Die Rückkehr der Familie-Frankenstein

Following the success of the (awful) Gilligan's Island TV movie reruns, a number of TV movies were made in the 1980's reuniting casts from classic shows. Most of these movies completely missed the boat as far as recapturing the humor that made the shows so special. THE MUNSTERS REVENGE is among the most disappointing because it goes for a Laurel and Hardy-type comedy style that really wasn't in the original series. Yvonne De Carlo, a wonderful comedienne and essential to the series, is completely wasted - she has less time here in this 90 minute movie than she did in any single 30 minute episode. And since the roles of "Eddie" and "Marilyn" in this movie are nothing more than cameos, what was the point of making them younger and recasting them? With very little rewriting, they could have used Butch Patrick and Pat Priest. Although seeing some of the Munsters spooky relatives was a nice touch, I didn't enjoy Sid Caesar as the hammy mad scientist mainly because there's too much of him and not enough of the underused Munsters (ironically that very year, 1981, Caesar's old partner in comedy, Imogene Coca, was also inappropriately cast in a major part in a TV movie reunion RETURN OF THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES). Another strange inexplicable bit at the beginning of the film has the Munster family represented as wax figures at a local horror wax museum. Why would they be in there when they are supposed to be a "typical" (if strange) American family, not famous monsters? This was the last Munsters project featuring the original cast in their roles, there was an awful revival of the series in the late 1980's with a completely new cast and a 1990's TV movie which featured DeCarlo, Lewis, Priest, and Patrick in cameo roles as a family dining.

They've goofed it again. Even though Fred Gwynne detested what his old Herman Munster role did to the rest of his career, he agreed to reprise this wonderful character for an astronomical sum of money. Much to his surprise, the producers were willing to pay it - though as it turned out, Gwynne got the better half of the bargain. As a huge fan of the original MUNSTERS television show I can tell you this one hurts. That is, it's painfully unfunny to watch. I suppose it's better than no reunion at all, but what a shame it turned out so underwhelming.

For starters, the script is downright awful: A mad doctor (Sid Caesar - I'll deal with him later) has an army of monster robots, two of which resemble Herman and Grandpa (Al Lewis, also reprising his part). Sending these automatons out on random crime sprees, it isn't very long before they're mistaken for the real Herman and Grandpa Munster -- and our arrested heroes have to spend the rest of the movie convincing everyone that they're innocent, while trying to foil the doctor's plans.

Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis get the most screen time, which is a small solace, as their old jams together are the only thing worth staying tuned for. What very little satisfaction is squeezed from this revival is due to them. Just the same, they're visibly older and slower, and just don't seem to be as vital as they were on the show. This is certainly understandable, but what's not acceptable is that the jokes are terrible, and the glaring silence where a laugh track ought to be only alerts us to that fact. This brings me back to Sid Caesar, who is more annoying than funny, and adds absolutely nothing to the proceedings as "Dr. Diablo".

Yvonne De Carlo returns as Lily, but she's very under-used and that's probably all for the best. Since this was now the 1980's, the next mistake was in casting some new, "hip" modern-sounding actors to portray little Eddie and a new Marilyn. It would have been much more conceivable to cast the original Butch Patrick and Pat Priest as the now-older versions of their sixties characters. The modern music is also not very nostalgic for fans of the old show, and gets in the way. The feeling one gets from this lost opportunity is that those involved just missed the whole point of what made the original series so delightful to those of us who grew up loving it. Darn, Darn, Darn! ** out of ****

The Munsters Revenge was a nice return for the original family. I'm not a big fan of TV reunion movies in general but The Munsters Revenge was great.

Herman and Grandpa were back accused of a crime they didn't commit. They had to prove their innocence and there were some nice scenes along the way particularly when Herman and Grandpa were in the police station.

Oh yes, and there's a few villains in the film as well which adds to the enjoyment. This film did have similarities to Carry On Screaming from 1966 and it was just as amusing.

Now when is someone going to release this onto DVD?

Whoever wrote this odd and cluttered screenplay ruined a welcome and promising returning of the ours beloved old acquaintances friends of the classic series The Munsters, they brought back the nostalgic years having the iconic Herman (Fred Gwynne) persona and the priceless Grandpa Dracula (Al Lewis) also the gracious Lily Munster (Yvonne De Carlo) team up by the producers as just original remainder cast.

Our heroes are misidentified by some Munsters's robots lookalike of their own at Los Angeles Wax Museum on robberies, aftermaths the clumsy Herman & Grandpa are arrested by the police, due the Marilyn's unusual beauty draw attention and sudden love interest of the police officer Peter Fox a son of the Chief of Police Herb Voland, such love affair brings many troubles for the rookie detective due the duo-comics partners Herman-Grandpa are causing many endless hassles in the police department at the extent to Peter be thrown out of the force.

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First watch: 2025 / How many: 1 / Source: Youtube / Rating: 6.

What this film needs is a laugh track, but even with that we've got a missed opportunity on our hands. Still in all, it's a treat to see the family reunited (especially considering how much Fred Gwynne despised his role). It's still nice to see Herman and grandpa getting into those same old jams, but what's with that Eddie? Should have had Butch Patrick return as the now-grown son.