Of all the classic Frankenstein films that have captivated cinemagoers from the time of Edison to the time of del Toro, one of the most underrated films of the genre is 1965's Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster, a film so bold it features not only James Karen but also an actual spacemonster. (It features no Frankenstein, however, only a cyborg astronaut.)
Some of the most esteemed critics in your universe, unfortunately, are unkind to this science fiction classic. For example, reviewer rdad writes, "This was a complete mess." Reviewer bkoganbing writes, "Frankenstein Meets The Spacemonster is to be seen if only to see just how bad science fiction can be at times." And reviewer moviemeister1 writes, "There is very little in this film that is even the least bit entertaining."
Read on for the truth about Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster...
The camera spins around a satellite dish, then the filmmakers show eerie black-and-white images of a solar flare and a spacecraft approaching a planet. The aliens in the spacecraft find that the planet is habitable, so they initiate a landing sequence. Dr. Nadir says with alarm, “A-ha! They have launched a missile attack. It may be aimed at us!”
In fact, the planet is Earth and the missile (or rocket) is from the United States. The aliens destroy it as it moves through the atmosphere.
On Earth, a group of Air Force personnel drive toward Cape Kennedy, accompanied by pleasant surf guitar music. They pass various hip Florida dining establishments before they pull into the space center. In a somewhat cramped office, they hold a press conference with four Air Force and NASA personnel and four reporters. The NASA representative, played by James Karen, begins the press conference by saying, “Gentlemen, we have just returned from our last meeting with our science advisors and I’m happy to report that the launch is ready to go on schedule.” He introduces Colonel Frank Saunders, the newest astronaut who will be piloting the mission.
The first question is a hardball from an elderly white man: “Colonel, aren’t you just a little concerned about making a trip of 49 million miles alone? And when you do get to Mars, do you still expect to be alone, or do you expect to find other life?”
During the press conference, Colonel Saunders physically freezes (the filmmakers emphasize his freezing by cutting to a still photo of the man, then zooming in slowly). Mr. Karen and the others conclude the press conference and guide Colonel Saunders away from the lectern. He and an assistant move the colonel into a medical examining room, where they set him on a table and, shockingly, pull open his scalp to expose a brain dotted with electrical equipment!
Dr. James Karen says, apparently explaining why Frank froze, “I’m afraid we’ve still got a problem with the humidity in this atmosphere.”
A general barges into the operating room, helpfully explaining he’s been against the experiment from the beginning. Dr. Karen responds, also helpfully, “It’s not going to fail, not after we’ve come this far. We have here, for all practical purposes, a normal human being created out of normal parts, transplanted, except for his synthetic skin and the electronic sensory control system, of course. But the significant factor here is that we can control him with a simple mechanism.” Dr. Karen shows the general a small remote control.
“Well,” the general asks, “what if the machine breaks? Or something goes wrong with his…brain?”
Dr. Karen closes up the scalp, which fortunately requires no sutures or connectors of any kind.
The film cuts to footage of an astronaut boarding a rocket christened Mayflower II, accompanied by a catchy rock and roll song. The astronaut, presumably Frank Saunders, launches into space. Meanwhile, the aliens from the opening are monitoring the launch. The alien leader, a princess who lounges on a couch, orders, “Commence attack plan on the Earth ship.”
Dr. Nadir says, “And now…maximum energy!”
Although we do not see the attack, Mission Control loses signal with the rocket. “Malfunction in all electrical systems. Request permission to abort. All systems no go. I repeat, all systems no go.” Frank survives as the command module ejects from the rocket.
Aboard the alien ship, Dr. Nadir informs the princess that the pilot has ejected. “You fool,” the princess reprimands him. “That obviously was not a missile but a spaceship. If they have sighted us, all of our plans will be endangered.” She orders, “Find him and destroy!”
The alien ship lands a forest.
As soon as the ship lands, a man with a rifle approaches it (perhaps indicating it has landed in the United States), and when one of the space-suited aliens appears with his own gun, the man shoots at the ship. The alien quickly blows up the human, then sees Frank attempting to fold his parachute. The alien fires at Frank, causing some damage to the cyborg’s face.
Frank attacks but does not kill the alien, then takes cover as additional aliens exit the ship, pick up their comrade, and return him to the UFO. “He seems alive,” the princess notes of the injured alien.
“He’s alive,” an alien responds, “but badly wounded. He will require immediate treatment.”
The princess and Dr. Nadir agree that the “fugitive” Frank cannot be allowed to reveal their presence. Also, they will not treat the injured alien, whom they perceive as a failure, so they send him to the skull-headed creature Mull, the spacemonster of the film’s title. (Like most alien spacecraft, this one is equipped with a caged monster whose presence, sadly, is never explained.)
At night, Frank is nearly hit by a car. He strangles the driver and stumbles toward the woman in the car, but her loud screams drive him away.
