29 reviews
No Freezer Burn Here
- BaronBl00d
- Oct 30, 2009
- Permalink
A Cool Characterization from Delphi Lawrence
- wes-connors
- Jun 27, 2008
- Permalink
"When life is suspended, time has no meaning at all."
- classicsoncall
- Dec 17, 2005
- Permalink
Is his future put on ice?
Are you ready for this? A scientist(Mark Stevens)and his attractive assistant Dr. Helen Wieland(Marianne Koch)are working with suspended animation and while trying to prove their theory he subjects himself to the big freeze. Meanwhile his jealous and drunkard wife(Delphi Lawrence)is murdered and being in a frozen state does not an alibi make. In spite of a cult following this chunk of ice is hardly worth defrosting. Suspended interest. Unanimated suspense. Predictable story line. Still it is fun to watch. Also in the cast are: Joachim Hansen, Walter Rilla, John Longden and Wolfgang Lukschy. Lawrence is over-the-top and her character is so easy to dislike. On the other hand it is obvious to see why she would be jealous of her husband's assistant. Catch this as part of AMC Monsterfest.
- michaelRokeefe
- May 17, 2004
- Permalink
Pretty Tame Stuff
As someone already said, this is a silly melodrama. It's more about a triangle with two scientists and the drunken wife of one of them. The fact that they are performing experiments in suspended animation using low temperatures is really not an issue. It is secondary to the efforts of the man to continue to live with this unstable women. At least her character is pretty believable. She is pathetic and unpredictable. The man is more than patient. The subplot has to do with the determination to perform these experiments on human subjects, which is met with resistance by the head of the lab. Even that is poorly portrayed and uninteresting.
Don't freeze, freezing only makes you look guilty!
I must have seen a lot more bad movies than the other reviewers who have reviewed this movie on the IMDb, because while it's definitely a long defunct sci fi flick, it wasn't THAT bad. In the world of bad movies, Frozen Alive is nowhere near the bottom of the barrel, but it's still pretty unendurable. The story is flat as a pancake and is never interesting, but the main problem is that it is so clearly two different kinds of movies squeezed into one, and the result just doesn't work.
A scientist is working on a system of deep-freezing monkeys, and then decides to use himself as a human test subject. Unfortunately, just before his own deep freeze, his wife dies a violent death and he becomes the prime suspect. The police investigators, of course, come knocking just as he is entering deep freeze, which is not exactly a quick catnap that he can be shaken awake from.
One half of the story deals with the scientist, a mid-50s or so man with salt and pepper hair and intense facial features, and his enormously alcoholic wife, a blonde bimbo who looks no less than 30 years his junior. It's too bad that they have no chemistry on screen whatsoever, otherwise this portion of the story would have been slightly less pathetic. The scene where he is holding her in his arms and telling her he wants them to try for a baby is highly disturbing.
The other half of the story deals with the deep freeze experimentation. This is the part that would make this a sci fi movie, although there is nothing really sci fi about it. If he had frozen himself and woken up in another time, then you have sci fi. Instead, he just freezes himself and then wakes back up. Who cares? As a result, it comes off as nothing more than a goofy crime drama soap opera about a guy trying to design a perfect cryogenetic freezer. And it's a shame, because there's a chance that there could have been two separate, and much better, movies made with this story...
A scientist is working on a system of deep-freezing monkeys, and then decides to use himself as a human test subject. Unfortunately, just before his own deep freeze, his wife dies a violent death and he becomes the prime suspect. The police investigators, of course, come knocking just as he is entering deep freeze, which is not exactly a quick catnap that he can be shaken awake from.
One half of the story deals with the scientist, a mid-50s or so man with salt and pepper hair and intense facial features, and his enormously alcoholic wife, a blonde bimbo who looks no less than 30 years his junior. It's too bad that they have no chemistry on screen whatsoever, otherwise this portion of the story would have been slightly less pathetic. The scene where he is holding her in his arms and telling her he wants them to try for a baby is highly disturbing.
