Mad Monster Party?

Mad Monster Party?
March 8, 1967
Rankin & Bass
Comedy, Musical, Horror, Children's
DVD
C+

This was a Halloween perennial on '70s TV, so there's a certain nostalgia for me, although I don't think the movie has aged too well.  The weakest aspect is the script, cowritten by former MAD editor Harvey Kurtzman, whose writing I've never cared for.  No, the "Mad" in the title doesn't refer to the magazine, although the character design is by Jack Davis.  The look and sound of the movie are generally solid.  Boris Karloff, as the voice of Baron von Frankenstein, has much more to do than he did in Ghost in the Invisible Bikini, and he gives a fine performance.  Gale Garnett, who has a proto-Kathleen-Turner breathiness, gives the character of Francesca intelligence, wit, and even occasionally warmth.  Phyllis Diller is basically doing her usual schtick-- as the Monster's Mate, she calls hubby "Fang"-- and the design of her character is definitely based more on her than on Elsa Lanchester.  Allen Swift voices everybody else, doing some of them as celebrities: Felix as Jimmy Stewart, Yetch as Peter Lorre, and the Invisible Man as Sydney Greenstreet.  (Like Stewart's It's a Wonderful Life character in childhood, the adult Felix works in a pharmacy.)

The other aspect of the sound (other than the sound effects, which appear cartoon-style onscreen as they occur) is the music, which I'd argue is the best thing about the movie.  My favorite tune is "The Mummy" song, performed by skeletons in red Beatle wigs, but with a garage-band sound.  The background music is catchy and there aren't really any weak songs.

As for the horror genre, the movie isn't particularly frightening, nor meant to be I think.  It is a children's movie, although it has some surprising content, from Francesca falling for Felix because he slaps her (it comes across as more parodic than offensive) to the ka-boom nuclear explosion that wipes out Frankenstein's island at the end.  Well, not the very end, as that references the ending of Some Like It Hot.  (I wonder, why all the SLIH references in '65 to '67 movies?  Had it started appearing on TV around then?  Or had it taken the culture that long to catch up with its outrageousness?)  Oh, and there's a cat fight in their underwear for Francesca and the Monster's Mate.  The movie is like MAD Magazine in that it seems to be aimed at children, teens, and adults, different levels all at once.  (And there are veeblefetzers.)  I just wish it was funnier and better paced.