Mad Monster Party?

Mad Monster Party?
	File:POSTER - MAD MONSTER PARTY.jpg Theatrical release poster by Frank Frazetta
Directed by	Jules Bass
Produced by	Arthur Rankin Jr.
Screenplay by	Len Korobkin; Harvey Kurtzman;
Story by	Arthur Rankin Jr.
Starring	Lucy Tate; Boris Karloff; Phyllis Diller; Ethel Ennis; Gale Garnett;
Music by	Maury Laws; Jules Bass;
Cinematography	Tadahito Mochinaga
Production; company	Rankin/Bass Productions
Distributed by	Embassy Pictures
Release date	March 8, 1967 (United States);
Running time	101 minutes
Country	United States; Japan
Language	English

Search Mad Monster Party? on Amazon.Mad Monster Party? is a 1967 stop-motion animated musical comedy film produced by Rankin/Bass Productions for Embassy Pictures. The film stars the live action of Lucy Tate (in her film debut), Joan Blondell, Ray Milland and Joyce Mathews. and the film stars also the voices of Boris Karloff, Allen Swift, Gale Garnett, and Phyllis Diller. It tells the story of a mad scientist who achieves the secret of total destruction as he summons all the monsters to his island home to show it off while planning to retire as the head of the "Worldwide Organization of Monsters".

Lucy Tate is the only live actor in the main story. Lucy Tate acting most of the Isle of Evil scenes all alone on an empty set, with the puppets added later.

The movie marks on Lucy’s first film appearance (12 years after her first television appearance (September 20, 1954 and 3 years after her first album appearance (December 24, 1963) during her age of 26, she began filming this movie on March 7, 1966).

It was remade in StudioCanal’s 2002 as Penny, starring Amanda Moorehead

The movie released by Summit Entertainment videos alongside Trollies All New Musical Adventure as a Halloween-Themed Double Feature on August 8, 2004.

Plot[edit]

Real world in September 27, 1951[edit]

Penny (Lucy Tate) is playing with rocks that skip in the water and sings Mad Monster Party. Her parents Paul and Petunia are proud of her. Her sister is excited about her as well.

Penny’s dream in September 27, 1951[edit]

Scientist Baron Boris von Frankenstein (voiced by Boris Karloff) achieves his ultimate ambition, the secret of total destruction. Having perfected and tested the formula, he sends out messenger bats carrying invitations to summon all monsters to the Isle of Evil in the Caribbean Sea. The Baron intends to inform them of his discovery and also to reveal his imminent retirement as head of the Worldwide Organization of Monsters. Besides his Monster (sometimes referred to as "Fang") and the Monster's more intelligent mate (voiced by Phyllis Diller) who reside on the Isle of Evil with Boris as Fang’s Mate sings You're Different to Fang, the invitees include Count Dracula, the Mummy, Quasimodo (referred to as "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame"), the Werewolf, The Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon (referred to as simply "The Creature"). Frankenstein's beautiful and cutest assistant Francesca (voiced by Gale Garnett) confirms that all invitations have been delivered and inquires about one of the addressees, a Felix Flanken (voiced by Allen Swift impersonating James Stewart). Frankenstein explains that Felix is his nephew and successor in the monster business. This displeases Francesca, who covets the role for herself. She asks why there was no invitation for "It". Boris replies that "It" was not invited since "It" can be a crushing bore, explaining that "It" even crushed the island's wild boars in his bare hands the last time "It" was invited. Felix Flanken is a drug store pharmacist somewhere in the United States in 1951. Incompetent and asthmatic but good-natured, he is a constant burden on the drug store's greedy order Mr. Kronkite. A mailman arrives with Felix's invitation and he joyously accepts.

Real world in October 1, 1951[edit]

In the meantime in October 1, 1951, Penny gets ready for her appendix out on October 9, 1951 in the hospital but she moans and wails until her dream transforms Penny into a ghost.

Penny’s dream in October 1, 1951[edit]

The ship's crew are wary of the unusual passengers and the ghost girl Penny. Frankenstein has his zombie butler Yetch (Swift impersonating Peter Lorre, Chef Mafia Machiavelli, and the zombie bellhops and servants make preparations for the upcoming party while patrolling the Isle to ensure that "It" does not arrive uninvited. Penny and the monsters begin to arrive on the freighter that Felix an also traveling on. As Penny and the monsters arrive, Francesca have to do to calls Penny, Sweetie as Francesca smiling to except Little Jenny’s apology about Penny got wet.

Penny’s dream in October 2, 1951[edit]

During dinner, Frankenstein shows them the formula which he will demonstrate the next day while naming his successor and introduces Penny sings The Mummy with her backing up singers Little Tibia and the Fibias. Francesca secretly meets with Dracula to inform him about Felix and Penny, promising to share Frankenstein's secrets when she becomes the successor if Dracula were to get rid of Felix and Penny as Dracula tap dances with Francesca sings jazzy Our Time to Shine in the song’s instrumental breaks as Dracula tap dances and Penny vocalizes in ghostly voice. When they catch the Monster's Mate ease-dropping, she and Francesca begin to cat-fight while the other monsters have an all out food fight make Penny laughing.