The other half of the story deals with the deep freeze experimentation. This is the part that would make this a sci fi movie, although there is nothing really sci fi about it. If he had frozen himself and woken up in another time, then you have sci fi. Instead, he just freezes himself and then wakes back up. Who cares? As a result, it comes off as nothing more than a goofy crime drama soap opera about a guy trying to design a perfect cryogenetic freezer. And it's a shame, because there's a chance that there could have been two separate, and much better, movies made with this story...
- Anonymous_Maxine
- Aug 8, 2008
- Permalink
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Brain Freeze!
This completely worthless piece of cheap European-produced 60's guff is available in a DVD box-set called "Tales from the Future", along with eleven other titles that really don't deserve to be seen by anyone. In fact, a more suitable albeit less appealing title for the collection would have been "Tales that belong in Oblivion for being so crappy". "Frozen Alive" is a boring, overly talkative, tension-free and soporific romantic melodrama that only just pretends to be a Sci-Fi story. A scientist and his attractive female German colleague are performing scientific experiments on chimpanzees, like putting them in the deep freezer for three months, but what they are really doing is fall madly in love with each other. Meanwhile, the scientist's alcoholic wife is killed by her lover and he gets blamed for it. Of course, it's rather suspicious of him to volunteer as the first human guinea pig immediately after his wife goes missing. Everything about this tiresome little production is insufferably mundane, from Bernard Knowles' motionless direction over the incredibly wooden acting performances of the two leads onto the irritatingly clichéd dialogs. Delphi Lawrence's performance as the arrogant wife in a seemingly permanent state of drunkenness is believable, but boring & pointless nevertheless. If you want to see nonsensical stories about triangular relationships and married people nagging to each other, you're probably better off watching "The Bold & the Beautiful" or any other randomly sappy Soap Opera show, instead of wasting money on a DVD-collection that supposedly contains Sci-Fi movies. Bah!
Freezer Burned
- bnwfilmbuff
- Oct 5, 2021
- Permalink
overlooked mst3k fodder...
- highway234
- Jun 22, 2009
- Permalink
One of the dullest
Well it's a great title for a B-movie, but this simply has to be one of the dreariest and dullest films of all time – a film that even comes close to rivalling the obscure Filipino flick THE THIRSTY DEAD in terms of sheer awfulness. Although the title makes it sound like an engaging little thriller and the advertising sells it as a science fiction movie, in reality this is a boring little crime thriller from West Germany. Now, I'm all for German films from this period – the '60s krimi adaptations of Edgar Wallace stories were atmospheric and excellent – but this flick totally misses the ball, coming across more as a stilted soap opera rather than anything else.
British director Bernard Knowles was a celebrated cinematographer in his day, shooting movies for Hitchcock, before turning his hand to direction with many television series during the 1950s. Unfortunately those TV episodes seem to have rubbed off in terms of this talky, plot-free mess. After an inordinate amount of time, a leading scientist decides to test his new suspended animation gear on himself, only for his wife to accidentally shoot herself at the same time. The police, naturally, suspect the scientist of murder...
The problem is that this storyline doesn't actually happen until the hour mark – and before then we get talk, more talk, and some dialogue thrown in too. The script is unappealing, the characters unendearing and the actors frankly awful – there's more ham here than on your local chiller shelf at Tesco's. Delphi Lawrence as the drunken wife is the worst culprit, while other cast members veer between wooden and hammy. There's absolutely nothing in the way of action in the entire movie and the ending, while rushed, manages to feel dragged out in itself. This really is a non-starter of a film, with the short running time – 75 minutes – easily feeling like three times that amount. It took me three goes to finish watching FROZEN ALIVE and I consider myself somebody with a good attention span, so my advice is to give this one a miss...
