Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter Review

Submitted for your approval is the inept 1966 cheapie Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter, directed by William "One Shot" Beaudine. This particular pile of celluloid excrement originally played as half of a double feature with Billy the Kid vs. Dracula, simultaneously creating and destroying the horror western genre. It was shot in eight days at the Ray Corrigan Ranch in Simi Valley, California on a budget of a buck-eighty-five, give or take a dollar.

Now if you've seen Billy the Kid vs. Dracula, you know that you're in for a long scrape round the bottom of the barrel, cinematically speaking. If anything, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter is even worse in every way, with bad acting, tossed-off dialogue, cheap sets, and laughable special effects making for a perfect storm of bad cheese. Unfortunately, this movie, unlike its companion piece, doesn't have John Carradine or any rubber bats to provide the necessary comic relief.

Jesse James has been played by actors ranging from tough guys like Lawrence Tierney and Lee Van Cleef to Audie Murphy to Roy Rogers to Hugh Beaumont. That's right, the Beaver's dad played Jesse James. James Dean played him on TV in 1953, as did James Coburn in 1958. Robert Duvall played Jesse in 1972's The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid, and more recently, A-list pretty boys Brad Pitt and Colin Farrell have played the part. But of all the actors to ever portray the legendary outlaw, surely the least notable interpretation ever is by the star of Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter, James Lupton. Lupton was an actor who made his film debut in 1951's Saint Benny the Dip, and was probably best known for co-starring with Fess Parker in the Andrew's Raiders TV series. More roles in TV westerns would follow, as well as numerous potrayals of military officers, policemen, and politicians. He was also particularly adept at playing a stuffed shirt.

Palying the part of Frankenstein's daughter, er, grand-daughter, is Narda Onyx. This movie is one of only three features she ever appeared in, and her only starring role. She played Eva Braun's sister Gretl in her previous film, 1962's Hitler, starring Richard Basehart as der Fuhrer. She worked a lot on television, on such series as The Gale Storm Show, Richard Diamond, Private Eye and 77 Sunset Strip. You may also remember Narda Onyx as Mademoiselle Denise on several different episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies. Then again, you might not.

Without a doubt, the best known actor in this movie is Jim Davis, who plays Marshall McPhee. A veteran of scores of B-westerns and action movies, with titles like The Savage Horde, Border Lust, and Five Bloody Graves, Davis is best known for his gritty portrayal of Jock Ewing on the TV series Dallas. Davis was no stranger to bad cinema, working in such trashploitation epics as The Road Hustlers, The Passion Pits, and alongside a wheelchair-bound J. Carrol Naish and a decrepit Lon Chaney Jr. in Al Adamson's dreadful 1971 ultra-cheapie Dracula vs. Frankenstein, also known as Blood of Frankenstein, also known as Teenage Dracula, and also known as Satan's Bloody Freaks.

As I mentioned before, this movie was part of a twin bill with Billy the Kid vs. Dracula, which was also directed by the same cat, the infamous William "One-Shot" Beaudine. In a career that spanned seven decades, Beaudine was known for making low-budget quickies for poverty row studios like Monogram Pictures, where he helmed many a picture with Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, and the Bowery Boys. Beaudine's nickname, "One-Shot," came from his relectance to shoot any scene more than once. To him, re-take was a dirty word. As long as the scene he shot bore a passing resemblance to what was in the script, he always printed the first take. You'll notice that in Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter,  Beaudine more often than not sticks to a master shot, rarely going in for close-ups, and using the same set-ups over and over, despite the fact that Frankenstein manor is obviously a matte painting. Maybe ol' One-Shot was losing his touch. After the double whammy of Billy the Kid vs. Dracula and Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter, Beaudine only got a handful of directing assignments: two episodes of the 1967 Green Hornet TV series, a couple of Lassies, and an episode of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.

The bottom line is that the movie doesn't live up to its title. Unlike Billy the Kid vs. Dracula, there aren't nearly enough (unintentional) laugh-out-loud moments to make it worth your while, but it is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Available cheap on DVD from Alpha Video, and several other purveyors of public domain titles.