Dracula vs. Frankenstein

Dracula wears those plastic vampire teeth throughout this awful film that goes nowhere. There's an angry scientist who runs a carnival spook house (he's really Dr. F), the creature known as Grodin played by Lon Chaney Jr., and sci-fi guru Forrest J. Ackerman makes a cameo as a rival scientist who discredited Dr. Frankenstein! There's hippies and bad acting and a midget! (the same guy who played Master-blaster in Mad Max 3) This film has it all!

In one scene, Dracula (played cunningly by Zandor) appears suddenly in the car of the rival scientist. The man notices that a vampire is in his car and exclaims, in un-enthused B-movie fashion, "Who are you?" Drac responds, "I have been known as the prince of darkness- turn left here." Incredible how bad they can make 'em. See it soon if you love bad movies.

This has to be one of the most misunderstood films ever! It's both extremely funny and brilliantly shot. Ok, so it's not Citizen Kane. It's made by Al Adamson for crying out loud! I have this film on Laserdisc and I consider it to be one of the best of the worst..

Each artist has his defining moment. With Picasso, it was "Guernica". Orson Welles had "Citizen Kane".And Al Adamson's is surely "Dracula vs Frankenstein". It is the quintessential example of his style,the ultimate Adamson flick. Sure,"Satan's Sadists" was great and "Horror of the Blood Monsters" had its moments, but nothing combined so many aspects of the master's approach. Cheesy monsters, sleazy bikers, awful music, Regina Carrol, Lon Chaney, Jr.,a cameo by Forrest J. Ackerman, the original lab equipment from 1931's "Frankenstein",a wigged-out LSD trip and even a breezy Las Vegas musical number...in what other film do such iconic elements combine? Truly, "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" is a towering achievement of drive-in cinema.

Al's works are starting to be appreciated much as Ed Wood's are. And why not? Entertainment is the name of the game and Al throws everything into this ghouish goulash with maximum gusto. Put your brain beneath the chair, enter the surreal world of "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" and prepare to be blown away!

This film gets a bad rap from a lot of people. That's understandable, because it's a low budget paste-up job, combining previously shot footage from a uncompleted biker film with the monster team-up. But Dracula Vs. Frankenstein is really a lot of fun -- particularly if you first saw it on late night TV when you were 13 or 14!

Forry Ackerman has a cameo in the film as one of Dracula's victims, so the movie got promoted in Famous Monsters magazine, with "Zandor Vorkov" gracing the cover in his dime store fangs. It was (I believe) the final film appearance of J. Carroll Naish and one of Lon Chaney Jr.'s last roles. Ken Strickfadden's Frankenstein lab equipment is used, and the music is well chosen. Parts of the film are quite moody and effective, with highly competent photograghy considering the budget and haste of production.

To compare this little film with the Hammer films is a bit unfair. No, it cannot match them on any level -- nor was it intended to -- this was drive-in fodder without the budget or resources of England's Hammer and its American partners and distributors. It's too bad none of the major American studios tried to cash in on the 1960's-70's monster boom. Then there might be some truly interesting American monster films worthy of the comparison.

For the IMDb I gave this movie a 5 but that reflects how awful it really is. If I were to rate it as a serious horror flick I'd give it a 2 or 1; but as a comedy its an 8 or 9. I've watched this movie countless times with my crapola lovin' friends, and some of the dialogue has become a part of our everday speech, especially the line, from a man who can animate the dead, no less "When a man enters my laboratory, and bears on his hand the unholy seal of Dracula, there can be no scientific answer to anything" (generally followed by one of us shouting "Even simple force-mass equations?" "No, I said anything!") Basically, this movie should be treated like Rocky Horror is now: it should be shown in every late-night movie theater and heckled. Its horribly incompetent; we get to see the spectacle of Lon Chaney Jr. and J. Carrol Nash's last, horrible movie. See crappy bikers and hippies come into conflict! See the worst dialogue delivery ever! The Drac makeup is so bad that his hands and arms are tanned while his face is clown-white! We've dubbed him "Frank Zappula" due to his resemblance to the famous rocker. The Frankenstein figure, Dr. Duray, is dressed like COLONEL SANDERS! For this reason we feel it should be re-titled "Frank Zappula vs. Colonel Frankenstein" and released in every major market. If you have the slightest love for crap cinema,do yourself a big favor and SEE THIS MOVIE!