Dracula vs Frankenstein (1971)

Al Adamson was notorious for his 'technique' of transforming previously filmed footage via the addition of new scenes, often shot years after the original footage, either to create a completely new film, or simply to make a film in production more 'marketable'.  The most extreme, not to mention best known, instance of this 'technique' was Psycho-aGo-Go (1965), a crime thriller about a psychotic jewel thief, which Adamson subsequently reworked into Fiend With the Electronic Brain (1969), with new footage providing a framing story for the original, transforming it into a science fiction thriller.  Adamson subsequently reworked that film into Blood of Ghastly Horror (1971), with yet more new footage framing the framing story, to add a revenge angle to the earlier footage.  To be fair, this approach wasn't unique to Adamson and made perfect sense for low-budget film-makers as the re-use of old footage cut costs considerably  - in this case, the original production costs of Psycho-a-Go-Go eventually yielded three separate films.

Dracula vs Frankenstein likewise has its origins in a film previously shot by Adamson in 1969: The Blood Seekers, although this was never released.  Quite why it wasn't released in its original form, I don't know.  Perhaps the useable footage ran under length for a feature, or it was simply deemed unmarketable in its existing form.  Whatever the case, at some point in 1970, it was decided that adding Frankenstein and Dracula to the mix would be a good idea.  Certainly, it provided the film with a much more marketable title and in the early seventies, the old monsters will still good for some box office returns.  Adamson shot new footage including the titular monsters and some of the film's original stars, (J. Carrol Naish, Regina Carrol and Anthony Eisley), and edited it into the original film.  This new footage fundamentally changed some aspects of the original plot.  Most significantly, J. Carrol Naish's wheelchair-bound Dr Durea is now revealed to be non other Dr Frankenstein, last surviving descendant of the infamous monster-making family.  Dracula, who has dug up the body of the Frankenstein Monster, now wants the doctor's help in reviving the creature, with which he promises the doctor will be able to wreak revenge upon the rival scientist who discredited him and put him in a wheelchair.  In return, Dracula wants access to the mysterious serum Durea id developing, as he believes it will allow him to walk during daylight hours.

Despite providing the film with a title and most of its advertising, the whole Dracula and Frankenstein strand is, in reality, simply a sub-plot.  The main plot (and the footage from The Blood Seekers) concerns Durea's serum, which is derived from the blood of experimental subjects exposed to extreme terror.  In this state, the victims' blood produces a substance Durea is developing into a serum which, he hopes, will restore his ability to walk, as well as curing his two assistants' (Angelo Rossiti and Lon Chaney Jr) dwarfism and lunacy, respectively.  He carries out his experiments under cover of a Venice Beach boardwalk amusement arcade (which includes a 'House of Horrors' and Waxworks), with his victims being young women kidnapped by Groton (Chaney) after they have visited the premises. Unfortunately for Durea, one of the kidnapped girls is the sister of Las Vegas lounge singer Regina Carrol (Adamson's wife in real life and a frequent performer in his films), who comes to Venice in search of her.  Carrol's investigation into her sister's disappearance, aided by the police and various hippies (Including Anthony Eisley), forms the film's main plot and accounts for most of its running time.  It is interspersed with the various antics of Dracula and Frankenstein, including the monster's revival, the murder of Durea's nemesis, Dr Beaumont (played by Famous Monsters of Filmland's Forrest J Ackerman), and the monster's killing of a couple of cops who try to stop him from kidnapping a girl (presumably for Durea's experiments).  The two plots finally come together at the end of the film, as Dracula and the Monster kidnap Carrol, after Durea is killed and the police storm his Funhouse.

Now, all of this sounds like it could end up being a poorly conceived, shoddily constructed piece of high camp.  But the fact is that, despite frequent comparisons to the likes of Ed Wood Jr, Al Adamson was actually a pretty competent commercial director who turned out professional-looking films despite their budgetary limitations.  Dracula vs Frankenstein is no exception.  The new footage is surprisingly well integrated with the original Blood Seekers footage, the main clue to its being filmed later being the fact that an obviously ailing Naish has visibly aged during the (relatively short) gap in filming.  The production values are also surprisingly good, with Kenneth Strickfaden recreating some of the electrical equipment he had designed for the 1931 Frankenstein for the laboratory scenes.  As noted, Naish seems obviously ill and frail (this was his last film appearance), but nonetheless gives a bravado performance.  Indeed, most of the cast commendably play it straight, providing decent performances.  That said, it is somewhat sad to see a booze-ravaged Lon Chaney Jr, one time star of the Universal horror series, reduced to playing a mute homicidal maniac, (not actually a zombie, despite the film's publicity describing his character as 'Groton, the Mad Zombie'), with a penchant for decapitating his victims with an axe.  He clearly tries to channel his characterisation of 'Lenny' from Of Mice and Men, (even down to cuddling a pet puppy), but years of alcohol abuse had taken their toll and the performance falls short.

The real problem, casting wise, lies with the main monsters.  Dracula is bizarrely portrayed with an afro and white-faced make up.  He also has reverb on his voice whenever he speaks and sports a ring which shoots death rays.  The count is portrayed by the mysterious 'Zandor Vorkov' - who turned out, in reality, not to be an actor, but Adamson's stock broker.  While his Dracula certainly presents a striking figure, he never convinces as a figure of absolute evil, coming over more as villain in a cut price Bond knock off.  John Bloom's putty-faced Monster, while physically imposing, is never more than a muscle bound ruffian.  He has no character to speak of, being mostly subservient to Dracula, and, unlike Chaney's Groton, doesn't elicit the slightest sympathy.  (For some reason, in the climactic scenes at an abandoned church, the Monster is portrayed by a different actor - billed as 'The Creature' in the credits - under the same make up). 

Most of all, Dracula vs Frankenstein, for the most part, looks good.  Which shouldn't be surprising, as Adamson's regular cinematographer, Gary Graver - who also worked in the same capacity on Orson Welles' later films) is in charge of the camera.  An early graveyard scene, for instance, is atmospherically shot, with a terrific tracking shot, which sets a suitably eerie tone for the film.  In the final analysis, Dracula vs Frankenstein is actually a very professionally made and entertaining B-movie.  Sure, the title monsters themselves are fairly ridiculous and there are various plot elements (a biker gang led by Russ Tamblyn, for instance) which seem to have been arbitrarily inserted to bring up the running time, but the movie is never boring and certainly never incompetently made.  It has become fashionable to bracket Adamson with 'bad' film makers like Ed Wood, but that is entirely unfair: Wood was an enthusiastic amateur with no actual film-making talent whereas Adamson was a professional, who demonstrated considerable ability, particularly with regard to editing together his creations.  While his films can vary enormously in quality, at their best, they are enjoyable pieces of schlock delivering a decent ninety minutes or so of entertainment.