christopher-underwood When I think of some of the barely visible 3rd generation copies of Jess Franco's films I've seen over the years and now here is a pristine, all bright and shiny Blu-ray. Also, this is a film that was very hard to get to see in any shape or form, for good or bad i will leave to you. Actually, considering what this sets out to do, a Universal Studios rip-off in full colour with full frontal nudity, some gore and a little S&M, this succeeds rather well. Dennis Price probably comes back to life a few too many times and I never did work out why the monster was painted silver but it is light hearted fun with some magically lit scenes. Neither was I sure why Howard Vernon had to stand by as many of his 'instructions' and guidance were spoken by his half bird, half woman side-kick but never mind. The film doesn't waste time getting going and keeps up for the duration with plenty of bloody scenes and lots of skin. The aforementioned S&M quota come curtesy of a fairly lengthy sequence where a completely naked man and women are tied back to back while the silver monster lashes them severely leaving rather theatric bloody stripes. Not bad at all.

Nigel P This is the 1973 Spanish cut. It features less flesh than the alternative 'The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein', but features inserts of Franco favourite (and future wife) Lina Romay as a gypsy girl.To cast Romay and then almost completely obscure her with over-darkened day-for-night filming is an interesting directorial choice. It's equally 'brave' to show close-ups of the Frankenstein Monster's eyes, which brazenly exposes the limitations of the 'head piece' and the lack of effort made to marry it up with actor Fernando Bilbao's face. Forget the lumbering gait of traditional Monsters – this one moves quickly, leaping and snarling as he does so.My favourite scenes involve white-cowled figures passing ghost-like through a misty woodland. These people appear to be followers of Cagliostro (Howard Vernon), who now controls not only Frankenstein's Monster, but also Melisa (Anne Libert), a blind, shrieking vampiric bird woman with plumes of green feathers adorning various portions of her body. Vernon and Libert are probably the best and least restrained actors here, providing an arch and perverse double-act that could only thrive in a Franco film. Cagliostro plans to create a female creature in order to procreate with the original Monster to create a super race. Ah yes. That old chestnut.Dennis Price, whose cultured, recognisable voice is bizarrely dubbed by some inferior actor, gives a scattered performance here as Doctor Frankenstein – that is, a performance that is scattered throughout the film in brief scenes where he is forever on the edge of death (and then beyond, M. Valdemar style) without ever having the good grace to actually expire before much of the film is done (in a scene that can most kindly be described as 'unlikely').The film's reluctance to pursue any level of coherent storyline makes a lot of it fairly ponderous viewing, and yet I rather enjoyed this. Like Frankenstein himself, Franco has stitched together bits and pieces haphazardly to form a whole. It won't sway anyone uncertain about Jess Franco's talents as a film-maker, but it reaches levels of pleasingly frightening weirdness.

Michael_Elliott The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein (1973) *** (out of 4)Dr. Frankenstein (Dennis Price) finally makes his monster human after putting a brain into his skull but shortly afterwards the doctor and his assistant are murdered and the monster stolen by a mysterious bird woman who was sent by the evil Cagliostro (Howard Vernon). Soon Dr. Frankenstein's daughter (Beatriz Savon) seeks revenge for the death of her father.Jess Franco's THE EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN is without question a rather wild, over-the-top and downright batshit crazy film that rarely makes a bit of sense but that's what makes it so darn entertaining. The movie is a complete head-scratcher and it makes you wonder what must have been going on inside of Franco's mind but there's no question that it's a major improvement over his Dracula, PRISONER OF FRANKENSTEIN.This film here, like most of the director's work, is available in two versions. The French version is also known as the "hot" or the "nude" version as as you might guess it contains a lot of female and male nudity. This here is certainly the version you'll want to check out because, well, if you're going to watch an "erotic" movie then it might as well feature nudity. This version adds a lot of erotic stuff, which adds up on the camp factor but with that said there's still reasons to watch the non-nude Spanish version. The Spanish version has Lina Romay in the role of a gypsy and this is missing from the French version.Again, if you're coming to this film expecting something normal then you might be as nutty as Franco himself. The plot of this thing is rather crazy and all over the place. The fact that there's a bird woman here with green feathers on her body is a clear indication that you're not meant to take this too serious. The silver toned Frankenstein monster is another interesting visual but so is a sequence where all sorts of masked weirdos are watching the events. Add in some bizarre torture scenes and some really whacked out scenes of Dr. Frankenstein being brought back to life and you've got a wild little picture.

monell579 Cagliostro (Howard Vernon) and his bird woman creation, Melissa (Anne Libert) work tirelessly to create a female mate for the silver skinned creature created by Dr. Frankenstein (Dennis Price).A wild ride deep into Jess Franco terrain. This is an unhinged, no-budget attempt to redo the Universal horror motifs in the style of Italian Erotic Comics. It works, at least in the nude/uncovered version, simply because Franco and his cast immediately go way over the top and stay there: ratty set design, the silver skinned monster who looks like the confused survivor of a spray painting attack, the nude whipping scene, the mysterious sect led by the perverse, totalitarian Cagliostro, Melissa-the flesh eating human vulture who predicts pleasure and death, are typical "Jess Franco" elements, but this time he stages them with such Sadean glee that those who "get it" will be utterly transfixed while those who hate will cite it as another file in the case against the director. It's a long way from James Whale...The version made for Spain contains additional scenes featuring Lina Romay as a gypsy and omits all of the outrageous nudity which is so essential to Franco's aesthetic (or anti-aesthetic). The score is an iconoclastic collection of sonic blasts, jarring cues and odd sounds.