Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971)

Not even bad in a good way

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Awesome Movie

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

In the age of professional wrestling, we are bombarded with the word "versus." Just about every monster has had an adversarial role in one of these encounters. Certainly Godzilla leads the way, as do many of the other rubbery Toho monsters. But we have others along the way. This one pits the two most famous creations of all time. It's a wonder no one had ever tried it before. I was apprehensive when I found this, but it was good fun if we don't take it too seriously. There is a kind of campy style that shows through as our main characters make their ways across the screen. It doesn't really deserve that worst movie ever designation--not even close.

I've recently had a chance to see this one again yes this movie is so bad it's bad but it has it's own form of entertainment value for certain audiences (albeit a small audience).The bad part about it is the fact that this is J. Carrol Naish & Lon Chaney Jr.'s final film - both of them. Fans would have rather seen their last film as something more spectacular but are glad to have this film regardless.Naish and Chaney could never give bad performances no matter how terrible the directing, script, other actors involved etc... so they are good as always in this bad film and are the real reason to watch it.The story of this one is lame yet somehow entertaining in a cheesy way.5/10

This is a very painful movie to watch if you love old horror films. That's because both J. Carrol Naish and Lon Chaney, Jr. both starred in this film shortly before their deaths. As for Naish, he was so sickly that he acted in a wheelchair. Additionally, he had lost an eye and could not remember his lines, so he read from cue cards--and you could literally watch his one good eye darting back and forth while the glass one remained still. A sad and creepy effect, I must say. As for Chaney, he was killing himself with booze and he naturally looks bloated and a shadow of his former self.Not surprisingly, these performances reminded me of Bela Lugosi in PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. Like Naish and Chaney, Lugosi was dying and many rather pointless scenes were dumped into PLAN 9 by director Ed Wood, Jr.. Like Wood, Al Adamson seemed to just dump film randomly into the film, as he took scenes from a planned sequel to SATAN'S SADISTS (a biker film) and dumped them into this horror of a film. Additionally, he hired a lady who looks like a stripper to play lead.So is there any reason to watch this film? Well, if you want a quality film, then keep looking!! However, if you enjoy laughing at incompetence, then this film has it in spades. There's a Dracula who looks nothing like the familiar Count (perhaps he looks a bit more like a gay porn Dracula--you be the judge). There's also a Frankenstein that looks more like a mushroom man from ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE and his face is just,....well,...impossible to describe, though comparing it to Frankenstein is NOT possible! And, if that's not bad enough, the dialog and acting are horrid and the film just screams "crap" from start to finish! So overall, the film is horrible and it begs the question "was Al Adamson perhaps a worse director than Ed Wood, Jr."? With such great films to Adamson's credit as THE NAUGHTY STEWARDESSES, LASH OF LUST, BRAIN OF BLOOD, HELL'S BLOODY DEVILS and PSYCHO A GO-GO, if he ain't the worst director ever, he sure is a runner up!!FYI--Angelo Rossitto is also in the film. While he's not a household name, this midget starred in a heap of old horror films in the 30s and 40s--most notably in FREAKS and some Bela Lugosi films.

Dr. Frankenstein (J. Carrol Naish) is continuing his experiments deep inside a local funhouse (!) under the moniker Dr. Duryea. For some reason, Dracula hits him up to make him invincible and offers a re-animated monster from Frankenstein's past to do the doctor's bidding. Meanwhile, Judith (Regina Carrol) is looking for her missing sister, who has disappeared on the boardwalk where Frankenstein is operating. This one doesn't make much sense but it is pretty enjoyable. It certainly delivers on the title's promise. Dracula does indeed fight Frankenstein. Unfortunately, it is the wimpiest Dracula taking on the goofiest looking Frankenstein's monster. Al Adamson handles the whole thing with the kind of directorial flair that only he possesses. Naish is fun as the good doc. The pseudonymous Zandor Vorkov looks like Sasha Baron Cohen dressed up as Dracula. The highlight of the film is Lon Chaney, Jr. as the doctor's puppy-loving assistant Groton. This was his last film.