82) Fatman (2020)

"All I have is a loathing for a world that's forgotten."

Director

Eshom Nelms

Ian Nelms

Cast

Mel Gibson - Chris Cringle

Marianne Jean-Baptiste - Ruth Cringle

Chance Hurstfield - Billy Wenan

Walton Goggins - Skinny Man

Eric Wolfe - Elf 7

I've said before that a movie's first objective is entertainment. A movie might have the purest of morals and top-of-the-line actors, but if it's not entertaining, it has already begun to fail. I believe this is true of all movies I've seen, from The Passion of the Christ to Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

I love those rare occasions where a trailer leaves my mouth agape, and I ask to whomever is listening, "what the hell was that?" 

The 2020 dark fantasy comedy Fatman starring America's favorite troubled celebrity, Mel Gibson, was released during the holidays last year.

I wanted to go see it, but I wasn't able to for quarantine reasons. 

In the trailer for Fatman, I saw Gibson as some realistic rendition of Santa Claus wielding a gun while in a loathing frame of mind. 

I had to wait for the movie to come out on DVD to watch. I wasn't able to get my hands on until now, just after Easter.

After watching it, I was left with the question "what the hell was that?" However, it wasn't quite the same inquiry as it was after I saw the trailer.

Fatman is a more realistic rendition of a world where Santa exists. 

In this movie, Chris Cringle (Gibson) lives in North Peak, Alaska, with his wife, Ruth (Marianne Jean-Baptiste). I supposed that's close enough to the North Pole? Also, he's not really fat. But now I'm nitpicking. 

His toy workshop operates like a typical manufacturing company. And he keeps his sleigh in the barn under some tarps like it's an old Mustang he works on when he has time. 

Cringle's annual toy income is declining thanks to more and more children falling away from any moral compass. He's hasn't turned evil, nor is he out for revenge. Cringle is crestfallen and tired under the weight of watching corruption of the modern entitled world swallow youth one child at a time.

Though not everyone knows Cringle really exists despite the label on the toys he delivers declaring "built in Santa's workshop." The U.S. Government is certainly aware of Cringle's existence, and is interested in using his facilities for a short while. 

The government sends Capt. Jacobs , Cringle's liaison to the Government, to offer Cringle a two-month contract allowing the use of his facility and workforce (i.e. the elves) to produce parts and components for new U.S. Military jet fighters.

With funds running on the short side, Cringle reluctantly agrees to help compensate those financial shortcomings. 

Meanwhile, a boy named Billy Wenan (Chance Hurstfield), who lives with his wealthy grandmother and is neglected by his father, doesn't accept losing in his life. He's a child who'll stoop to criminal acts in order to get what he believes is rightfully his.

He goes so far as to kidnap a classmate who beat him at a science fair, threaten her with starter cables, and force her to falsely admit she cheated in the fair so he can win another 1st Place ribbon.

After receiving a lump of coal for Christmas - the only negative consequence to his maliciousness - Billy hires hitman Jonathan Miller (Walton Goggins), using his grandmother's money, to kill Santa. 

Miller agrees, and soon figures out where Cringle lives.

While Cringle deals with his belief that he's been a failure in influencing good in people (especially children) as his workshop and farm are temporarily taken over by the Military, Miller makes the long road trip up through Canada and into Alaska to locate and kill Cringle. 

Miller, by the way, has his own vendetta against Santa Claus. 

Mel Gibson as Chris Cringle in Fatman.

It sounds silly as I type out the basic summery of the plot. But it doesn't feel nearly as silly while watching it. The movie tries overall succeeds at setting an overall serious tone. At least, the majority does.

Nothing necessarily stands out about Santa except for his familiarity with the strangers he meets. They don't know Chris, but he certainly knows them, and whether they've been naughty or nice. This would be an interesting world to explore further.  

I certainly have to applaud the film's originality. Not since the 1964 science fiction comedy movie Santa Claus Conquers the Martians has a Christmas movie centering on the jolly old fat man taken a road away from the same old Santa formula. 

Several movies have been made in the past depicting Santa becoming homicidal maniac - Christmas Evil (1980), Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010), and Sint (2010) to name a few. 

Fatman is different. The subtleties help tell the story. 

Though Chris Cringle doesn't fancy himself in the traditional image as St. Nicholas as he struggles in a world leaning more and more towards self-indulgence and entitlement, he still maintains a few of those traditional Christmas customs. 

Cringle has a steady snack diet of Christmas cookies his wife makes. He still tries to maintain some kind of joy within though struggles with a disdain for the world and the direction it's going. He blames himself and wants to quit, and his wife Ruth helps keep his spirits bright.