Penny’s dream in October 2-3, 1951[edit]

Felix arrives to the island and is greeted by his uncle and Francessca, who takes Felix on a tour of the island where the Mummy, Werewolf, and Dracula plan to attack expect Penny. While the human Felix and Penny the ghost proves to be unsuitably kindhearted, the monsters nonetheless plot to eliminate him and gain control of the secret formula, but Felix and Penny continually accidentally foils their attempts together. Later, Frankenstein tells Felix and Penny about his retirement, making his nephew leader of all the monsters in the world Frankenstein sings One Step Ahead to Felix and Penny. Felix naturally feels reluctant to take the job. Over time, Francesca develops feelings for Felix and Penny after he obliviously saves her on multiple occasions. As Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and the Monster's Mate descend upon Francesca, she sends out a letter (via messenger bat) to an unknown recipient. When the monsters corner Felix and Penny upon capturing Francesca, they are frightened at the arrival of "It" (revealed to be a giant gorilla and a take-off of King Kong ) who proceeds to rampage since he was not invited. "It" snatches up the monsters and Francesca (on whom "It" develops a crush). Felix and Penny rushes to tell his uncle what happened and is instructed to head to the boat. Frankenstein leads the zombies in rescuing Francesca from "It" using biplanes. Boris convinces "It" to let Francesca go and to take him instead. "It" complies. Felix and Francesca manage to escape the island in the boat as Frankenstein and the remainder of the monsters remain in "It"'s clutches to save Penny from drowning. Displeased that the monsters tried to steal the secret for themselves and attempted to kill Felix as well as having to put up with "It", Frankenstein sacrifices himself by dropping the vial of the formula, destroying the Isle of Evil and everything on it. The destruction is witnessed by Felix and Francesca offshore to save Penny as Francesca sings Never Was a Love Like Mine to Felix and Penny. Felix and Penny expresses a desire to begin a family with Francesca, who tearfully admits that she is not human, but in fact a robot creation of Frankenstein's. Felix and Penny responds that "none of us are perfect", indicating that he is his uncle's robot creation too. All Felix and Francesca have do to wake Penny up. Francesca says “Wakey Wakey, Sweetie” and Felix says “Wake Up, Penny”. After her dream transforms Penny into back from ghost in her dream into a human in real life.

Real world in October 3, 1951[edit]

Penny‘s mother wakes Penny up from Penny‘s dream and tells Penny about the news is appendix are all out and Penny’s dad gives Penny her new toys figurines of Felix, Francesca and all of the monsters.

Cast[edit]

Live Action[edit]

Lucy Tate as Penny Sillery
Joan Blondell as Petunia Sillery
Ray Milland as Paul Sillery
Joyce Matthews as Polly Sillery
Bing Crosby as Penny’s Doctor

Voice[edit]

Boris Karloff as Baron Boris von Frankenstein
Alan Swift as:
- Felix Flanken
- Count Dracula
- Frankenstein's Monster "Fang"
- The Werewolf
- The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
- The Invisible Man
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- "It"
- Yetch
- A Skeleton
- Chef Mafia Machiavelli
- Mr. Kronkite
- The Freighter Captain
- The First Mate
- The Mailman
Gale Garnett as Francesca
Phyllis Diller as The Monster's Mate
Ethel Ennis as the Title Song Singer

Crew[edit]

Directed by Jules Bass
Produced by Arthur Rankin Jr.
Executive producer – Joseph E. Levine
Associate producer – Larry Roemer
Screenplay by Len Korobkin, Harvey Kurtzman
Story by Arthur Rankin Jr.
Music and lyrics by Maury Laws, Jules Bass
Characters designed by Jack Davis
Continuity design – Don Duga
"Animagic" technician – Tad Mochinaga
Assistant director – Kizo Nagashima
Choreography by "Killer Joe" Piro
Music composed and scored by Maury Laws
Sound engineers – Eric Tomlinson, Peter Page, Stephen Frohock

Production[edit]

The film was created using Rankin/Bass's "Animagic" stop-motion animation process, supervised by Tadahito Mochinaga at MOM Productions in Tokyo, Japan. The process involved photographing figurines a frame at a time, then re-positioning them, exposing another frame, and so forth. Known as stop-motion animation, it was the same approach used in RKO's King Kong, Art Clokey's Gumby and Davey and Goliath, and many other films, commercials and TV specials.

Music[edit]

File:Mad Monster Party cd cover.jpg

CD cover

Although the opening credits identify Ethel Ennis as singing the opening theme song and, in the same frame, a soundtrack being available on RCA Victor, a commercially released soundtrack was never produced in any format until 1981. In September 1998, Percepto released the mono RCA recording on CD. Waxworks Records released it on vinyl on October 12, 2016.

No.	Title	Performer(s)
1.	"Mad Monster Party"	Ethel Ennis
2.	"You're Different"	Phyllis Diller
3.	"Our Time to Shine"	Gale Garnett
4.	"The Mummy"	Dyke and the Blazers
5.	"One Step Ahead"	Boris Karloff & Chorus
6.	"Never Was a Love Like Mine"	Gale Garnett

Television film adoption[edit]

Little Jenny and the Mad Monster Party? is a direct-to-video film which first appeared on Boyz/Girlz Channel on October 31, 2004. It is a sequel to the 2002’s Little Jenny and the Town of Terror.

Stage adoption[edit]

As The Movie’s 30th Anniversary present, a stage adaptation of the musical, titled Penny premiered in Broadway in March 8, 1997 and has played in various venues in the United States.

References[edit]

External links[edit]