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Munster, Go Home!
USA 1966
produced by Joe Connelly, Bob Mosher for Universal
directed by Earl Bellamy
starring Fred Gwynne, Yvonne De Carlo, Al Lewis, Butch Patrick, Debbie Watson, Terry-Thomas, Hermione Gingold, Jeanne Arnold, Robert Pine, John Carradine, Bernard Fox, Richard Dawson, Maria Lennard, Cliff Norton, Diana Chesney, Arthur Malet, Ben Wright
written by Joe Connelly, Bob Mosher, George Tibbles, created by Allan Burns, Chris Hayward, music by Jack Marshall
The Munsters, The Munsters (classic series)
review by Mike Haberfelner
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After Herman's (Fred Gwynne) uncle from the UK has died, Herman
receives a letter to inform him that he has not only inherited all of his
uncle's possessions and fortune, but also the title Lord. Herman is of
course overly excited, so immediately he takes his whole family - wife
Lily (Yvonne De Carlo), father-in-law Grandpa (Al Lewis), son Eddie (Butch
Patrick), and niece Marilyn (Debbie Watson) - on a trip abroad. On the
boat to England, Marilyn meets a man she likes, racecar driver Roger
Moresby (Robert Pine), but she thinks he doesn't like her back as he gets
nervous everytime he sees someone of her monster family. Once at
Herman's new estate, our heroes find some new obstacle, the deceased's
wife Lady Effigie (Hermione Gingold) and her two kids, Freddie
(Terry-Thomas) and Grace (Jeanne Arnold), and even if they pretend to
welcome them with open arms, they're not the ones who let their estate
(and title) go that easily, and so they make up a plan to scare the
Munsters to death, something Herman and Lily greet with applause and
mistake as a thoughtful gesture. So they make up another plan, Herman is
to defend the honour of the Munsters in a car race, where the Munsters
traditionally fight Squire Moresby (Bernard Fox), who is of course
represented by his son Roger on the race track, which makes Marilyn
furious. In the meantime, Herman and Grandpa have found a press for
counterfeiting money in the basement of the Munster estate, but fail to
put two and two together and tell Lady Effigie, who promises to tell the
police, but is actually the head of a counterfeiting ring. And now she's
more hell-bent than ever to get rid of the Munsters, and does everything
in her power to kill Herman, including having Rober replaced with barmaid
Millie (Maria Lennard), daughter of her own butler Cruikshank (John
Carradine). Grandpa and Lily find out about Lady Effigie's wrongdoings,
are detained, free themselves, and ultimately Lily tries to warn Herman,
but if anything, she makes matters worse. Despite all the deviltry though,
Herman wins the race, all baddies get their just desserts, and ultimately
the Munsters return to the USA, as being a Lord is no cure for
homesickness ... Basically an attempt to cash in on the popular
The Munsters TV sitcom, Munster, Go Home! is a film
... that actually doesn't get everything right: Sure, the original cast
(with the exception of Debbie Watson, who has replaced Pat Priest here)
gives their all, and are as funny as one would imagine, but throwing your
horror parody of a typical wholesome sitcom family into a larger-than-life
adventure doesn't work nearly as well as it should. Basically they just
seem to have a random adventure, and likewise their specific gags, some of
them recycled from the TV show as it is, are thrown in at random. And
eventually, the whole concept of monsters facing the "normal"
world is really thrown out of the window in favour of doing some wacky
races. There are still laughs in this, mind you, it's just nowhere near as
funny as it deserved to be - but maybe the big screen is just too big for The
Munsters, and also colour doesn't fit them half as well as their
traditional black-and-white.
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