Frankenstein 1970

Plot

Baron Victor von Frankenstein (Boris Karloff) suffered torture and disfigurement at the hands of the Nazis as punishment for not cooperating with them during World War II. Horribly disfigured, he nevertheless continues his work as a scientist. Needing funds to support his experiments, the Baron allows a television crew to shoot a made-for-television horror film about his monster-making family at his castle in Germany.

This arrangement gives the Baron enough money to buy an atomic reactor, which he uses to create a living being, modeled after his own likeness before he had been tortured. When the Baron runs out of body parts for his work, however, he proceeds to kill off members of the crew, and even his faithful butler, for more spare parts. Finally, the monster turns on the Baron, and they are both killed in a blast of radioactive steam from the reactor. After the reactor is shut down and the radiation falls to safe levels, the monster's bandages are removed, and an audio tape is played back in which the Baron reveals that he had intended for the monster to be a perpetuation of himself, because he was the last of the Frankenstein family line.

Cast

Production

Alternative titles during pre-production included "Frankenstein's Castle", "Frankenstein 1960", and "Frankenstein 1975". Shot in a mere eight days on a modest budget, the film was finally titled Frankenstein 1970 to add a futuristic touch. The film's main set was borrowed from the 1958 movie Too Much, Too Soon.

The film was released through Allied Artists, who bought the film for $250,000,

Home media

For several years, only a pan and scan VHS tape of the film was available. In October 2009, Warner Brothers released the DVD "Karloff & Lugosi Horror Classics," which includes Frankenstein 1970 as one of the four films, and features an audio commentary by one of the film's co-stars, Charlotte Austin, and fan historians Tom Weaver and Bob Burns.