Drive-In Dust Offs: DIE, MONSTER, DIE! (1965)

By the mid ‘60s, the glory days of Boris Karloff were far behind him. The gentle giant forever known as the screen’s original (and best) Frankenstein monster was relegated to appearing in disappointing quickies that squandered his immense talents. However, there were some twilight standouts: Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath (1963), a couple of animated delights, How The Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) and Mad Monster Party? (1967), and his dignified portrayal of an aging horror star in Peter Bogdanovich’s debut, Targets (1968). Nestled in between (and often shown the door) was Daniel Haller’s Die, Monster, Die! (1965), an early, colorful, and fun foray into the world of H.P. Lovecraft.

Released by AIP in the US in October on a double bill with Planet of the Vampires (Bava again), Die rolled out to theatres and drive-ins across the land, but had to wait until February to be released in England under the ghastly moniker Monster of Terror (as opposed to what - Monster of Love?). Both titles are terrible; the film would have been better served using the title of Lovecraft’s short story, The Colour Out of Space. But this was AIP after all; and while the literary efforts of Poe served them very well at the box office, Die attempted to lure in the younger crowd with a more lurid title, something you could throw on a bill with Beach Blanket Bonanza. Actually this seems fitting, as the film plays it fast and loose with Lovecraft’s story anyway, interjecting a touch here and there to appease their acquired reputation for literary adaptations. Frankly, I think this freeform thinking allows the viewer to enjoy the film’s modest charms without having to pull out your library card.

American collegiate scientist guy Stephen Reinhart (Nick Adams – Frankenstein Conquers the World) arrives at the Witley estate in England; a compound with dilapidated surroundings. No one answers the door, so he sneaks in the back (as one does), and is greeted hostilely by Nahum Witley (Karloff – Frankenstein). Stephen explains that he was beckoned by Witley’s daughter Susan (Suzan Farmer – Dracula: Prince of Darkness) to meet her sick mother, Letitia (Freda Jackson – Brides of Dracula). It seems that everyone at Witley Manor is either falling ill or going mad; from the butler to the maid who quit weeks ago. Could it have anything to do with the meteor glowing in the basement, or perhaps the (very green) house kept under lock and key by the secretive Nahum? Stephen attempts to unravel the mystery before Susan is wiped out by the generational misfortunes that haunt the Witleys. As the saying goes, you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family or their botanically charged psychoses.

So, if you know the short story, we have the meteor, but we trade in a well for the basement of the Witleys. All of the vegetation that the meteor affects is condensed to the greenhouse, instead of focusing on the surrounding area around the manor. Some names are kept; characters are melded, etc. The only reason I bring up the comparison between story and film here is because it highlights the AIP template at the time; an outsider (Stephen) deals with objectionable forces (the meteor, Nahum) to get the girl (Susan). This was their wheelhouse, and they seemed a lot more comfortable adhering to these guidelines than trying (with quite limited funds) to bring one of Lovecraft’s hallucinatory fever dreams to the screen.

Credit screenwriter Jerry Sohl for the funhouse hijinks of the opening and closing acts; homicidal help, mysterious (and creature filled) visits to the greenhouse, a battle axe, er, battle, and a metallic monster are only part of the sights on display. You can also blame Sohl, however, for a somewhat static middle, involving plenty of sneaking around in the dark (to be fair, that’s kind of a prerequisite for this type of show). Coming in at a lean 80 minutes, there isn’t too much inactivity to complain about.

First time helmer Daniel Haller (The Dunwich Horror – more Lovecraft!) was no stranger to AIP and their author-centric titles; he was Art Director and/or Production Designer on a number of films: The Pit and the Pendulum, The Premature Burial, House of Usher, The Haunted Palace (which was also based on a Lovecraft work), and various other titles. It shows: he and DP Paul Beeson (Starcrash) flood the screen with vibrant reds, deep blacks, and goopy greens, giving the film a comic book flourish that tickles the eyeballs. Add in the low laying fog, luminescent candelabras, and shadowy figures and you have a recipe for text book drive-in fodder.

Throwing the younger Adams and Farmer together as love interests works about as well as you think it would; which is to say, they’re there to bring in the youngsters (that was AIP’s scene, and I can dig it) yet it feels at odds with the gothic, surreal trappings. That’s okay though, when you have old pros like Jackson and Karloff. Jackson does fine as the distressed mother, but we’re really here to watch only one actor, and he doesn’t disappoint. Looking a bit frail (he was in his late ‘70s, after all), Karloff imbues the elder Witley with a guardedness bordering on paranoia, and his lispy baritone hits all the notes apropos for the heightened material. He seems to be having fun, which translates to the viewer.

Karloff deserved to have fun too, after surviving so much dreck; and while Die, Monster, Die! isn’t a patch on Bride of Frankenstein (frankly almost nothing is), he was given a role in a film entertaining enough that he didn’t have to do all the heavy lifting with his weary bones. And you can take that to the basement.

Die, Monster, Die! is available on Blu-ray from Scream Factory.