Los monstruos del terror (1970)

User Rating:

3.9/10   

Director:

Tulio Demicheli

Writer:

Paul Naschy (story)

Release Date:

27 February 1970 (West Germany)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Aliens from a dying world plot to conquer earth by praying on man's superstitions. Bringing two dead...

Plot Keywords:

Vampire | Werewolf | Mummy | Frankenstein's Monster | Sequel

Cast

Michael Rennie	...	Dr. Odo Warnoff
Karin Dor	...	Maleva Kerstein
Craig Hill	...	Inspector Tobermann
Helga Geissler
Patty Shepard	...	Ilse
Ángel del Pozo	...	Dr. Kirian (as Angel del Pozo)
Manuel de Blas	...	Drácula
Peter Damon
Paul Naschy	...	Waldemar Daninsky
Fajda Nicol
Diana Sorel
Gene Reyes	...	Pha-ho-tep
Ella Gessler
Ferdinando Murolo

Also Known As:

Assignment Terror (USA)
Dracula Versus Frankenstein (UK)
Dracula jagt Frankenstein (West Germany)
Dracula vs. Frankenstein (USA) (DVD box title)
El hombre que vino de Ummo (Spain) (working title)
Operation Terror
Operazione terrore (Italy)
The Man Who Came from Ummo

Runtime:

Spain:85 min | USA:87 min

Country:

Spain | West Germany | Italy

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain

Company:

Eichberg-Film

Movie Connections:

References House of Dracula (1945)

Edward D Wood Jr ... move over

The US print of "Dracula vs Frankenstein" begins by introducing us to an alien species who intend to invade and dominate the human race. At a travelling circus, they encounter the real-life skeleton of a vampire count. Apparently all you need to do to revive this vampire is to remove a flimsy wooden stake from it's heart (I'm surprised it hadn't just fallen out already). The police detective quickly clocks on to what the aliens are trying to do, and launches an investigation. The aliens manage to resurrect Daninsky the werewolf, the mummy Tao-Tet and the monster created by Farank ... Frankstele ... oh, let's just call him Frankenstein. Anyway, the aliens begin to succumb to human emotions and Daninsky turns against them, and thankfully the monsters all turn out to be complete wusses and are easily defeated. Yay! And, of course, it's all rounded off with a nice moral to the story (that doesn't actually make a whole lot of sense in context), and a suitably apocalyptic ending.

Mini-skirts, dancing, cheesy music, flashing lights ... yes, this movie is a product of the swinging sixties alright. Although it was titled "Dracula vs Frankenstein" in the US, the vampire isn't Dracula and there's no sign of Victor Frankenstein -- and at no point do the two of them fight against each other. "The Werewolf vs the Mummy" might have been worked, but I would have gone with something like "The Werewolf vs the Monsters of Terror". Heh. Frankenstein's monster and Waldemar Daninsky are both played by Jacinto Molina, which is impressive but not as much as his multiple roles in the later movie "Howl of the Devil". The lead actor is the brilliant Michael Rennie who famously played Klaatu in "The Day the Earth Stood Still", although here looks like he's at death's door (and unfortunately, he was).

In the innocent, charming style of filmmakers such as Ed Wood, the plot here mixes horror and science fiction elements together in a way that makes absolutely no sense. The aliens are wonderfully B-movieish, with all the obligatory coloured lights and disembodied robotic voices present. In a way it's more conventional than most of the Daninsky movies, adhering to as many B-movie stereotypes as is humanly possible to cram into one film. In a sense, it's the ULTIMATE B-movie, so it should be very popular among that crowd -- it has everything they could ask for. The acting is pretty much what you'd expect and the dubbing is particularly good comparatively. The makeup for the four monsters isn't great, but certainly not the worst I've seen. The mummy inparticular has a great death scene ...

It's a very, very silly movie, but if you're a fan of bad B-movies, look no further. Aliens, vampires, zombies, werewolves ... how could they go wrong?