Munster, Go Home! (1966)

How sad is this?

Excellent adaptation.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

As a huge Munsters fan since I was a child, this film doesn't fail to be brilliant - fantastic performances from all cast and very very funny story.Interesting to see the show in colour rather than black and white, however, both black and white and also colour really fit the show/film very well.This is easily the best of the Munsters movies.If you're a HUGE Munsters fan, like me, then you will definitely LOVE this :)It would be brilliant if this film came out in BluRay :)

Herman Munster (the delightful Fred Gwynne) inherits an estate in England. Herman along with his sweet wife Lily (lovely Yvonne De Carlo), rascally Grandpa (the always great Al Lewis), brash son Eddie (the engaging Butch Patrick), and cute adopted daughter Marilyn (the adorable Debbie Watson subbing for Pat Priest) all go to Great Britian. The Munsters' no-count British relatives try to scare them off to no avail, so they resort to more drastic measures in order to get rid of the merry oddball clan. Director Earl Bellamy keeps the film moving along at a sprightly tempo, stages the expected blithely inane slapstick gags with considerable aplomb, and maintains an infectiously bouncy tone throughout. This picture further benefits from a top-drawer cast of veteran British thespians: Terry-Thomas as the infantile, temperamental Freddie Munster, Hermoine Gingold as stern matriarch Lady Effigie Munster, Jeanne Arnold as the wicked Grace Munster, Robert Pine as the smoothly charming Roger, and Bernard Fox as the hearty Squire Moresby. Special kudos are in order for John Carradine, who gives a deliciously sour performance as gloomy and sinister butler Cruikshank. Benjamin H. Kline's sharp cinematography makes inspired use of vibrant color. Jack Marshall supplies an appropriately spirited silly-spooky score. A hugely enjoyable romp.

You pretty much get what one would expect from this first theatrical film using the Munster characters going to England to claim an ancestral home. All the actors return except for Pat Priest - here replaced by Debbie Watson. Herman Munster and Grandpa ham it up in all sorts of quite ridiculous scenes in a quite ridiculous story. Yet, throughout it all, the film does capture the essence and heart of the original show as well as the humour. Fred Gwynne shows us that he was the heart of the Munsters with his amusing turn as the awkward Herman Munster with strange family in tow - living like a somewhat normal monster in a world he saw as the weird thing filled with people he felt were weird. Al Lewis is equally amusing and the whole cast does a good job aiding the antics. British character actors Terry-Thomas - always a treat to see - and the indefatigable Hermionne Ginglod as his mother trying to off Herman Munster and keep their title and lands both give pleasant comic turns. John Carradine is aboard as a very slow-moving butler. Bernard Fox plays the head of a rival family whose one goal is to win a car race every year. Naturally, Herman must defend the House of Munster. Like the television show, many of the laughs are a bit forced, but there are some genuinely funny scenes - most of them between Gwynne and Lewis. Lewis turns into a wolf a couple times, and the race itself is the centerpiece of the film. The ending is perhaps the most forced, but overall I enjoyed the film - not because it was particularly good but rather because it allows one another chance to see Gwynne with the role he would forever be linked with in life. The film w as directed by Earl Bellamy who had directed at least one of the episodes from the series.

I'm surprised at the number of glowing reviews about this movie. Despite the only interesting aspect of the movie, which is its being in color, that stylish Munster magic is totally missing. I suppose they had to travel to make the time go by faster, but going to England really makes this romp rather stilted. The actors are giving their best, but rehashing jokes and situations from the TV seems rather sad. Not sure who the writers were but they totally missed the boat on this one and makes me wonder if they ever saw an episode from the TV show. And to recast Marilyn with a bland actress really screwed up the chemistry. Besides seeing the house and the characters in color, there's not much to keep your attention here, unless you're 12.