android developed by the scientists.
The Martian spacecraft lands on San Juan, in Porto Rico and when they see Saunders's capsule on the air, they believe it is an attack and they shoot the Earth ship down. The android is damaged and wanders on the island scaring people and behaving like Frankenstein. Dr. Steele and Karen head to Porto Rico to rescue the android, while the Martians abduct young women to take them to Mars.
"Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster" is a lame film for the younger generations used to colored movies and special effects. But for me, it is delightful to see since it is a journey to my childhood when I used to see sci-fi films like this one and worshiped National Kid.
This film is comparable with "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and other many famous and is underrated in IMDb. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "Frankenstein Contra o Monstro Espacial" ("Frankenstein Against the Space Monster")
Meanwhile in NASA, Dr. Adam Steele (Jim Karen), his assistant Karen Grant (Nancy Marshall) and General Bowers (David Kerman) are in a press conference presenting the astronaut Colonel Frank Saunders (Robert Reilly), who will participate of an extended space travel on the next morning. However they do not disclose to the press that Colonel Saunders is an android developed by the scientists.
The Martian spacecraft lands on San Juan, in Porto Rico and when they see Saunders's capsule on the air, they believe it is an attack and they shoot the Earth ship down. The android is damaged and wanders on the island scaring people and behaving like Frankenstein. Dr. Steele and Karen head to Porto Rico to rescue the android, while the Martians abduct young women to take them to Mars.
"Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster" is a lame film for the younger generations used to colored movies and special effects. But for me, it is delightful to see since it is a journey to my childhood when I used to see sci-fi films like this one and worshiped National Kid.
This film is comparable with "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and other many famous and is underrated in IMDb. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "Frankenstein Contra o Monstro Espacial" ("Frankenstein Against the Space Monster")
Really, really incredibly awful
rdad3 October 2003
This was a complete mess. At least half of the movie was stock footage and another quarter was silent, I guess they couldn't afford sound, with bizarre pop music added afterward. The plot was missing, the acting dreadful, the makeup, oh the makeup, so so bad, the lumpy Spock ears, painful to see. I kept expecting them to fall off at any minute. But there was one highlight, the sight of the star riding to the rescue on his scooter was just to much, what a hoot. If you like watching incredible stinkers, this one's for you!
A very enjoyable "bad" B-movie
oscar-3526 November 2012
Warning: Spoilers
*Spoiler/plot- Frankenstein meets the Space Monster, 1965, Martian invaders with their queen are exploring our solar system. Martian invaders prepare an Earth attack as NASA sends a rocket to Mars manned by a android astronaut. Mistaking the exploration rocket for an attacking warhead missile, the aliens fire on the launching rocket and send the android back to Earth in a fiery crash. The android pilot is damaged with heavy computer & facial trauma and the NASA man-like pilot goes on a murderous rampage throughout Puerto Rico's beach areas. The aliens land and make-off with beach babes as breeding stock for their planet, Mars. The rampaging pilot and alien patrols converge on a beach pool party with disastrous results.
*Special Stars- Marilyn Hanold, Lou Cutell, Bruce Glover, James Karen, Nancy Marshall
*Theme- Andriods are not always your friends despite their helpful NASA programming.
*Trivia/location/goofs- B&W, American, Look for Bruce Glover(Diamonds are Forever 'baddie' and famous Hollywood acting coach) in a dual role as alien Martian invader and the Space Monster. The Space MOnster suit was a re-issue use from the fine Crash Corriganville film called, "It, the Terror from outer Space". This film is supposedly in the TOP 50th worst films ever made. The Martian alien spaceship rooms have ceiling fluorescent tube lights and walls made of obvious plywood especially in the beach babe 'purification room'. The NASA scientists leave in a B-52 bomber. However, the plane they land in is a Boeing C-135. Flight change?
*Emotion- A very enjoyable "bad" B-movie with the climatic ray-gun-firing battle between android and the Martian Space monster. True campy fun of the post 50's with all the trimmings: bikinis, music, cars, airplanes, and clothing.
*Special Stars- Marilyn Hanold, Lou Cutell, Bruce Glover, James Karen, Nancy Marshall
*Theme- Andriods are not always your friends despite their helpful NASA programming.
*Trivia/location/goofs- B&W, American, Look for Bruce Glover(Diamonds are Forever 'baddie' and famous Hollywood acting coach) in a dual role as alien Martian invader and the Space Monster. The Space MOnster suit was a re-issue use from the fine Crash Corriganville film called, "It, the Terror from outer Space". This film is supposedly in the TOP 50th worst films ever made. The Martian alien spaceship rooms have ceiling fluorescent tube lights and walls made of obvious plywood especially in the beach babe 'purification room'. The NASA scientists leave in a B-52 bomber. However, the plane they land in is a Boeing C-135. Flight change?
