10 Offbeat And Frequently Silly Frankenstein Films

7. I Was A Teenage Frankenstein (1957)

Professor Frankenstein persuades Dr Karlton into becoming his accomplice in assembling a human out of dead body parts. After a grisly car crash, Frankenstein takes the body up to his lab. His secretary Margaret is roped into his web of evil when he tells her to shun all phone calls and visits. In a fit of suspicion, Margaret wanders down to the morgue and is horrified by the reanimated monster but she keeps this to herself. Meanwhile, Frankenstein is feeding body parts to an alligator. The monster escapes the lab and peeks into a girl's apartment. Frightened by this appearance, the girl screams and the monster kills her in a panic. Margaret twigs on to who killed the girl and confronts Frankenstein. This face off results in Margaret being fed to the alligator. Frankenstein kills a boy and steals his face for the monster. Dr Karlton has conveniently been away while this is all happening. When Frankenstein tells him of his plans to chop up the monster and send its parts to England to reanimate it across the ocean, they strap the monster up, but it becomes suspicious and breaks free - throwing Frankenstein to the alligators. Karlton runs for help to stop the rampaging monster. The teenage aspect of the film is the procuring of body parts from teens for the making of the monster. The title still doesn't make sense because it infers that Frankenstein himself is a teenager, which he isn't. It is very easy to dub this film a piece of trash, but as a 1950s B Movie Horror film, it is quite an effective little number. Sure, there are the usual clichés pertaining to the Frankenstein movie blue print but the film is highly entertaining. I particularly like the addition of an alligator pit which brings an element of Schlock Horror to the film. It is a lurid film which amply satisfies horror/kitsch fans, and of course there is the infamous line: "Speak! You have a civil tongue in your head. I know because I sewed it back myself!". With dialogue of that quality, you just can't resist this gem.