FRANKENSTEIN '80

FRANKENSTEIN '80 (ITALY, 1972) a.k.a. FRANKENSTEIN '80, MOSAICO

Directed by: Mario Mancini

Written by: Ferdinando De Leone and Mario Mancini

Music: Daniele Patucchi

Special FX: Carlo Rambaldi

A Recommendation

by

JUSTIN HUGH DICKINSON

John Richardson ( Umberto Lenzi's EYEBALL and Ricardo Freda's Murder Obsession (a.k.a. Fear) plays Karl Schien, a reporter whose sister Sonia (Dalicame Lazzaro) is in desperate need of a heart transplant. And is it not convenient that not long before, a woman was attacked, gutted by an unseen assailant, and the dead woman's heart is taken to the hospital? The problem is, as Dr. Swartz explains to Karl, that Sonia's body may reject the replacement organ. But never fear, for Dr. Swartz has been working on a fluid known as the "Swartz Serum" that could allow the body to accept the new heart. Karl jumps at the chance and agrees. But the fluid is stolen by the evil, perpetually sour-faced Dr. Otto Frankenstein (Gordon Mitchell) while the sister is on the operating table, causing her to die.

Dr. Frankenstein plans on using it on his monster Mosaico's (or Mosaic's) limbs and various organs so they will cease being rejected from its body and Mosaico will stop escaping from the lab to look new replacement parts. Many scenes involve the large, bald, scarred beast killing, women. It tears opens their shirts first (most do no not wear a bra--a nice touch). One of its victims is a pretty female butcher whom he beats with a large bone with meat dangling from it.

Karl decides to play detective and track down the one who stole the serum and in turn caused the death of his sister.

The policemen are pretty incompetent, with the lead inspector providing unwanted comic relief. Karl points out obvious clues that would be impossible for any detective worth his weight in salt not to pick up on.

Dr. Frankenstein starts using Mosaico to bump off other doctors and staff at the hospital where he works. Now Frankenstein doesn't have the most clandestine of operations. He works at the hospital where his colleagues can spot him and his has a revolving bookcase/wall that leads to his private lab where he hides Mosaico. He also records all the operations he performed and how he made his monster, so it is only a matter of time before he is located and the authorities are alerted.

This film is pretty dull to watch if only because of too many little false notes that add up. The big one being--if Dr. Frankenstein created Mosaico, how is that he cannot stop him from going out and killing when he does not want him to?

The film brings up a neat idea, only to abandon it a few seconds later: since the Monster is made from various parts, each of the fingerprints left at a crime scene is from a different finger making it impossible to identify.

John Richardson seems to be the only actor who is trying in the film and taking his role seriously, no matter how bad this movie is. And it kind of is.

Argento fans will want to keep an eye out for Fulvio Mignzzoi who plays one of the police inspectors. He was the cab driver in Suspiria, Inferno, a cop in Deep Red, the hotel manager in Tenebrae, and others.

This was made around the same time as other Italian monster films using the Frankenstein moniker such as, Dick Randall's Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks (1973), Paul Morrissey's /Antonio Margheriti's Flesh For Frankenstein (1973), and Mel Welles' Lady Frankenstein (1971), so perhaps it was made to cash in on a trend that did not take off.

Am I sorry I saw this film? Ultimately, no. But I would not recommend it unless you are a die-hard Italian genre fanatic.

Still, I have another film added to my Italian collection and that is always a positive.