Customer Reviews

The Munsters' Revenge

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This had all the makings of a huge disaster. We had already born witness to the huge travesty that was The Addams Family Halloween reunion special four years earlier in 1977, so there weren't high expectations for this one. While the film is by no means a classic or what one would of hoped, it isn't all that bad at all. It's quite enjoyable and very watchable and makes you just about forget The Addams Family mistake. Well, almost. By now, we all know the story already. The Munsters was an ABC show that ran for only two seasons(1964-1966)and consisted of 70 episodes. There was the man of the house, Herman Munster(Fred Gwynne), his wife Lily(Yvonne DeCarlo), her father Grandpa(Al Lewis), son Eddie(Butch Patrick), and beautiful niece Marilyn(Originally Beverly Owen, then Pat Priest). They resided at 1313 Mockinbird Lane. This 1981 reunion brings back the 3 main players, Gwynne, DeCarlo, and Lewis, while newcomers played Eddie and Marilyn. Comedy legend Sid Caesar plays a crook who has his wax dummies at the wax museum come to life and pull off robberies. Two such wax dummies are dead ringers for Herman and Grandpa. Naturally, our favorite gruesome twosome are charged with the robberies and it's up to Herman and Grandpa to clear their names and stop the madman. The depiction of Herman and Grandpa as a slapsticky comedy team is fun. What is really special about this goodhearted reunion is that the 3 main actors are all in fine form. It was as tho not a day had passed since their final episode in 1966. Gwynne, who was 54 at the time, was as usual, perfection. He knows Herman inside and out and there is not a single difference in his look or performance as Herman. He was fantastic and never got the credit he deserved. Al Lewis is Grandpa and like Gwynne, it was as if nothing had changed. There was definitley noticeability in age with DeCarlo however. Still, she was Lily. There was nothing to write home about the new actors who played Marilyn and Eddie. Obviously the original actors would of been too old to play these roles now. Points also go to the set of the famous Munster abode. It is pretty much the way it was on the series. It was nice to see the house, what we saw of it, in color. The first Munster movie, "Munster, Go Home!" in 1966, was nice, but I liked and enjoyed this one better. Like I said before, it could of easily of been a horrible disaster, but with the fantastically in top form Gwynne and Lewis, the house, and the endearing charm of the film and the series' legacy, it wasn't all that bad. Now, how about a big screen update?.

For those of us who are lifelong fans of "The Munsters," this made-for-TV reunion, while weak in storyline, at least continues the life of the original series sadly cut short after only two seasons. Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis look mostly unchanged and the pair have lost none of their camraderie, and even a noticeably older Yvonne DeCarlo holds up well. Kudos also go to the set designers, who seem to have assembled as many of the original props as could be found for the interior set of the Munster home which fans know so well. [Note, however, that exterior shots of the house are taken from "Munster, Go Home!," with "England or Bust" painted on the family car. By the time "The Munsters' Revenge" was produced, the original house facade at Universal had gone through several unfortunate alterations and must have been too costly to restore and re-dress.] Call this one "for fans only."

The Munsters' Revenge is, as reunion movies go, an excellent outing. The stars look remarkably unchanged (in spite of the 15 year interval)and their typical performances in character leave you feeling they've never really been away - especially with a script which is very reminiscent of the original series and is quite strong in its humour. What a great idea to release this on DVD and let's hope that this encourages the release of more Universal product reunion movies on DVD such as The Return of Ironside, The Rockford Files, etc. Well worth the money.

Fred Gwynne, Yvonne DeCarlo, Al Lewis, and Sid Caesar, all combine into one munstrously good time! This is a great follow-up movie to the original series!


DVD info for The Munsters' Revenge
Spoken language: English
Captioning: English, Spanish, French

Don't forget to check out:

The Munsters The Complete First Season
The Munsters The Complete Second Season
Munster, Go Home!

... which are all on DVD!

This Munster movie is nearly as good as "Munsters Go Home!". There are quite a number of hilarious scenes in this film that make it a timeless work of comedy. This movie is funny!

The film begins with the Munster family checking out the local wax museum, where Herman tells his wife Lilly - "Dear, you can get some good decorating ideas for our house". When they see their replicas, they like them. But Lilly laments - "Everybody's here except poor Marilyn". Herman remarks "You can't blame them, they don't want to scare away the customers".

A series of small robberies are later blamed on the Munsters, because the robbers look just like them. The cops arrest Herman and Grandpa. They later escape. Driving in a car, Grandpa tells Herman that somebody that looks just like them is doing these crimes. Herman says nobody is as handsome as he, except his reflection and his likeness at the wax museum. Grandpa shouts "Herman, you got it". Herman replys "Got what"? Grandpa explains that their answers are likely to be found at the wax museum.

