You pretty much get what one would expect from this first theatrical film using the Munster characters going to England to claim an ancestral home. All the actors return except for Pat Priest - here replaced by Debbie Watson. Herman Munster and Grandpa ham it up in all sorts of quite ridiculous scenes in a quite ridiculous story. Yet, throughout it all, the film does capture the essence and heart of the original show as well as the humour. Fred Gwynne shows us that he was the heart of the Munsters with his amusing turn as the awkward Herman Munster with strange family in tow - living like a somewhat normal monster in a world he saw as the weird thing filled with people he felt were weird. Al Lewis is equally amusing and the whole cast does a good job aiding the antics. British character actors Terry-Thomas - always a treat to see - and the indefatigable Hermionne Ginglod as his mother trying to off Herman Munster and keep their title and lands both give pleasant comic turns. John Carradine is aboard as a very slow-moving butler. Bernard Fox plays the head of a rival family whose one goal is to win a car race every year. Naturally, Herman must defend the House of Munster. Like the television show, many of the laughs are a bit forced, but there are some genuinely funny scenes - most of them between Gwynne and Lewis. Lewis turns into a wolf a couple times, and the race itself is the centerpiece of the film. The ending is perhaps the most forced, but overall I enjoyed the film - not because it was particularly good but rather because it allows one another chance to see Gwynne with the role he would forever be linked with in life. The film w as directed by Earl Bellamy who had directed at least one of the episodes from the series.
Review of Munster, Go Home!
