ASSIGNMENT TERROR Can Be Watched On YouTube! Woohoo! - This classic 1970 Spanish monster-mash horror film is of central importance to MONSTAAH! It has also been widely released to American video in a slightly edited form with the incongruous title of Dracula vs. Frankenstein (NOT to be confused with the equally so bad its good Al Adamson schlock-fest, which is much better known by that title). Dont get me wrong, monster battles *do* happen in this film, but the two titular pastiche characters do not run into each other at all. The late, great Paul Naschy (name misspelled in the credits of the English version) wrote the script, and plays the roles of two of the monsters as well! His screenwriting credit is under his given name of Jacinto Molina. This film brings together El Hombre Lobo, a.k.a., the Spanish version of the Wolfman, Waldemar Daninsky--whose lycanthropy-afflicted lineage has always been a major component of the Children of the Night Timeline as Chuck conceived it--with a vampire called Count de Meiroff (the Dracula of the alternate title; more on that below); a Living Mummy (yes, he was called that in the script, a few years before NKantu took the moniker!) called Phra-ho-Tep; and a flesh golem/man-made monster who was the creation of a member of the Frankenstein clan called Prof. Aihlrich Frankenstein (never mind the funky way the surname is inexplicably spelled and pronounced; the spelling makes it clear this was a variation on the Frankenstein surname). This film features all four of these monsters gathered together under the control of an invading alien race from the planet Ummo, who want to use the monsters to help them in their scheme to subjugate the human race so as to make way for their own race to colonize the planet, since their native sun is rapidly dying. To do this, three Ummoan agents take the identity of a trio of Earth scientists who had recently died body snatcher-style: Dr. Odo Warnoff (leader of the trio); Dr. Maleva Kerstein; and Dr. Don Uno. The Ummoans have no emotions, operating on cold logic that took them in a very different cultural direction from the Vulcans; the unexpected intrusions of the emotions of the humans whose deceased bodies they healed and took over end up contributing to their eventual undoing. They also attempt to use their mind control technology to subvert the will of various beautiful women, whom the faux Warnoff concludes will enable them to seduce male figures (of the proper orientation, of course) to do their bidding... the woman whom they end up subverting, Ilsa, ends up falling in love with Waldemar Daninsky, and you can guess what this ends up leading to. I have since incorporated the Ummoans invasion attempts--both previous and subsequent--into the Children of the Night Timeline to explain many things seen in various sources, including the origin of Fred Saberhagens Frankenstein Monster and the Dell Comics version. I credited a second invasion attempt from the Ummoans late in the previous decade with infiltrating the original MONSTAAH, and having a part in the eventual collapse of that org, which was then suffering from a tragic loss (more on that from Chuck in the future; were still working out some of the details, so stay tuned). A few observations about the film are in order: Could Count de Meiroff be a failed Dracula soul-clone? He did possess the mesmeric powers common to Varnaean and Dacian vampiric strains, but displays no evidence of shape-shifting abilities, animal control, etc., that many of the Varnaean strain possess. As you will see, his fairly easy defeat by Inspector Henry Tobermann suggests he may have simply been a low-grade thrall of Dracula-Prime, as his skeleton was retrieved from display in a carnival where it was said to have been taken from Transylvania. I do refer to him as Dracula-Meiroff in the Timeline for now. The journal ANTHOLOGY OF THE MONSTERS by Prof. Aihlrich Frankenstein seems to suggest that this member of the fabled clan was one of the more benevolent members, and regretted his creation. Theories as to how he may fit into the Frankenstein genealogy, and which possible sources his Monster may have been seen previously and/or subsequently following this film, are more than welcome! Re: Dr. Maleva Kerstein -- Could her surname be a variation, maybe even an alternate spelling, of Karnstein? Lets see what David MacDowell Blue has to say about this, especially after seeing the film. Plug alert! The Guardian Mummy Phra-ho-tep appears in the published short story Death of a Dream by yours truly, featured in TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN Vol. 9: LA VIE EN NOIR, where hes under the control of Colonel Bozzo-Corona, the undying leader of the Black Coats, and used as a weapon against the Phantom of the Opera and his crew when the two deadly criminal orgs knock heads. I dunno why the IMDb refers to this mummy as Tao-Tet, however. https://youtube/watch?v=qUbdtu2Mmrw
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 05:05:28 +0000
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