Villain(s)  Reanimated corpse from parts

Actor(s):  Whit Bissell, Phyllis Coates, Robert Burton, Gary Conway

Brief Description  I Was a Teenage Frankenstein is a 1957 science fiction horror film directed by Herbert L. Strock and produced by Herman Cohen for American International Pictures (AIP). Released as a double feature with Blood of Dracula, it served as the immediate thematic follow-up to AIP's massive box-office hit I Was a Teenage Werewolf. The film is celebrated for its campy drive-in style, 1950s youth-culture tropes, and its unique visual gimmick: a black-and-white film that abruptly shifts into vivid color for its shocking finale.

Plot:
Professor Frankenstein, a ruthless British scientist lecturing in the United States, lives out his ancestral obsession in an all-American small town. He convinces his colleague, Dr. Karlton, to help him fulfill his forefather's dream of creating artificial human life. Frankenstein argues that using body parts from dead teenagers is ideal because their organs are younger and more "alive". Conveniently, a horrific automobile wreck occurs right outside his home. The professor recovers the body of a teenage boy from the crash and carries it down to his secret basement laboratory and morgue. To maintain total privacy, he hires a secretary named Margaret to keep callers away from the house, while strictly forbidding her from accessing the basement.

Frankenstein systematically grafts various stolen limbs and organs onto the crash victim. He activates the creature using high-voltage electricity. The resulting monster is a hulking, muscular young man with an incredibly grotesque, severely disfigured face. When the monster awakens, he is miserable, confused, and prone to emotional outbursts. In one of the movie's most famous camp lines, Frankenstein demands, "Speak! You have a civil tongue in your head. I know, because I sewed it back myself!" To keep his operation clean, Frankenstein routinely disposes of unneeded human body parts by tossing them into a hidden alligator pit beneath the laboratory.

Growing restless, the monster escapes the basement one night and wanders into the neighborhood. He peers through the window of a local girl's apartment. Terrified by his face, she screams hysterically. Panicking in his attempt to quiet her, the monster accidentally kills her and flees back to the lab. Meanwhile, Margaret becomes deeply suspicious of the bizarre sounds coming from the basement. She sneaks downstairs and discovers the monster. When she angrily confronts Professor Frankenstein and threatens to expose the truth, the cold-blooded scientist orders the monster to kill her. Frankenstein then feeds Margaret's remains to his pet alligator.

Determined to complete his masterpiece, Frankenstein takes the monster to a local "lover's lane". They ambush a handsome teenage boy, killing him solely to steal his face. The facial graft is a success, turning the creature into an attractive, normal-looking teen. With the project complete, Frankenstein reveals his true, selfish intentions to Dr. Karlton: he plans to dismember the teenager, pack his body parts into separate shipping crates, transport him back to England, and reassemble him there to take full credit. Overhearing this betrayal, the monster rebels as they attempt to strap him back onto the operating table. The monster breaks free and attacks his creator, hurling Professor Frankenstein directly into the alligator pit.

As the monster rages in terror, the film dramatically shifts from black-and-white to full color. Blinded by fear, the creature backs into the laboratory's high-voltage electrical control board, electrocuting himself. Dr. Karlton arrives with the police just in time to find both the professor and the monster dead. The alligator used in the film reportedly belonged to Joe Ball, a notorious 1930s Texas serial killer known as the "Alligator Man," who used his pet reptiles to dispose of his human victims. To capitalize on the teen-horror drive-in craze of 1957, producer Herman Cohen wrote, filmed, and completed the entire movie in a mere four weeks.