Review of Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter

They should have never met. It's weird that a western/horror hybrid film was made in with these two really different character figures. They seem so out there. Both are like in the far side of spectrum, from each other. It's like combining the historical figure, Billy the Kid to fight Bram Stoker's Dracula. Oh wait, they did! This film was originally released as part of a double feature with Billy the Kid vs. Dracula in 1966. Both films were shot in eight days at Corriganville Movie Ranch and at Paramount Studios in mid-1965; both were the final feature films of director William Beaudine known for one-shot takes. The movie was indeed, poorly made and low budget, with tons of day for night shots, awful matte painting, goofy-looking electronic devices props and bad special effects. At least, this movie made the fictionalized version of the real-life Jesse James (John Lupton) more into an interesting outlaw, than the bland 'good guy' cowboy, like the previous film, did to Billy the Kid. Even the acting was a little better than the previous film. The movie goes like this, after a botched holdup with the Wild Bunch, Jesse James and his meathead, friend, Hank Tracy (Cal Bolder) is seeking medical assistance. They find themselves, camping in a refugee camp where they heard from one of the camper, Juanita Lopez (Estelita Rodriguez) that Dr. Maria Frankenstein (Narda Onyx), can help Hank with his deadly wound. Instead of treating the wound, Maria turns Hank into "Igor," the Frankenstein monster, a reanimation corpse with a synthetic artificial brain for evil. Can Jesse James stop Dr. Frankenstein and her monster or will the mad doctor win out in the end? Watch it to find out! Without spoiling too much of the movie. The one thing is how it ruin both Frankenstein and the Western folklore. It was very odd that they call, Butch Cassidy as Butch Curry. I know the movie is fiction, but I don't get why they kept Jesse James's name in, but change Butch Cassidy? That's a bit odd. The same with Maria. When Jesse James does meets Maria, it's not Dr. Frankenstein's daughter like the title, says. Instead, it's Victor Frankenstein's granddaughter. I really don't get, how the people that title this movie can be that forgetful of who Maria is supposed to be. Maria mention that she's Victor's granddaughter throughout the film. Seems a pretty obvious error. The film is nowhere near the levels of agile as Mary Shelly's novel. There is no deep themes of life, consciousness and the will to existence. Don't expect, the creature to question, why he was made or how playing God might be wrong, or right. The movie is pretty dimwit like Hank's mind. It doesn't even have that semi-smart corny cheesy charm that most of the various film adaptations of Mary Shelley's novel has. I was just hoping it was somewhat near the Universal's Frankenstein films of 1930s. I give the movie, some credit, I like how they help introduce the name 'Igor' to the horror genre. While, it might seem odd that the monster was named 'Igor' in this film; since most people, known Igor as the Gothic villain hunchback assistant. Let's remember that Igor hasn't yet, been establish as a stock character. It wasn't until the 1974's film comedy, Young Frankenstein that Igor became a major figure in the Gothic horror lore. Although Dr. Frankenstein had a hunchback assistant in the 1931 film Frankenstein, his name was Fritz. This might be the one of the first Frankenstein's film is honestly have a character named Igor. I dislike that most of the film run-time, in this, wasn't even Frankenstein related. It's like the movie was being made into a plain western, and then at the last second, they add some Frankenstein things to spice it up. It takes nearly forever in pacing for Jesse James to honestly meet Dr. Frankenstein. Lots of tedious and incredibly boring material that was stretched out to nearly an hour and a half of run time. Another fault in the film is the force love angle between Juanita, Jesse, and Maria. None of them, have any chemistry with each other. The music and sound are laughable. I found the Dumb-dumb-Dumb, very funny. The picture and audio on this Alpha Video DVD release looks decent, enough, seeing that the film is in the public domain. Overall: The movie isn't as bad, as I have anticipated. I knew, coming in that it was going to be B film, so it kinda didn't have much high hopes. It did exceeded my minimal low expectations. It was indeed schlocky and campy fun.