User Reviews

Made in England with Terry-Thomas playing his usual crooked self. The special effects are incredibly bad and the film was made on a shoestring budget. (Example: Grandpa changes into a wolf with a puff of smoke behind a tree.) "Lord" Herman inherits run down Munster Hall, an English Manor replete with the usual British crooks and scoundrels. Really cheap sets. As usual, Marilyn falls in love with an innocent dupe who thinks that The Munsters are really scary. No funeral home subplot, it's a low budget remake of "The Great Race". The custom "Dragula" race car is really "cool". It is the only Munster movie with most of the original cast. Buy it because you loved Fred Gwynne as the lovable Herman. (Edward Hermann and John Shuck just aren't as good as "Herman".) Co-stars Hermione Gingold, John Carradine, Bernard Fox, and Richard Dawson in supporting roles. Sure, it's a silly movie, but it's also a lot of silly fun. A Halloween favorite that won't give the kiddies nightmares, and it's a Technicolor movie!

After having watched the entirety of The Munsters, I decided to leave the horrendous reboot series that was made in the 90s alone and instead focus on the first movie based on the show that was made. Out of all the films that have been made on The Munsters, this one is definitely the one most closely related to the original series. The first thing fans of the show will notice is that at long last, we finally get to see how the Munsters would look like in color. The plot itself also resembles one you would see in a regular episode. Herman and Lily Munster find out that their English relative Cavanaugh Munster has died, and bequeathed them with a manor located in Shroudshire, UK. After leaving the house, Herman, Lily, Grandpa, Eddie and Marilyn (Fred Gwynne, Yvonne De Carlo, Al Lewis, Butch Patrick and Debbie Watson respectively) get on an ocean liner to make the journey. On the way, Herman gets seasick and is convinced he's dying. Grandpa tries to make him take a pill to reduce nausea, but he won't take it until Grandpa does. When the latter swallows it, he realizes he accidentally took one that transforms him into a wolf. Grandpa is detained onboard the ship in a kennel, but Herman rescues him. Meanwhile, Marilyn meets a dashing young man named Roger (Robert Pine). After getting to know each other, they kiss, but it coincides with Roger seeing Herman carrying a wolf back to his cabin. Roger breaks off the kiss, and Marilyn is convinced he doesn't like her, so she leaves him. After arriving at Munster Hall, Herman's cousins Grace and Freddie are angry that Herman is going to inherit the title of Lord Munster, not Freddie. Lady Effigie (Freddie and Grace's mother) plots to get rid of them by scaring them out of the mansion, but on their first night, Herman and Lily are delighted and feel welcomed when skeletons appear through sliding panels in the wall. After Freddie is scared away by seeing Herman for the first time, the latter and Grandpa decide to go down to the basement of the manor without telling Lily. The pair are shocked when they discover a coffin containing a huge amount of english pounds. Grandpa and Herman venture a little further and learn that there's a whole counterfeiting operation going on in the basement, and it's spearheaded by someone known as Gryphon. Marilyn goes to see Roger at his house and attempts to reconcile with him, but once his parents find out she's a Munster, she is ordered to leave. The family are considered bad luck and not wanted in england. Herman decides to enter a race using a dragster Grandpa built (the Dragula), and Freddie schemes to kill Herman in order to take his title away. At the race, Eddie and Marilyn watch in the audience while Grandpa and Lily are held captive by Freddie in the basement of the manor. Right before the race begins, Roger, who is supposed to compete against Herman, is knocked out and his car hijacked by Gryphon. Lily and Grandpa manage to escape and ride horses alongside the racetrack, trying to warn Herman he's about to be killed. He manages to finish the race anyway (backwards) after someone empties an oil drum onto the track. Gryphon crashes right into Herman, but he doesn't even flinch and the car is wrecked instead. Herman then finds that Roger wasn't driving the other car at all, and once Gryphon's racing helmet is removed, it's revealed to be Millie, a barmaid. The relatives of the Munsters are all arrested, and Lady Effigie steps into a car to escape, only to find out it's driven by Lily. Once she's taken to the police, the Munsters decide to donate their estate to the city. Marilyn and Roger get together again, but she has to leave once Herman drives off with the others. I have to say, after hearing about how terrible this movie is (even from avid fans of the show) I wasn't as disappointed as I thought I'd be. Don't get me wrong the plot is pretty stupid and I was let down to only see about 2 minutes worth of color footage of the Munsters house, but at least the original cast is all here (minus Marilyn). I have no idea why they decided to drop Pat Priest and hire this other girl, but nobody ever heard of her after this movie so it was a complete waste. As for the rest of the cast, they behave just like how they do on the series itself, so nothing really feels out of place, but at the same time, it feels like something's off. The Munsters is a truly hilarious show, but throughout this whole film, there was only one time I actually found something funny. Maybe it's the absence of the laugh track, but if something is truly laughable, you don't need it pointed out. There's also the question of Lily, since her palms appear to be an ashy red color, but the rest of her is the same turquoise complexion as Herman. Shouldn't she and Grandpa be white as can be since they're vampires? Overall, Munster Go Home wasn't all that funny for reasons I can't really explain, but it does at least faithfully recreate the look and feel of the show, since the whole thing resembles a Munsters episode stretched to about 90 minutes. I consider this to be the true ending to the show, and will continue to act like the garbage that came later doesn't exist. If you love the show, you'll do the same.

