Super Mates 76: House of Franklin-Stein Part 3

It’s a House Party! House of Franklin-Stein covers the Universal Monster Rally classic House of Dracula! The Wolf Man, Frankenstein’s Monster, and Dracula himself converge on the home of a kindly scientist, who soon becomes a Mad Doctor!

Then Chris & Cindy check out a spooky episode of the Super Friends, when the World’s Greatest Super Heroes succumb to the will of Dracula in “Attack of the Vampire”!

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Clip credits:

House of Dracula directed by Erle C. Kenton; music by William Lava

Opening wedding march by Marc Shaiman from Addams Family Values

Music from Bride of Frankenstein by Franz Waxman

Music from The Wolf Man and Son of Dracula by Hans J. Salter

“Pencil Thin Mustache” by Jimmy Buffett

“Werwolves of London” by Warren Zevon

Super Friends: “Attack of the Vampire” directed by Ray Patterson and Carl Urbano. Music by Hoyt Curtain

Music from Scars of Dracula by James Bernard

“At the House of Frankenstein” by by Big Bob Kornegay

5 responses to “Super Mates 76: House of Franklin-Stein Part 3

  1. Another horror-ible episode!

    You mentioned if Universal was starting to get influenced by what Val Lewton was doing at RKO. Further evidence suggesting this was happening was the presence of Skelton Knaggs, who was a sort of Lewton stock player. He appeared in Lewton’s THE GHOST SHIP, ISLE OF THE DEAD, AND BEDLAM. Lewton never really made Knaggs an out-and-out monster type, but he used the actor’s naturally scary looks to great effect.

    I get why Universal never found a way to work The Mummy into these monster rallies, but I was always baffled why The Invisible Man never made an appearance (so to speak). You would think it would have been easy (and cheap!) to work him in there and there. Heck, even Abbott & Costello realized how easy it was!

    I do not, and never did, like fart humor, but Cindy’s uncontrollable giggling had me laughing.

    And I don’t mind Cindy’s exasperation at the SF moment where Aquaman had to rescue Wonder Woman. That is a bit silly.

    Loved the Tom Waits song at the end.

    1. You know, I was just re-watching the Val Lewton documentary on TCM last night, and there was Skelton Knaggs. Somehow, I had forgotten he was in Isle of the Dead. I still haven’t seen Bedlam (although I have it on DVD) and Ghost Ship yet. I need to brush up on my Lewton more. I DVRed a metric ton off of TCM this week!

      The Invisible Man makes perfect sense for these films. Heck, he could function as monster AND mad scientist, and be the newest guy trying to revive the Monster. I’m sure Chaney wouldn’t have minded seeing someone else show up as Kharis, since he vocally HATED that role. No way he was going to give up Larry Talbot for THAT.

      I will admit I DO like fart humor, but at that point, I just wanted to get through the synopsis. 🙂

      We gotta do Bram Stoker’s Dracula so we can discuss Tom Waits’ Renfield, my second favorite iteration after Dwight Frye. “MAW-STER!!!”

      Chris

      1. Correction, I HAVE seen Bedlam. I think I watched it a few years back when I was sick at home. So maybe I was semi-delirious and just don’t remember it well. The coverage on the Lewton documentary I finished last night reminded me that I had indeed watched it!

        Chris

  2. Thank you for another thought provoking episode (see below). It’s always a pleasure when Larry Talbot visits the House of Franklin-stein. I do hope no one in the Franklin household is allergic to werewolf dander.

    It’s funny that midi-chlorians came up in the discussion regarding the “scientific” explanations for the monsters, because that’s where my mind went as soon as you got to that part of the synopsis. Unfortunately, my mind didn’t stop there, and I began to wonder if the virus in Dracula’s blood is a proto- or mutated form of midi-chlorian? If that were true, then 1) Dracula draws his power from the Force, and 2) the Universal monsters inhabit the Star Wars universe, which would open the door for a Dracula vs Darth Vader comic book miniseries. This also led me to wonder, would a vampire die, if you ran it through the heart with a lightsaber?

    As a final aside, I watch Sci-Fi Saturday Night on MeTV out of Boston, and we get the My Pillow ads every commercial break, as well.

    1. DRACULA IS A SITH!!! You heard it here first folks.

      Do lightsabers some reflect/refract solar light? If so, then yes, they would kill a vampire. OR…Jedi knights are basically monks of a religion, so their religious conviction in their iconography, i.e. a lightsaber, should work against a vampire.

      Mike Lindell is DEFINITELY a Sith.

      Chris

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