Los Monstruos del Terror

Assignment Terror

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Hugo Fregonese
Eberhard Meichsner
Tulio Demicheli
Produced by Jaime Prades
Written by Jacinto Molina
Starring Paul Naschy
Michael Rennie
Karin Dor
Music by Rafael Fitó
Franco Salina
Cinematography Godofredo Pacheco
Edited by Emilio Rodríguez
Production
company
Eichberg-Film
International Jaguar Cinematografica
Producciones Jaime Prades
Distributed by American International Pictures (USA, theatrical),
Castilla Films (Spain)
Release date
  • 24 February 1970 (1970-02-24) (France)
Running time
 85 minutes(Spain)
Country Spain
West Germany
Italy
Language Spanish

Los Monstruos del Terror (English: The Monsters of Terror), also known as Dracula vs. Frankenstein, Reincarnator and Assignment Terror, is a 1970 Spanish-German-Italian horror film directed by Tulio Demicheli, Hugo Fregonese and Eberhard Meichsner. The last two filmmakers were uncredited in the film's original print. It stars Paul Naschy, Michael Rennie, Karin Dor and Craig Hill. It is the third in a series of movies featuring the werewolf Waldemar Daninsky, always played by Naschy.

Monstruos del Terror was originally slated to be called "The Man Who Came From Ummo", referring to Michael Rennie's spaceman character. It was followed by the 1970 film The Fury of the Wolfman.

Summary

Aliens, running a traveling circus as a cover, revive a vampire, a werewolf, a mummy and Frankenstein's monster with a plan to use them to take over the world. They want to discover the reason that these monsters are so frightening to Earthlings. They then plan to use their findings and resurrect the monsters to destroy the people of Earth. For reference, the aliens use a book entitled "Anthology of the Monsters" by Professor Ulrich von Farancksalan, who was also the creator of the analog to Frankenstein's monster in this picture.

The werewolf they revive (Waldemar Daninsky) saves the world by destroying the other 3 monsters in hand-to-hand combat and ultimately blowing up the aliens's underground base, although he is shot to death in the process by a woman who loves him enough to end his torment. The werewolf has no specific origin in this film; it is assumed that the events in this film are continued from the ending of La Marca del Hombre Lobo (The Mark of the Wolfman, 1968), in which Daninsky was transformed into a werewolf through the bite of a werewolf named Imre Wolfstein. (Strangely, The Wolfman was killed in the same exact manner in that first film, but the aliens surgically remove the silver bullets to revive him).

Cast

Production

Lead actor Paul Naschy also wrote the screenplay. The original shooting title was The Man Who Came from Ummo (El Hombre que Vino de Ummo), but the producer changed it to The Monsters of Terror. Direction was split between two filmmakers, Tulio Demichelli and Hugo Fregonese.

Filming was interrupted because of financial difficulties, and because of it the script was not filmed as it was written. Whole segments of the script involving flying saucers and a Golem were never carried out, as the result of sorely lacking funds.

Release and attempts at restoration

An English language one-sheet exists for this film, bearing the title Assignment Terror, so AIP may have theatrically disttributed the film in the U.S. It was later shown on American late-night TV in the '70s as Assignment Terror, and was later released on VHS as Dracula vs Frankenstein, which is not to be confused with Al Adamson's infamous film of the same name.

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