Paul Morrissey's facelift of the old Mary Shelley tale -- now a deadpan charade of beautiful young people searching, scissoring, and stitching in the laboratory for more beauty yet. Backed by Carlo Ponti, Morrissey is for the first time a man of means (European forest and castle locales, elegant musical accompaniment, Luigi Kuveiller's mellifluous camerawork, and, above all, the magical 3-D process), and he parades his new wealth with a barely concealed delight. For instance, he is repeatedly thrusting things at the audience, especially things that are horrendously repulsive, to take advantage of the 3-D possibilities in the obliging spirit of one who is not remotely motivated to struggle against the current -- that is, against what is obvious in the material and what is expected by the audience. To the contrary, he nudges these things to an extreme; and all innocence, all illusion are sighingly sacrificed. The Morrissey cast of mostly fresh faces maintains a flawless front throughout, with Udo Kier and Monique Van Vooren, as the incestuous Baron and Baroness, cashing in heavily on their Teutonic haughtiness, and Joe Dallesandro lending a dissenting and dissonant voice from the streets of New Yawk. (1974) — Duncan Shepherd
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