Sunday, July 29, 2018

MUNSTER, GO HOME! (1966) **


I was never really a Munsters fan.  I was always more of an Addams Family kind of guy.  Still, I like Fred Gwynne, Al Lewis, Yvonne DeCarlo, and Butch Patrick enough to give this big screen version a whirl. 

Munster, Go Home! has Herman (Gwynne) learning he’s inherited a lordship.  He packs up the family and heads to England to sign all the necessary papers.  Naturally, his crooked relatives (who aren’t monsters by the way) try to scare him off.  When that fails, they set out to sabotage Herman’s race car, "Dragula" during the climatic hot rod race. 

Even though Munster, Go Home! is feature length, it still doesn’t have enough laughs to fill your average half-hour episode of the original show.  The comedic music and corny sound effects that try to punctuate the humor during the so-called funny parts don't help at all and only underscore the desperation of some of the gags.  The cast is certainly game (and Debbie Watson fares just fine as the new Marilyn), but the material is just too thin to really click.  It’s fun to see guys like John Carradine, Terry-Thomas, and Richard Dawson turning up in supporting roles, although none of them are really given anything worthy of their talents to do.  The only real laughs come from Gwynne and Lewis’ mugging.  (I enjoyed the Car 54, Where Are You? gag.)  If you wanted to see that, you could just watch an episode of The Munsters  instead and save yourself an hour or so.

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