''Los Monstruos del Terror'' (translation: ''The Monsters of Terror''), also known as ''Dracula vs. Frankenstein'' and ''Assignment: Terror'', is a 1969 Spanish-German-Italian

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

co-directed by

Tulio Demicheli Tulio Demicheli (born August 15, 1914, Buenos Aires, Argentina - d. May 25, 1992, Madrid, Spain) was an Argentina, Argentine film director, born Spanish film director, screenwriter and film producer of the classic era. Born as Armando Bartolomé ...

and

Hugo Fregonese Hugo Geronimo Fregonese (April 8, 1908 in Mendoza – January 11, 1987 in Tigre) was an Argentine film director and screenwriter who worked both in Hollywood and his home country.''Cine Nacional''Hugo Fregonese filmographyCinenacional.com ...

. (Fregonese quit midway through the production so the film was completed by Demicheli). Eberhard Meichsner was also credited as a director only in the British promotional material, but by all accounts he was not actually involved. It is the third in a series of 12 films that Paul Naschy wrote and starred in featuring the

werewolf In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or ...

Waldemar Daninsky, a role that was always played by Naschy. It stars

Paul Naschy Paul Naschy (born Jacinto Molina Álvarez, September 6, 1934 – November 30, 2009) was a Spanish film actor, screenwriter, and director working primarily in horror films. His portrayals of numerous classic horror figures— The Wolfman, ...

Michael Rennie Michael Rennie (born Eric Alexander Rennie; 25 August 1909 – 10 June 1971) was a British film, television and stage actor, who had leading roles in a number of Hollywood films, including his portrayal of the space visitor Klaatu in the s ...

(his last film), Craig Hill and

Karin Dor Karin Dor (, born Kätherose Derr; 22 February 1938 – 6 November 2017) was a German actress. She was famous to international audiences for her role as Bond girl Helga Brandt in the James Bond film '' You Only Live Twice'' (1967) and her appea ...

Maria Perschy Herta-Maria Perschy (23 September 1938 – 3 December 2004) was an Austrian actress whose career included performances on screen with actor Rock Hudson and on American television in both daytime and prime time. Early life Perschy was born in E ...

was supposed to play Maleva Kerstein, but Karin Dor wound up getting the part. It was filmed in early Spring, 1969. The film was first released theatrically in Germany (as ''Dracula vs Frankenstein'') on February 24, 1970, and in Spain (as ''The Monsters of Terror'') on August 28, 1971. The film was also shown in France and in the U.K. as ''Dracula vs Frankenstein''. In Belgium, it was shown as ''Dracula and the Wolf Man vs Frankenstein''. In Mexico, it was released as ''Operation Terror'', and in Denmark it was known as ''Frankenstein Og Blodsugerne''/ ''Frankenstein vs The Bloodsucker''. In the 1980s, the film was released on home video in France as ''Reincarnator''. (Most of the film's variant titles did not even mention Naschy's Wolfman character.). The film sold directly to late-night television in the U.S. in 1973, retitled ''Assignment Terror'' (since the title ''Dracula vs Frankenstein'' had already been used in the U.S. for the 1971

Al Adamson Albert Victor Adamson Jr. (July 25, 1929 – June 21, 1995) was an American filmmaker and actor known as a prolific director of B-grade horror and exploitation films throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The son of silent film stars Victor Adamson and ...

Hollywood film). In the U.K., the film played on a double bill with Peter Walker's 1970 horror film ''Die Screaming Marianne''. ''Los Monstruos del Terror'' was originally going to be called ''El Hombre que Vino de Ummo'' (translation: ''The Man Who Came from Ummo''), referring to Michael Rennie's space-man character, but the title was changed to ''The Monsters of Terror''. It was followed in the series by the 1970 film '' The Fury of the Wolfman''.

Summary

Aliens Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrate ...

, occupying the bodies of deceased Earth scientists, revive a

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...

, a werewolf, a female

mummy A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay fu ...

, and

Frankenstein's monster Frankenstein's monster or Frankenstein's creature, often referred to as simply "Frankenstein", is a fictional character who first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus''. Shelley's title thus compares ...

with a plan to use them to take over the human race by using their own primitive superstitions against them. (A

Golem A golem ( ; he, , gōlem) is an animated, anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is entirely created from inanimate matter (usually clay or mud). The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late 16th-century ...

was supposed to be one of the monsters in this film, but unfortunately the budgetary problems the filmmakers encountered wouldn't permit it.) The aliens want to discover why these monsters are so frightening to Earthlings. For reference, the aliens use a book entitled ''The Anthology of the Monsters'' by a Professor Ulrich von Farancksalan, who was also the creator of the Frankenstein monster in this film. The

Waldemar Daninsky saves the world by destroying the other three monsters in hand-to-hand combat and ultimately blowing up the aliens' underground base; however, he is shot to death in the film's finale by a woman who loves him enough to end his torment.

