Late 50's horror schlock that's actually effective (in some ways)
A modern-day American Dr. Frankenstein wannabe (Jason Evers) tries to find an attractive body for his fiancé (Virginia Leith) after she is decapitated in a car accident. While her head is on life-support the mad doctor searches the dives for the right body and ultimately focuses his attentions on a model with a disfigured face (Adele Lamont). Leslie Daniel plays the doctor's assistant while Eddie Carmel plays the mysterious thing dwelling in a locked room.
This was shot in B&W in 1959, but not released until 1962 due to its lurid and lewd excesses.
It's easy to sneer in bemused contempt at old low-budget horror movies like this after the advent of blockbusters in the late 70s (e.g. "Star Wars"), but – believe it or not – they were relevant at one time. If you can ignore obvious plot holes and the cheap production values there's quite a bit to enjoy, which isn't to say that this is a good movie, just that it's entertaining in many ways and even unexpectedly horrific.
Yes, it's basically a Frankenstein rip-off, but the "Jan in the pan" element offers an intriguing angle with the idea of a head transplant. The first successful organ transplant was a kidney transplant in 1954 and the second was in 1962, so this was still a novel idea when the film was made in '59 and released in '62. Amazingly, head transplants were already being done with animals in the 50s and are only now surfacing as a legitimate possibility with humans (although I'm sure it's already been attempted by real-life Frankensteins).
Surprisingly, the movie scores high marks on the female front with Adele Lamont standing out as a petite model. In the European version of the movie she appears topless in the photog sequence. In 2013 Timeless Media released the movie on DVD with a supplemental section that shows this scene, which is only like 80 seconds. Virginia Leith is effective as Jan in the pan who understandably goes more psycho as the story progresses. The idea that she develops telepathy and communicates with the being in the closet is an interesting addition.
Lastly, there are a few surprisingly horrific or gory scenes that are still somewhat disturbing to this day. Jan's demonical laughing in the midst of fiery perdition is effective, plus the irony of who the real monster is and isn't. Unfortunately, the story lags at certain points and is overly-talky here and there. I suppose it should've been cut by at least ten minutes, but even these sequences have their charm.
The uncut version, which I saw, runs 83 minutes. The film was shot in Tarrytown, New York, which is 30 miles north of Manhattan on the east side of the Hudson River.
GRADE: B
