The Greatest Monster of Them All

The plot may have dated some-- movies are no longer interested in monster-sized bugs as they were in the teen- age 1950's. Still, the first half of this 30-minutes amounts to a hilarious insider's parody of how those cheapos got made. Sam Jaffe and Robert H. Harris are two very Jewish schlock-meisters of poverty-row fare. Listening to them kvetch at each other over how best to economize on their newest feature is enough to humorously debunk a carload of Hollywood myths. Then there's writer William Redfield who must come up with a new monster-bug-- maybe a cockroach, he thinks. No wonder he drinks every chance he gets. Add old monster impresario, Richard Hale (a combination Karloff and Lugosi) who insists on an artistic approach, and you know something has to explode. Which it does.

Robert Stevens directs with real flair. Watch Redfield, in a drunken stupor, do a crazy crawl underneath a bed to join Hale on the other side, when stumbling around would have been so much easier. Also, catch the blonde bombshell as she transforms from stately victim of Hale's vampirish designs into her sleazy gum-popping self. And, through it all, Harris apparently thinks that with enough massage something will grow out of the top of his barren head.

The entry may not be everyone's cup of tea, and may even have caused consternation in the offices of the Anti-Defamation League. But I take it as a piece of deft parody from a series that seldom did tongue-in-cheek. Also-- stick around for Hitchcock's funnier-than-average epilogue. In my book-- a must-see.

This episode seems to have been greatly influenced by the real life experience of actor Bela Lugosi, who was befriended late in life by the legendarily bad director Ed Wood Jr. In particular, the scene where the young screenwriter visits the actor in his apartment which is crammed with souvenirs from his career in horror films resembles scenes in Tim Burton's 1994 movie Ed Wood, which recounted the friendship of the two men.

There is reason to suppose that the staff of Alfred Hitchcock Presents was familiar with Wood, and with the second of his two films to feature Lugosi, Plan 9 from Outer Space. Episode 8 of the 1960-61 season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, entitled O Youth and Beauty, featured a scene where the hero, Gary Merrill, is at his country club. Two of the other club members are Dudley Manlove and John Breckenridge. These actors played the two male space aliens in Plan 9. Breckenridge's appearance here was possibly his only television role. Interestingly, I have twice seen these episodes run back-to-back on television, once on a Kansas City station and once on a station in St. Louis.

By the 1950s, Bela Lugosi was a sick, tired and drug addicted man whose career was in decline. However, just before his death, Lugosi made a bit of a comeback...albeit a VERY low budget one! He made a friendship with Ed Wood Jr. And agreed to make some godawful films for this very untalented writer/director. The films are all garbage, with such dreck as "Glen or Glenda", "Bride of the Monster" and "Plan 9 From Outer Space". In fact, some bad film lists place "Plan 9" at the top....as the worst film ever made. While this is debatable, what isn't is that Lugosi looks sick and sad in these final films...a shadow of his great 1930s self.

I mention all this because it's very obvious that "The Greatest Monster of Them All" clearly is modeled after Ed Wood and Bela Lugosi. In this case, a schlock film maker is looking for a gimmick in his next film and decides to hire Ernst von Croft to appear in his next story...as a vampire. Not surprisingly, the results are terrible...but not for the reasons you'd suspect.

The most interesting part of this story was seeing Sam Jaffe playing the schlock film maker. After all, most of his other parts were 'nice' people....and nothing like the over-the-top crap movie maker....and it was a cute change of pace! As for the rest of it, it's okay...just okay. The very ending was the reason...it just left me flat and lacked the "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" twist. Watchable but it could have been better.

It's safe to say either Hitch or writer Robert Bloch may have known, or at least heard of, ultra low budget producer and director Ed Wood. After all, Hollywood is a small town, and at the time Wood was still working on film projects. However, it's Bela Lugosi who seemed to be the ideal role model here, particularly his controversial final years. Yes, very interesting material for Bloch, and the more morbid the better.

One thing for sure, veteran actor Richard Hale (who slightly resembled Raymond Massey), was the perfect catch to play an over the hill horror film actor, called Ernest von Kroft. Schlock producers Sam Jaffe (Hal) and none other than Robert H. Harris (Morty) attempt to latch onto the fading star, hoping to make a few bucks off a cheap new thriller, and Kroft in the meanwhile, hoping to re-launch his sagging career. Takes three oddballs to tango, right?

William Redfield is a hoot as Fred, the half-loaded writer who is able to compose a half (you know what) script around Kroft -- but something different -- for a change of pace. Where we get into the thick of things, and also kind of neat to see the mechanics of a Grade Z film production company hard at work? This is, perhaps, where Ed Wood could have been an inspiration, although there were many other producers in the same boat, even adding Roger Corman, who spent less money than Wood on several projects. A fun fact for film buffs.

Hale is definitely the star of this tragic dark comedy, thanks to Robert Stevens. Why Hitch would count on him for so many memorable episodes. This is one of them, at least for the acting. The movie queen of the horror flick is Meri Welles, who had recently appeared in Corman's LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. See how that all fits? Hitch and Bloch were a clever twosome, for which all us fans are entirely indebted to.

Only debit, if Hitch didn't have a bit part, a two second walk on, much like in his movies. That would seal the deal, particularly for something as campy as this one. You be the judge.

The perfect late night fractured fairy tale. SEASON 6 EPISODE 18 remastered Universal dvd box set. 16 hrs total running time.

A Lugosi like star gets a chance to again play his vampire character. Hd does so with the faith that his film will be a serious one and he can revive his career. But the producer and director have other things in mind. They don't consider for a minute the fragility of an old man whose hopes were resting on them. This is a very poignant half hour.