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Embryo

A geneticist accelerates a human embryo into a fully grown woman in a matter of weeks—then falls in love with his creation as she begins to age out of control. Ralph Nelson’s 1976 science-fiction horror stars Rock Hudson as Dr. Paul Holliston, a widowed scientist who first tests his growth hormone on a dog embryo and then applies the technique to a human fetus salvaged from a suicide victim. Barbara Carrera plays Victoria, the result: a brilliant, rapidly educated young woman who becomes Holliston’s protégé and lover before the process turns against her. As her cells age uncontrollably she grows desperate for a serum drawn from unborn fetuses, and the Frankenstein-like experiment collapses into murder and madness. Diane Ladd appears as Holliston’s sister-in-law and assistant; Roddy McDowall has a cameo. For Hudson, long past his 1950s peak as Universal’s romantic leading man (Magnificent Obsession, Giant, the Doris Day comedies), the film was a return to features after years devoted to the hit television series McMillan & Wife. It is a late-career science-fiction thriller that places the once-impeccable star in the role of a man whose scientific ambition produces something beautiful and lethal.

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