27. Flesh for Frankenstein: A Trash Classic

Paul Morrissey's Flesh for Frankenstein and its follow-up Blood for Dracula are both considered two of the worst films in the Criterion Collection. Before I was ever aware of the Criterion Collection I was familiar with these two films due to their ubiquity in cult movie books, where they were generally described as tasteless exercises in extreme gore with some sex thrown in for good measure. Even though I knew of their reputation, for whatever reason I never got around to watching them. However, as a fan of exploitation films and the artsy-fartsy, I was eager to dive right into these films and hopefully experience some snooty trash thrills.

I'll be reviewing Dracula next, but Flesh for Frankenstein took me by surprise. I had a vague idea of what to expect, but I didn't expect this film to be as funny as it was, or the acting to be as atrocious. Udo Kier is a campy revelation as Baron von Frankenstein, eyes bugged out and flailing about making grand declarations about taking over the world. His sidekick Otto is even more bug eyed and ridiculous, making tongue-flapping pussy eating gestures and generally behaving as a vile toady. While Arno Juerging is terrible as Otto, nothing quite prepared me for the acting talents of the famous Joe Dallesandro. Hooooo boy. Being a part of an indie club scene for several years, I was already familiar with the slobbering devotion that certain acquaintances had for ol' Joe, but as a straight male with a low tolerance for Andy Warhol's factory, I approached his performance as a film fan hoping to see what was so special about him. What I got was a wooden male model with a thick New York accent and exactly one facial expression. Dallesandro's "talents" are limited to showing his naked body pumping away at random prostitutes until his services are taken up by the Baron's wife/sister Baroness Katrin Frankenstein, played by Monique van Vooren. Both the Baron and the Baroness are so delightfully bitchy that their relationship is disgusting and yet somehow makes total sense.

This film is over the top in every imaginable way, and its inclusion in the Criterion Collection feels almost feels like a mistake. The scenes of gut munching, impalings and blood spurting feel more at home in a Mondo Macabro release. I'm going to give Morrissey credit and assume that this was meant to be a comedy, because the absurdity of damn near every scene had me almost falling off the couch laughing. There's one scene in the particular where the Baroness is licking Dallesandro and the sound effects used sound like a cartoon recording of a fat guy eating a plate of ribs. And I haven't even mentioned the famous gall bladder fucking line. I can't remember the last time I saw a film this bonkers.

I know that John Waters and Andy Warhol were friends, and I have no doubt that Waters' trash aesthetic influenced Morrissey's take on Frankenstein here. In fact, Warhol cribbed Waters' style with a different director with 1977's Andy Warhol's Bad, this time directed by Jed Johnson. Flesh for Frankenstein seems to me like Warhol's name is the primary reason why this is in the collection, because if you strip that away what you have is a great exploitation film, but not a great film. Maybe I've gotten too jaded in my age, or maybe my bullshit detector is just working overtime, but I'm not buying that this film was supposed to be a satire of the counterculture.

I enjoyed the hell out of this movie, but there's no way I'd recommend it to a casual film fan, or even a cinephile who's into more adventurous cinema. This recommendation would strictly be for those who can dig a campy, trashy masterpiece, and as such I have to raise it up higher than seemingly "better" films like Summertime and Amarcord. Therefore, like I did with The Long Good Friday (a film that, as I expected, is getting better the further I get from the viewing), I'm going to slide this one right above Amarcord, this one being at #21.

1. Beauty and the Beast (1946)
2. Robocop (1987)
3. Seven Samurai (1954)
4. The Seventh Seal (1957)
5. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
6. Grand Illusion (1937)
7. High and Low (1963)
8. Shock Corridor (1963)
9. Hard Boiled (1992)
10. Sid and Nancy (1986)
11. The 400 Blows (1959)
12. Walkabout (1971)
13. The Killer (1989)
14. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
15. Dead Ringers (1988)
16. The Naked Kiss (1964)
17. A Night to Remember (1958)
18. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
19. The Samurai Trilogy (1954-1956)
20. The Long Good Friday (1980)
21. Flesh for Frankenstein (1973)
22. Amarcord (1973)
23. Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
24. Summertime (1955)
25. Alphaville (1965)

Next time: After tonight's feature I'm downright giddy about Blood for Dracula. Will Dallesandro's acting improve in the year-long gap between films? Let's hope not.