*Emotion- A very enjoyable "bad" B-movie with the climatic ray-gun-firing battle between android and the Martian Space monster. True campy fun of the post 50's with all the trimmings: bikinis, music, cars, airplanes, and clothing.
Fruity title and presentation...but sadly, a stiff
moonspinner5513 January 2008
A shapely intergalactic princess (complete with fancy headdress) and her spaceship co-horts land on Earth to kidnap nubile women for "breeding purposes"; in a sub-story, a man-made astronaut who was designed to defeat the aliens has been damaged and is now a psychotic killing machine on the loose! Wild low-budgeter from director Robert Gaffney, who blends an overly-ritzy sci-fi script with the monster-movie genre, succeeding in making a grade-Z movie which looks pretty good for what it is--drive-in schlock. Gaffney juices his scenario with rock 'n roll interludes, artistically-shot stock footage, and a caged beast who claws at the kidnapped girls. This flick actually has some cinematic ambitions--if only Gaffney had picked up the pace a bit. As one of the chief creators of the robot, likable, low-keyed Jim Karen seems rather bemused; he needn't be embarrassed, for this is a perfect example of professionally-assembled dreck, a guilty pleasure made with the best of intentions. Plus, those Vespas look fantastic! *1/2 from ****
Ed Wood wasn't the only one making "Ed Wood" movies
JoeB13114 August 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Considering how cheaply this movie was made, it's not bad for what it is.
The plot line is that an android made with transistor radio parts is shot into space only to be shot down by some bizarre looking aliens, who've come to Earth because they've run out of women, except for their princess played by a playboy model.
So with lots of budget constraints and stock footage to fill out the rest, we have this film. It drags in a lot of places, but you do get to see those awesome 1960's bikinis on women who were amazingly sanguine about the whole alien abduction thing.
Pretty much everything is from the Ed Wood Playbook of how to make films with no budget. Stock footage, only do one take, don't bother getting people who can act.
The plot line is that an android made with transistor radio parts is shot into space only to be shot down by some bizarre looking aliens, who've come to Earth because they've run out of women, except for their princess played by a playboy model.
So with lots of budget constraints and stock footage to fill out the rest, we have this film. It drags in a lot of places, but you do get to see those awesome 1960's bikinis on women who were amazingly sanguine about the whole alien abduction thing.
Pretty much everything is from the Ed Wood Playbook of how to make films with no budget. Stock footage, only do one take, don't bother getting people who can act.
Martians need to repopulate their world.
michaelRokeefe26 September 2004
A B- Sci-Fi flick that is a hoot to watch. Frank Saunders(Robert Riley)is a NASA android that gets his face half fried in a battle with Martians that ends up back on earth...in Puerto Rico. Martian forces led by Princess Markuzan(Marilyn Hanold)and her dwarf minion Nadir(Lou Cutell)begin kidnapping scantily-clad girls in hopes of repopulating what is left of their Atomic War torn world. Frank's creators(Nancy Marshall and James Karen)do their best to patch him up and he boards the Martian spaceship to free the kidnapped bikini babes and do battle with the aliens space monster(Bruce Glover). Talk about bad...this movie is so bad its fun to watch. A lot of the movie is stock film and any special effects are the product of a very low or NO budget at all. There is some pretty lame attempts at rock 'n' roll by The Distant Cousins and The Poets. A suggestion to make this laugh riot more enjoyable is a six pack of Pabts Blue Ribbon and a large pepperoni/black olive pizza.
What An Astronaut
bkoganbing6 September 2008
Two great events in history are about to collide in Frankenstein Meets The Spacemonster inflicted on the public in 1965 by Allied Artists. First NASA is about to send the first exploratory rocket into space with an astronaut. But what an astronaut. Secondly though, the elite of Mars has ordered a raid on Earth to seize our most desirable women to repopulate the planet due to a recent atomic war that has eliminated all the women except the Martian princess.
As for our astronaut, someone at NASA apparently got a hold of one of the journals of Baron Victor Von Frankenstein and given advances in medical technology and robotics has created an amalgam creature that looks human and is given the name of Colonel Frank N. Saunders. They even trot him out for a press conference, but to no one's surprise this particular astronaut has never been heard of before.
Anyway the Martians are planning to make their strike on earth on Puerto Rico. And Martian guys go to various beaches and pool parties and kidnap those who look best in a state of undress. They also mistake the rocket for some kind of attack vehicle and shoot it down and wouldn't you know it, in Puerto Rico.
At this point the damaged Frankenstein astronaut meets up with the Martian invaders and some kind of monster they've taken along on their space ship for emergencies. Or maybe just as a pet. That sets up the inevitable climax which I'm sure you've figured out.
