Shocktober 2026 - Jesse James meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1966)

“Maria, you've already caused the death of three children and violated the graves of others just to make the experiments.” – Dr Rudolph Frankenstein

It was inevitable that if I was covering the first part of the double bill I saw back in ’74, then I’d be covering the second half. If you thought Billy the Kid vs Dracula was a turkey, and let’s face it, it is, then I’m warning you now, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter is even worse. In fact, having watched both movies in order to write them up for this year’s Shocktober, I’ve come to the conclusion that this film makes Billy the Kid vs Dracula look pretty good in comparison. As I said in that last article, I could see that film being remade as a serious, legit horror western. This movie though – there’s just no chance. None. It’s beyond salvage. It’s a Z grade movie that doesn’t even have the advantage of being misguidedly or unintentionally funny.

Once again, in the director’s chair is William “One Shot” Beaudine, and let’s just remind ourselves he got that nickname because he didn’t like several takes of any scenes. A reminder also that he shot both this and Billy the Kid vs Dracula back to back in EIGHT days, leaving a budget surplus of $25,000.

On to the film, and the plot – such as it is. (This won’t take long.)

It’s the old west in the 1800’s. We’re in a small town quickly on its way to becoming a ghost town. Looking down at it from the top of a hill is a large, ominous looking house where the survivors of the Frankenstein family have escaped to from Europe. These are Frankenstein’s grandchildren, Maria (Nara Onyx whose career seemingly died with this film, she never acted again) and her brother who looks old enough to be her father, Rudolph (Steven Geray who retired shortly after this.) Why America? Well, the storms in the prairie have lightning in abundance, and we all know that lightning and the Frankensteins go together like politics and corruption. The siblings can’t help themselves; they’ve been experimenting again, killing the village children under the guise of treating them for a mysterious illness. And when I say “they” it’s Maria who’s clearly in charge here. She only has one of her grandfather’s artificial brains left for an experiment.

Whoa! Wait! Grandfather????

Yep – from the dialogue it seems that Maria and Rudolph are Frankenstein’s grandchildren. But maybe that didn’t make for as snappy a title. Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Grandkids? (I can feel the will to type leaving my fingers.)

Jesse James (John Lupton), according to the narrative, didn’t die as everyone was led to believe, he’s still in the holdup and robbery business, joining forces temporarily with the Wild Bunch because his own gang is now down to a dopey, lumbering halfwit named Hank (Cal Bolder). When a planned robbery goes wrong, the Wild Bunch are wiped out and Hank catches a bullet to the shoulder. Escaping the law, Jesse and Hank come across a family who have left the town where the Frankenstein family are based, and persuade the daughter Juanita (Estelita Rodriguez – who also retired after this film) to take them where Hank can get medical attention.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that they end up at the Frankenstein lab, where Maria uses Hank as a host for the last brain. In order to carry out the experiment, Maria shaves Hank’s head and puts an army WW2 surplus helmet on him, with red, green and yellow tape wrapped around it to hold on a neon tube (no, I’m not kidding). She also wears one herself. See for yourself below.

He, for reasons I’ll never understand, is renamed Igor and becomes, for a short spell, Maria’s slave. Until Maria tells him to kill Juanita, but he turns on Maria and strangles her instead. Juanita shoots Igor/Hank/Whatever, and begs Jesse to stay, but Jesse being a fugitive rides off into the sunset. (As a 14 year old, I never questioned ANY of this.)

Thinking about it now, maybe the film should’ve been called “Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter but Only in Passing”. We’re still not done with besmirching the good name of Frankenstein – but that’s for another day in your very near future.

Next time, you’ll never see him coming…

Until then…

Don't forget the Piercing the Veil Shocktober Special at this link.