Cast and Crew: James Karen, Bruce Glover

What It’s About: Princess (Marilyn Hanold) leads Martians to earth with one goal: kidnap human women to replace Martian women killed in an atomic war.  The only thing that can stop them?  The android Frank Saunders (Robert Reilly), sent up in place of a human pilot after the Martians destroyed NASA’s last few launches.  The Martians try to destroy this one, too, but Frank survives, albeit with a half melted face and stuck in “survival” mode, making him a dangerous “Frankenstein monster”.  Can NASA recover Frank and reprogram him for Martian killing duty?  Can the Princess and her Martian stooges kidnap enough “breeding stock” from the beaches and pools of Puerto Rico (where the filmmakers shot this on the cheap) to ensure the survival of their species?  Why don’t Martians desperate for women ever just ask them nicely, or at least offer incentives?  Will any stock footage remain unused?  Some of these questions are answered by the end of Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster.

Why Watch it Today?: The bikini was “introduced” today in 1946, and our Movie of the Day exists largely to alternate scenes of bikini clad women enjoying the tropical sun of beautiful Puerto Rico getting kidnapped by cheapo-spacesuit clad  Martians with ones where android “Frankenstein” menaces them. 

Other Choices: Dr. No (famous for Honey Rider’s entrance from the ocean in a bikini); Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine; The Horror of Party Beach