A Monstrous Blast From The Past:
Mad Monster Party?
Review by Michelle Klein-Häss
A Black Bear Press/DeLuxo video release
A Rankin/Bass Production
Directed by Jules Bass
Written by Leo Korobkin and Harvey Kurtzmann
Voice Cast:
Baron von Frankenstein: Boris Karloff
The Monster's Mate: Phyllis Diller
Francesca: Gale Garnett
Produced by Joseph E. Levine and Arthur Rankin Jr.
The 1967 animated feature Mad Monster Party? is a memory most Gen-X kids carry in their hearts, right next to Scooby Doo, Where Are You? and The Brady Bunch. I remember seeing this in a Summer kiddie matinee when I was in first or second grade, and countless showings on TV on days when school was out and Channel 11 was showing "No School Today Theatre."
Like these other fondly remembered blasts from the past, if you squint a teensy bit too hard and analyze Mad Monster Party? a bit too much, you see its failings clearly. It was a cheaply made movie with a story that an elementary school kid could have come up with as a Halloween story for class. The animation is hardly in the league of great dimensional animators like Harryhausen, Svankmajer, Starevitch or Stuhr, or even some of Rankin/Bass' earlier triumphs like Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Little Drummer Boy.
However, I must say that if you take this for what it is -- cheesy, nostalgic fun -- it's worthwhile and downright enjoyable to watch. Black Bear Press (the parent company of Toon Magazine, one of ANP's primary online partners) managed to track down perhaps the best print of this movie in existence, and the transfer is perfect if the print they were using wasn't entirely so. Eastmancolor stock is vulnerable to color shifts during aging, and it's a miracle that this print has kept as much of the Cyan and Yellow layer as it has. There is still a little bit of a Magenta shift but it's not noticeable most of the time.
Boris Karloff's performance, one of his last, is infused with the grace and style of the man and his acting. And Phyllis Diller, grande dame of comedy cheese, pours it on thick with some hilarious bits and pieces as The Monster's Mate. Other highlights include a swingin' psychedelic band comprised of skeletons with hippie wigs, the wonderful character design by some of the great Mad Magazine artists, and countless references to classic horror films.
Is this great animated cinema? No. Are there things here that Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot would enjoy mercilessly skewering? Certainly. But it's a fun romp, it's part of my history, and you can groove to it.
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