Cast

as Dr. Odo Warnoff, the leader of the aliens *

as Maleva Kerstein * Craig Hill as Inspector Tobermann *

Patty Shepard Patricia Moran Shepard (October 1, 1945 – January 3, 2013) was an American film actress based in Madrid, Spain. She appeared in more than fifty Spanish, Italian and French films from the 1960s to the 1980s, notably several cult horror films. ...

as Ilsa Sternberg (as Patty Sheppard) * Gela Geisler as Ilona (as Ella Gessler) *

Ángel del Pozo Ángel del Pozo (born 14 July 1934) is a Spanish actor. He appeared in more than seventy films since 1960. He retired in 1980, and from 1990 to 2008 he worked as a executive producer and public relations on Gestevisión Group, from Mediaset Espa ...

as Dr. Kerian Werner *

as Count Waldemar Daninsky (as Paul Naschi) *

Manuel de Blas Manuel de Blas Muñoz (born 12 April 1941) is a Spanish film, television, and stage actor. Biography Manuel de Blas was born in Badajoz in 1941. He spent his childhood in Córdoba and subsequently moved to Madrid to study political science. W ...

as Count Janos of Mialhoff *

Ferdinando Murolo Ferdinando may refer to: Politics * Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1549–1609) * Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1610–1670) * Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany (1663–1713), eldest son of Cosimo ...

as The Monster of Farancksalan (Frankenstein) *

Gene Reyes In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

as Tao-Tet (The Mummy) * Peter Damon as Judge Sternberg * Robert Hall as Commissioner Gluck * Diana Sorel as Librarian *

Luciano Tacconi Luciano is an Italian, Spanish and Portuguese given name and surname. It is derived from Latin ''Lucianus'', patronymic of ''Lucius'' ("Light"). The French form is ''Lucien'', while the Basque form is ''Luken''. Single name * Luciano (rapper) ...

as the carnival exhibit owner * Paul Cross as Dr. Don Uno, the morgue attendant

Production

Lead actor Paul Naschy also wrote the screenplay at the request of producer Prades, who was impressed by the box office success of Naschy's '' La Marca del Hombre Lobo'' that year and wanted to film a sequel. The original shooting title was ''The Man Who Came from Ummo'', but the producer changed it to ''The Monsters of Terror''. Direction was split between two Argentine-born filmmakers,

and

. Naschy said Fregonese quit the project two-thirds of the way through, and Demichelli stepped in to finish the film. Only Demichelli was actually credited on the prints. Naschy claimed that Hollywood actor Robert Taylor volunteered to play the lead alien in the film, but the producer hired Michael Rennie instead. Naschy also said the makeup man on the film, Rafael Ferrer, was the most incompetent man he ever worked with. (The makeup on Frankenstein in this film was so similar to the 1930s Universal make-up that it could easily have caused a lawsuit. Hence Naschy changed the name of the Monster in this film to "Farancksalan", but it fooled very few people.) Naschy was told the film would have a lavish budget, which inspired him to let his imagination run wild while writing the screenplay. The film was shot in Egypt, Germany, Italy and Spain. Filming was interrupted several times because of Prades' financial difficulties, and thus the script was not filmed as it was written. Whole segments of the script involving

flying saucer A flying saucer (also referred to as "a flying disc") is a descriptive term for a type of flying craft having a disc or saucer-shaped body, commonly used generically to refer to an anomalous flying object. The term was coined in 1947 but has g ...

s and the

were never carried out as the result of sorely lacking funds.

Release and attempts at restoration

An English language one-sheet poster exists for this film bearing the title ''Assignment Terror'', but it is unknown why they created it because AIP only distributed the film direct to television in the U.S. in 1973. It was later released on VHS as ''Dracula vs. Frankenstein'' in a splicy, full screen panned-and-scanned print. The film is available today on a DVD from Reel Vault under the title ''Assignment Terror'', as well as on a German Blu-Ray under the title ''Assignment Terror (Dracula Jagt Frankenstein)''Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 317. ISBN 978-1718835894

Trivia

The film was broadcast on

Tele 5 Tele 5 is a German free-to-air television channel that broadcasts classic American films, series, cartoons and Japanese anime. On 3 July 2020, Discovery, Inc. agreed to acquire the channel from Leonine Holding, completing the purchase on 1 Se ...

as part of the programme format

SchleFaZ ''SchleFaZ'' [] () ("The worst movies ever/of all times") is a satirical film series of the German private broadcaster Tele 5. In this series, mainly B-movies, which are characterized by particularly bad workmanship or unintentionally funny idea ...

in season 2.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Monstruos del terror, Los 1970 films 1970 horror films West German films German vampire films Italian vampire films Spanish vampire films Spanish werewolf films Italian science fiction horror films 1970s exploitation films Mummy films Frankenstein films Dracula films Films directed by Tulio Demicheli Films about extraterrestrial life Circus films Films shot in Egypt Films shot in Germany Films shot in Italy Films shot in Spain Waldemar Daninsky series 1970s Italian films 1970s German films