They go to the wax museum and learn about the crime ring that has produced wax models that are also robots, and those robots are doing the crimes. Kinda like Marvin Bush blowing up the Twin Towers and blaming it on alleged Arabs - the baddies are having their robots do crimes and the Munsters are getting the blame.

The bad guys are planning a big robbery of an ancient Egyptian mummy's coffin. The Munsters foil the crime with a little help from Marilyn and her new beau - the police detective, and alot of help from The Phantom of the Opera. A good ending to a good movie.

At first, I was disappointed that Marilyn and Eddie were to be played by different actors, but I guess it was inevitable as they had aged too much to stay "in character". I was also put off by the sharp colored makeup (the series was in BW), but these are minor quibbles.
Herman and Grandpa have such amazing chemistry here. In the series, I never sensed the warmth between these two as I do here.
A special treat is comedy great Sid Caesar (Your Show of Shows). He plays Dustin Diablo, an evil genius from ANCIENT EGYPT!
I won't give away too much plot, but it is basically a "mistaken identity" comedy, as Herman and Grandpa are framed by Diablo and arrested while Diablo's "men" are free carry out their elaborate heist.
If you love "Phantom of the Opera", he's in here too!

Well its been about 20 years since we saw the family.

Their last adventure was to England in "Munster Go Home!"

Now the Munsters have a new threat, themselves!

A evil doctor played by Sid Ceasar, created duplicates of Herman & Grandpa, to pull alot of crimes off.

And it is up to the family to save them, and of course their uncle "Phantom" helps them (the phantom of the opera - (Lon Chainey era)).

This was originaly a "made for tv" movie for NBC, and does not feature the original Eddie or Marilyn.

A classic scene though, when Herman & Grandpa steal a police car. Which if you are TV buffs, and from a classic era of TV time.

Gwynne & Lewis were first casted together on the show "Car 54 Where Are You" as two Police Officers.

Anyways enough with the trivia, but this does not live up to its predicessor (Munster Go Home!), but it is one for the Munsters fan to add to their collection.

-L8TR

THIS IS A GOOD BUY,ALSO HAVE MUNSTER GO HOME,HOPE THE ORIGINAL SERIES IS RELEASED ON DVD,LIKE THE FIRST FEW EPISODES.QUALITY ON BOTH REVENGE AND GO HOME ARE VERY GOOD.

Although it was entertaining to see Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis portray Herman and Grampa for a final hurrah, this movie had terrible writing, which is typical of the reunion movies of the time. Unfortunately the producers of these films seemed only interested in getting an original cast together. Once they had the cast, THEN they wrote a story around it. The result was nearly always a disappointing mess. "Munsters Revenge" was no exception. Many critics felt that Butch Patrick and Pat Priest should have been cast as Eddie and Marilyn. I agree. Since their roles were minor anyway, it would have been great to see them again. It's a wonder why they bothered to get Yvonne DeCarlo since she had an extremely minor role. And the GREAT Sid Caesar was reduced to another terrible waste of talent. The writers had no respect for the performers but also it seems to me that the aging performers were simply out to make a buck in this movie without any worries about the terrible script.
I understand that Fred Gwynne asked for an "astronomical sum" to reprise his role as Herman. I'd really like to know exactly what that sum was, just out of curiosity. How much did NBC pay him to reprise his role? Considering how poorly this movie was made, it's a wonder how they got by with spending any serious sum of money to produce it.
This movie was not a completely dismal failure, although close to it. I did enjoy seeing Fred and Al together. But, as with all these reunions, if they spent just a fraction of the time writing a good story as they spent reuniting the cast, it could have been a great finale for the cast. Instead, it was just plain terrible. This film was easily worse than ANY poor episode of the original series. Unfortunately, the only reunion movie I ever saw that not only brought together an original cast but was also a decent story was the Andy Griffith show reunion. Oh, well. As bad as it is, I suppose I have to say that it's better than no reunion at all. It certainly is better than the 1980s remake of the show.

This is the last time the Munsters were seen together, and in a very bad NBC 'Made for TV' movie at that (shame on you NBC!!).

In a Nut Shell...

Munsters are honored in a wax museum, but the evil owner of the wax museum decides to incorporate robotics into the wax figures of the Munsters and the rest of the exhibits and have them perform criminal activity. And when the police go looking they arrest the real versions.

The make-up is nowhere as good as the 1960's "Munster Go Home" movie, but if you are Munster fan like myself, you need to have this in your collection.