Transylvania 6-5000 ** (1985, Jeff Goldblum, Joseph Bologna, Ed Begley Jr, Geena Davis, Carol Kane) – Classic Movie Review 9249

When Jeff met Geena.

Writer-director Rudy De Luca’s campy 1985 fantasy horror comedy Transylvania 6-5000 begins with a head start of a great cast led by Jeff Goldblum, Joseph Bologna, Ed Begley Jr, Geena Davis.

Goldblum and Begley Jr play tabloid reporters Jack Harrison and Gil Turner, sent to Transylvania to find the Frankenstein monster.

It is silly and low on laughs, but harmless and good natured enough, with the nice young cast pulling out all the stops to win laughs.

Rudy De Luca also appears as Lawrence Malbot. Also in the cast are Michael Richards, Jeffrey Jones, John Byner, Sara Grdjan, Donald Gibb, Norman Fell, Teresa Ganzel, Inge Appelt, Bozidar Smiljanic, Petar Buntic and Carol Kane.

Geena Davis was picked from 40 actresses by the director for the role of Odette after performing a compelling Bela Lugosi accent.

Leonard Maltin’s entire review ‘Transylvania 6-5000 stunk.’

It was financed by the Dow Chemical Company to spend frozen finances in Yugoslavia. It was shot at Samobor, Croatia; Zagreb, Croatia; and Mokrice Castle, Catez ob Savi, Slovenia.

Transylvania 6-5000 was released by New World Pictures on 8 November 1985 in the US, where it grossed $7,196,872 on a $3 million budget. It was released on DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment in 2004 in the US.

The title, previously used in a 1963 Bugs Bunny animated short, is taken from the Glenn Miller song Pennsylvania 6-5000.

Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis met on this film and made three films together: Transylvania 6-5000 (1985), The Fly (1986) and Earth Girls Are Easy (1988). They were married from 1 November 1987 to 17 October 1990.

Jones and Davis both star in Beetlejuice (1988).

 © Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9249

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