Dracula vs. Frankenstein

Dir. Al Adamson

91 Minutes

USA

1971

Starring: J. Carrol Naish, Lon Chaney Jr., Anthony Eisley, Regina Carrol, Angelo Rossitto, Russ Tamblyn, Jim Davis

Zandor Vorkov

**1/2/*****

Dracula vs. Frankenstein has the "honor" of being Al Adamson's "magnum opus" effort, emphatically not as a result of any artistic merit but through financial success and sustained popularity as exploitation.

Several Adamson films prolonged their lifespan by being edited patchworks of reutilized footage, such as the crime narrative The Fakers given some marketable value through additional biker footage that morphed it into Hell's Bloody Devils, or Psycho a Go-Go becoming both a science fiction and a zombie picture by sticking in some mad scientist footage with John Carradine. Dracula vs. Frankenstein is somewhat a singular vision in the sense that footage is not radically altered to meet the needs of a distributor, but it was a picture that added both the Dracula and Frankenstein figures as a way to give the production a bit of a jolt. A larger chunk of the footage, including an appearance by Lon Chaney Jr. in his final horror role, took place while the production was referred to as The Blood Seekers in 1960, with additional shoots in 1970 adding the classic characters through pick-ups and clever edits, with the final confrontation between the two showing some obvious age and inconsistent make-ups effects after its original conclusion needed to be redone.

The narrative of Dracula vs. Frankenstein operates less on organic development and more on a threefold of interests: what is both possible and affordable to shoot, what may lure audiences looking for the pleasures of this type of picture, and what is in the cultural zeitgeist to bring in an even wider audience. Naturally the Dracula and Frankenstein characters give the film a curiosity that it otherwise would not have had in its original Blood Seekers incarnation, though Zandor Vorkov's Dracula is awkward and appears to base his version of the character around tropes, costume, and "spooky" line reading (that is clearly having some real fun with vampiric pontifications of grandeur) without giving it any seductive or personal traits (though his death, which cuts several times between shots of the rising sun and an increasingly ragged Vorkov until he turns into an awful dummy effect, is a great way for Dracula to go out). J. Carrol Naish and Lon Chaney Jr. give some name recognition as the wheelchair-bound mad scientist and his insane assistant, Angelo Rossitto (shortly after appearing in Brain of Blood for Adamson) as dwarf carnival barker Dr. Duryea, and "guest star" Russ Tamblyn showing up for a subplot involving a biker gang for truly no reason other than gaining the interest of the biker crowd and fans of Adamson's popular Satan's Sadists. Musical interludes also abound, with sprinklings of psychedelia and go-go sequences as a further method of enticement, including an extended hallucinogenic drug trip that creates a bizarre interpolation that breaks up the horror action.

Much of this action makes individual sense, but rarely comes together in any kind of logical or even coherent way as a series of events. Rather the narrative works around finding usages for the various members of Adamson's stock company (with both cast and crew working on whatever needed to be done at that particular moment, both behind and in front of the camera), allowing for plenty of detours and scenic routes on the way to the promise of its title. And there is a reason for its continued popularity, most likely because this film, mores than Adamson's other efforts in the horror genre, is an perfect amalgamation of so many elements of horror interests, a merging of old figures, veteran actors, contemporary performers, and consistently entertaining do-it-yourself effects that give even the cheapest moments something to latch onto.

Utilizing these older figures of Chaney Jr. or even the famed monsters themselves rarely have the feeling of a full cash-in, moving beyond homage and functioning as a darkly comic engagement with the tropes and motifs of earlier appearances of these characters. Crackling electrical equipment, a booming score (which at times feels like it is purposefully working in a bit of Creature from the Black Lagoon for added measure), and strategically placed dust and cobwebs all move out of the Gothic environments of the Universal run, and Adamson understands the black comedy that would come from answering the question of what it would look like if these elements were taken from their original context and worked into the contemporary (color) setting. Adamson is working with an understanding that much of his audience will inevitably laugh at certain moments throughout the picture, so counters by laughing along with them, an idea that seems to have been lost through assumptions that he is making a straight horror film. But the intent, as always, is not necessarily to scare, a quite difficult ask for a production so hard up on cash and dealing with an audience too familiar with these figures and ideas, but to entertain through a wink and a few nudges, reminding them about the initial lure to these characters and this genre. There is a real affection for its source with Dracula vs. Frankenstein, and it lacks the cynicism of similar entires in the exploitation genre and becomes something quite charming in its way.

Viewed on August 5th, 2020

Part of the ongoing Al Adamson Project.