"Speak! You have a civil tongue in your head. I know, because I sewed it back myself!"
-Professor Frankenstein
American International Pictures couldn't have come up with a better title (which they often did even before the script was written) to lure teenagers to the drive-in. "Body of a boy! Mind of a monster! Soul of an unearthly thing!" screamed the movie poster. Yet, despite all the ballyhoo, after it was released on November 23, 1957 it reportedly earned only a little over $300,000 after grossing $654,000, which is pretty crappy. One of the reasons for the bad turnout could have been because it came out during the Thanksgiving holiday. Another was: who would want to go to the drive-in in November? I guess some did, but obviously not enough, even with the enticingly-titled BLOOD OF DRACULA on the double bill.
Released earlier in June, I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF fared much better raking in an almost $2M profit. Both the teenage werewolf and "Frankenstein" would pair up in 1958 for AIP's HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER.
Theatrical poster:
Lobby cards:
Pressbook:
Photos:
Joe Dante on I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN:
Poor old Gary Conway. Not only was he hideously disfigured in a car crash, that huge eye keeps shifting from the left side of his face to the right between photos.
ReplyDeleteThere's a brief glimpse in that trailer of a packing case labelled with a dispatch address in Wardour Street, London, which I believe was an office associated with AIP's UK distribution.
DeleteIt looks like all the images from the film show his right eye popping out, but the promotional material shows it on the left. I'm wondering if the image was reversed to compliment the format or they just didn't give a hoot.
ReplyDelete