Hmm ... psychodelic Daninsky? Austin Powers the werewolf? I guess it could have worked ...

First of all, this movie is not to be confused with Jesus Franco's "Dracula contra Frankenstein" or Al Adamson's (director of Blood of Dracula's Castle) "Dracula vs. Frankenstein". Both movies were also made in the early seventies, but the latter doesn't feature werewolves. The version of this movie I saw was Horror Theatre Video's print, which is listed under the title "Assignment Terror" although the main title on the print is actually "Dracula vs Frankenstein".

Unfortunately, the focus is only partly on Daninsky ... the movie begins by introducing us to an alien species who intend to invade and dominate the human race. At a travelling circus, they encounter the real-life skeleton of a vampire count. Apparently all you need to do to revive this vampire is to remove a flimsy wooden stake from it's heart (I'm surprised it hadn't just fallen out already). The police detective quickly clocks on to what the aliens are trying to do, and launches an investigation. The aliens manage to resurrect Daninsky the werewolf, the mummy Tao-Tet and the monster created by Farank ... Frankstele ... oh, let's just call him Frankenstein. Anyway, the aliens begin to succumb to human emotions and Daninsky turns against them, and thankfully the monsters all turn out to be complete wusses and are easily defeated. Yay! And, of course, it's all rounded off with a nice moral to the story (that doesn't actually make a whole lot of sense in context), and a suitably apocalyptic ending.

Mini-skirts, dancing, cheesey music, flashing lights ... yes, this movie is a product of the swinging sixties alright. Although it was titled "Dracula vs Frankenstein" in the US, the vampire isn't Dracula and there's no sign of Victor Frankenstein -- and at no point do the two of them fight against each other. "The Werewolf vs the Mummy" might have been worked, but I would have gone with something like "The Werewolf vs the Monsters of Terror". Heh. Frankenstein's monster and Waldemar Daninsky are both played by Jacinto Molina, which is impressive but not as much as his multiple roles in the later movie "Howl of the Devil". The lead actor is the brilliant Michael Rennie who famously played Klaatu in "The Day the Earth Stood Still", although here looks like he's at death's door (and unfortunately, he was).

In the innocent, charming style of filmmakers such as Ed Wood, the plot here mixes horror and science fiction elements together in a way that makes absolutely no sense. The aliens are wonderfully B-movieish, with all the obligatory coloured lights and disembodied robotic voices present. In a way it's more conventional than most of the Daninsky movies, adhering to as many B-movie stereotypes as is humanly possible to cram into one film. In a sense, it's the ULTIMATE B-movie, so it should be very popular among that crowd -- it has everything they could ask for. The acting is pretty much what you'd expect and the dubbing is particularly good comparatively. The makeup for the four monsters isn't great, but certainly not the worst I've seen. The mummy inparticular has a great death scene ...

It's a very, very silly movie, but if you're a fan of bad B-movies, look no further. Aliens, vampires, zombies, werewolves ... how could they go wrong?

The Wolf The first mention of werewolves in this movie comes when the police study a book on various supernatural creatures, a copy of which has been obtained by the aliens. As the flick through the pages they come across a section on the werewolf (see top photo), who obeys the full moon and can only be killed with a silver bullet through the heart. They mention the term "lycanthropy", put the police officer in charge is willing to dismiss it all as "country superstition". It is also made clear that in order for a werewolf to die completely, he must be killed not only by a woman who loves him, but by a woman who loves him enough to die for him. And so enters Waldemar Daninsky, whose only previous appearance had been in "La Marca del Hombre-lobo" two years earlier. Considering it's only his second performance as this character, Molina does a very good job in this movie, and appears to have a lot of fun fighting against the other creatures. He is also pretty good at playing Frankenstein's monster, regardless of the dodgy makeup. Anyway, for the first time Daninsky is revived, with the aliens breaking into his tomb and finding him "uncorrupted ... waiting to recieve life". The aliens also have their hands on a serum which can prevent his transformation, but they forget to give it to him. D'oh! This means he gets to go on a bit of a rampage, which is always nice. Just a brief one though, in which he slaughters a mini-skirted sixties chick. Another scene follows in which the police discuss Daninsky and his past, including the fact that he wasn't always evil. Apparently his story has become something of a local legend. Mostly, though, they just needed to explain his back story to those who hadn't seen the previous movie. The werewolf in this movie seems particularly bearded, almost pirate-like in that sense (see second photo down). However, he's treated very kindly and gets to personally slaughter two of the other monsters (see bottom two photos). Yay! Go wolfie!

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