In
the 1960s, Andy Warhol was considered to be the most controversial and
undoubtedly the most groundbreaking artist alive. Although best known
for his pop culture paintings, he also worked in the medium of film,
shooting a variety of experimental films including Eat (1963) showing a man eating for 40 minutes, Sleep (1963), a 6 hour film of a man sleeping, and Empire (1965)
an 8 hour film of the Empire State Building at night. After his
near-fatal shooting in 1968 however, Warhol turned the filmmaking side
of his "Factory" over to his assistant Paul Morrissey. Under
Morrissey's direction, this division was turned away from the purely experimental films and started
shooting more conventional narrative films - Flesh (1968), Trash (1970) and Heat (1972) followed, an insight into Sex, Drugs and Rock-and-Roll respectively, with Joe
Dallesandro, a former nude model, taking the lead role in all three and becoming quite infamous. In the early 1970s,
director Roman Polanski was preparing to shoot his sex-comedy
What?
(1972) in Rome for Compagnia Cinematografica Champion. Initially he was
experimenting with 3-D for the production, but eventually decided
that 3-D would be useless for his production, so instead he invited
his friend Paul Morrissey to make use of the equipment and shoot a couple of low budget pictures for the company...Deep
in Serbia, Baron Frankenstein (Udo Kier), and his assistant Otto, are
experimenting on humans in his laboratory. Meanwhile his wife (and
sister) Baroness Katrin Frankenstein has withdrawn their children from
school, to bring them to live with her at the castle. When she discovers
the estate handyman Nicholas (Joe Dallesandro) having sex on her land,
she orders him to meet her in the morning. Meanwhile, the Baron stalks
Nicholas and his prudish friend Sacha to a local brothel - he is
looking for a lustful brain for his creature - but in mistake takes the
head of Sacha. Waking up next to the headless corpse of his friend,
Nicholas runs to Katrina, who offers him protection... in exchange for
some sexual favours. When the Baron completes his experiments, and
finds his male creature completely unwilling to reproduce, he blames
his wife for interfering, and all sorts of trouble breaks out...
Along with its companion piece, Blood for Dracula (1974), Flesh for Frankenstein
shows only the slightest link to the original novel, providing instead
a completely new take on the classic story, and at the same time,
seemingly satirising the European exploitation movies, with their
frequent sex and gore. While Morrissey's
films in America had largely been improvised, the cast for the European
filmings were not native speakers and he had to write the script himself,
largely on the way to filming in the morning. Fortunately, the
script holds together well, and despite the relatively short
run-time and the exploitation movie trappings of sex and blood, it
is continually understated, almost to the point of parody. We are
treated to lengthy, and daftly banal dialogue sequences between the
Baron and his wife, while the Baron himself seems to spend the rest of the time talking only in the
manner of speeches, continually declaring his intentions to create an
Aryan master race who will bow only to him - although he does get many
of the film's best lines: Two women... one man... he must be very powerful. Although slow paced it is never boring and builds to a superbly dramatic climax that would make Shakespeare proud!
Morrissey
demonstrates some effective direction throughout the film, making good
use of moving camera shots and odd angles with some beautiful
widescreen compositions (viewed in anything other than its original
'scope' ratio, this film would look terrible). Despite the relatively
low
budget, just $300,000, the film looks very good, with well scouted
locations and large sets. Originally shot in 3-D (although the
DVD print is 2-D) there are several shots of items held up towards the
camera, but fortunately these do not affect the flow of the film.
Some of the body part effects are a little dated, but mostly very realistic (suggesting the use of real animal parts). Claudio Gizzi provides an effectively understated piano score that fits well with the film.
The
strikingly hansome American star Joe Dallesandro takes the lead role
here as the sexually charged Nicholas. Spending about half the film
naked, his acting is hardly likely to be considered award winning, but
he brings a noticable presence to the film. The very distinctive Udo
Kier gives a superb performance as the Baron, resisting the temptation
to over-act during the patriotic speeches, and retaining an ernest
sense of determination throughout. The very attractive Dalila Di
Lazzaro spends almost the entire film nude as the Baron's female
creation, while Arno Juerging plays his suck-up assistant.
Dallesandro, Juerging and Kier would essentially reprise their
roles in
Blood for Dracula (1974).
Flesh for Frankenstein is a very interesting film. A move firmly into the mainstream for Paul Morrissey, it boosted Joe
Dallesandro and Udo Kier to cult stars in Europe,
where Dallesandro would stay and star in a variety of Italian
films for the next few years. Certainly a shock to fans of Mary
Shelley, it works as a satire on the excesses of European exploitation
cinema and equally well as one of the best of the genre. Recommended to
fans of exploitation horror and of the lead cast.
