The actors in Transylvania 6-5000 seem to be under the impression that they are doing something funny. Where they got that idea from is anybody’s guess.
It can’t have come from the screenplay, a series of utterly listless comic setups by Rudy De Luca, who also directed. There is no reason for this material to be funny, so – not surprisingly – it never is.
Reporters Jack Harrison (Jeff Goldblum) and Gil Turner (Ed Begley Jr) – who work for a newspaper that runs headlines like “I Was Dead For A Week And Liked It” – are sent to Transylvania in search of Frankenstein’s monster. The two are hip and diffident enough to take this in their stride.
But once they arrive in Transylvania, they find themselves surrounded by the dopiest of horror-spoof stock characters: Joseph Bologna is a mad doctor; John Byner is a mad butler; and Carol Kane is the butler’s wife – an especially imbecilic sex kitten.
Geena Davis is a sexy vampire who appears to have wandered in from another – much better – movie.
Among the only halfway amusing things in the film are the beast-shaped telephones that play Pennsylvania 6-5000 and the local mayor, who implores the reporters, “If you want to write about us, write about a happy Transylvania – our new sewer system, our skyscraper. It’s six floors high!”
Jack Harrison
Jeff Goldblum Dr Malavaqua
Joseph Bologna Gil Turner
Ed Begley Jr. Lupi
Carol Kane Lepescu
Jeffrey Jones Radu
John Byner Odette
Geena Davis Fejos
Michael Richards Wolfman
Donald Gibb Mac Turner
Norman Fell Elizabeth Ellison
Teresa Ganzel Lawrence Malbot
Rudy De Luca Madame Morovia
Inge Appelt Inspector Percek
Bozidar Smiljanic Hunyadi
Petar Buntic
Director
Rudy De Luca
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Reporters Jack Harrison (Jeff Goldblum) and Gil Turner (Ed Begley Jr) – who work for a newspaper that runs headlines like “I Was Dead For A Week And Liked It” – are sent to Transylvania in search of Frankenstein’s monster. The two are hip and diffident enough to take this in their stride.
Lupi