British director Bernard Knowles was a celebrated cinematographer in his day, shooting movies for Hitchcock, before turning his hand to direction with many television series during the 1950s. Unfortunately those TV episodes seem to have rubbed off in terms of this talky, plot-free mess. After an inordinate amount of time, a leading scientist decides to test his new suspended animation gear on himself, only for his wife to accidentally shoot herself at the same time. The police, naturally, suspect the scientist of murder...
The problem is that this storyline doesn't actually happen until the hour mark – and before then we get talk, more talk, and some dialogue thrown in too. The script is unappealing, the characters unendearing and the actors frankly awful – there's more ham here than on your local chiller shelf at Tesco's. Delphi Lawrence as the drunken wife is the worst culprit, while other cast members veer between wooden and hammy. There's absolutely nothing in the way of action in the entire movie and the ending, while rushed, manages to feel dragged out in itself. This really is a non-starter of a film, with the short running time – 75 minutes – easily feeling like three times that amount. It took me three goes to finish watching FROZEN ALIVE and I consider myself somebody with a good attention span, so my advice is to give this one a miss...
- Leofwine_draca
- Jul 19, 2016
- Permalink
Looks very realistic!
A very interesting, well-played, directed subject. Marianne Koch (beautiful Marisol from Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars" achieved a year before), which even has studied medicine in real life, performs excellently a Doctor of Science.
The movie is too good for just 3.6 stars, so I'll give it 10.
- RodrigAndrisan
- Feb 2, 2019
- Permalink
Much better British chiller suspense film than cinephiles would readily admit!
Yes, I'm probably giving it way too many stars, but I really have a proclivity both for British films of the 60's and sci-fi thrillers about cryogenics and suspended animation. I didn't pay too much for this (it was part of my now-infamous Mill Creek 50-pack called 'Nightmare Worlds'), it wasn't very long (around 70 minutes in my cut), had jazzy, African and crooning music that I found highly enjoyable, had two gorgeous actresses at its core and a bizarre plot (which intercut plot lines of becoming the first to safely freeze and re-animate a human being, with an accidental shooting death that the scientist/first human subject is the main suspect of), and though it was rather predictable, I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would easily recommend it to anyone that likes B-movies from the 60's. You could do a heck of a lot worse.
Somewhat relatedly, I would to see any other films that either Marianne Koch or Delphi Lawrence were in. I loved both of them dearly in this film.
Somewhat relatedly, I would to see any other films that either Marianne Koch or Delphi Lawrence were in. I loved both of them dearly in this film.
- talisencrw
- Apr 13, 2016
- Permalink
Huge disappointment.
- DanielWRichardson
- Jun 12, 2008
- Permalink
Freezer Burn
- henri sauvage
- Feb 13, 2008
- Permalink
Static and dull...
- planktonrules
- May 23, 2010
- Permalink
Too bad icy wives can't be thawed.
- mark.waltz
- Oct 28, 2023
- Permalink
Frozen Limits
Made and set in Berlin under a veteran British director with a largely German cast and crew (the stern presence of Walter Rilla is always a sure sign during this period that we're watching an Anglo-German co-production) and a characteristically noisy Germanic jazz score; the title 'Frozen Alive' suggests an early film on the then hot (if you'll pardon the expression) subject of cryogenics: a word never actually used in the film itself. Unfortunately it proves disconcertingly similar to the previous year's 'The Mind Benders' (1963), which showed far less interest in the potentially fascinating subject of sensory deprivation than - as with this film - the marital problems of the scientist at the centre of the narrative.
Delphi Lawrence is, however, a blast as Dr.Overton's glossy blonde wife - supposedly a famous fashion journalist, and with distinctly Germanic dress sense - first seen pouring herself the first of many, many drinks with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth as she also pours out her heart to her long-suffering German lover (Joachim Hansen). The film's production values, photography and pacing feel more like a TV production of the period; and even at just 75 minutes it feels wearisomely drawn out (such as a bizarrely irrelevant sequence in a bar with Joan Overton and her lover watching a fire-eater, of all things). Occasionally the film cuts back and forth between Overton in his lab and his wife's drunken maunderings as if something sufficiently dramatic is happening that actually calls for such emphatic editing, and even Ms. Lawrence begins to outstay her welcome when she starts waving her lover's gun about as if it's a toy - although it results in a wonderful death scene; both ludicrous and then moving as it finally sinks in on the poor woman just how completely she's screwed up...