Goggins portrayal of the hitman Jonathan Miller (credited as "the Skinny Man") is perfect. It's a smidge over the top, but in a movie like this, it needs to be. You want to see him receive the worst consequences. He's a broken man bandaged up with the belief he's outside of consequences. He was failed as a child, so he believes he deserves to get something out of life anyway he can to compensate. Goggins is so well cast for this role as he makes his character someone audiences love hating, and not just because he's out to kill Chris Cringle.  

Chance Hurstfield's performance is fantastic as he makes a convincing child who is willing to kill anyone who crosses him. 

He has an amazing amount of talent he puts into his role.

Hurstfield turns off the innocence like a switch, changing with a skip of his foot into an unsympathetic little shit willing to go the route of criminality to get what he wants. Like Miller, his mind puts him in a place that's out of reach from consequences.  

A selfish sense of entitlement left unchecked can easily lead to violence that'll soon look to kill even the best among us. 

Fatman is rather bold to a degree with all its elements put together. I enjoyed watching it all playout, with Gibson playing a version of Santa that is more grounded in reality, though he still has his elves making toys, and reindeer to pull his sleigh. 

Chance Hurstfield as Billy.

The movie is categorized as a dark comedy. It is dark. And it's more comedic in the sense that it's certainly not routine nor following age old Christmas formulas, rather than being "ha ha" funny. It's not technically a horror, so I'm stretching it a bit since it's dark - there's blood and people get blown away. The story tries to be realistic, edgy, and subtlety fantastical. It builds up suspense, tension, and trepidation which all ends with mere pop rather than a bang. Nevertheless, I walked away entertained.

81) Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1966)

"While you finish preparing, I shall activate the artificial brain."

Director

William Beaudine

Cast

John Lupton - Jesse James

Narda Onyx - Dr. Maria Frankenstein

Cal Balder - Hank/ Igor

Estelita Rodriguez - Juanita Lopez

Jim Davis - Marshal MacPhee

Steven Geray - Rudolph Frankenstein

Rayford Barnes - Lonny Curry 

With the recent release of Godzilla vs Kong last month, a rematch fans waited nearly 60 years to see, I was curious as to what other horrific crossovers have wowed audiences in the past. Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943), Dracula vs Frankenstein (1971), Freddy vs. Jason (2003), and Alien vs. Predator (2004) are just a few titles.

Regardless of whether a crossover movie has a bad story or not, audiences always seem to remember the fight over the plot. Even before Godzilla vs. Kong, people talked about Toho's third Godzilla movie, King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962). Even if they had never seen it, they knew of its existence. 

It was the ultimate showdown between the East and the West before Godzilla vs. Kong. 

After my review of one rather forgotten crossover movie, Billy the Kid vs. Dracula, I came across another title - Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter. It was released the same year, and has the same director, William Beaudine. With a title like this, surely this must be the crossover of all crossovers! Right?

Beaudine, by the way, directed the Walt Disney western classic Westward Ho, the Wagons! (1956) as well as another horror crossover I just have to find and watch - Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952). 

I never thought I would stumble upon a copy of Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (not that I was actually looking for a copy), but I did.

I found it packaged in a collection of other more or less obscure horror thrillers called "50 Chilling Classics." They're a package of public domain films, including Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon, Drive-in Massacre, I Bury the Living, Man in the Attic, Lady Frankenstein, Messiah of Evil, Silent Night Bloody Night, and Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory. These are likely movies most people never heard, including myself. Still, it was the best $10 I ever spent. I'm anxious to watch each one.

Despite the title, Jesse James really meets Frankenstein's Granddaughter. 

In this movie, Dr. Maria Frankenstein (Narda Onyx) is living out west in an abandoned mission she uses as a laboratory.

She continues the experimentation her late grandfather performed, this time on children and cadavers. After kidnapping them, she replaces their brains with artificial ones in order to use them as her slaves. Her brother, Dr. Rudolph Frankenstein (Steven Geray), works as her assistant. 

Little does Maria know that the reason her experiments fail is because Rudolph secretly injects the subjects with poison moments after she revives them. He has a bad conscious participating in her experiments because they're initially playing God on stolen children. He'd rather see them dead than as zombified slaves to his sister.

One of those kidnapped children is the son of Mañuel and Nina Lopez. The couple, along with their daughter Juanita (Estelita Rodriguez), are out searching for their missing son. 

Meanwhile, the outlaw Jesse James (John Lupton) and his muscular henchman, Hank Tracy (Cal Bolder), enter town to join with a local gang called the Wild Bunch, led by Butch Curry (Roger Creed).

They intend to rob an incoming stagecoach carrying $100,000. 

