Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

oldblackandwhite And Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter is quite awful, though not quite so much as the title suggests.Many younger viewers have tried to figured out why anyone would want to produce a picture so bad. Well, back in the days before women were easy, a wicked, licentious teenage guy would take his girl friend to see Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter at a drive-in theater and spend the entire 88-minute running time attempting without success to get the virtuous lass's girdle off. Nobody paid much attention to the movie, because he was too busy exercising his crude version of charm, and she was too busy fending it off. In case suspicious parents asked what the movie was about, the naughty kids wouldn't have to get any farther than the title to make mommy and daddy decide they didn't really want to know. Simple, huh?Why any allegedly mature adult, such as yours truly, would by a DVD copy of such a movie at this late date beggars comprehension. Not a good Western, not a good horror movie. One of this dud's few saving graces was the performance of Narda Onyx as Maria Frankenstein, said descendant of the old monster-maker. The sexy, middle aged actress of Estonian origin plays the villainous countess with grand, over-ripe exuberance, sort of like a female version of Vincent Price. She almost makes watching this turkey worthwhile. But not quite.This picture is only for the following types: 1) fans of John Lupton, of which, astonishingly, there seem to be a few. 2) those with more money than common sense, with whom yours truly apparently may be grouped. 3) rock-hard desperate insomniacs.Others should avoid Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter as they would getting behind an old dame with a fist-full of coupons in a check-out line.

tavm Just watched this what I'm sure was a "Drive-In"-type B/Z-grade movie directed by the one and only William "One-Shot" Beaudine. Technically, the woman of the title is the late doctor's granddaughter but never mind. Anyway, in this hybrid western/horror movie, Jesse James is once again on the run from the marshal and stumbles on a Mexican gypsy family whose grown daughter decides to ally herself with Jesse. Jesse himself has a friend who got wounded in the gun battle with the marshal so he comes to an abandoned mission where a couple of doctors have the cure. Guess who one of them is? Anyway, while what I just described was indeed ridiculous, the way it was presented was pretty entertaining especially whenever certain lines or deliveries of them were enacted as either too much on emphasis or just too straight. Anyway, one of the players, Jim Davis, acquits himself quite nicely as the marshal with that familiar authoritative voice that served him well previously in those Republic oaters and later on as Jock Ewing on the original "Dallas". So he definitely gets a pass here even though he was obviously slumming. So, yeah, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter is worth a look if you're looking for a real howler. P.S. I previously saw Davis as Frank James in Bob Hope's comedy Alias Jesse James. Obviously, that would be the only connection these different movies would have in common with each other.

Robert J. Maxwell Actually it's not Frankenstein's daughter, it's his granddaughter. Not that it makes any difference. Why should it make any difference? Nothing in this cheap, parting shot from the never-estimable William Beaudine makes any difference.The opening shows us Narda Onyx and Steven Geray, two mad scientists in their laboratory in a tiny Western town, fulminating over their need for new brains and bodies to create life.Then there is a long story about Jesse James, played by John Lupton, whom I remember only as "Sister" Marion in "Battle Cry." He was the upright Marine who was going to write the great American novel. His close friend, Cal Bolder, a refugee from Muscle Beach, is wounded in a shoot out with grim, determined, humorless marshal Jim Davis.A feisty Latina, Estelita, leads them to the nearest doctors, who are of course the Frankenstein couple. They put a new brain into the wounded Cal Bolder and attempt the same with Jesse James but Estelita steps in at the last minute and saves his bacon.Estelita is a petite and very attractive Cuban lady. She was the wife of Carlito, the hotel manager, in "Rio Bravo," and was pretty good. Here she emotes to beat the band.She can't save this movie, though. Nothing could, not even Joe Bob Briggs' commentary on the DVD. I can hardly bring myself to believe that anyone really went to a drive-in movie to watch a dismal feature like this. Who was it aimed at? The only human being who could find it in any way impressive would have to be an Australian aborigine from the central desert who had never heard of movies.Of course the sets were cheap, but that's not enough of an excuse. You can do a lot on a tiny budget, as Val Lewton showed us at RKO, and as other producers and directors proved elsewhere. Here, the writing stinks. The plot makes no sense. The actors wear the same clothes in every scene.It's not bad in a way that evokes laughter. Like John Wayne's rabidly mesomorphic "The Conqueror," a few minutes of it will satisfy your curiosity. The remaining hour and a half constitute torture.

lastliberal I was looking for zombie films and came across this. I couldn't resist the title. A film from a director that gave us such classics as Billy the Kid versus Dracula and Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. I can't wait to see those.The sound on my copy was terrible. Lips moved out of conjunction with words, and sometimes it sounded as if a woman was speaking when it was a man. When the sound got better, it was out of sync with the picture by several minutes. Terrible, but I suffered through it for art's sake.Jesse's (John Lupton) friend (Cal Bolder) gets shot and he is searching for a doctor, while running from the Marshall (Jim Davis). Guess who he finds? What it's the granddaughter of Dr. Frankenstein (Narda Onyx).Also stars Cuban-born spitfire Estelita Rodriguez as Juanita. She dies mysteriously a month before the film was released. She and Maria Frankenstein are both after Jesse's affections.After sending Jesse on a wild goose chase, Maria kills his friend and turns him into Igor (the zombie part).A sad ending for a truly horribly funny picture.