Al Adamson's "Dracula Vs. Frankenstein"

This movie starts out in a graveyard with a couple of guys getting killed by the Frankenstein monster then moves to the city of Venice,Ca. Al Adamson, a director of several below grade Z films brings us a mixture of bikers, monsters, and sleaze. J. Carrol Naish, who played in several Universal horror movies is brought back for his last role as Dr. Frankenstein. He is at least 200 years old and is confined to a wheelchair. He runs a secret lab fronted by a carnival side show called "The Chamber of Horrors" in what appears to be Las Vegas. Beachfront folks are asked to see the chamber by Angelo Rossitto. He was the little guy in the cagematch scene from "Madmax-Beyond Thunderdome." He rode on the back of the big killing machine Mel Gibson didn't have the heart to kill. He was Master and the big guy was Blaster.

Lon Chaney Jr. plays "Groton", a gentle guy who likes rabbits and whiskey until the evil doctor injects him with a serum that makes him roam the beaches (of Las Vegas?!?) looking for women to dismember with an axe for the evil doctor's experiments. Chaney is somewhat replaying his role as Lenny in "Of Mice and Men." Only difference is he is fat and drunk in this one. A true pity for the man who was once The Wolfman. Adamson's wife, Regina Carrol plays a busty acid freak who is a victim of Dracula. Dracula in this film is know a "Zandor Vorkov." He returns to force Dr. Frankenstein to revive the monster. I thought the monster was doing pretty good on his own at the beginning of this movie. Dracula looks like Frank Zappa with an afro. Russ Tamblyn shows up as a biker. This has no bearing to the plot, but what the hell? Jim Davis from the show "Dallas" is brought in as a policeman to figure out who's been killing all the girls down at the beach in Las Vegas.

The Frankenstein monster walks from his graveyard in Transylvania to Las Vegas. He ends up fighting Dracula in the woods of Las Vegas. Why would Dracula want the monster brought back if all he was going to do is fight him? The monster, played by John Bloom looks like Frankenberry after a long weekend with Lon Chaney Jr. The monster kills all the bikers and Lon Chaney Jr. on a roof top. Dracula now has the power of Superman's laser in his ring to fry people as well. Dr. Frankenstein gets his head chopped off in the lab after he's bumped into a gillotine (I know I spelled that wrong.) Poor guy, Naish was the only good character in this film.


Back to Dracula vs Frankenstein. These two end up having a no holds barred match up in the woods because Frank loves the girl Drac wants to kill. The monster in the Universal series was indestructible right? Well, Dracula rips this guy limb from limb thus making him like The Black Knight in "The Holy Grail." Dracula kills the monster in a matter of minutes, and wouldn't you know the sun starts coming up! He gets within feet of his coffin in an old church in the dense Las Vegas woods. He then melts into a skeleton that resembles a melted model race car. What happens to everyone else? I have no idea. Al Adamson was a director with no shame and this movie proves it without a doubt. A must see to believe it!