I recognized some of the Puerto Rican locations from the trip I took to San Juan in 1983. Too bad they weren't in color that might have counted as a plus for the film. With a lot of the Puerto Rican rain forest now preserved as a national park, El Yunque, I'm surprised more and better films that need a tropic setting aren't done there.
There are a few people in the cast who've gone on to some substantial careers. James Karen as the NASA doctor who created the Frankenstein astronaut looks positively ill as he mouths the dialog, who could blame him. Lou Cutell as the assistant to the Martian princess just hams it up in the best Uncle Fester tradition.
Nancy Marshall plays Karen's assistant who actually develops a thing for the astronaut creature she's created kind of like Fay Wray had for King Kong. But Marilyn Hanold as the Martian princess is inspecting those nubile bikini clad beauties in a way that you know darn well she's going to keep the best of them for herself. Every ruler needs a harem.
I swear that Allied Artists was doing better by the movie going public when they were giving us the Bowery Boys when they were Monogram Pictures. Frankenstein Meets The Spacemonster is to be seen if only to see just how bad science fiction can be at times.
As for our astronaut, someone at NASA apparently got a hold of one of the journals of Baron Victor Von Frankenstein and given advances in medical technology and robotics has created an amalgam creature that looks human and is given the name of Colonel Frank N. Saunders. They even trot him out for a press conference, but to no one's surprise this particular astronaut has never been heard of before.
Anyway the Martians are planning to make their strike on earth on Puerto Rico. And Martian guys go to various beaches and pool parties and kidnap those who look best in a state of undress. They also mistake the rocket for some kind of attack vehicle and shoot it down and wouldn't you know it, in Puerto Rico.
At this point the damaged Frankenstein astronaut meets up with the Martian invaders and some kind of monster they've taken along on their space ship for emergencies. Or maybe just as a pet. That sets up the inevitable climax which I'm sure you've figured out.
I recognized some of the Puerto Rican locations from the trip I took to San Juan in 1983. Too bad they weren't in color that might have counted as a plus for the film. With a lot of the Puerto Rican rain forest now preserved as a national park, El Yunque, I'm surprised more and better films that need a tropic setting aren't done there.
There are a few people in the cast who've gone on to some substantial careers. James Karen as the NASA doctor who created the Frankenstein astronaut looks positively ill as he mouths the dialog, who could blame him. Lou Cutell as the assistant to the Martian princess just hams it up in the best Uncle Fester tradition.
Nancy Marshall plays Karen's assistant who actually develops a thing for the astronaut creature she's created kind of like Fay Wray had for King Kong. But Marilyn Hanold as the Martian princess is inspecting those nubile bikini clad beauties in a way that you know darn well she's going to keep the best of them for herself. Every ruler needs a harem.
I swear that Allied Artists was doing better by the movie going public when they were giving us the Bowery Boys when they were Monogram Pictures. Frankenstein Meets The Spacemonster is to be seen if only to see just how bad science fiction can be at times.
Very fine movie with actors who often hit their mark and say their lines
yonhope17 April 2017
This movie is based on the true story of the Martian Invasion of 1965. The handsome astronaut who bravely goes into space to do something that needs doing. You, the viewer will weep openly not just once as this story unreels. The Earthlings speak perfect martian. I did not realize Martians chose to land in the US because they speak the same language we speak. Austin Powers is the Martian. The Queen or whatever, is Liz Taylor, I think. The general is the guy who works at the garden shop. Nobody eats anything on Mars and probably not on Earth. A movie with no food. Don't ask why there is a monster where the monster appears. The guy who played Frankenstein is actually very good. He did a few movies. This movie would go well with Mars Needs Women and Teenagers From Outer Space. Look for a Rambler and a Studebaker. If you like sixties music this has some sixties sounding songs in the background. Not any real hits. Worth watching and finding good quotes.
Lookin' for Love in hand-made movie...
poe-4883323 August 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Saw this one on TV when I was but a lad and I don't remember it being THIS violent (not that I have anything against Violence; it's just that the version I saw must've been censored by the folks who broadcast it); it harks back to those pre-Code Horror comics in every way. While Nadir, the second-in-command, comes across as one of those aliens looking to probe someone's anus, the Princess is out of this world... All this woman has to do is take a slow, deep breath and... James Karen does a great job in his first At Bat, too. LUST IN SPACE- uh, FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACEMONSTER boasts some no-holds-barred makeup and a caged Monster worthy of Paul Blaisdell (in fact, it looks like a cross between THE SHE-CREATURE and IT!, THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE). My biggest gripe is that the "meeting" of the two is so brief so late in the movie that we don't get to see either combatant really showcase his wares. The ship is VERY impressive for such a Low Budget feature, and excellent use is made of tons of stock footage. The practical effects all around are impressive: this is one of those hand-made movies that puts to shame the cgi crap we see Today.
