i must have seen a different film!!

Great Film overall

Good concept, poorly executed.

Best movie ever!

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.

Nobody watches an Al Adamson film in the expectation of seeing a masterpiece, but he occasionally rose above the schlock margin to craft a neat little flick ("Nurse Sherri") or at least a couple of interesting scenes ("Blood of Ghastly Horror"). "Dracula vs. Frankenstein", however, was not one of those occasions. Producer Samuel M. Sherman has noted that this is the most popular of the many horror and exploitation films that he and Adamson made together, and I have no reason to doubt him...but god, it's one jumbled mess of a movie. Mute, sweaty Lon Chaney Jr. and glass-eyed J. Carrol Naish looking as old and sickly as they were, Anthony Eisley in ludicrous hippie garb, a Dracula (Zandor Vorkov) with all the charisma of a garden hose, and the absolute worst-ever makeup job for Frankenstein's Monster (played by two different actors, John Bloom and Shelly Weiss): these are just a few of the tidbits that will delight fans of grade-Z cinema. It has in spades the vibe that permeates all of Adamson's work, but "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" lacks a certain something which the director was able to conjure from time to time.

Al Adamson's cheapo monster-bash is an obvious attempt to emulate the look and feel of the '40s Universal horror films, except with added '70s fashions and bad hairdos. Along with the rest of Adamson's output, it has long been regarded as a diabolically bad movie, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it both fast-paced and enjoyable, although this might be because the UK version under the title of REVENGE OF Dracula has had half an hour's footage excised from it, resulting in a scant sixty-minute running time.Technically, this film is appalling, with rubbishy editing and dodgy camera angles all around. Adamson didn't seem to have much of a clue when it came to style or quality within a film, instead preferring to concentrate on making a quick buck. The nonsensical story involves a ghastly amusement attraction at a pier which is being used as a cover by the mad Dr. Frankenstein. Said mad doctor is played by character actor J. Carrol Naish right at the end of his career, and it's pretty sad to see this prolific actor reduced to a shouty, wheelchair-bound performance. Worse still, however, is Frankenstein's servant, a zombie axe murder played by Lon Chaney Jr., also at the end of his career and making his final performance in a film. I can't describe how sad it is to see Chaney in this film; he looks huge, bloated and awful, with years of alcoholism and illness taking their toll, and his voice gone through cancer. His acting is predictably bad and it's impossible to reconcile the actor from his appearance here with his urbane turns in such films as SON OF Dracula some thirty years previously.Also lurking about is a hilariously awful Dracula, looking much like the one we saw in the grindhouse movie GUESS WHAT HAPPENED TO COUNT Dracula? Complete with pasty make-up job and bad accent, this Dracula is a hoot, although not as funny as Frankenstein's Monster, here a lumpy-faced lumbering maniac who cracks me up every time he's on screen. Adamson cast non-actors in these roles, so all of the performances are pretty diabolical.Also thrown into the mix is a showgirl, played by Adamson's wife and regular lead, Regina Carrol. Complete with massive blonde hair and overdone makeup, Carrol makes for an unlikable heroine, fake and unbelievable, and not very attractive. It comes as no surprise that she's reduced to a series of tight-fitting, low-cut garments as the story progresses. Also on hand are wooden action man Anthony Eisley (LIGHTNING BOLT) as the hero; Greydon Clark, later to become a director in his own right; and a brief appearance from Angelo Rossitto (SCARED TO DEATH), the dwarf actor whose career spanned about seven decades of cinema. For most of the running time, you'll be watching incredulously at how bad this film is, but I have to admit that I really enjoyed the ending scenes. They're as cheesy, overblown and downright hilarious as they come. Adamson throws some brief nudity and severed heads into the mix in a blatant attempt to keep audiences watching, and surprisingly enough, it works. While Dracula VS. FRANKENSTEIN is a bad film, it also happens to be a very enjoyable one at that.

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