After meandering for so long, the film then suddenly rushes headlong towards an extremely abrupt conclusion - as if director Bernard Knowles has finally realised that if it's going to be sold as science fiction, 'Frozen Alive' needs some laboratory footage to include in the trailer and on the posters. Wolfgang Lukschy (reunited with his recent 'Fistful of Dollars' co-star Marianne Koch), as Inspector Prenton goes out of his way to be as boorish and unprofessional as only the detective in a German crime film can be (while his sidekick provides one of the film's occasional flashes of mellow humour by actually showing an interest in what the scientists are getting up to and ruefully pleading with his boss "Can't I watch, sir?" when instructed to watch the door while Overton is defrosted).
Apart from Ms. Lawrence, the other Brit in the film is the veteran actor John Longden as the avuncular Professor Hubbard, making his final film appearance 35 years after starring in Hitchcock's 'Blackmail' (1929).
Delphi Lawrence is, however, a blast as Dr.Overton's glossy blonde wife - supposedly a famous fashion journalist, and with distinctly Germanic dress sense - first seen pouring herself the first of many, many drinks with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth as she also pours out her heart to her long-suffering German lover (Joachim Hansen). The film's production values, photography and pacing feel more like a TV production of the period; and even at just 75 minutes it feels wearisomely drawn out (such as a bizarrely irrelevant sequence in a bar with Joan Overton and her lover watching a fire-eater, of all things). Occasionally the film cuts back and forth between Overton in his lab and his wife's drunken maunderings as if something sufficiently dramatic is happening that actually calls for such emphatic editing, and even Ms. Lawrence begins to outstay her welcome when she starts waving her lover's gun about as if it's a toy - although it results in a wonderful death scene; both ludicrous and then moving as it finally sinks in on the poor woman just how completely she's screwed up...
After meandering for so long, the film then suddenly rushes headlong towards an extremely abrupt conclusion - as if director Bernard Knowles has finally realised that if it's going to be sold as science fiction, 'Frozen Alive' needs some laboratory footage to include in the trailer and on the posters. Wolfgang Lukschy (reunited with his recent 'Fistful of Dollars' co-star Marianne Koch), as Inspector Prenton goes out of his way to be as boorish and unprofessional as only the detective in a German crime film can be (while his sidekick provides one of the film's occasional flashes of mellow humour by actually showing an interest in what the scientists are getting up to and ruefully pleading with his boss "Can't I watch, sir?" when instructed to watch the door while Overton is defrosted).
Apart from Ms. Lawrence, the other Brit in the film is the veteran actor John Longden as the avuncular Professor Hubbard, making his final film appearance 35 years after starring in Hitchcock's 'Blackmail' (1929).
- richardchatten
- Oct 1, 2016
- Permalink
Entertaining, but hardly inspired.
American star Mark Stevens ("The Dark Corner") stars in this German sci-fi flick as an American scientist, Frank Overton, working for the World Health Organization. He and his associate Helen Wieland (Marianne Koch) are performing experiments on chimps, putting them in deep freeze for a while and then resuscitating them. At roughly the time that Frank gets the bright idea to become a human guinea pig, something unexpected happens that lands him in trouble.
