A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACEMONSTER introduces us to Princess Marcuzan (Marilyn Hanold) and her bald, pointy-eared, leering henchman, Dr. Nadir (Lou Cutell). Right away, we know these two are up to some shenanigans, as they're orbiting our planet, blowing up our missiles. Meanwhile, on Earth, Col. Frank Saunders (Robert Reilly), who is preparing for his flight to Mars, has some sort of breakdown. Actually, it's more of a malfunction. Yep, Saunders is an android! After a quick tune-up, Saunders is off to the red planet. NOTE TO FUTURE SCHLOCK DIRECTORS: Always play awesome rock music during all liftoff stock footage! Oh no! Something goes wrong! Saunders' craft crash-lands, sending him on a dizzying rampage of doom! It's the princess and Nadir again. We know this because of Nadir's annoyingly sinister cackle. Forced to land on Earth themselves, Marcuzan's minions must face a gun-toting hillbilly! Oh, and they have a pet monster on board their ship. Somehow, this all leads to the showdown of the title. This is one funny movie! Cheap, but cheeeze-rich, Nadir steals the show w/ his hysterical speeches, packed w/ histrionic blather that Bill T. Shatner would envy! His weird, dislocated stares are perfect, giving him an air of slight brain damage. The princess holds her own, mostly due to her magnificent headdress (a tablecloth w/ pipe-cleaners sticking out of it). As for Saunders, his melted face is pure magic! EXTRA CREDIT: For the aforementioned music, along w/ all the glorious tunes in this film! Co-stars James Karen (POLTERGEIST, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD) as Dr. Adam Steele, who nearly runs off w/ the movie during the sudden, "motor-scooter-of-love" sequence!... EXTRA-EXTRA CREDIT: For the "pool-party-alien-assault" scene! The dancing! The music! It rivals the hootenanny in THE CREEPING TERROR! If only the girl in the gold pants were there!...

Considering how cheaply this movie was made, it's not bad for what it is. The plot line is that an android made with transistor radio parts is shot into space only to be shot down by some bizarre looking aliens, who've come to Earth because they've run out of women, except for their princess played by a playboy model. So with lots of budget constraints and stock footage to fill out the rest, we have this film. It drags in a lot of places, but you do get to see those awesome 1960's bikinis on women who were amazingly sanguine about the whole alien abduction thing. Pretty much everything is from the Ed Wood Playbook of how to make films with no budget. Stock footage, only do one take, don't bother getting people who can act.

Saw this one on TV when I was but a lad and I don't remember it being THIS violent (not that I have anything against Violence; it's just that the version I saw must've been censored by the folks who broadcast it); it harks back to those pre-Code Horror comics in every way. While Nadir, the second-in-command, comes across as one of those aliens looking to probe someone's anus, the Princess is out of this world... All this woman has to do is take a slow, deep breath and... James Karen does a great job in his first At Bat, too. LUST IN SPACE- uh, FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACEMONSTER boasts some no-holds-barred makeup and a caged Monster worthy of Paul Blaisdell (in fact, it looks like a cross between THE SHE-CREATURE and IT!, THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE). My biggest gripe is that the "meeting" of the two is so brief so late in the movie that we don't get to see either combatant really showcase his wares. The ship is VERY impressive for such a Low Budget feature, and excellent use is made of tons of stock footage. The practical effects all around are impressive: this is one of those hand-made movies that puts to shame the cgi crap we see Today.

As you can tell by my summary, this isn't among the finest films ever seen! However, I just couldn't give it a score of 1 because there are just so many terrible films that are even more terrible than FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACEMONSTER. In fact, the worst thing about this silly film is probably the title--as there is no Frankenstein in the film at all!! Of course, the over-use of grainy and pointless stock military footage didn't do a lot to make this a film worth seeing, nor did the horrid makeup on the alien men.These horny men have extremely cheesy makeup (complete with bald wigs with obvious seams and ears made of cardboard) but at least they are smarter than the usual aliens in films. They have come to Earth to steal pretty women for use as sex slaves since the only woman they seem to have left is their leader, Marilyn Hanold (who was the Playboy Playmate of the Year in 1959). Plus, this is a much better use of people than the usual anal probing, so as I said, these aliens aren't so dumb (just dumb looking).At about the same time these aliens land in Puerto Rico (yes, I did say 'Puerto Rico'), NASA sent a rocket to Mars that was piloted by a super-realistic looking robot (who the press and the rest of the world think is a real man). When the aliens make this ship crash, the astronaut is still functional but his face is severely burned--hence the name 'Frankenstein'--though he in no way acts like the monster and looks less like Franky but more like a cheesy actor with glop dumped on half his face. In the end, the cybernetic astronaut and a monster that the aliens have brought aboard their ship have a big fist fight and everything ends happily ever after for the Earth.By the way, there are a few things to look for in this film. First, the amazing acting ability of most of the women kidnapped by the horny aliens. Most of these ladies do great imitations of pieces of lint, though they have less charisma or acting talent. Second, the crappy alien spaceship (you've got to see it to believe it) is about 20 times bigger inside than outside! I guess it's like a Tardis (from "Dr. Who") or maybe it's just due to lousy production values (I'll let you decide). Third, while most everyone in this film were no-name actors, Jame Karen was in one of the leading roles. While his is not a household name, he has a face most will immediately recognize from other films and television--so apparently this terrible film didn't ruin his career!! Fourth, for anyone who is a fan of Disney World, extensive clips from this film are shown to patrons while they eat at the Disney-MGM park's restaurant, Sci-Fi Dine-In. So it's a bad film, but one not so bad that it will ruin your appetite or induce vomiting!