FRANKESTEIN: EL VAMPIRO Y COMPANIA (1962)
aka Frankenstein, the Vampire and Co.
Article 2565 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-13-2008
Posting Date: 8-21-2008
Directed by Benito Alazraki
Featuring Manuel “Loco” Valdes, Marta Elena Cervantes, Nora Veryan
Country: Mexico

Two postal clerks get mixed up with the Frankenstein monster, a vampire and a werewolf.

I had no trouble following the plot of this movie, despite the fact that my copy is in undubbed Spanish; it’s practically a scene-for-scene remake of ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN. It is not, however, joke-for-joke, so individual gags elude me, though I do have to admit I got a chuckle when the actor playing Lou’s character slips a fish down the dress of a woman and then proceeds to dance with her while she wriggles. The characters are largely the same, though the lab assistant is jettisoned and a comic detective is added. The werewolf mask here is one of the worst I’ve ever seen. Probably the most interesting change from the original story is that a brain switch does actually happen (for a while at least), so you get a scene where the monster is acting like the comic character and the comic character acts like the monster. Right now I consider it more of a curiosity than a good movie, but until I find a dubbed or subtitled version, I can’t really give it a full evaluation.