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Frankenstein 1970 remains one of the more off-beat entries into the Frankenstein sub-genre, in that it features the original Creature, Boris Karloff (who really hams it up) playing the disfigured grandson of the famed mad baron in a style that combines gothic horror with the awe and fear created by the newly dawned atomic age. The story begins in the title year and finds Victor the III living in the ancestral castle and strapped for the cash he needs to resurrect his grandfather's experiments. He needs a fortune because this time he wants to use atomic power to bring the monster to life. To scare up the needed cash, he lets a television crew come to his famous digs to shoot a show. He ends up getting a lot more than money from the cast and crew and eventually he succeeds in creating a brand-new Creature. Unfortunately, the monster proves to be as volatile as his predecessors, and tragedy for both master and creature ensues. Sandra Brennan
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You'll Find Out contains the one and only cinematic group appearance by Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Bela Lugosi. Essentially a vehicle for bandleader Kay Kyser and his orchestra, the film finds Kyser hired to perform at the 21st birthday party of heiress Janis Bellacrest (Helen Parrish), the sweetheart of Kay's business manager Chuck Deems (Dennis O'Keefe). The party is held at Janis' family mansion, a spooky old joint dominated by astrology-happy Aunt Margo (Alma Kruger). Among the guests stranded in the mansion by inclement weather are mysterious mystic Prince Sallano (Bela Lugosi), family attorney Judge Mainwaring (Boris Karloff) and Professor Fenninger (Peter Lorre). Though advertised as a "mystery," the film throws the whodunit angle out the window at midway point by revealing that Saliano, Mainwaring and Fenninger are in cahoots, planning to kill Janis to get their hands on her inheritance. These sinister goings-on do not impede Kyser's ability to stage several musical numbers, including "The Bad Humor Man," which, according to studio publicity, was supposed to have been performed by Karloff, Lorre and Lugosi. Once the plot is resolved, Kyser utilizes several of Saliano's props-including the then-new "Sonovox" machine and an electronic zapping device-on his radio program, that leads to a closing gag. Hal Erickson
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The irresistably-titled comedy Zombies on Broadway is arguably the best of RKO Radio's Wally Brown-Alan Carney vehicles. The daffy duo is cast once more as Jerry Miles and Mike Strager, this time employed as Broadway press agents. Mike and Jerry's latest scheme is to hire a genuine zombie for the opening of a new nightclub. The boys head to a mysterious tropical island with cabaret singer Jean la Dance (Anne Jeffreys), where they cross swords with looney zombie expert Professor Renault (Bela Lugosi). Barely escaping with their lives, Jerry and Jean return to Manhattan with a "zombified" Mike, who is under the spell of Renault's secret formula. When Mike snaps out of his trance, the boys must face the wrath of nasty nightclub owner Ace Miller (Sheldon Leonard), who's a lot more frightening than any zombie. Zombies on Broadway turned a neat profit for RKO, encouraging the studio to reteam Brown, Carney, Anne Jeffreys and Bela Lugosi in the far less satisfying Genius at Work (1946). Hal Erickson
All Movie Guide
In one of his most successful portrayals of a "walking dead" man, Boris Karloff plays John Ellman, an ex-convict who is framed by the mob for the murder of the judge who first put him away. Evidence proving Ellman's innocence arrives seconds after he is electrocuted. Officials allow Dr. Evan Beaumont (Edmund Gwenn) to experiment with putting a mechanical heart into Ellman. The device revives the dead man, but he has become a white-haired, monster-faced zombie who hangs out in graveyards and seeks revenge on the conspirators who framed him. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
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