FRANKENSTEIN 1970

In 1970, the aging Baron Victor von Frankenstein had suffered torture and disfigurement at the hands of the Nazi Party as punishment for not cooperating with them in their medical experiments during World War II which left him with a scar on the left side of his hand and a limp. He nevertheless continues his work as a scientist performing the experiments his ancestor Richard Freiherr von Frankenstein I (who lived from 1702-1961) did as he does not have much time left to live.

Needing funds to support his experiments after covering up his experiments to his friend Wilhelm Gottfried, the Baron allows a television crew led by director Douglas Row and consisting of public relations worker Mike Shaw, film star Carolyn Hayes, Doug's assistant Judy Stevens, and cinematographer Morgan Haley to shoot a horror film about his monster-making family at his castle in Germany with Hans Himmler portraying Frankenstein's monster.

This arrangement gives the Baron enough money to buy an atomic reactor, which he uses to create a living being modeled after his own likeness before he had been tortured as he tests the reanimated monster. When the Baron runs out of body parts for his work, he starts by obtaining the heart and brain of his butler Schutter when he stumbles upon the laboratory. Then he kills Gottfried and claims his eyes when the eyes of Judy and Morgan proved to be not compatible with the body.

Finally, the completed Monster turns on the Baron and Victor tries to reason with Schutter as they are both killed in a blast of radioactive steam from the reactor that the Monster unknowingly releases. After the reactor is shut down and the radiation falls to safe levels, a police investigation occurs. The bandages on the Monster's head are removed by Doug to show its face and an audio tape is played back in which the Baron reveals that he had intended for the Monster to be a perpetuation of himself because he was the last of the Frankenstein family line.

The Monster turns on Baron Frankenstein, resulting in both being killed by a blast of radioactive steam from the atomic reactor. The police discover the Baron's intentions through a recorded audio confession.

The film concludes with the Baron's obsessive quest for immortality leading to his own downfall, as his creation becomes his undoing. The reveal of the Monster's face and the Baron's taped confession underscore the self-destructive nature of the Frankenstein legacy. The atomic age setting adds a modern sense of hubris, updating the classic tale for a new era of scientific anxiety.