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Munster, Go Home!
R2 - United Kingdom - Fabulous Films Review written by and copyright: Matthew Crossman (30th July 2015). |
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The Film
 Herman Munster (Fred Gwynne) arrives home from work to find that his Uncle in England has died and has bequeathed his entire estate to Herman. Herman is now Lord Munster of Shroudshire. Herman cannot wait to see his new estate and he, and his whole family, Wife Lily (Yvonne de Carlo), Grandpa (Al Lewis), his Son Eddie (Butch Patrick), and his niece Marilyn (Debbie Watson) all board an Atlantic liner for the journey to England. Herman gets seasick, whilst Grandpa takes the wrong kind of pill and turns into a wolf. Marilyn meets a dapper young English racing driver called Roger Moresby (Robert Pine) and they have a brief romantic liaison before Roger makes a faux par and Marilyn storms off. Soon the family are at their new home in Shroudshire but little do they know of the plot to unburden Herman of his inheritance. Lady Effigie Munster (Hermione Gringold) and her two grown up children, Freddy Munster (Terry Thomas) and his sister Grace (Jeanne Arnold), plan to do away with Herman by scaring them away from Munster Manor and thereby making Freddy Lord of the Manor. Meanwhile Herman and Grandpa Munster go on the search for the secret of Munster Manor in which they discover a counterfeiting money ring in the basements of the Manor. Marilyn then runs into Roger again, who conveniently lives near by, and they start up their romance once again. That is until Roger’s Father, Squire Lester Moresby hears that his Son is dating a Munster, of whom his family has had a feud with for many, many years. As it happens there is the annual motor race coming up and Herman is persuaded to drive for the honour of the Munster family whilst Roger will race for the Moresby family. Lady Effigie see this as an opportunity to finally get Herman out of the way via a pre planned accident. The Munsters was a television series in the United States of America running for seventy episodes between 1964 and 1966. The programme was a satire of the American family sitcoms of the time featuring monsters as family members. The series was filmed and broadcast in black and white. ‘Munsters, Go Home’ was the first opportunity for audiences to see these characters in colour. The initial series was not a success but found an audience when repeats were shown in syndication in the States. In the United Kingdom the show was frequently shown on the ITV channels during the late sixties and seventies and was quite popular. As the synopsis above shows this is a screwball comedy aimed at younger audiences. This is the same cast as the television series except Marilyn was played by Debbie Watson, replacing Pat Priest who played Marilyn in fifty six of the seventy episodes (Beverly Owen played Marilyn in the first thirteen episodes). Added to this cast are the likes of the popular Terry Thomas who plays, as he usually did, a bit of a rotter and a cad. Although the film is primarily set in England it will come as no surprise to learn that all of the outdoor scenes were shot in California. If England really looked like that in Shroudshire more people would live there! ‘Munster, Go Home’ is a fun film and at 89 minutes it will keep the children, and adults entertained.
Video
Presented in anamorphic 1.78:1, the picture is a little on the dark side, especially during the night scenes where it can be difficult to see exactly what is going on. There is quite a lot of grain present but I’m not adverse to that at all. The colours are nice and bright during the day and stage and at times you can see where the brush strokes of the green face paint on Herman and Lily begin and end. It appears that no restoration work has been done to the film but I imagine it has not looked this good in a long time.
Audio
English Dolby Sigital stereo 2.0 is the only option. Dialogue is nice and clear, and remains central. Ambient sounds and music are directed via the front left and right speakers and the mix is well balanced in that the background sounds and music never overawe the dialogue. There are no subtitles available on the disc at all.
Extras
There are no extras. I would have thought adding a trailer would have been the minimum effort in this day and age but not even that is present.
Overall
Goofy fun for all ages. The young, I think, will still get a kick out of it and the rest of us, especially the over forties, can relive their youth. I liked The Munsters as a child (I also like The Addams Family, and no, I don’t have a preference) and this was a nice opportunity to enjoy again the family’s crazy antics and enjoy that theme music once again. 
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