When I think of Rossano Brazzi presence in “Frankenstein’s Castle Of Freaks,” I think of the fact that there’s no business like show business, which should be a great source of comfort to every business that isn’t show business. 

Brazzi had reached some heady heights in the biz.  In the 1950s he had starred opposite Katherine Hepburn in “Summertime,” a classy romantic chick flick of its day, directed by the great David Lean.  Most famously, he starred in the movie version of “South Pacific,” based on one of the biggest stage shows of all time.  Plus, “The Barefoot Contessa,” with Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner, was a big, prestigious release, and “Three Coins In The Fountain” was a gigantic hit.  If you had told him back then that he would one day star in a movie called “Frankenstein’s Castle Of Freaks,” he would have probably said something along the lines of, “Some enchanted evening…I’m gonna kick your ass!” 

But somewhere along the way his career trajectory went on a downward path.  Hey, it happens; being a professional performer means making the best of whatever material is handed you, although in Frankenstein’s Castle Of Freaks he doesn’t seem to be making much of an effort.  I could be wrong, but I get the impression that for a guy who was once on the A-list, starring in a movie about a castle of freaks must have been pretty disheartening. 

 Oh well, we’ll always have our fond memories of him in “South Pacific,” (although I personally find it a pretty unwatchable film despite the great Rodgers & Hammerstein score), and “Summertime” (I’ve never been able to watch the whole thing despite my high regard for David Lean), and “The Barefoot Contessa” (a hugely disappointing Joseph L. Mankiewicz script, especially after the brilliant screenplays he wrote for “All About Eve” and “Letter To Three Wives”), and “Three Coins In The Fountain” (it puts me to sleep; even Frank Sinatra’s rendition of the title song is far from my favorite recording of his). 

You know, now that I think of it, “Frankenstein’s Castle Of Freaks” is probably my favorite Rossano Brazzi film after all.  How sad for Rossano Brazzi.  How sad for me.   

This movie borders on being what you would call a mid-seventies Italian erotic horror film, but after we at Cinematic Titanic got through with it, any eroticism was pretty much ruined, and so was any of the horror.

A few notes: Count Frankenstein is played by Rossano Brazzi, famous for the wildly successful movie musical “South Pacific”, but I never got his appeal.  I always felt and I still do: he didn’t fit in South Pacific.  Wasn’t he supposed to be Austrian or French or something?  It’s so distracting, I’d much rather see our proud Navy do a another chorus of “There Is Nothing Like a Dame”, but that’s just one man’s opinion.  Also, what’s with the “Count Frankenstein”?  I always thought it was Count Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein-- why mess with it?  As you are beginning to see, I’m handing out wolf tickets to this movie.

Most interesting to me is the use of actor Micheal Dunn, who played the contemptible Genz-- a dwarf grave robber who just can’t get on the good side of Count Frankenstein.  I remember Micheal Dunn playing the very creepy Dr. Loveless in the “Wild Wild West” TV series, probably one of my favorite shows when I was about eight or nine years old.  Now that I think of it, Micheal Dunn must have been the “go to” little person in Hollywood, that is, if you weren’t in the mood to hire Billy Barty.  When Micheal Dunn was on camera it was always memorable and chilling (except probably in this movie), the evidence being all the shows he worked on in the sixties and seventies: “Star Trek”, “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” and “Night Gallery” to name a few.  It’s pretty clear that in “Castle”, his voice was redubbed.  It’s likely that the producer didn’t like or understand what Dunn was bringing to the character of Genz, and it’s too bad.  I’d like to see Dunn’s original performance of “Frankenstein” in its entirety, as he probably did a vocal performance that could have easily haunted my dreams.

In the curveball department, Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks adds a few new dramatic elements to this retelling of the Frankenstein story by way of cavemen.  There is a caveman named “Ook” that is befriended by Genz and later coerced into attempting to kidnap Count Frankenstein’s daughter.   Also, the movie opens with a town stoning a completely different and unrelated caveman named Goliath.  What are the chances?  Goliath is later brought back to life at the hand of Count Frankenstein as the monster, sort of.  I do like this caveman theme, as strange as it is.  To me it gives the film a sort of “Beach Party” attitude, where anything is possible.  Why is everyone looking at me like that?  Yeah, right, like I’m the only one here who's seen “How to Stuff a Wild Bikini”.

To make it even more like a beach party, the character of Krista (Christiane Royce) has come to visit Count Frankenstein via his daughter.  Christiane Royce adds lots of interest as she is drop dead beautiful in a mid-seventies way, and she plays a biology lecturer who also takes lots and lots of on-camera baths.

Finally, there really aren’t any freaks in Frankenstein’s castle, as the name implies, other than the hunchback named “Kreegin” played by Xiro Papas, but he’s turns out to be pretty with it-- he sports a mustache, does much of the cooking at the castle, and still finds time to maintain a fiery affair with the head servant's wife.