Los monstruos del terror

Known by various names such as "The Monsters Of Terror", "Assignment Terror" and "Dracula Jagt Frankenstein", this is a Spanish-German-Italian monster concoction featuring American actor Michael Rennie in his last desperate movie role. Rennie plays the leader of a group of aliens from a planet called Ummo who target Earth as the perfect place to re-populate their dying world. Along with his female assistant (Karin Dor, who starred in Hitchcock's TOPAZ!) he sets out to destroy man by reviving all of the Earth's historic monsters: Waldemar Daninsky, the Werewolf (Paul Naschy), a male vampire, a mummy, and a Frankenstein-like creature (all of whom look ridiculous except for the werewolf). Naschy also scripted this bizarre hodgepodge, influenced by the old Universal monster classics (and, presumably, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN in particular). The highlight is when Naschy's heroic wolfman battles other monsters. If you're a fan of those old films it's worth watching just for the nostalgia, but be forewarned it's a messy ride and will vary depending on what copy of the movie you happen to watch. This review is from a German-dubbed widescreen DVD called "Dracula Jagt Frankenstein" with English subtitles, but there are edited variations under different names (among them: the inferior English "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" copy, which utilizes Michael Rennie's own voice but is missing footage, and is not to be confused by the 1971 Al Adamson movie of the same name). As of this writing there is no acceptable English-dubbed version. Still some offbeat fun for monster lovers, but you have to wonder what Michael (THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL) Rennie was thinking while he had to act in this. *1/2 out of ****