Synopsis

The movie opens on a scene at night with a man kissing a woman on a sidewalk. Suzie Lawler (Tally Todd) rebuffs her lothario, so he storms off in his car. As Suzie turns to walk home she sees the visage of a cavewoman in a nightgown. She screams, not recognizing her girlfriend, Trudy Morton (Sandra Knight). Trudy is dazed and confused. She has black bushy eyebrows and thick dark teeth. We zoom in on her face as the title is shown. Credits roll in white font over a black background.Trudy wakes up in her bed. She thought she had a nightmare and is relieved it is over. Her uncle, Carter Morton (Felix Locher) enters and reminds her, "It's late dear. I thought you had a date for tennis." She confesses she didn't sleep well, "It seems so real, as though it actually happened." Carter dismisses himself and Trudy gets ready for her tennis date. Oliver Frank (Donald Murphy) waits downstairs for his collaborator to start work. Carter unlocks the door to the lab. An impatient Oliver reminds Carter again, "If you'd let me have a key I could have begun work an hour ago." Carter argues with Oliver over their approach. Finally Carter asks point-blank, "Oliver, do you want to quit? Say so. Just say you quit and go." They don their lab coats, Carter resigned to be stuck with Oliver Frank until this line of research is completed. His goal is a formula that wipes out all disease in mankind, "Man will be ageless." Oliver throws cold water on Carter's dream, "I'm afraid you're on the wrong track. Your formula may work on internal cells, but it causes violent disfigurement to sensitive exposed skin areas."At the tennis courts, Suzie tells her boyfriend, Don (Harold Lloyd, Jr.) and Trudy's boyfriend, Johnny Bruder (John Ashley) about the monster woman she saw the evening before. Trudy arrives and is told about Suzie's horror story. Trudy warns, "Nightmares are nothing to laugh about. I had one myself, last night." The story intrigues Trudy and she asks for more details. Trudy begs off playing tennis, obviously upset. Johnny asks Trudy what's the matter. She tells Johnny, "It's as though Suzie and I had the exact same dream." She recounts the evening's events. She stayed home, had some fruit punch with Oliver Frank, felt tired, and then went to bed.Carter pronounces his latest test as no good. Of course, Oliver tells him, "Well, I could have told you that. Even if it did work it would have only been temporary." Carter has to remind him of their working relationship. Elsu (Wolfe Barzell), the gardener, interrupts to tell Carter he has completed some household chore. Carter suspects Elsu is a spy. Oliver suggests throwing out the latest test formula, but Carter overrules him, "I'm sure if I could get some Digenerol as a catalyst, it would work." He promises to get some from the Rockwell Labs, but Oliver cautions him not to do anything that brings police scrutiny. Trudy is in the living room reading Screen Stars magazine. Elsu comes in and presents her a flower. She is uneasy and repelled by the unwanted attention from the gardener. Uncle Carter throws him out. Elsu encounters Oliver on his way out. Oliver asks, "Tonight?" Elsu quietly replies, "There will be an automobile accident." He chuckles and promises to get it. Carter leaves to get his Digenerol, leaving the unctuous Oliver to paw at Trudy. She rebuffs his attentions with a cute remark about her plans for the evening, "In the pool for a swim. And I'd suggest you take a cold shower." Oliver returns to the lab door, and using a key he had made, starts work on a body. Elsu arrives, letting himself in through a secret entrance behind a bookcase. He is carrying a bundle wrapped in a towel. Oliver tells him he needed an entire head, not the part he secured. It is revealed that Oliver's real last name is actually Frankenstein. He instructs Elsu to return the body to the storage room. Judy swims in the pool as Oliver mixes up a potion. He offers her some "fruit punch" as a peace offering. He convinces her to drain her glass. She immediately gets woozy and heads for her bedroom. She starts to transform before she falls into bed. Transformation complete she gets up and sees her reflection in her makeup mirror. She lunges at Oliver in the doorway. By now her eyes are bugged out and her skin wrinkled and leathery. Oliver used too much of the formula.Police Lt. Boyle (John Zaremba) is on the phone in his office. He is taking a report from a man reporting a monster woman wearing a bathing suit. Boyle tells Police Detective Bill Dillon (Robert Dix) about the call. Boyle gets another call from a woman reporting the same monster in a bathing suit. The pair go to investigate. Oliver and Elsu prepare an antidote to give Trudy. Boyle and Dillon check on the woman (Charlotte Portney) who reported the creature. Her face is scratched and bloody. After she finishes her story, Boyle pulls his gun and searches for the creature. They spot Trudy and fire their weapons at her. She runs and topples some trash cans. The commotion draws Oliver with his antidote. Oliver captures Trudy. The next morning the local newspaper headline screams, "Woman Monster Menaces City!" Carter asks Oliver about the story. He is incredulous, telling Oliver, "Rubbish. Like the myths and the legends of the Dark Ages. These are headlines to sell newspapers my boy." The mention of Frankenstein gets a rise out of Oliver. Carter shows Oliver his new acquisition, a bottle of Digenerol. Trudy wakes, now back to normal, but still wearing her one piece bathing suit.Mr. Rockwell (Voltaire Perkins) is in Boyle's office to report a robbery at Rockwell Labs. He explains that, "That drug is very dangerous. It degenerates tissu