Around the time this movie came out I wasn't able to see it. I only got to view black & white pictures of it in a Famous Monster magazine. This doesn't seem like the quality you'd expect from Universal Pictures that is well known for in classic monster movies. This one is rather more like cheap B movies. I couldn't help but notice J. Carrol Naish as Dr. Duryea/ Dr. Frankenstein clicking his false teeth a lot when talking. Lon Chaney Jr. as Groton seem to be like Tor Johnson. They should of picked someone else as Dracula, cause Zandor Vorkov seem weak for the part and not what Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee fans would expect. John Bloom as Frankenstein's Monster was interestingly OK; his face reminded me of an Asian golem. Stupid thing about make-up artists is Dracula's hands weren't as pale as his face and Frankenstein's Monster hands didn't have that greenish hue color of his either. The House of Horrors could of been a lot better than it was. If movie makers are looking for something to remake cause they ran out of ideas for something original, this movie should be redone better than it was.

Quick trivia question: What B-movie veteran of Republic Pictures westerns subsequently appeared in Z-grade horror films directed by the likes of William "One-Shot" Beaudine and Al Adamson? Answer: Jim Davis, soon to reemerge in quality features helmed by Robert Benton and Alan J. Pakula before reaching his peak of fame as patriarch Jock Ewing in the original "Dallas". I had previously reviewed him in Beaudine's Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter and now I'm doing the same for him in Adamson's Dracula vs. Frankenstein. He manages to keep his dignity intact with authority as the police sergeant responding to a woman named Judith (Regina Carrol, Adamson's wife) who's looking for her missing sister. Oh, and horror veterans Lon Chaney, Jr. and J. Carrol Naish make their last appearances in this film with Chaney looking quite pathetic while Naish still has a way with words even after knowing about his reading cue cards here. And dig all the late '60s/early '70s vibe involving music and fashions mixed in with the '40s/'50s stock film scores of previous classic movies like Creature from the Black Lagoon. Such a mish-mash of the unintentional hilarity in all those uneven tone changes that got me looking with bemusement in just the way things were edited together got me mostly almost laughing much of the time. Oh, and what heaving bosoms courtesy of Ms. Carrol and other women in tow! And let's not forget those motorcycle gangs attempting to rape one of them getting their just desserts! And how about that midget...uh, little person also getting it? Okay, I think I've said enough so on that note, Dracula vs. Frankenstein is worth a look if you're curious enough. P.S. The person who uploaded this on YouTube also provided an alternate ending that I thought was a little better though no less cheesy.

I’d always heard the name of Al Adamson mentioned in the same breath as that of the acknowledged King Of Bad Movies, Edward D. Wood Jr.; having now watched an effort from him – and one that, by all accounts, is his own nadir (or zenith, if that’s your bag) – I can certainly appreciate the comparison! Some might enjoy the inherent campiness of the film – belatedly turned into a nod to the classic Universal monster cycle by pairing its two most popular characters (and featuring a couple of relics from that by-gone era in J. Carroll Naish and Lon Chaney Jr.) – but it’s hard to overlook the sheer awfulness of the whole enterprise…not to mention the way it demeans two reliable actors and the legacy of Dracula and Frankenstein in the process! To be fair, Naish does try as the mad scientist – delivering the expected quota of crackpot theories throughout; but it’s painful to watch Chaney here, reduced by alcoholism and cancer to thankless parts of brutish mute assistants. You ain’t seen Chaney until you’ve watched him giddy with anticipation for his ‘fix’, or go cold turkey when he’s deprived of it; on top of that, in order to provide Naish with the body parts necessary for his experiments, Chaney’s character – named Groton (perhaps an amalgam of gross cretin?) – is turned every once in a while into a rabid axe-wielding murderer! But, then, what of the monsters themselves?: as played by one Zandor Vorkov – obviously a pseudonym, and with a look apparently inspired by Frank Zappa – this has to be the most ineffectual Dracula on record (made even worse by his inexplicably resounding voice)!; on the other hand, the Frankenstein monster is saddled with such a (literally) squashed appearance – generally recalling Charles Ogle from the very first, i.e. 1910, adaptation of the Mary Shelley novel – that I kept expecting Naish (or someone) to inflate it to a presentable form! That said, the film contrives to dispatch its two horror stars well before the end (Naish’s is undoubtedly among the clumsiest ever devised) to make way for the ‘fireworks’ promised by the titular bout (which was too dark on the print I watched anyway!) – reportedly, this was only thought of late in the game and actually replaced the climax Adamson originally shot – but it only proved to be a dire conclusion to a pathetic film!! To add insult to injury, the recognizable tri-tonal Gill Man theme kept cropping up on the soundtrack all through this sequence.Unsurprisingly, the rest of the characters are even less engaging and only serve to raise the yawn factor: the heroine – who sets the plot in motion by going in search of her missing sister – is introduced while doing an idiotic vaudeville number in Vegas with two dubious hunks and, apparently, was the director’s own wife in real life; the cop on the case is played by a bewildered Jim Davis; helping the girl are a trio of hippies, and harassing the lot are a gang of bikers (led by a spaced-out Russ Tamblyn sporting a huge head of hair and whose scenes were seemingly intended for another film, a sequel to Satan’S SADISTS [1969] from the same director!); last, not least but decidedly the shortest is Angelo Rossitto, Hollywood’s perennial ‘little man’ of Horror, who’s also on hand as a carnival-barker for Naish’s “Creature Emporium”.

