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Assignment: Terror

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Assignment: Terror
Spanish theatrical release poster
Directed byHugo Fregonese
Tulio Demicheli[1]
Written byJacinto Molina
Produced byJaime Prades
StarringPaul Naschy
Michael Rennie
Karin Dor
Craig Hill
Patty Shepard
Angel del Pozo
Manuel de Blas
CinematographyGodofredo Pacheco
Edited byEmilio Rodríguez
Music byRafael Fitó
Franco Salina
Production
companies
Eichberg-Film
International Jaguar Cinematografica
Producciones Jaime Prades
Distributed byCastilla Films
Release date
  • 24 February 1970 (1970-02-24) (France)
Running time
85 minutes (Spain)
CountriesSpain
West Germany
Italy
LanguageSpanish
Budget$1 million[2]

Los Monstruos del Terror (translation: The Monsters of Terror), also known as Dracula vs. Frankenstein (U.K. title), Dracula contre Frankenstein (French theatrical title), Reincarnator (French unauthorised video title) and Assignment: Terror (U.S. TV title), is a 1970 Spanish-German-Italian horror film directed by Tulio Demicheli and Hugo Fregonese. Eberhard Meichsner was also credited as a director in the British promotional material, but by all accounts he was most likely not involved at all.[3] It stars Paul Naschy, Michael Rennie, Karin Dor and Craig Hill. It is the third in a series of films that Naschy wrote featuring the werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky, who was always played by Naschy. It was filmed in early Spring, 1969[4]..

Los Monstruos del Terror was originally going to be called El Hombre que Vino de Ummo (translation: The Man Who Came from Ummo), referring to Michael Rennie's space-man character. The film was released directly to television in the U.S. as Assignment Terror.[5]

It was followed in the series by the 1970 film The Fury of the Wolfman.

Summary

Aliens, occupying the bodies of deceased Earth scientists, revive a vampire, a werewolf, a (female) mummy, and Frankenstein's monster with a plan to use them to take over the human race using their own superstitions against them. They want to discover why these monsters are so frightening to Earthlings. For reference, the aliens use a book entitled "Anthology of the Monsters" by Professor Ulrich von Farancksalan, who was also the creator of the Frankenstein's Monster in this film.

The werewolf they revive (Count Waldemar Daninsky) saves the world by destroying the other three monsters in hand-to-hand combat and ultimately blowing up the aliens' underground base, although he is shot to death in the process by a woman who loves him enough to end his torment.

