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Monstrosity
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| Year: |
1963
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Director: |
Joseph V Mascelli
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| Stars: |
Marjorie Eaton, Frank Gerstle, Frank Fowler, Erika Peters, Judy Bamber, Lisa Lang
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| Genre: |
Thriller, Science Fiction |
| Rating: |
  5 (from 1 vote) |
| Review: |
Sixties Sci Fi.
Don't you just love the bits that go Bzzzzzzz! Or the bits that go Wheeeeeeeee!
What I love most about early sixties sci fi is the cheapness of it all. There's no over-reliance on the storyline, and as long as there's a bank of switches and knobs somewhere, everything else is ok.
Which makes Monstrosity (a.k.a. The Atomic Brain) interesting. Yes, it's a sci fi film, but the science is used just as an enabler for a more compelling, more sinister tale.
Mrs March (Marjorie Eaton) is old and dying. Which is something she just cannot accept. So she uses her vast wealth to recruit the brilliant but morally suspect scientist, Dr Frank (Frank Gerstle) whose work promises the ability to transplant her brain into a young body. When the technique seems to work, the old woman hires three foreign girls (Erika Peters, Lisa Lang and Judy Bamber) as servants, who are all beautiful, and who all have no family to notice their disappearance.
The three girls are interesting, but not always convincing. Of the three, Peters gives the best performance as the girl who most quickly realises that escape is the only way. Lang has little to do, and Bamber's fake cockney accent is even worse than that of Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins! Eaton is sinister as the creepy Mrs March, whilst Gerstle gives a not-untypical wooden performance as your standard bad scientist type.
As the girls are inspected and the target is chosen, they suspect that all may well not be as it seems. Escape is impossible, however, so how will they manage to get away from the mad old lady, the obsessed scientist, and the murderous monster prowling the grounds?
And where on earth does Xerxes the cat come into play?
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| Reviewer: |
Paul Shrimpton
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