Aliens hover in Earth's orbit shooting down America's unmanned test rockets thinking that they are offensive weapons.   At the same time, NASA introduces the first man into space by the name of Frank, who mysteriously 'freezes' during a press conference.  Just so happens Frank is a highly advanced android created by Dr. Adam Steel and his assistant Karen in order not to risk any human life.   On Frank's maiden voyage, the aliens strike again, downing the rocket somewhere in Puerto Rico and follow the remains in order to check it out.  Frank is unharmed, escaping from the main wreckage.   Two aliens come at him, and he manages to beat one down (and making Isaac Asimov weep...remember the First Law, Adam?) before getting shot by the other.    This fries off half of Frank's face, leaving him unstable and in danger of being sued by James Cameron.   As the aliens reveal their purpose for coming to Earth--to find women to repopulate their now radioactive planet--their henchmen go snatch women while Frank irrationally kills them until the very end, where Adam and Karen talk down Frank, and repair him just in time to face off against the aliens.   And in a blaze of glory, Frank takes out the aliens and their space monster and destroys their spaceship.

And between all of this plot,  surf rock is everywhere!

'Frankenstein vs. the Space Monster' is a long forgotten gem of a flick that breaks one of the major mainstays of the '50s sci-fi genre by actually using fairly good surf rock music instead of cheaply made stock music.   And in some cases like Frank's trip to the rocket on his maiden voyage and the various black and white travel footage (both in a car and on a scooter) it makes it perfectly surreal and kind of hip.   Also, it is oddly deep for such a movie.   One gets the feeling that someone had two ideas for a movie--a robotic astronaut and the typical 'aliens need women to survive' plot--and just meshed them together into something fairly lucid and all-around entertaining.   Of special interest is the ending, in which the two monsters of the title have a battle royale.    The makeup on the Frankenstein--half of his face is nothing but melted circuit boards and vague human features--is especially impressive and quite cool.    So odd that since many toy companies are making creatures from older horror/scifi films that Colonel Frank Saunders/Frankenstein has been ignored, as well as the Space Monster which is quite good considering the budget.

However, the film does have its ups and downs.    Nadir, a nosferatuish looking alien advisor to the all-too-human-looking Princess of the Destroyed Planet, really needs some makeup work as his ears are obviously fake, nothing more than too much spirit gum heaped on his ears.    The spaceship of the aliens is also too small for the sets they used for the interior (of course, this could be a TARDIS of some sort....well, it could!) and the explanation for Frank's irrational murder spree before he's repaired is just goofy.   He's obviously supposed to be the hero of the piece, and since he gives his 'life' at the end to destroy the aliens and stop their girl-grabbing operation, how can we really be sorry if he's already taken five lives (often without any point--note the 'kill the cleaning woman' scene)?    However, the movie is nearly over an hour, so this might have been added to bulk the running time and since the aliens couldn't hock so many women without it getting boring, this was probably the reason why.

Either way, I can't imagine any better ways of spending an hour, especially now with the summer viewing season ahead.

BOTTOM LINE:  A nifty little sci-fi flick with nice music and two very neat concepts meshing together brilliantly.   Short enough to not be boring, interesting enough to watch again.   Four out of Four Stars.