Back at the alien spacecraft, the princess broadcasts a message to her subjects (and to the audience, who will no doubt find it helpful to understand the aliens’ goals). “Of course you all know why we left our planet home so suddenly—as a result of the recent atomic war, it was determined unfit for further habitation, at least until the radiation level decreases. You can consider yourselves fortunate for having been chosen for this crew. In case you don’t know how fortunate you are, I will let Dr. Nadir tell you what is happening to those left behind.”
Dr. Nadir addresses the microphone with some glee. “The lucky ones are dead. Of the others, some will go mad. The others will slowly rot away and die in gradual agony. We have won the war. We are the sole survivors. It belongs to us. But it means we are extinct as a race…unless of course we can find some good breeding stock and repopulate our planet.”
The princess continues: “We have won the war, but we have no women. We have come here to this planet for one purpose only. To acquire breeding stock and repopulating our planet.” She tells everyone that phase two must begin: capturing Earth women.
Nearly as helpfully, Dr. James Karen and his assistant discuss what has probably happened to Frank. If his body sustained damage in the crash, he would be mobile but mindless. His assistant intones with dread, “What you’re saying is that…he could turn into a Frankenstein.”
In fact, Frank has turned into a Frankenstein, in the sense that he is mindless, strong, and he wanders around Puerto Rico murdering people for no reason (clearly a familiar trope from Frankenstein films).
The aliens, too, begin their own rampage, as the space-suited crew members make tourists explode and abduct bikini-clad women on the beach.
The aliens bring their first abductee into the command room of the spaceship, where the princess and Dr. Nadir ogle her. The princess, apparently speaking perfect English, commands her to turn around and raise her arms. The aliens are satisfied with this specimen. The princess says all their men should be placed into this operation, commencing at 1800 hours (the aliens clearly use both English and Earth time).
On the Puerto Rican beach where the aliens abducted the woman, Dr. Karen, his assistant, and the general gather with local authorities. They find a twisted rock on the sand. Dr. Karen says, “It’s like the sort of specimens we picked up around Los Alamos.” They find that it is radioactive glass fused from sand in some kind of atomic explosion. (In this universe, clearly, Los Alamos is a place where an atomic bomb was detonated, not designed.) In order to save Frank and their research, James Karen and his assistant ride on a little scooter through the streets of San Juan, Puerto Rico, accompanied by an upbeat pop song.
Eventually, they get off the scooter and use a Geiger counter to track Frank to a cave near the beach. The assistant, Karen, says, “It’s horrible, Adam.”
Dr. Karen replies, “It looks worse than it is. Remember, he’s a robot, not a man, Karen.” (Of course, Dr. Karen pronounces the word correctly, as if it were spelled "robit.") Then he attaches small jumper cables to Frank’s head, attempting to repair him, while telling Karen to return to San Juan.
Later, in a shocking sequence, the space-suited aliens attack a pool party, abducting all the women and leaving the men to stand by the pool, confused. They also abduct Karen, marching her along with the other young women to the spaceship. They cage the women, then systematically put each woman onto a conveyor belt, cover her with what appears to be a fitted sheet, then send her into a machine for “electronic purification.” When they find Karen’s control device for Frank, they torture her by tying her up next to spacemonster Mull’s cage.
Outside, Dr. Karen has repaired Frank to some extent, so he leads him out of the cave. They find the abandoned scooter and track Karen to the alien spaceship. Dr. Karen runs off to get help from the Air Force, leaving Frank to hide in the bushes near the spacecraft. Dr. Karen calls the general (after an inexplicable scene in which a Puerto Rican native mistakes the word “telephone” for “cerveza”), who scrambles Air Force jets to find and attack the alien ship.
Unfortunately, Frank is captured by the aliens. Fortunately, he is placed in the same cell as Karen. In the thrilling climax, the Air Force bombards the ship with missiles, but they have little effect. Inside, Frank punches several aliens. Dr. Karen manages to stop the attack, allowing the imprisoned women to escape, but also letting the spacemonster out of his cell. For almost two minutes, Frank battles the spacemonster.
Desperate, Dr. Nadir orders the spacecraft to take off. It does so with Frank and Mull inside, but Frank finds one of the alien atomic guns and begins to shoot up the place, resulting in the destruction of the ship, the aliens, Mull, and, tragically, Frank himself.
The End
In addition to being visionary science fiction about the practicality of using cyborg astronauts to face the dangers of space travel, Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster walks a fine line between horror and pop art that is quintessentially 1965. While it would be tempting to take the film seriously (as many critics appear to have done), the film's high concept, use of catchy pop songs, and streamlined editing point to the conclusion that the intentions of the filmmakers (director Robert Gaffney and writers George Garrett, R. H. W. Dillard, and John Rodenbeck) were not entirely dead serious. The film is not satire, but it could be described as tongue-in-cheek. However, it does have one problem: It fails to explain why the aliens are carrying a possibly mutated monster in a cage on their spaceship. Of course, it has this in common with many classic science fiction films such as The Atomic Submarine (1959), Zontar: The Thing from Venus (1966), and The Creeping Terror (1964).