Paul Morrissey has passed away so I thought it would be fitting to revisit his film Flesh For Frankenstein (1973). This 3D magnum opus revisits many of the themes that run throughout Morrissey’s work, particularly with regards to issues of class and conformity. Morrissey’s influence as an underground and, later, an exploitation movie maker can never be under estimated. And Flesh For Frankenstein remains one of his crowning achievements.
In Flesh For Frankenstein the aristocracy, epitomized by the Baron (Udo Kier), is a morally bankrupt, incestuous and elitist class. They perceive the peasant class as fodder for experiments or objects of sexual desire. Morrissey renders the Frankenstein story as one of hubris and ignorance that is played to the hilt by the actors.
The opposite is true of the subdued performances of the lower class. Joe Dallesandro turns in his patented non-acting as the rakish peasant who becomes entangled in the Frankensteins’ domestic squabbles. Where they are camp he is natural. And once again Dallesandro exists as an object of desire; a sexual being equated with animal instincts.
These two waring styles are united by Morrissey’s visual compositions that recall Renaissance tableaus. These images, motivated in equal parts by the 3D cinematography as well as the performances, privilege a direct shot composition where the actor(s) are always facing directly into the camera. These images group the lower and upper classes together as each vies for dominance within the frame.
But what sets Flesh For Frankenstein apart from Blood For Dracula (1974) and Morrissey’s other works is the contribution of Carlo Rambaldi. Rambaldi’s gross out special effects add a new layer to Morrissey’s tale of the human body as commodity. Shot in 3D, Rambaldi’s hilarious gore is shot so that it erupts from the screen with the same bravado as the campy performances.
Flesh For Frankenstein is a uniquely demented farce that must be seen to be believed. It takes the themes of Flesh (1968), Trash (1970) and Heat (1972) and makes them all the more excessive. Flesh For Frankenstein and Blood For Dracula find Morrissey at his most operatic as a filmmaker, demonstrating a new dimension to his work that is seemingly at odds with the underground aesthetic of his earlier films.
