recommended

An Exercise In Nonsense

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

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

*Spoiler/plot- Frankenstien's Castle of Freaks (Ill Castello Della Paura), 1974. Count or Baron Frankenstein has a daughter that is getting married. She travels with her personal young attractive lady assistant. The kids come home to the castle to visit with dear old dad even while he is still desecrating graves and experimenting with body part transplants. With this combination of Gothic characters, a shallow plot develops.*Special Stars- Michael Dunn, Rossano Brazzi. *Theme- Death is part of life.*Trivia/location/goofs- Color. Italian. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark did a 'smash-up' of this film on her Movie Macabre. Didn't the villagers bash the giant in the head several times to kill him and then a new brain was introduced. Michael Dunn's dialog is dubbed and wears a disguise-like mustache.*Emotion- I was very surprised to see such huge successful film and TV stars like Rossano Brazzi(South Pacific) and Michael Dunn(Wild Wild Wild West's- Dr. Loveless) appearing in this B-Movie. There is a small amount of female nude milk & hot spring bathing and young lover's sex to spice-up the sagging and pedestrian plot. It is a shame the stars in this film were wasted and sleep walked through their roles, especially Brazzi. Dunn's sympathetic dwarf role while textbook, did show some creativity and pathos to make his scenes very watchable. The film was balanced into the positive aspects with the gimmicks of nudity, sex, and star power in the film's cast.

The Italians were the kings of the Horror genre from the 60s to the 80s, and, as far as yours truly is concerned, the combination of this genre, era and country is as great as cinema can possibly get. The rise of Italian Horror/suspense cinema started with atmospheric Gothic tales (such as the brilliant films by the ultimate master Mario Bava, Antonio Margheriti and Riccardo Freda) in the late 50s and early 60s. In the 70s, a time when the Giallo genre had replaced the Gothic tale as the dominant sub-genre Italian suspense cinema, some (but by no means all) of the Italian Gothic Horror films that were still being produced were very low-budget and sleazy, but nonetheless elegant Exploitation efforts.TERROR! IL CASTELLO DELLE DONNE MALEDETTE aka. FRANKENSTEIN'S CASTLE OF FREAKS (1974) is a super-cheesy slice of 70s Italian B-movie Gothic Horror which will certainly not give anybody the creeps, but which is incredibly entertaining nonetheless. Directed by the American Dick Randall, the movie puts a lesser emphasis on the typically Italian elegance and atmosphere, and, sometimes looks more like one of the many contemporary Spanish Gothic Horror films (which is probably due to the low budget). Sleaze-fans should not be scared off by the PG rating (as according to IMDb), since this little trash gem contains plenty of female nudity, perverted characters and some very cheesy gore effects. The film doesn't take itself too seriously, and the demented characters alone make it worth a look for my fellow Euro-Exploitation fans.Count Frankenstein (Rosanno Brazzi) lives in a castle with a bunch of freaky helpers including a necrophiliac midget, a hunch-back who has rough sex with the housekeeper when her sadistic husband (Luciano Pigozzi) is not around. His hot daughter (Simonetta Vitelli) comes to visit with her fiancé and an equally hot friend (Christiane Rücker). Both of the women have exhibitionist tendencies. What follows is a sleazy and incredibly entertaining succession of very absurd horrors.While FRANKENSTEIN'S CASTLE OF FREAKS is below-par in terms of style and elegance by the high Italian Gothic Horror standards it is still very stylish for a rather nonsensical B-Movie of the kind in international comparison. The most well-known faces in the cast are former strongman and B-movie regular Gordon Mitchell (in the role of the undertaker) and the Peter-Lorre-lookalike Luciano Pigozzi, a great supporting actor who was in all sub-genres of Italian cult-cinema, including several films by Mario Bava and Umberto Lenzi.Overall FRANKENSTEIN'S CASTLE OF FREAKS is a sleazy, very cheesy, and often unintentionally funny trash-gem that is incredibly entertaining and should not be missed by true lovers of European Trash flicks. However, one should definitely be acquainted with the many great Italian Gothic Horror films before watching fun trash like this one. For Italo-Cult buffs like myself this film is often hilarious and vastly entertaining.

