These two posters were made to promote the Italian horror flick Lady Frankenstein. Both were painted by Luciano Crovato, who you can see more from by clicking here. We were wondering whether it’s possible Cravato the artist is the same person as Luciano Cravato the actor who appeared in almost thirty films between 1975 and 2006. Since transitions from other fields into acting are common, we think it’s a possibility. But the timeline isn’t perfect. As an artist, Cravato worked beginning in the 1950s. It could still be the same person if he got into acting late, say in his forties, but the few times we’ve seen him he appears to be a little younger than that. Maybe someone in Italy can solve that one for us.
Lady Frankenstein revolves around Baron Frankenstein’s ambitious daughter Rosalba Neri, who has always wanted to be a surgeon like her dad. She returns home from university, having graduated first in her class, a licensed medical practitioner, to join her pops in his transplant research. She warns him that her ideas are more radical than his. But unbeknownst to her, daddy has moved on to radical means too, paying graverobbers for bodies and attempting to transplant the human heart and brain. He gets the opportunity to perform his most hopeful experiment yet, but because the brain he uses is damaged what results is a murderous monstrosity that kills him and escapes into the countryside.
Considering the fact that it’s daddy Frankenstein who brings the monster to life, what exactly makes this movie appropriate to be titled Lady Frankenstein? It’s because Neri decides to create a second creature with a properly functioning brain, physically strong enough to kill the first monster. She convinces her father’s assistant, who’s in love with her, to allow his brain to be transplanted into the body of the Frankenstein estate’s mentally disabled but handsome handyman. We’ve seen men give up a lot to get laid, but never their brains—at least not literally. The experiment actually works out okay, but then there are suspicious cops and a clan of restive villagers to worry about. Alas.
We wanted to like Lady Frankenstein because we’re fans of Neri, but the movie progresses at a similar pace as its shambling, embryo-headed monster. Neri was clearly cast to sexualize the title role, but even she can’t bring much heat to this cold production. Luckily, we’ll be seeing her again, because she was in a lot of movies. As a side note, one of the more prolific European character actors of the era puts in an appearance here. He showed up in two-hundred and eighty-five movies and television shows. His name? Herbert Fux. Love it. Lady Frankestein premiered in Italy today in 1971.