Screenwriter Evelyn Frazer and director Bernard Knowles don't have as much fun with this premise as one might hope they would. "Frozen Alive" is a classic case of "more talk than action", focusing on the personal problems of the characters (Overtons' wife Joan (Delphi Lawrence, "The Man Who Could Cheat Death") is resentful and an alcoholic) and not spinning a particularly interesting yarn. It's fairly static, and lacking in style, and one can see that this was done on a low budget. It starts to get better in its last half hour with its amusing twists of fate. Its opening credits are a gas, as the music segues from traditional ooga-booga sci-fi music to much more jazzy stuff.
The characters are reasonably engaging; nobody here is particularly dislikable. Stevens may be slumming, but he gives the material a straight faced go. Buffs will automatically realize that Koch and co-star Wolfgang Lukschy were also utilized in the legendary Spaghetti Western "A Fistful of Dollars" around this time. Joachim Hansen ("The Boys from Brazil"), Walter Rilla ("Day of Anger"), and John Longden ("Quatermass II") are among the solid supporting cast.
"Frozen Alive" is nothing special, but does offer a mild amount of fun.
Five out of 10.
Screenwriter Evelyn Frazer and director Bernard Knowles don't have as much fun with this premise as one might hope they would. "Frozen Alive" is a classic case of "more talk than action", focusing on the personal problems of the characters (Overtons' wife Joan (Delphi Lawrence, "The Man Who Could Cheat Death") is resentful and an alcoholic) and not spinning a particularly interesting yarn. It's fairly static, and lacking in style, and one can see that this was done on a low budget. It starts to get better in its last half hour with its amusing twists of fate. Its opening credits are a gas, as the music segues from traditional ooga-booga sci-fi music to much more jazzy stuff.
The characters are reasonably engaging; nobody here is particularly dislikable. Stevens may be slumming, but he gives the material a straight faced go. Buffs will automatically realize that Koch and co-star Wolfgang Lukschy were also utilized in the legendary Spaghetti Western "A Fistful of Dollars" around this time. Joachim Hansen ("The Boys from Brazil"), Walter Rilla ("Day of Anger"), and John Longden ("Quatermass II") are among the solid supporting cast.
"Frozen Alive" is nothing special, but does offer a mild amount of fun.
Five out of 10.
- Hey_Sweden
- Jul 7, 2017
- Permalink
What Der heck is this? (caution: spoilers)
- silentgmusic
- Mar 15, 2004
- Permalink
Dullsville
Frozen Alive is an odd mishmash of science drama, murder mystery and soap, but the narrative never really reconciles any of the threads. Moreover, when the frozen solid 'action' finally arrives, the pace is so slow that you may think that your screen has frozen. In this context, the creakiness of the film often makes it feel like a film made much earlier than the 1960s. Perhaps it was made earlier and kept in suspended animation? Anyhow, 1960s low-budget potboilers are often fun, but I'd recommend that if you get the chance to see this frozen-based caper, let it go.
Ice Cream Melts Faster
The film is slow, ice cream melts faster that this film goes. I like some slower films but this one is too slow. I also like movies that put people on, or rather, in ice - frozen. The Man with Nine Lives (1940) with Boris Karloff is an example of a film I think is good concerning someone being frozen (or in a form of cryogenics).
It's just like the plot reads: A man is working in a form of cryogenics, a state of suspended animation and decides he needs to test it. Just before he is frozen, his wife is killed and he is suspected of murdering her. - The film holds true to this description.
It's nothing special, just a simple low grade B film that needed some spicing up and a little more speeding up to make it more interesting to me.
2/10
It's just like the plot reads: A man is working in a form of cryogenics, a state of suspended animation and decides he needs to test it. Just before he is frozen, his wife is killed and he is suspected of murdering her. - The film holds true to this description.
It's nothing special, just a simple low grade B film that needed some spicing up and a little more speeding up to make it more interesting to me.
2/10
- Rainey-Dawn
- Jan 18, 2017
- Permalink
Makes the best of a shoestring budget
I thought the movie was quite good and gets a lot of mileage in the final half when we have to keep guessing if the assistant will pull the plug on the scientist frozen alive while all fingers seem to point to him being guilty of murdering his wife. The direction makes the most of each simple plot point. Mark Stevens once again plays a romantic lead where the ladies think he's handsome. I don't know why he got so many parts like these in the fifties when he looked like he was born with age wrinkles on his face.
