Udo Kier Starred In An X-Rated Frankenstein Movie 52 Years Before Netflix's Adaptation

I had the privilege of interviewing the late, great Udo Kier several years ago, and he had a notable insight into death. Kier appeared in hundreds of movies in his career, expertly handling both serious dramatic roles and utterly freakish characters with equal aplomb. Most of his characters were killed, allowing Kier to die dozens of times in his career. Kier revealed, when talking to me, that he liked playing death scenes, but also that he insisted on a specific detail for each one. Notably, he always wanted to keep his eyes open. He wanted to die with open eyes. Now that Kier has passed, that desire takes on a twinge of poetry. 

One of Kier's most notorious films was easily Paul Morrissey's 1973 freakout "Flesh for Frankenstein," also known as "Andy Warhol's Frankenstein," as the famed pop artist served as the film's executive producer. "Flesh for Frankenstein" was shot and presented in 3D, making for a wonderful scene near the end wherein the Baron Frankenstein (Kier) is speared through the back, the point of the spear sticking directly into the audience's faces. Perched on the end of the spear was Udo Kier's quivering liver. His eyes were open the whole time. 

"Flesh for Frankenstein" is perhaps one of the weirder, gorier cinematic renditions of Mary Shelley's sci-fi classic, and that's certainly saying something. Kier digs his teeth way into the oddball material, and the director explores the very palpable themes of necrophilia that usually run through Frankenstein stories. "Flesh for Frankenstein" regularly appeared on the midnight movie circuit for years, often screened alongside Paul Morrissey's Bram Stoker riff "Blood for Dracula," released the following year. Udo Kier played Dracula. He died with his eyes open in that one, too.

It should be pointed out that Andy Warhol didn't contribute much artistically to "Flesh for Frankenstein," reportedly only visiting the set a few times. The film was written and directed by Morrissey, and all the ideas therein are his. And Morrissey wasn't shy about, uh, dissecting some of the less savory ideas at the center of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein." In Morrissey's vision, the creepy eugenic underpinnings of "Frankenstein" are put right in the foreground, with the Baron Frankenstein declaring that he wants to make a genetically perfect specimen, specifically of the Serbian race. Morrissey also addresses the creepy sexuality of "Frankenstein" by making the good Doctor unbearably horny. The creation of an artificial being, Morrissey declares, is most assuredly done for sexual reasons. 

In the most recent film version of "Frankenstein," the one directed by Guillermo del Toro, the psycho-sexual/necrophiliac themes of the story are only mildly hinted at. Del Toro mostly undergirded these ideas by casting an unbearably attractive pretty-boy, Jacob Elordi, as his monster. Del Toro's monster, however, is chaste. 

In Morrissey's film, however, chastity is a bug, not a feature. Baron Frankenstein has already created a male and a female Monster at the beginning of the movie, and is disappointed because the monsters won't boink. His male monster seems to have a low libido, which is antithetical to his experiments. To sate his own lust, Dr. Frankenstein regularly has sex with his female monster. In the sex scenes, stitches are pulled and wounds created. It's all marvelously disgusting. Don't watch "Flesh for Frankenstein" unless you have a strong stomach. Morrissey does not shy away from the blood. And in 3D, no less. Hooray for arterial spray.

Dr. Frankenstein hits paydirt when he locates a handsome, lusty farmboy named Nicholas, played by Joe Dallesandro. In case you didn't already know, Dallessandro is a big, handsome, fleshy hunk, and Dr. Frankenstein is attracted by his libido as well as his Slavic nose (Frankenstein refers to the nose as "nasum" throughout the film). Nicholas, being a horndog of the highest order, is lured to Dr. Frankenstein's castle by the Baron's wife, Katrin (Monique van Vooren), who has unsatisfied sexual desires of her own.

Unfortunately, there is a mix-up in the lab, and Baron Frankenstein accidentally confuses Nicholas with a traveling monk (Srdjan Zelenovic). The Baron ends up grafting the monk's chaste head onto his monster's body, creating another libido-free male monster. That's a 10 on the whoops scale. More sex, blood, and necrophilia occur. Then Udo Kier is speared in the back. This movie is awesome. 

When "Flesh for Frankenstein" was released, it was given an X-rating by the MPAA for understandable reasons. It was so bloody, Morrissey's film was put on the list of the notorious "Video Nasties" in England and was released in a shaved-down version in theaters. An uncut version didn't reach the big screen until 2006. 

At the time, critics were only warm to the film, noting that its pace was too slow, and its campier elements not pervasive enough. Many spotted that Morrissey's film was meant to read like a satire, and felt that the satire wasn't strong enough. Over the years, though, more and more critics have come to appreciate how bloody insane the film is, and love Udo Kier's outsize performance. It eventually gained an 88% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 17 reviews. These days, all the right people love it.