Tampabay.com
OCTOBER 30, 2009

Friday Fromage Halloween Throwdown: Dracula vs. Frankenstein... and it's on TV!

For the first time in the annals of Friday Fromage (but how large can annals be after only five months?), we present the trailer for a trash-classic that you can actually witness in full glory on TV this weekend.

If you have the This TV channel (Ch. 463 on Verizon FIOS, at least) you'll find 1971's Dracula vs. Frankenstein playing at 5 p.m. Saturday. That's Halloween, if you haven't heard. Finding the channel may be a trick but the flick's a treat.

In this corner weighing 242 pounds and heavily in your nightmares is Dr. Frankenstein's monster Groton, played by Lon Chaney Jr., who made a nice living for decades off his more talented father's name.

In the other corner, weighing 168 soaking wet with blood and even less when he transforms into a bat -- Dracula, aka Zandor Volkov, aka Roger Engel (which isn't a scary name, so Famous Monsters of Filmland publisher Forrest J. Ackerman suggested Zandor Volkov). Volkov's movie career wasn't as durable as Chaney's; only one movie besides this one, 1972's Brain of Blood. You'll see why.

Enjoy!

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About the bloggers

For new movie reviews and movie news, this blog's for you. Steve Persall, movie critic for the St. Petersburg Times, weighs in on blockbuster movies, small-budget movies, the best movies, the worst movies ever and everything in between. Steve was conceived behind a drive-in movie theater his father operated and raised in projection booths and concession stands. He doesn't care how you did it up north.

E-mail Steve Persall:
persall@sptimes.com.

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