There is a house in Los Angeles fitted with a lab where not one but two madmen work. One is a doddering old fool named Carter Morton as played by Felix Locher.  The other is his assistant named Oliver Frank, shortened from Frankenstein to escape the reputation of his forbears. Oliver is the grandson of the original Baron and he looks to keep the experiments going if not the family name and he will do anything to be a success like his grandfather. A slight hitch prevents him from doing so, a few to be exact. One is his boss, determined to discover Frank’s past, and another is Morton’s niece Trudy, a lovely young woman whose feminine wiles sway Oliver whenever she is near. The third is the need for a human brain to be transplanted into the waiting body he has made and hides in a second lab within the house. Eventually, things spiral out of control as things do when dead bodies, mad scientists and so forth are involved and Oliver Frankenstein faces the same fate as those Frankensteins who came before him.

Frankenstein’s Daughter, released in 1958 is considered by some to be quite terrible and one of the worst films to sport any lore involving the Mary Shelley classic. Suffice it to say, this is not a masterpiece and it would never go on to win any awards but it is a fun time and the cast do their best with what they were given. The practical effects, specifically the makeup used to make the two monsters, were ludicrous yet perfect. Of note was that used on Trudy, as played by Sandra Knight. It was nothing fancy, consisting only of some fake teeth, some messed up hair and a unibrow of epic proportions. As simple as it was, it was highly effective and portrayed her as the monster she was becoming. Less frightening was the actual creature made up of human body parts, the Frankenstein’s monster of the picture who looked a little like the Mummy with half of her face melting off. Said monster would shamble all over the place, killing at her creator’s command, yet so slowly, one had to wonder why the people she was after failed to run away. Probably shock at her appearance if one was to guess. Despite being a somewhat gruesome villain, there was little horror to be had from the creature, most of it coming from Oliver whose actions were quite dastardly, to put it lightly.

Taking a break from the horror, or amplifying it depending on who one would ask, the film cuts to a party where the locals teens are singing and dancing. When a person is watching movies about Frankenstein, the one thing missing in most of them is the dance break and this movie does not disappoint, sliding it in to keep those teenage viewers glued to the screen because pretty girls and skulking monsters are seemingly not enough. Surprisingly, it was not terrible, just unneeded and added nothing to the overall picture. Speaking of pretty girls, former Playboy Playmate Sally Todd would appear, first as a friend to Trudy, then as a victim. It would be her brain that Oliver would harvest for his monster after being rejected by her. Todd might have been the best thing about it all, even if she was only in the movie momentarily, though Knight was decent as the damsel in distress. Donald Murphy who would play Dr. Frank was good as the big bad of the piece as was John Ashley. The material might have been questionable but it never seemed to hamper those in the cast.

Overall, there was a lot of ridiculousness to be had, with some of it already having been mentioned. The dialogue and the script could have been a little better, some of the scenes dropped and more added to really make it an effective horror movie. As a whole though, as cheap and silly as it might have been, Frankenstein’s Daughter is thoroughly entertaining for those who like B or Z-grade films. One could do a lot worse than this picture though when it comes to Frankenstein, this is by no means as good as it gets.

2.5 out of 5