Cast

  • Michael Rennie as Dr. Odo Warnoff, the leader of the aliens, Maleva, Kerian and Ilona's boss and the monsters's leader as well, who plans on unleashing the monsters by hypnotising young girls to be his scientist slaves and reviving 2 dead scientists back from the dead, (the scientists being Kerian and Maleva), so him and his fellow aliens can rule the earth. Originally titled the Man from Ummo, the movie was supposed to be about his character but was changed into a Daninsky flick. This was also Michael Rennie's final film role as he died about a year later in 1971 of aortic aneurism, he was 1 of the only internationally well-known American actors to appear in a Daninsky flick along with Karin Dor in this one and Mark Stevens in The Fury of the Wolfman. In the movie Rennie plays an alien who wants to rule the earth, he is an alien just like his character Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still but in this movie his character wants to do the total opposite of what Klaatu wanted to do by unleashing the Universal Monsters onto the earth for world domination.
  • Karin Dor as Maleva Kerstein, Kerian's fellow scientist and lover, Warnoff's assistant and Ilona's boss, who along with Kerian is revived back to life by Warnoff and becomes his assistant who works on reviving the monsters, at first she is fine with Warnoff's world domination plans and even kills for fun, but later shows more human emotions and plans to kill Warnoff with Kerian, but her plans are stopped and in the end she is killed when the aliens's headquarters explodes. She was also 1 of the only internationally well-known American actors to appear in a Daninsky flick along with Michael Rennie in this one and Mark Stevens in The Fury of the Wolfman.
  • Craig Hill as Inspector Tobermann, Gluck's agent and Ilsa's boyfriend who investigates the numerous murders that the aliens and monsters have committed and left behind and learns about Waldemar from Judge Sternberg before saving Ilsa from the aliens by fighting the monsters and killing some of them.
  • Patty Shepard as Ilsa Sternberg (as Patty Sheppard), Judge Sternberg's daughter and Tobermann's girlfriend who also knew the latter in college before he graduated, she later is kidnapped by the aliens and seduced by Count De Meirhoff to threaten and challenge Tobermann and is saved by the latter from the aliens and monsters in the end.
  • Gela Geisler as Ilona (as Ella Gessler), Kerian, Warnoff and Maleva's assistant and the revived Waldemar's lover who conspires with him to kill Warnoff just like Maleva and Kerian and in the end shoots and kills him to end his suffering as a lycanthrope before she too is killed by him.
  • Ángel del Pozo as Dr. Kerian Werner (as Angel del Pozo), Maleva's fellow assistant and lover, Warnoff's assistant and Ilona's boss, who along with Maleva is also revived back to life by Warnoff and becomes his assistant who works on reviving the monsters, and throughout the movie starts betraying the latter and showing more human emotions and then conspires with Maleva to kill him, however in the end Warnoff finds out about it and has the Frankenstein monster kill Kerian before he could do anything to him at all.
  • Paul Naschy as Count Waldemar Daninsky (as Paul Naschi), Ilona's lover, a person who Judge Sternberg met in the past and 1 of Warnoff, Kerian and Maleva's slave monsters revived by them to unleash terror onto the earth. All Waldemar wants in this movie is to die when he's revived again and already when revived, is a lycanthrope who goes around killing people in werewolf form, but he strikes up a relationship with Ilona, asking her to kill him because of his lycanthropy curse, however he becomes a hero in the finale when he fights and kills both the mummy and the Frankenstein monster before he kills Ilona and is put down for good. Out of all the Waldemar Daninsky flicks, this is the one in which the character plays a supporting role and isn't the main character unlike the other ones as the movie also focuses on the aliens, De Meirhoff, Tao-Tet the mummy and the Frankenstein monster along with him. Unlike the other entries in the series, Waldemar is not given a specific origin of how he turned into a lycanthrope in this one, the events are told to take place after "La Marca Del Hombre Lobo" (The Mark of the Wolfman) in which Waldemar was bitten by a werewolf called Imre Wolfstein and was shot by silver bullets, this is evidenced by the way he is revived back to life by the aliens by taking out the silver bullets that had killed him at the end of the last movie.
  • Manuel de Blas as Count Janos of Mialhoff, a vampire who is the first to be revived back to life by the aliens and becomes their slave monster who they use along with the Frankenstein monster, the mummy and Waldemar Daninsky to unleash terror onto the earth. His skeleton was first used as a freak show exhibit but was later taken by the aliens, then revived back to life and soon he sets his vampiric cravings on turning Maleva into a vampire before she is saved by Kerian and then is used by Warnoff to capture Ilsa and threaten Tobermann who then raids the alien lair, saves Ilsa from the count's clutches and kills him in a fight.
  • Ferdinando Murolo as The Monster of Farancksalan (Frankenstein), a monster created by the scientist Farancksalan aka Frankenstein who was killed by him too and is later revived back to life by the aliens as their slave monster to unleash terror onto the earth along with Waldemar Daninsky, De Meirhoff and Tao-Tet the mummy. He is the last monster to be revived by the aliens and helps Warnoff first by killing Kerian when the former finds out that the latter is conspiring against him with Maleva and later in the finale, fights against Waldemar in werewolf form and is killed by him.
  • Gene Reyes as Tao-Tet (The Mummy), an ancient mummy who was bandage-wrapped in ancient times and is revived in Egypt by the aliens, later also becoming their slave monster with Waldemar, De Meirhoff and the Frankenstein monster to unleash terror onto the earth. His role in the movie is very minor as after his resurrection, he appears in the finale after Tobermann kills De Meirhoff and fights Waldemar in werewolf form and is killed by him.
  • Peter Damon as Judge Sternberg, Ilsa's father
  • Robert Hall as Commissioner Gluck
  • Diana Sorel as Librarian
  • Luciano Tacconi
  • Paul Cross as Dr. Don Uno

Production

Lead actor Paul Naschy also wrote the screenplay at the request of producer Prades, who was impressed by the box office success of Naschy's La Marca del Hombre Lobo that year and wanted to film a sequel. The original shooting title was The Man Who Came from Ummo, but the producer changed it to The Monsters of Terror. Direction was split between two Argentine-born filmmakers, Hugo Fregonese and Tulio Demicheli. Naschy said Fregonese quit the project two-thirds of the way through, and Demichelli stepped in to finish the film. Only Demichelli was actually credited on the prints. Naschy claimed that Hollywood actor Robert Taylor volunteered to play the lead alien in the film, but the producer hired Michael Rennie instead. Naschy also said the makeup man on the film, Rafael Ferrer, was the most incompetent man he ever worked with. (The makeup on Frankenstein in this film was so similar to the 1930s Universal make-up that it could easily have caused a lawsuit.)[6]

Naschy was told the film would have a lavish budget, which inspired him to let his imagination run wild while writing the screenplay. The film was shot in Egypt, Germany, Italy and Spain.[2] Filming was interrupted several times because of Prades' financial difficulties, and thus the script was not filmed as it was written. Whole segments of the script involving flying saucers and the Golem were never carried out as the result of sorely lacking funds.

Release and attempts at restoration

An English language one-sheet poster exists for this film bearing the title Assignment Terror, but it is unknown why they created it because AIP only distributed the film direct to television in the U.S. in 1973. It was later released on VHS as Dracula vs. Frankenstein in a splicy, full screen panned-and-scanned print.

The film is available today on a DVD from Reel Vault under the title Assignment Terror, as well as on a German Blu-Ray under the title Assignment Terror (Dracula Jagt Frankenstein)[7]

Trivia

The film was broadcast on Tele 5 as part of the programme format SchleFaZ in season 2.

References

  1. ^ Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 40. ISBN 978-1718835894.
  2. ^ a b Besas, Peter (3 November 1971). "Spain Discovers Horror Pix". Variety. p. 27.
  3. ^ Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 40. ISBN 978-1718835894
  4. ^ Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 40.ISBN 978-1718835894
  5. ^ Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 30.ISBN 978-1718835894.
  6. ^ Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 42. ISBN 978-1718835894.
  7. ^ Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 317. ISBN 978-1718835894


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