The Cavalier daily :: Thursday, May 10, 1973 :: University of Virginia Library

Often referred to as "one of the worst movies ever
made," FMTSM comes to Charlottesville Saturday
night in Wilson Hall along with its creator, as part of
the "Return of the Mull People: A Festivity."

"I suppose it's deeply offensive to Frankenstein
purists," apologized Garrett, who is a born movie fan
himself.

Garrett wrote the screenplay, alded by a couple
graduate students, back in 1964 when he was
Writer-in-Residence here; unsurprisingly, many of the
characters in the film are named after persons who
were – and some still are – at the University.

For example, one character in FMTSM is Gen.
Fred Bowers, an American army general who is seen
throughout the movie wearing a sleeveless T-shirt and
carrying a comic book under his arm. Fredson T.
Bowers, now Linden Kent Prof. of English, was the
English Department Chairman at the time.

The Space Monster was named Mull," after Don
Mull, who was a legend in Charlottesville in the early
1960's. Mull, whom Garrett describes as "a rather
exquisite sort of guy," is now teaching at Rutgers
South Jersey in Camden, N.J.

Undoubtedly, "Frankenstein Meets the Space
Monster" is a terrible film, but it reaches such depths
that it's entertainment value increases with each drop
down the ladder of good taste. Casting mediocrity
aside, FMTSM is a classically bad film, so thoroughly
filled with unintentional absurdity – as well as
premeditated absurdity – that it makes Firesign
Theater look straight.

'Unintentional Absurdity And Premeditated Absurdity'

Garrett was asked to write the script by two
movie entrepreneurs known to posterity as Doug and
Allan. In payment, Garrett and his graduate students,
including Richard Dillard, now at Hollins, received all
the bourbon they could drink while writing.

Doug and Allan ran a rather free-wheeling
enterprise. Every year they produced two horror
movies aimed for the summer drive-in circuit. In a
good year they would make the movies at a cost of
$25,000 and sell them for $50,000.

Garrett claims they operated by "stealing from
everyone and paying no one." They cut costs by
putting members of their families, friends and even
themselves in the films.

What was even more amazing was that before
FMTSM, Doug and Allan had never had a script.
"They depended on the ingenuity of the people who
thought they were going to get paid," explained
Garrett.

In any event, Garrett and his crew banged out a
script one weekend and sent it off to Doug and Allan.
But the script was returned with the criticism that it
let the "comedy get in the way of the horror." So
the script was revised.

Meanwhile, fortune smiled on Doug and Allan. A
major distributor needed two clunkers for the
summer drive-in circuit, and they happened to grab
the first two they found – both belonged to Doug
and Allan. One film was a rather infamous "Horror of
Party Beach."

"The distributor knew nothing of the world of
Doug and Allan," said Garrett. The films were
purchased for $400,000, and immediately Doug and
Allan broke up.

"Once they had the money," said Garrett, "they
told each other I always hated you and I always
wanted to make art."

But that was not the end of "Frankenstein Meets
the Space Monster."

Doug and Allan sold their enterprise to a group of
Princeton graduates who had been producing
off-Broadway plays, and the wheels of production
were set in motion again.

Ironically, the Princetonians returned the revised
script to Garrett, saying that it was "too deep for the
people."

Garrett was amazed. "Hell, Doug and Allan had
said, 'Hey, we've got a script, never had one before,
let's go.'"

In the end, neither script was used in full. "They
combined them together in some weird way," Garret
said.

In fairness, the movie has a plot, or rather, the
script had a plot. "It's the only movie I've ever seen
where you could mix up the reels and it wouldn't
matter," claims Garrett.

The movie begins with the discovery that
America's number-one astronaut is a robot, built by
Dr. Adam Steele with the assistance of nurse Blixen
(yes, here is the romantic element in the film).

Meanwhile, in outer space, the Space People have
had war and they come to Earth to replenish their
supply of women which has been decimated by the
war. Naturally, the Space Monster "Mull" finally
meets up with the robot-astronaut, Frank N. Stein,
and the people of earth are united in an effort to save
their women.

When the movie was originally conceived, the
action was supposed to take place around Miami
Beach, because Doug and Allan had been able to
swing a deal with the Miami Chamber of Commerce
for free locations.

But, the Princetonians got a better deal in San
Juan, and so the movie was shot there. During the
middle of the film, in fact, in the middle of the big
chase scene, there is a 15-minute travelogue of San
Juan. When news comes that Frank is running mock
in the suburbs of San Juan, Dr. Steele and Nurse
Blixen set off on a Honda to find him. Then there is
stock footage of the entire U.S. army, ships, planes,
troops marching, people on bicycles, all on their way
to stop Frank – then, 15 minutes of San Juan with
calypso music in the background.

You can tell from the sets what a low budget
operation FMTSM was. Even the brush strokes on the
plywood walls of the spaceship are not disguised.

The producers also saved money by using
non-speaking extras. When the Space People are
stealing bikini-clad women from the beaches of San

Photo by Tad Goodale

'I Suppose It's Offensive To Frankenstein Purists'

Juan, none of them yell for help. They struggle a bit,
and protest with facial expressions, but none of them
say anything.

Until "Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster"
was actually released, Garrett and his collaborators
seriously doubted that the movie would ever be made
available for public consumption.

But, yet it was released, and would have died
quietly, and mercifully, if fate had not once again
intervened.

At that same time in 1964 a major studio released
a film called "Inside Daisy Clover," for which they
had high expectations. But unfortunately, when
"Daisy Clover" opened in New York it was to empty
seats.

This set of circumstances occasionally happens to
a major studio, and one of the things a studio can do
to help save a film that does not draw is to put
another movie on the bill e. a double-feature.

The studio was desperate, and they grabbed the
first film that came along: "Frankenstein Meets the
Space Monster." Being put on the same bill with a
major film meant that FMTSM got reviewed by major
critics.

Judith Crist, on television, attacked not only the
makers of the film but "the abscene and corrupt
mentality" behind it.

"She really liked it," observed Garrett.

FMTSM never made the big time, but since 1964
it has been a staple of daytime television, which
Garrett claims is the best place to see it. "It's the only
movie I've ever seen that is improved by
commercials," Garrett claims.

FMTSM was also distributed in those small
millimeter reels that often appear at children's
birthday parties.

To this day FMTSM retains a secure niche in
cinematic history: a case study in how bad a film can
be; although Garret thinks someday FMTSM may be
topped.

Garrett will be on hand after the movie to discuss
film-making (he has written better screenplays), along
with several of the co-authors and namesakes of
characters in FMTSM, otherwise know as the "Mull
People."

Garrett will try to salvage his reputation at a
reading in the Rare Book Room of Alderman Library
at 8 Friday night.