FRANKESTEIN, THE VAMPIRE AND COMPANY (1962) **

Frankestein, the Vampire and Company is an unofficial Mexican remake of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.  On second thought, the term “remake” is a little generous.  “Rip-off” is more like it. 

Two idiot baggage clerks are given the task of delivering two crates containing the bodies of Frankestein and “The Human Vampire” to a wax museum.  When the bodies disappear, the bumbling boobs are accused of theft and must find the monsters to clear their name.  A stranger also lends a hand in finding the creatures, but he has an unfortunate habit of turning into a werewolf at the most inopportune times.

Given what I had heard about this movie, I was kind of expecting this to be more of a blatant rip-off than it actually was.  Some of the scenes copy Abbott and Costello very closely, but others are just different enough to keep the sense of déjà vu at bay.  For example, when the Larry Talbot stand-in turns into the Wolf Man while talking on the telephone, he isn’t in his apartment, but rather a public phonebooth.  Also, the vampire is kind of an idiot himself.  There’s a scene where he acts like a little girl when he thinks he’s about to drink some blood that’s just painfully unfunny.  You’d never see Lugosi do shit like that in a million years.  We also get a long scene where an equally unfunny detective looks for a thief at a costume party that has fuck-all to do with the plot. 

These slight changes don’t make much of a difference, ultimately.  I think were only done to prevent Universal from calling their lawyers.  You can almost hear the filmmakers preparing their defense.  “But Your Honor, in our movie, the fraidy cat nincompoop isn’t short and fat, he’s tall and skinny!  And besides, he hears a voice in his head that makes him play ‘pranks’ on his poor buddy.  Does THAT sound like Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein to YOU?”  However, these changes aren’t remotely funny enough to make it worthwhile either. 

I know it may look like my Spell Check has crapped out on me, but yes, the title is actually Frankestein, the Vampire and Company.  I don’t know if they slightly altered Frankenstein’s name so they wouldn’t get sued or what, but it’s kind of funny.  I know in Santo and Blue Demon vs. the Monsters, the character’s name was “Franquestain”, so it’s possible it’s just a Spanish variation of the word.  That doesn’t explain why the Dracula character is called “The Human Vampire” though.  I mean, aren’t all vampires human?  Again, I think they just called him that to skirt around any issues with Universal.  It’s still kind of goofy though.

So, in short, there’s no real reason to watch this, unless you want to see a cheaper, unfunnier, Mexican version of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.  That’s why I watched it, and while I don’t exactly regret my decision, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s not very good.  Then again, if you’re like me and you’ll watch just about anything that comes from south of the border and contains Frankenstein (or Frankestein, even), Dracula (err… The Human Vampire), or the Wolf Man, you can do a lot worse.