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Mad Monster Party (1967)
Topic Started: Oct 15 2017, 09:02 AM (209 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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Mad Monster Party (1967) Dir. Jules Bass
A Rankins/Bass Production
An Embassy Pictures Release

95 min. / Color / 1.37:1

Baron Boris Von Frankenstein has decided to retire as head of the Worldwide Organization of Monsters and to name his long-lost relative his heir, much to the chagrin of his gorgeous secretary Francesca, who conspires with Count Dracula, the Mummy, the Werewolf, the Creature and other ghoulies to bump off the naive young nephew and install her in his place.

A stop-motion feature from the guys who did the 1960s TV version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and it seems as though that would be a good idea, but I've never had much affection for this thing, which has bad songs (one sung by Gale Garnett, who plays the voice of Francesca, and I'm certain we all know who SHE is, I should hope) and great character designs (by Jack Davis!). It's co-written by Harvey Kurtzman, but doesn't show much of the Mad magazine spirit, frankly. And Phyllis Diller as the Bride of Frankenstein simply grates on me. But then, I've never liked Rudolph, either, to be honest with you, not even when I was six. Having one guy (Allen Swift) do all the supporting voices in faux movie star accents (the nephew is Jimmy Stewart, the Invisible Man is Sidney Greenstreet, the zombie is Peter Lorre, and so on) was a bad idea. Oh, and we should mention the star of the show: Boris Karloff as Boris Von Frankenstein. He sings a song, too, sort of, so there's THAT.

Million-dollar Dialog:
Boris, announcing his retirement: "I've grown a little tired of this horror business, doing bad for others and very rarely getting any bad in return."

Gosh, I wish I liked this movie - it's right up my alley, kind of, but the script does it in. I like the Mummy dance and Count Dracula's tap-dancing and the animation is good (particularly on the Invisible Man) so there, I can say something nice, but still... a real big missed opportunity.

The Blu-ray from Lionsgate has several featurettes on the making of the film, probably giving the project more credit than it deserves. If anyone actually likes this thing, please let me know.


"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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The Batman
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Sorry, hated it.

Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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CliffClaven
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Can't help thinking "Nightmare Before Christmas" exists because someone remembered wishing this one was better. But it's still an affable slice of cheese.

It's perfect for a certain kind of neighborhood house summer matinee, to run with a beach movie or something like that. The gaudy colors on the big screen, the cheesy songs ("You're Different" somehow isn't even a song), the occasional unexpected big laugh (the biggest one when I saw it in a theater: When Felix has trouble lifting Francesca, she says "I'm no easy pickup").

It's better than "The Daydreamer", Rankin-Bass's attempt to do something like a George Pal fantasy.

Rankin-Bass's semi-remake, "Mad Mad Monsters", is available on DVD. It was an episode of "Saturday Superstar Movie", a hourlong Saturday morning show featuring one-shots and pilots from Rankin-Bass, Hanna-Barbara, Filmation and a few others. This one is a cel-animated and generally lame sitcom. Baron Frankenstein creates a bride for the monster, and monstrous wedding guests check into the village hotel to drive the desk clerk nuts. No relation to the movie aside from evoking old movie monsters; lots of dumb gags.
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