I was 7 years old when "Munster, Go Home!" was released in 1966. Had I seen it then, I would have been disappointed because Pat Priest wasn't in it.

But this is 2020, and overall this is a fun watch. This especially makes a great watch during Halloween. As for the film itself, it takes elements from the series and uses them here (such as Grandpa turning into a wolf, first explored in Season 1). Seeing them in color for the first time is also fun as well.

As per Marilyn: Universal was trying to build up Debbie Watson's career. When this film debuted, her 1965-1966 series "Tammy" was winding down. Sad part was, it went nowhere. Debbie Watson gives a fine effort, though.

Overall, a fun watch.

Right after The Munsters finished up on TV, this movie was released. Everyone from the show but Pat Priest came back, with Marilyn now played by Debbie Watson. Even its director, Earl Bellamy, had worked on the show before.

The other major change in this movie is that it's in color. The decision to make the movie - after the show ended, which isn't how this usually works - is because this movie was made to introduce the characters and concept to foreign audiences, with the syndicated episodes following in its wake.

Herman (Fred Gwynne) and Lily Munster (Yvonne De Carlo) have inherited Munster Hall in Shroudshire, England, which makes Herman now Lord Munster to the rage of Herman's British relatives Grace (Jeanne Arnold) and Freddie (Terry-Thomas, perfect cast in this role). Also, somehow Grandpa has taken some wolf pills and is now a werewolf.

I always ask myself, when a horror related movie comes out in the 60s, where is John Carradine? Well, he's right here, playing the evil butler. Whew - I was worried he'd miss out on the paycheck.

This is also the movie with Drag-U-La in it, built by George Barris. It was the second car he made for The Munsters, with the other being the Munster Coach. Ironically, that's the car in Rob Zombie's video for "Dragula." The sample at the open of that song - "superstition, fear and jealousy" - is Christopher Lee from Horror Hotel.

I remember back in the summer holidays about 1980 (before we had the TV series repeats in England)I couldn't believe my luck that MGH was coming up after the break, it all sounded so good, and looked like it would be good spooky fun for this 13 year old. Sadly even at that age I remember being disappointed with the end result. Flash forward to 2013, I thought I would watch it again. Maybe I was expecting something different back then, who knows!...but no! same result, but I can tell you why this time. I think as an English person watching, I expected fun and frolics in the mother country, but instead was treated to obviously fake British accents and a fake landscape as well....obviously California! Still I guess I can't argue..it is cult, I'm just warning you!

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"!

"Munster, Go Home!" was made at the right time, whilst the TV show was fresh in everyone's mind. The format is intact and it's great to see the Munster family in full technicolour. The story isn't exactly original but it works well enough, although the running time is quite long. About 10 minutes should have been edited, hence the reason for the occasional boring moment. It makes sense to have Terry-Thomas involved in the film - with the plot being set in England and he being popular in Hollywood. Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis do their thing as usual! One of the best scenes, is the one when they explore the underground passageways of Munster Hall. The climatic car race is exciting, especially as we see Herman as one of the drivers! We have the usual cringeworthy attempts from Americans trying to mimic an English accent. It is embarrassing to say the least. However, I certainly don't allow that to discourage my viewing pleasure.