Original title: Flesh for
Frankenstein. Aka: Andy Warhol's
Young Frankenstein
Directors: Paul Morrissey & Antonio Margheriti
Writers: Tonino Guerra & Paul Morrissey
Cast---
Joe Dallesandro ...  Nicholas, the stableboy
Monique van Vooren ...  Baroness Katrin
Frankenstein
Udo Kier ...  Baron Frankenstein
Arno Juerging ...  Otto, the Baron's assistant
Dalila Di Lazzaro ...  Female Monster
Srdjan Zelenovic ...  Sacha / Male Monster
Nicoletta Elmi ...  Monica, the Baron's daughter
Marco Liofredi ...  Erik, the Baron's son
Liu Bosisio ...  Olga, the maid
Fiorella Masselli ...  Large prostitute

Runtime: 95min.
ANDY WARHOL'S FRANKENSTEIN (1973)

I honestly thought I'd hate this movie. I realize that's a weird way to start a review, but I felt I should let
you know where I was coming from before we dig in to the meat of the movie. This is the first time Andy
Warhol and Paul Morrisey team up to recreate horror's greatest monsters in their artsy, free-loving
hippie aesthetic, and though they failed to make a compelling movie with their second attempt "BLOOD
FOR DRACULA", their first go around here is actually a very enjoyable riff on the Frankenstein story.

Baron Frankenstein lives in a castle in Europe with his wife and two children. They lead a relatively dull
and domesticated life together, but separated they all have secrets. The wife is an adulteress, the
children are into voyeurism, and the Baron is constructing the perfect pair of Serbian zombies. He
experiments with tons of naked men with their junks taped over, looking for the perfect body and brain
for his new breed of mankind. Nicholas, the farmhand, convinces another one of his buddies, Sacha, to
join him at a whorehouse before going off to join the monastery, and Sacha unwillingly agrees.
Meanwhile, Frankenstein and his assistant Otto are searching for the head of a man who would screw
anything, and head toward the bordello to find such a man. Nicholas and Sacha arrive at the bordello
full of ugly, fat girls and due to strange circumstances involving a lizard jumping on a man's ass,
Frankenstein and Otto see Sacha and are certain his head would be perfect for the body of his monster.
On their way back from the whorehouse, Nicholas is knocked out and Sacha has his head ripped from
his body by a giant pair of scissors. Nicholas wakes up to find his friend's headless corpse lying next to
him, and goes to tell Madam Frankenstein that he is leaving the property, but she asks him to stay and
work in the house as a servant and pays him with a roll in the hay.

In the lab below, Frankenstein puts the finishing touches on his female monster and decides to open the
stitches running down her belly so he can play with her organs. He orgasms while he touches her liver
and spleen, then climbs on top of her (with his hand still deep in her guts) and humps her. When he is
finished, he turns to Otto and says: "To know death, Otto, you have to fuck life in the gall bladder".
Later, he brings the woman and the man with Sacha's head to life and invites them to dinner with his
family. Nicholas, who is serving dinner, recognizes his friend, but says nothing until later in the
madame's bedroom. She tells him to mind his own business, but decides to go rescue his friend. But
first, he has sex with Frankenstein's wife (and apparently she is also his sister, because he calls her that
a few times). Frankenstein watches his sister/wife suck Nicholas's armpit for a while and then leaves
them alone.

Afterwards, Nicholas hooks up with the kids and they help him get into the lab. He watches Frankenstein
try and get his male and female to mate but by having the head, much less the brain, of Sacha who
wanted to be a monk, Frankenstein finds out quickly that his male has no interest in sex. He leaves,
frustrated and feeling like a failure. Nicholas jumps down into the lab to rescue both of them, but the
Sacha monster just wants to die. Frankenstein arrives then and commands Sacha to knock Nicholas out.
He plans to replace the head with Nicholas's head, but in the meantime he gives Sacha to his wife/sister
as a thank you gift for telling him that Nicholas was planning to ruin everything. Madame Frankenstein
tries to rape Sacha, but he decided to crush her to death instead. Meanwhile, Otto doesn't think its fair
that everyone gets to have sex with the creations, so he takes the girl, licks her scarred stomach and
shoves his hand inside her guts like Frankenstein did, but ends up killing her instead of pleasing her.
Frankenstein arrives and finds his perfect woman dead, then kills Otto for destroying her with his dirty
hands. Sacha shows up, cuts Frankenstein's hand off and runs him through with a harpoon. Nicholas
wants to be untied from where they placed him, but Sacha will not bring him down because he doesn't
want Nicholas to bring him any help, then he disembowels himself and drops dead on the floor letting his
guts empty onto the ground. Nicholas thinks he is saved when the kids show up, but they grab scalpels
and continue on with his father's experiments. The end!

I was extremely surprised by this movie. I'm not a big fan of Andy Warhol. I think his work is pretentious
and dull, but here I think most of the credit should be given to Morrisey for directing a solid
Hammer-horror style film. The sex does not get in the way like it did in "BLOOD FOR DRACULA" and
there is certainly more content here to be entertained by. The story is rich and engrossing, the
characters are outlandish and b-movie perfect, and the setting is on-the-money. If you see one classical
horror film with Andy Warhol's name on it, then make it this one.


                                                                                                       - Jose Prendes
Andy Warhol's Frankenstein (1973)
Seen it too? Let us know what you thought.

OVERALL
BLOOD
BREASTS
BEASTS