Before the stagecoach arrives in town, Butch's brother and fellow gang member, Lonny (Rayford Barnes), goes to Marshal MacPhee (Jim Davis) about the planned holdup as he wants to go straight from now on, and collect the bounty for James's capture. 

James Lupton and Narda Onyx in Jesse James
Meets Frankenstein's Daughter

When the stagecoach finally arrives, the gang attempt to rob it but the Marshal and his deputies engage them in a shootout, wounding Hank in the shoulder. 

James and Hank escape the gunfire, and stumble upon the Lopez's campsite. 

With Hank wounded and bleeding, James asks the family if they can join them, which they permit. 

Juanita tends to Hank's wound, and offers to take him to a hospital in town. 

Knowing that neither of them can go back into town, James declines the offer.

Juanita then offers to take them to the mission where Dr. Frankenstein resides. 

Her parents, however, forbid she goes there knowing that there's something evil taking place within the mission walls. 

During the middle of the night, Juanita wakes the two men up and secretly takes them to see Dr. Frankenstein. 

Frankenstein agrees to help Hank, though she's really interested in using him as part of her experimentation. Being well built, muscular and healthy, Hank is ideal for her evil scheme. 

When the Marshal starts sniffing around the mission for James and Hank, Frankenstein covers for them. 

She also attempts to seduce James, but he resists. 

Frustrated her advances didn't work, she sets James up by sending him to the town pharmacist with a note he believes is a prescription for Hank. Not bothering to read it, the note actually gives away his identity. 

James does what Frankenstein asks, and gives the note to the pharmacist. 

The pharmacist tries to not show any alarm, and says he has to go into the back room to find what he needs. He actually sneaks over to the Marshal's office to tell him Jesse James is at his pharmacy. The Marshal isn't in, but Lonny is. 

He tells the pharmacist to stall James while he goes over there to shoot him.

Frankenstein starts operating on Hank, and gives him an artificial brain. 

While she successfully revives him with a new brain, and turns him into a slave with the name Igor, Frankenstein discovers Rudolph attempting to sabotage her work on Hank. She catches on that this is why her experiments failed before. 

James returns from the pharmacy, royally pissed that Frankenstein set him up. 

She orders Igor to knock him out, which he does.

They strap Jesse to an operating table and Maria prepares to do an experiment on him as well. 

The majority of this movie is a western with a splash of science fiction horror. It's not until the third act that the horror comes out. 

Though it's easy to poke fun at this movie, especially as the title is the most intriguing part, the story is actually not as terrible as it might sound. It's certainly not cinematic gold. It's not even as memorable as other horror crossovers. It just barely works.

There's an old adage that no one sets out to make a bad movie. 

The acting and writing has some effort behind it, and it shows.

Somehow the story in Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter barely passes by as a decent enough film.

It's as campy as any other western of the era is - gun fights, western sets, and in this case, a mad scientist with a laboratory.

Narda Onyx as Dr. Maria Frankenstein

The two scenarios just do not mix well. 

The film takes place in the 1880s, yet Frankenstein has electronic equipment set up that I'm sure didn't exist during this period. And though she relies on lightening, it's unclear how she's able to electronically feed her equipment. If she has a generator, how is that powered? 

Anyways, the two styles are like oil and water on screen in this movie. 

Looking past that, it's the pairing of the outlaw Jesse James against Dr. Frankenstein's granddaughter that manages to be intriguing. 

It's nothing more than an imaginative hour and a half popcorn classic.

The actors, especially Narda Onyx, seem to be having fun in the production. Otherwise, if it wasn't for the protagonist and antagonist, the movie would be just another 1960s schlock film. (Actually, it already is, to be honest. Without Frankenstein's name in the title, it would be even more so.) 

I wanted to see how the writers of this movie pull it off. It really is a stretch. I don't see how it couldn't be so. 

As I said, the story might be bad, but the fight is remembered by the audience for a long time. In this case, anyone who has seen this movie will surely remember when the historic Jesse James met the granddaughter of Dr. Henry Frankenstein . 

Incidentally, villainous female mad scientists, especially during this era, are few and far between. Just off the top of my head, the only other villainous female mad scientist I can think of is Dr. Pamela Isley, also known as "Poison Ivy." She's one of Batman's foes in the comic books. Her first appearance, by the way, was in Batman issue #181 published in 1966 - the same year as this movie's release. Coincidence? Yeah, probably. I'm sure a Google search can come up with more names. But as far as I know, Dr. Maria Frankenstein is among the earliest female mad scientists. How's that for progressivism?

I have to add that John Lupton resembles Jesse James a bit, too. Good work, casting director. 

It's movies like this that deserve a remake.