Tags:
Film: Frankenstein General Hospital
Year: 1988
Director: Deborah Romare
Writer: Robert Deel and Michael Kelly
Starring: Mark Blankfield, Leslie Jordan and Jonathan Farwell
Review:
This film begins telling us that an ancestor of Frankenstein works in this General Hospital. He used a machine that his ancestor used and it has drained all the color out of the room. This room is the basement of the hospital. This ancestor goes by the name of Dr. Bob Frankenheimer and he is played by Mark Blankfield. He is trying to create a man like his ancestors. His assistant, instead of Igor is Iggy and played by Leslie Jordan. He comes down with two left legs of Boston marathon runners. Blankfield scolds him at first, but relents saying they will get a different pair later.
This film is a comedy so throughout there will be funny things happening. Like two EMTs carrying a stretcher, seeing a pretty nurse and dropping him. We see this man stays there as the lawn is mowed around him and a dog lifts his leg to urinate on his leg and no one bats an eye.
We then shift to surgery where we have a doctor who smokes a cigar while operating through his hospital mask. There is even a point where there is a brown circle where it has been. This doctor is played by Lou Cutell. We see Jordan doing something and this patient ends up dying. This is the fifth one this week. We know that it is so Jordan can remove something for the creature that Blankfield is making. This death puts Cutell on the doctor in charge’s radar though; he is played by Jonathan Farwell.
Blankfield is trying to get grant money to continue his research. The problem is that he is competing with another doctor, played by Hamilton Mitchell, who is making an anti-aging cream. We see him working in a lab with other doctors who he yells at constantly. They also laugh when they hear that Blankfield is working on a secret experiment. This film also has a running gag that any time Blankfield brings up the words ‘secret experiment’ we hear them laughing. The actors also notice it as well.
Farwell is seeing romantically the hospital shrink, who is played by Kathy Shower, and she is enlisted to help discover what Blankfield’s experiment is. Her relationship with Farwell is inappropriate while on the clock and Jordan captures photo proof for Blankfield to have if it comes down to blackmail.
Also in the hospital with is a nurse that loves doctors, played by Katie Caple. Farwell has a secretary that is learning to do relaxing techniques who is interested in Blankfield, she is played by Dorothy Patterson and there is also a woman who helps patients, but she can’t seem to get it right played by Bunky Jones.
When Mitchell’s serum turns up missing he assumes it is Blankfield trying to sabotage him. Farwell sees Jordan around the hospital and is trying to catch him. He also asks everyone in the hospital to keep an eye out for him. He knows he is up to no good, but is trying to figure out why. Mitchell seeks out Cutell and they start to realize there could be a deeper plot going on.
Blankfield comes to just needing a brain and learn that a young genius has passed away. Jordan is told that he needs to go get the brain, since Blankfield has to cover for Cutell who is taken off rotation due to the deaths. Jordan finds the wrong body though and takes that head. Together they get the creature to live and it is played by Irwin Keyes.
Will the experiment succeed like they planned or is Keyes not going to be as intelligent as they want him to be? Will Mitchell and Cutell prove to Farwell before Keyes is ready to be shown or will he allow it due to lack of evidence? Will Farwell find the secret laboratory before Keyes is ready?
I have to say that the copy of this film I had was not very good quality, but that still doesn’t save this film much. I unfortunately have to say that the best part of this film is the random nudity. The story is a version of Frankenstein, but it brings it up to the 1980s and has it take place in a General Hospital.
Now the issue that I run into is that this is supposed to be a comedy, but it really isn’t that funny. It goes for some outrageous situations and for the actors to act in ways that just isn’t realistic. I personally didn’t find it funny. I feel it would have been better if they would have tried to use comedy, yet keeping some realism it would have been better. The acting was also subpar and that might have a contributing factor. This version of Frankenstein also runs into the problem of taking too long for the monster to appear and then rushes to the end with it interacting with others.
With that said, I would avoid this film. The acting is subpar, the story has been done before and the modern update wasn’t a bad idea, but just not executed well enough. This film tries for some comedy, but I was not a big fan. The best part of the film was the nudity and even that felt like it was put in just for the enjoyment of the male audience. The film didn’t necessarily need it. I would avoid this film unless you want to watch a bad horror films with your friends over a few drinks.
My Rating: 2 out of 10