Let me start off by saying that I am very biased about The Munsters, having been a huge fan of the show since I was a little kid. That being said, I think that Munster, Go Home! is a very appropriate and enjoyable closing to the television show, which had a run of two seasons before it was canceled by CBS. This film remains true to the spirit of the show, with the same group of people who made the show possible (producers, original cast excepting Pat Priest) as the creative force behind the scenes. As always, Fred Gwynne, Al Lewis, Yvonne De Carlo, and Butch Patrick make this movie extremely enjoyable with their familiar and endearing characters that made the television show such a favorite. The supporting cast for the film is likewise terrific, headed by a scene-stealing Terry-Thomas (of "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World) as the deliciously sleazy Freddie Munster. I'm not going to recite plot here, as you can read the summary above, but I will warn potential viewers that while this movie was very fun to watch and it kept in the spirit of the television show, there is no laugh track, so you really need a good feel of the show's humor in order to develop a rhythm, so to speak. Also, a lot of gags are rehashed here-- {SPOILERS} For instance, Grandpa accidentally transforms himself into a wolf on board a ship, and must be quarantined. Lily nags Herman into rescuing him. Herman twists the lock of Grandpa's cage apart and picks him up, scaring the crew members who stumble into the room. Later, they smuggle Grandpa off of the ship by having him pose as a dead, fur stole around Lily's neck. This entire ordeal closely mirrors the episode of the show in which the Munster family goes camping. In this episode, Grandpa turns himself into a wolf and is captured by park authorities. After much nagging from Lily, Herman rescues Grandpa by twisting the lock off his cage and carries him out, scaring the park rangers who stumble upon the scene. The family then smuggles Grandpa out of the park, disguising him once again as Lily's fur stole. Another instance of rehashing television stories happens with the drag race, a crucial plot point of the movie. After Herman wrecks his initial race car, Grandpa uses spare parts and a coffin to build a drag racer he calls "The Dragula." This is handled in the film as if it is an original idea and has never happened before, but in actuality, there was an entire episode in which Herman loses the family car in a drag race, and Grandpa goes through the exact same process of building a drag racer from spare parts and a coffin in order to enter the next race and win back the family car. He calls his creation "The Dragula," and the cars in both situations are exactly identical. The difference is that the movie pretends the television episode never happened. However, if you really like this kind of humor, as I did and still do, and take this rehashing for what it was probably meant to be-- homages to familiar moments from the short-lived but much beloved television show-- then I think you will really enjoy "Munster, Go Home!" And hey, it's much much better than "The Munsters' Revenge"!
Review of Munster, Go Home!
