NaschyCast #17 - ASSIGNMENT TERROR (1970)

ASSIGNMENT TERROR turns out to be a direct sequel to THE MARK OF THE WOLFMAN which surprises both of your humble hosts. We should have looked that tidbit up before we pushed record, huh? It just doesn’t seem that it should be a direct follow up since its more than 45 minutes before Daninsky even has a line of dialog! Well anyway- hang with Troy and I as we stagger our way through this funhouse of mirrors and monsters with a few side shifts into discussions of Star Trek, Pink Floyd album titles, mispronounced creature names, pesky emotions and the joys of mini-skirts. It’s a bumpy ride because we get a much compromised Monster Mash that did not turn out quite the way Naschy hoped it might. Cheesy, slap-dash, messy and goofy as it can be the film is far from the best in his filmography but it has its points of interest. It sports two great monster battles and several beautiful ladies while moving at a brisk pace. Of course, at times this speedy pace seems to come from having whole chunks of the narrative ripped out! Although Daninsky is a featured player he is certainly not the main character in this pulp science fiction story which points to the strange elements any fan has to notice. What kind of Waldemar Daninksy film doesn’t give our tortured Wolf Man any dialog for the first half of the running time? Still, the movie is at its best when the monsters are onscreen creeping around the Gothic styled dungeons of the castle/monastery so those are the moments when the entire thing pays off. Monster fights!