Despite a whole lot of padding of Puerto Rican scenery (which was required for the producers to film there for free), the most overuse of stock footage ever committed to film, and a general sense of goofy ineptness lingering all around it, Frankenstein Meets The Spacemonster entertains regardless. It's not a good movie, it gets by on it's outright chintzy charm.

Made on the cheap for the purpose of bringing in some cash at the drive-ins, this sci-fi/horror combo platter starts off like any good 60's B-movie should as we're introduced to space princess Marcuzan (Marilyn Hanold) and her pointy eared, Uncle Fester looking right-hand man Dr. Nadir (Lou Cutell). It seems that they've fallen victim to atomic war and are coasting just outside the Earth's atmosphere preparing to launch their dastardly plan to repopulate their planet by breeding with the Earth's women.

At the same time the U.S. government is getting reading to launch a space mission to Mars. Prior attempts have failed, so they've called on scientist Adam Steele (Jim Karen, who many of us know as the bumbling "Frank" in Return Of The Living Dead, and is making his starring debut here) and his assistant to create an android dubbed "Frank" (we know he's an android when he gets stuck in "smiley face" mode while talking to some reporters) in order to have a successful mission.

However, Marcuzan and her short sidekick think the rocket is a missile and shoot down the vessel (which is shown by reusing footage from earlier in the movie as we get to hear Nadir repeat the line, "and now. maximum energy!" again) which causes our robot pal Frank to crash land on Earth and have half his face melted down by an alien soldier's ray gun.

And it's from here that things get even more off-beat as Frank stumbles around killing a few people who cross his path (we see him choke down one guy and take an axe to another) while the Princess and her minions gather up human women and threaten Adam's captured girlfriend with "Mull", a cheap looking guy in a monster suit that looks like it was thrown together from various Halloween costume cast-offs.

Frankenstein Meets The Spacemonster doesn't try to be anything more than an entertaining drive-in timewaster, and it succeeds as such. It's low-budget all the way, the acting is suspect at times (Robert Reilly is bad as the android, and we can clearly see Hanold and Cutell staring directly into the camera while saying their lines), and there's about 45 minutes of filmed footage wedged between all the stock stuff; but this has a dopey kind of charm and is the kind of movie you'd expect to show up on Elvira's Movie Macabre on late night Saturday television.

You really can't go wrong if you're a fan of low-brow, low-budget cinema as it's got an appealing silly title, lots of catchy surf music on the soundtrack, and a completely underwhelming "meeting" between the title creatures in the final five minutes. This is the kind of movie you can get a group of like-minded individuals together and poke fun at - and it's brief enough to never get tiring.

Oh, and there really isn't any real "Frankenstein" here, they've just made our android villain-turned-hero named "Frank" and had one character describe his actions as being "Frankenstein-like". (Chris Hartley, 5/4/06)

Directed By: Robert Gaffney.
Written By: R.H.W. Dillard, George Garrett, John Rodenbeck.

Starring: Marilyn Hanold, Jim Karen, Lou Cutell, Nancy Marshall.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: Despite being littered with a fair share of specking, a few moments of print damage, and a few early on film skips; Dark Sky's transfer still looks pretty good as the quality seems to get better as it goes on with the black and white photography generally clear and decent looking. This wasn't made for much money and is over forty years old, so considering that it looks good.

Extras: There's not much going on here as we get a photo/advertisement gallery, the amusing trailer, and an inner booklet written by co-writer Garrett that goes over the history of the film as well as containing various quotes from others involved in the film and critics.

Visit Dark Sky Films for more info.