#arno juerging

Flesh for Frankenstein could easily have been made into a sensational Grand Guignol play.

Blood for Dracula

365 Day Movie Challenge (2017) - #324: Flesh for Frankenstein (aka Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein) (1973) - dir. Paul Morrissey

I know I wrote in my last review that The Killer Nun is a necessary experience for tried-and-true devotees of horror cinema, but you really haven’t lived until you have witnessed the decadent extravaganza known alternately as Flesh for Frankenstein or, in honor of its esteemed producer, Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein. The optimal way to view it is in 3D, as I did it in a screening at Quad Cinema last Saturday evening, but the vulgarity is almost as much fun in 2D if can get your hands on a copy of the Criterion Collection disc.

First, disavow yourself of the notion that you are watching a faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley’s groundbreaking novel. I’m pretty sure that Flesh for Frankenstein’s plot has almost nothing to do with its source material - or maybe it would be more accurate to say its “inspiration” - other than the basic idea of a European nobleman named Baron Frankenstein reassembling corpse parts into new and improved superhumans, done in collaboration with a loyal assistant. I don’t actually remember the name “Frankenstein” being uttered even once in the film, but no matter; we all know the genesis of the story we came to see.

Paul Morrissey used the the same three stars from his other campy horror classic, Blood for Dracula (1974), in more or less the same kinds of roles: Udo Kier as Baron Frankenstein; Joe Dallesandro as Nicholas, the stableboy who is hired to “work” (more on that later) in the Baron’s castle; and Arno Juerging as Otto, the Baron’s obsequious second-in-command. Morrissey’s strange array of actors bring multiple accents to the fore, even though Kier and Juerging (German), Dallesandro (Brooklyn), Monique van Vooren (Belgian) and Srdjan Zelenovic (Yugoslavian) play characters who all live in Serbia... meanwhile, the film was shot at Cinecittà Studios in Rome. Wild!

Flesh for Frankenstein is simultaneously a satire of art cinema, a parody of tropes seen within the horror genre and also a sincerely fun, though often extremely disgusting, film that can stand proudly with any other title bearing the Frankenstein name. The story follows the Baron and Otto’s pursuit of a head for their male “zombie” (for some reason that’s how they always refer to the undead servants), which must satisfy the Baron’s quest for “the perfect nasum,“ a word that you’d best believe he repeats several times. This supreme schnoz is found on Sacha (Zelenovic), a local peasant who plans to leave the the fields and become a monk. Baron and Otto spot him when they spy on the local brothel - their objective in this scheme is to construct two extra-horny creatures that will reproduce a “master race” with (you guessed it!) blonde, blue-eyed features - but the joke’s on them; we know that Sacha isn’t a Don Juan. The hypersexual pal who brought him to the house of ill repute is Nicholas (Dallesandro), who entertains all the ladies there while a deeply bored Sacha looks on. (Side note: as a possible response to his disinterest in women, there’s a moment when Sacha none too subtly stares at Nicholas’s naked posterior. Is Sacha a repressed gay character? Or was he merely ogling the bodies on the adjoining bed to get a better understanding of what all the fuss was about? I suppose it’s up to each viewer to decide.)

One bloody beheading later - showcasing one of the most wonderfully awful uses of a fake head I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing - and we’re back at the castle, observing Sacha’s rebirth as a new Sacha-monster to go with the female zombie (Dalila Di Lazzaro) that the Baron and Otto have already created. At the same time, Nicholas is employed by Baroness Katrin Frankenstein (Vooren) - who exhibits a pretense of uptight respectability in public - as a butler, although her main concern is his ability to satisfy her in the bedroom. Not only is Katrin a nymphomaniac, but we know another important detail about the Frankenstein marriage: Katrin and the Baron are also brother and sister. It makes plenty of sense why the couple’s young son (Marco Liofredi) and daughter (Nicoletta Elmi, who appeared in Dario Argento’s Deep Red and a number of other giallos) give off “children of the corn” vibes.

To see how Flesh for Frankenstein ups the ante for “bizarre violence and sexuality,” as its MPAA “R” rating indicates, I urge you to check the film out this Halloween season. The gross-out moments are not for the faint of heart, but they’re also absurdly funny; the social commentary regarding the Baron’s obviously-Nazi ideology also doubles as a critique of how film and media constantly demand celebrities with impossible physical ideals that end up destroying those idolized people. Morrissey’s take on the Frankenstein legends severely tests the definitions of high/low art and good/bad taste, but if you’re like me and you enjoy pushing your personal limits - as well as watching the deliciously crazy performances by Udo Kier, Monique van Vooren and Arno Juerging and savoring Joe Dallesandro’s shameless nude scenes - Flesh for Frankenstein is unmissable.

P.S. Besides “the line” that lives on infamy (”To know death, Otto, you have to fuck life... in the gall bladder!”), my other two favorite snippets of dialogue are our magnificent introduction to Joe (he walks up to Sacha in a meadow and says “I been wantin’ ta tawk ta ya...”) and the third-act scene where the Baroness explodes in anger at Nicholas (“How DARE you! How DARE you wake me up in the middle of the day when you KNOW I have insomnia?”). Paul Morrissey, we don’t deserve your screenwriting genius.