"Dracula vs. Frankenstein" is a mostly cheesy creature feature.**SPOILERS**After a strange disappearance, cabaret-singer Judith Fontaine, (Regina Carrol) determines that a local carnival might have something to do with it. As Dr. Duryea, (J. Carrol Naish) and his assistant Groton, (Lon Chaney Jr.) use a sideshow exhibit in the carnival as a cover for their experiments with human blood, he is able to reanimate the dead in a special process. Soon, Count Dracula, (Zandor Vorkov) visits them to help him restore the Frankenstein Monster, (John Bloom) and requiring more blood for the process, they require more bodies to procure it. As news erupts over this, she decides to investigate the matter, and finds that the monsters are all loose from the experiments. With the creatures loose in the countryside, they all try to get away before anything can be done.The Good News: This is a really cheesy film in every way. From the make-up on the monsters to the general plot direction to the fight at the end, this here really piles on the cheese. The lumpiness on the Frankenstein mask is the most obvious, which features a really lumpy look and really looks cheesy. Only because of the large size and lumbering walk does it make the creature visible as to what it should be. The fact that the beach is obviously done on a set makes the cheesiness all the more apparent, and all the scenes in the lab aren't that much better, yet they work because of the cheesiness. The fact that so many of it's tolerable scenes occur there makes it all the more weird that it does. The first encounter, where the victim is stalked by off-screen noises only to become decapitated, is really great, as is the segment where the bikers are knocked off while attempting to rape the woman, is really nice and does have enough worthwhile to make it interesting. The opening sequence, where the monster is uncovered in a fog-enshrouded cemetery is a nice atmospheric moment, and the final meltdown looks really great. These moments of cheese really help the film.The Bad News: This here doesn't have a whole lot of flaws. The film's ability to completely throw around it's plot is something to get around. This is due to there being so many different elements to this. This one incorporates a detective story, a mad scientist revenge story, a biker gang and a separate one involving the two monsters. That's a large amount to get involved in, and by jumping around to each of them it feels really cobbled together, as it never really seems to gel together. This one could potentially do so, and there is an attempt, but it still feels really jumbled. There's several scenes that really try the viewer's patience, most importantly the musical numbers which are really painful to endure. These stretch out the film longer than it should be. There's several others here that are just as hard to get through, but these here are the big ones. The last flaw is the really obvious cheese. This may become really obvious when viewing the lumpy Frankenstein, which looks like a shriveled face and never once comes close to the look of the classic creature or inspiring chills at all. It's more laughable than anything else and becomes an example of the cheese. This is also something that not all will get and some will claim that it's an outright flaw to begin with, and is immediately unable to overlook it, simply because it's there/ these here are all the flaws with the film.The Final Verdict: This here is a mostly cheesy film that derives most of it's positives and it's negatives from that factor. That alone should be the main watchable ploy, as if it appeals to you, then this one should be given a chance, yet if it doesn't, then this won't be worthwhile viewing.Rated R: Violence, Language, Brief Nudity and attempted Rape