- hollywoodshack
- Mar 14, 2019
- Permalink
More than just a chemistry kit saga
Amiable Mark Stevens and scientific partner, the enigmatic Marianne Koch combine to tackle malignant diseases through cryogenics, but their experiments on apes are just a prelude to their ultimate test on a live human being which Stevens himself undertakes shortly following a murder in which he's implicated in absentia. Koch attempts to resuscitate Stevens to answer the allegations under the watchful eye of a Detective (Lukschy) and an independent observer (Lohde), concerned she may sabotage the experiment to protect Stevens from punishment.
Capable German-US-British cast deliver realistic dialogue and create a genuine tension that is based less upon the primary plot (cryogenics) and more on Delphi Lawrence's character as Steven's almost perpetually inebriated wife, jealous of his working relationship with Koch, seeking solace in the scotch bottle and that of her old flame and work mate Joachim Hansen. Lawrence's performance dares to be bold and obnoxious, and while sometimes intense, doesn't become melodramatic. I thought her performance injected a maturity that was a welcome diversion to what could have become a simple science experiment gone awry picture.
While the momentum is not always fluent, the pace sometimes stilted, and the suspense often telegraphed too early, the acting compensates to some degree, Stevens and Koch enjoying a on-screen rapport that serves the narrative well. My only significant criticism is the overly-simplistic conclusion - the elements are present for a firecracker ending, but it's resolved too quickly and conveniently to do the rest of the movie justice. Should have been better, but in my opinion still superior to the average 3 rating it currently attracts.
Capable German-US-British cast deliver realistic dialogue and create a genuine tension that is based less upon the primary plot (cryogenics) and more on Delphi Lawrence's character as Steven's almost perpetually inebriated wife, jealous of his working relationship with Koch, seeking solace in the scotch bottle and that of her old flame and work mate Joachim Hansen. Lawrence's performance dares to be bold and obnoxious, and while sometimes intense, doesn't become melodramatic. I thought her performance injected a maturity that was a welcome diversion to what could have become a simple science experiment gone awry picture.
While the momentum is not always fluent, the pace sometimes stilted, and the suspense often telegraphed too early, the acting compensates to some degree, Stevens and Koch enjoying a on-screen rapport that serves the narrative well. My only significant criticism is the overly-simplistic conclusion - the elements are present for a firecracker ending, but it's resolved too quickly and conveniently to do the rest of the movie justice. Should have been better, but in my opinion still superior to the average 3 rating it currently attracts.
- Chase_Witherspoon
- Apr 8, 2012
- Permalink
Quirky.
Not a lot exciting goes on in this film and it just plods along a bit too slowly for most people I suspect. A not too bad plot with a bit of a twist but I think that they went for the wrong ending, I would have gone for the other one.
The good choice of title probably got plenty of people into cinemas when it came out but I think that many of those who paid to see it would have been disappointed in it, even in 1964 this was not a great film.
Not one of the better suspended animation films around but as as a Sci-Fi film fans of such must see it at least once but it's probably not watching a second time.
The good choice of title probably got plenty of people into cinemas when it came out but I think that many of those who paid to see it would have been disappointed in it, even in 1964 this was not a great film.
Not one of the better suspended animation films around but as as a Sci-Fi film fans of such must see it at least once but it's probably not watching a second time.
Watchable but underwhelming
This one is a little misleading, as the sci-fi is really no more than a Maguffin which complicates an accidental killing. Really, they should have ramped up the sci-fi angle and done something a lot more interesting with it. The acting and the characters aren't too bad but this one fell short on account of it just not adding up to much by the ending. Watchable but underwhelming.
- Red-Barracuda
- Sep 12, 2021
- Permalink