STUFF YOU GOTTA WATCH - Mad Monster Party?

MAD MONSTER PARTY?

(1967)
With the voices of Boris Karloff, Allen Swift, Gale Garnett, Phyllis Diller
Directed by Jules Bass
Style: Stop-Motion
Reviewed by JB

Mad Monster Party? From Rankin and Bass, the people behind such terrific Christmas specials such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Coming to Town, came this cute stop-motion feature starring most of the greatest movie monsters of all time, invited to the island headquarters of a retiring Doctor Frankenstein (modeled after Boris Karloff and voiced by the Master himself).

MAD MONSTER PARTY? may now be of more interest to children than to adults, but anybody who grew to love this film as a kid when they saw it broadcast on television years ago can still enjoy it, as can any fan of the Universal studios monsters or stop-motion animation itself. It's the little things that make this film fun to revisit, such as Dr. Frankenstein's menagerie of truly bizarre tiny creatures dancing through the Karloff-voiced number "Stay One Step Ahead", or the running gag of Peter Lorre-lookalike Yecch literally losing his head throughout the film. The Doctor's all-too-human nephew Felix Flankin (voiced by Allen Swift, who does several other voices in the film) is an endearing comic hero, looking like Ernie from My Three Sons, acting like Jerry Lewis, and sounding like Jimmy Stewart.

The inclusion of a then-famous Phyllis Diller (as the Monster's Mate) doing her usual stand-up shtick dates this film terribly, but this lapse in judgment is made up for by that memorable stop-motion creation, Francesca, voiced by Gale Garnett. Francesca, Dr. Frankenstein's lovely, red-haired and way-too-busty assistant, is to stop-motion animation what Jessica Rabbit is to hand drawn animation. Francesca is not bad - she's just carved that way. She also gets to sing two pretty nifty songs. - JB