Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter

Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter
Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter DVD Box Art
Directed by	William Beaudine
Produced by	Carol Case
Written by	Carl K. Hittleman
Starring	John Lupton Narda Onyx Estelita Rodriguez Cal Bolder Jim Davis
Music by	Raoul Kraushaar
Cinematography	Lothrop B. Worth
Editing by	William Austin
Distributed by	Sam Manners
Release date(s)	1966
Running time	83 min.
Language	English

Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter is a low-budget western/horror hybrid film filmed in 1966, in which a fictionalized version of the real-life western outlaw Jesse James encounters the fictional granddaughter (the movie's title notwithstanding) of the famous Dr. Frankenstein.

John Lupton, who plays the part of Jesse James, is actually a bit too old for the role. When the film was made, Lupton was already 38 years old. The real-life Jesse James died before his 35th birthday.

Cast

• John Lupton .... Jesse James
• Narda Onyx .... Dr. Maria Frankenstein
• Estelita Rodriguez .... Juanita Lopez (as Estelita)
• Cal Bolder .... Hank Tracy/Igor
• Jim Davis .... Marshal MacPhee
• Steven Geray .... Dr. Rudolph Frankenstein
• Rayford Barnes .... Lonny Curry
• William Fawcett .... Jensen, the pharmacist
• Nestor Paiva .... Saloon Owner
• Roger Creed .... Butch Curry
• Rosa Turich .... Nina Lopez
• Felipe Turich .... Manuel Lopez
• Fred Stromsoe
• Dan White .... Pete Ketchum
• Page Slattery
• Mark Norton

Plot

Dr Frankenstein’s grand-children Maria and Rudolph have moved to the American West, in order to use the prairie lightning storms in their experiments on unwilling victims. After a number of failures, Rudolph is finding it increasingly difficult to hide the trail of bodies. Down the road, Mañuel Lopez, his wife Nina, and their daughter Estelita decide to leave town because of the frequent disappearances.

Two gunslingers come to town, Hank Tracy, a dimwitted lug, and Jesse James, the infamous outlaw. Meeting up with the head of a local gang, they join up with the intention of stealing $100,000 from the next stagecoach. However, a gang member named Lonny, decides to go to the sheriff and lets them know about the plot, and in exchange, Lonny would become his deputy. So as the robbery begins, the sheriff and his men would shoot the two remaining members of his gang and seriously wound Hank.

Jesse and Hank escape and stop at the campout of the Lopez's so they can tend to Hank's wound and sleep until the morning. During the middle of the night, Estelita wakes up Jesse and Hank and lead them back to town to Dr. Maria Frankenstein house and fix up Hank.

When they arrive, Maria agrees to help Hank, however, her plan is to use Hank as another one of her experiments. She directs Jesse to go to the town pharmacist to get some medication she would need. As he leaves, she begins operating on Hank, putting in the new brain and bring him back to life. As Rudolph gets ready to inject Hank with the poison, Maria sees what he's been doing and tries to stop him. Maria would then order Hank, who now goes by the name Igor, to help, where Igor gets up and strangles Rudolph.

At the pharmacist, Jesse hands the note over, not knowing that Maria wrote that he's Jesse James and to get the sheriff. Fortunately, Jesse realizes this and manages to escape, killing deputy Lonny in the process. When he reaches the Dr. Frankenstein house, Igor incompacitates Jesse and ties him up.

Realizing Jesse is in trouble, Estelita would let the sheriff know that Jesse James was at the house. He immediately goes there and finds Jesse and prepares to take him in, collecting a reward in the process. But Maria sends Igor out and tries to crush the sheriff. During the scuffle, Estelita frees Jesse and try to escape. Maria orders Igor to go kill Estelita, but Igor strangles Maria instead and goes after Jesse. Estelita gets Jesse's gun and kills Igor.

The next morning, as he finishes burying Hank, Estelita pleads with Jesse to stay and live here with her, but Jesse knows that he's a fugitive and must run along, so he gets on his horse and rides off.

See also

• Weird West

External links

• Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter at the IMDb
• Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter at Allmovie