It really is something, what some erstwhile big-name actors will do to continue plying their craft and collect some lira! Case in point, the 1974 horror shlockfest "Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks," starring two such former matinée stars, here slumming for a paycheck. In the film, Rossano Brazzi, who had earlier starred in such wonderful pictures as "The Barefoot Contessa," "Summertime" and "South Pacific," plays Count Frankenstein (not the usual Baron; is this a promotion or a demotion? Someone, please check the comparative rankings of 19th century German nobility and find out!). When we first encounter him, the Count has just brought back to life a recently murdered Neanderthal (!) using the brain of a local village girl. When the Count evicts his dwarf servant Genz from the castle for some minor infractions, the little person marches off into the hills and finds a caveman of his own, who he christens Ook, and who he decides to use to take vengeance upon the Count, leading to a true clash of the titans: a living Neanderthal vs. a Neanderthal Frankenstein (who resembles nothing less than The Three Stooges' Larry Fine on steroids!). Fortunately, Genz is portrayed by perhaps the most revered little-person actor in screen history, Michael Dunn, himself demoted here after having appeared in such career-defining roles as the (Oscar-nominated) observer in "Ship of Fools" and Alexander in the 11/22/68 episode of "Star Trek," "Plato's Stepchildren." Anyway, while no one in his or her right mind would ever call the resulting production a "good film," and while it is easy enough to make fun of derivative exploitation fare such as this, "Castle of Freaks" yet manages to keep the viewer slack jawed and entertained. It features an oddball assortment of grotesque characters (the three aforementioned, plus a lusty hunchback) and occasional (what Radar O'Reilly would call) nudidity, courtesy of the Count's daughter (Simone Blondell) and friend Krista (who joins the Count in his studies, and is played by the yummy Christiane Royce) going skinny-dipping in Ook's cavern. The production values in the film are surprisingly decent, the Count's castle having a convincingly moldering elegance; the direction by "Robert H. Oliver" (in actuality, exploitation producer Dick Randall) is...well, let's just say that he gets the job done; and the musical score by Marcello Gigante, largely electronic, is truly outre. In all, a surprisingly engaging piece of Euroshlock. Oh...the DVD that I just watched, from Shout Factory, looks fairly damaged in sections but at least sports some nice bright colors. My psychotronic guru, Rob, tells me that the Something Weird DVD looks a whole lot better....

Suave and charming Count Frankenstein (Rossano Brazzi, who surprisingly keeps his dignity and a straight face throughout) kicks depraved, perverted, sniveling dwarf Genz (the great Michael Dunn in his ignominious final film role) out of his castle for being a disgusting little degenerate creep. Genz befriends Ook the Neanderthal man (brilliantly played with grunting'n'growling primitive aplomb by Boris Lugosi) and plots his revenge. Director Robert H. Oliver, working from an outrageously lurid and ridiculous script, puts an entertainingly crude and leering emphasis on sleazy sensationalism: there's a substantial smattering of gratuitous nudity (the stunningly comely Christiane Royce warrants special kudos in this particular department), voyeurism, rape, necrophilia, softcore sex, and even a hunchback who enjoys rough sex (thankfully this latter one occurs off-screen). Marcello Gigante's laughably inappropriate swingin' lounge score is pretty funny. A big knock-down, drag-out, no-holds-barred climactic fight between Ook and Frankenstein's enormous hulk of a monster Goliath (brawny behemoth Loren Bwing) is likewise totally hilarious. Poor Edmond Purdom merely takes up place in an insignificant supporting part as an ineffectual constable. Heavy-handed morale: "There's a bit of a monster in all of us. Especially when there's fear." A campy hoot.