Mars needs acting lessons
lordzedd-316 June 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Okay, okay. I got to admit that Frankenstein meets the Spacemonster ain't never going to win any awards for acting, depth of characters or creature design. But it is pretty fast pace and it does keep your interest away from reading a book for at least 70 to 80 minutes. The monster design is cheesy but kind of cool at the same time, the robot effects is pretty cool, but I don't see the connection to the classic Frankenstein novel other then Frank being a man made man, but androids don't count with that. So the title is completely off and the budget was somewhat low even for 1965 at around sixty grand. But they did put some effort into it and there are some character actors will go on to bigger and much better things. So it's fun to watch this and see them when they were struggling actors willing to take any job, even this one. 1 1/2 stars.
A total schlocky blast
Woodyanders27 May 2011
Warning: Spoilers
A band of evil Martian invaders led by the wicked, yet alluring Princess Marcuzan (lovely former "Playboy" Playmate Marilyn Hanold vamping it up with lip-smacking cardboard aplomb) and effeminate bald dwarf Doctor Nadir (a gloriously campy portrayal by Lou Cutell) abduct nubile young bikini-clad human babes for breeding stock in order to save their dying race. Meanwhile, hideously disfigured malfunctioning android astronaut Col. Frank Saunders (the hopelessly stolid Robert Reilly) terrorizes the countryside. It's up to dedicated scientist Adam Steele (James "The Pathmark Guy" Karen struggling gamely to keep a straight face) to not only find and fix Frank, but also figure out a way to thwart the Martians. Boy, does this baby possess all the necessary so-utterly-wrong-that-they're-paradoxically-right stuff to rate as one entertainingly awful cinematic abomination: ham-fisted (non)direction, incredibly excessive use of blatant scratchy stock footage, a booming'n'bombastic score, extremely variable acting, groovy reverb surf guitar music occasionally blaring away on the soundtrack at the most inappropriate moments, glaring continuity errors, chintzy dimestore sets, a laughably silly story that's treated with uproariously ludicrous sincerity, ragged black and white cinematography, a gut-busting set piece with the aliens attacking dancing teenagers at a swinging pool party, shoddy (much less than) special effects, a few tacky freeze frames, and a boffo fumbled climactic fight between Frank and grotesque hairy skull-faced mutant Mull the Monster (an uncredited Bruce Glover in a ridiculous shaggy costume). Good'n'cruddy Grade Z fun.
Premium Grade Sci-Fi Cheese.
Space_Mafune6 February 2003
An invading alien ship attacks a space shuttle manned by an android Earth astronaut named Frank sending it crashing to the ground in Puerto Rico. Later, the alien ship lands and attempts to destroy Frank but only ends up disfiguring him and damaging his circuits causing him to go on a killing rampage. Meanwhile the alien plot upon the Earth is carried out under the orders of the space Princess Marcuzan (Marilyn Hanold),who demands her minions bring back fertile Earth female specimens with which she hopes to repopulate her dying world, and her assistant Nadir (Lou Cutell), who looks like an evil and thoroughly corrupt Vulcan.
This movie is great fun to watch aside from the pace being a little too slow when Frank is wandering about in the hills of Puerto Rico. Also the Space Monster isn't in this film enough and its final showdown with the Android Frankenstein proves disappointing. Still this for the most part has a decent pace as the rock music used here actually works to enliven the stock footage and slow scenes...the tunes are actually pretty catchy too plus the way they are used may make many bust out in laughter.
Highly Entertaining Sci-Fi Silliness at its very best.
This movie is great fun to watch aside from the pace being a little too slow when Frank is wandering about in the hills of Puerto Rico. Also the Space Monster isn't in this film enough and its final showdown with the Android Frankenstein proves disappointing. Still this for the most part has a decent pace as the rock music used here actually works to enliven the stock footage and slow scenes...the tunes are actually pretty catchy too plus the way they are used may make many bust out in laughter.
Highly Entertaining Sci-Fi Silliness at its very best.
Frankenstein is an unreliable android with a portable radio for a brain?
moviemeister115 July 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This film is just one more proof that the mid sixties was one the worst eras for films.There is very little in this film that is even the least bit entertaining.Most of the film is just ripping off other films.I have to admit that Dr.Nadir is pretty funny.He is exactly what Mr.Spock would have looked like if Telly Sevalis had been cast instead of Nimoy.Otherwise it is a complete waste of time.The plot is beneath sub-moronic,the acting atrocious,the dialogue toxic to the ears,and the "costuming" and set design is beyond inane.This film has made me want to become a serial killer.It failed to entertain me even in the least.Ydnar
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
