“Who could be closer to Dr. Frankenstein than me and Fang? Why, he created us! Francesca! I’ll see to it that she’s not his successor.”—The Monster’s Mate at the dinner party.
The Monster’s Mate is a supporting antagonist in the 1967 Rankin/Bass animated feature film, Mad Monster Party. She is the wife of Frankenstein’s monster, who later joins forces with the treacherous Count Dracula to kill the doctor’s nephew, Felix Flanken, and claim his scientific secrets.
She was voiced by and modeled after the late Phyllis Diller, who also voiced the Mouse Queen in The Nutcracker Prince, Mask Scara in The Powerpuff Girls and Mrs. Claus from Robot Chicken.
Personality[]
The Mate, being based off her voice actress, Phyllis Diller, is a comedic wisecracker, whose main trait is making jokes, even cracking her up. She also seems to be rather mean-spirited towards her husband, Fang, most often nagging him and insulting him. However, she still cares for him and has some love for him, as shown through her song (see below). She’s also shown to be rather vain, as she admires her looks in a mirror before coming down for dinner, and coyly accepts a “compliment” from the doctor.
Like the other monsters at the party, she’s overcome by her desire to become the doctor’s successor, thus developing feelings of jealousy and greed. She also inhabits some rather violent tendencies, whether it be engaging in a physical fight with Francesca at one point, or after Francesca escapes her, her husband and Dracula by jumping out a window at another point later on, mentioning that she’ll be eaten by the crocodiles in the moat below, even laughing about it.
It is implied at one point that she may also be psychic, as she can overhear Francesca’s thoughts as she schemes to get rid of Felix with Dracula’s help, even going so far as to say “It’s her own fault for thinking so loud.”
The Mate is also rather motivational, as she persuades Dracula, who decides to flee like a coward to escape the Baron’s wrath should their plans get out, to follow Francesca after she escapes through a trap door.
Appearance[]
The Mate is modeled after Diller. She has pale yellow skin, wild, frizzy white hair, a long, bulbous nose, a long chin, red lips, long eyelashes, thick black eyebrows, and metallic joints in her elbows and knees. Her main attire consists of a black, sleeveless fur dress, red opera gloves and white, high-heeled go-go boots.
When she joins the other monsters for the Baron’s retirement party, she dons a greyish pink sleeveless dress and white and black, flat-heeled dancing shoes.
Role in the film[]
The Mate is first seen, having caught her husband, Fang, red-handed for spying on Baron von Frankenstein’s beautiful secretary, Francesca. After chastising him, she proceeds to sing her number, “You’re Different,” to express why she likes him.
Later, before the other monsters invited to the party arrive, she and Fang, dressed in their best, come down to dinner, but not before admiring her looks in the mirror and insulting her husband. As the others begin to arrive, she mingles with the other monsters and even cracks a few jokes.
During the doctor’s party, as the Baron announces his retirement and his plans to choose a successor worthy of his monstrous business, everyone becomes eager to obtain the position for themselves, including the Mate, who overhears Francesca concocting a plot (in her mind), one in which she plans to have Count Dracula assist her in, and tells her husband the two bear watching. She also goes on to express her disgust over how Francesca could possibly become the doctor’s successor, and says that she’ll see to it that Francesca will not obtain the job.
After the doctor concludes his speech, the party truly kicks off with the night’s entertainment, Little Tibia and the Fibians, who perform their song “It’s the Mummy.” The Mate invites the Mummy himself to dance, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame joins in. During the song, Francesca asks Dracula to meet her out on the castle balcony outside. The Mate secretly hides behind the drapes and listens in on the two’s private conversation. As it turns out, Francesca tells Dracula how the doctor plans to have his human nephew, Felix Flanken, be his successor. The two make a deal; if Dracula will do away with Felix, then Francesca will be given the doctor’s scientific secrets, to which she will then share them with the Count. Dracula, (who secretly plans to kill Francesca and have the secrets all to himself), agrees. Then, they break out into a rousing musical number, “It’s Our Time to Shine.”
After their song, the Mate accidentally causes the drapes to fall on top of her, drawing Dracula and Francesca’s attention. Dracula attempts to bite her, but is immediately stopped by Fang. The Mate tries to stop Francesca, leading to the two battling it out in a cat fight (in which they make cat noises). After everyone has gone to sleep for the night, the Mate retires to her bedchamber and goes to sleep herself, recuperating after her fight with Francesca, snoring loudly (much to the annoyance of her husband).
The next day, after Dracula’s attempts to kill Felix (who arrived earlier that day) fail and Francesca berates him for it, the Mate and Fang show up Dracula’s door. Francesca discovers that Dracula has double-crossed her (having joined forces with the other two) and the Mate tells her that they’ll make better partners for Dracula, and hint that they plan to do away with her. As the three close in, Francesca escapes from them by activating a secret trap door, leading to the doctor’s laboratory. She explains that if they don’t stop Francesca before she tells the Baron of their treacherous plot, they’ll all be turned into erector sets. The Mate gives a cowardly Dracula the idea to follow her, and orders Fang to drop the Count down the trap door, then jumps down herself with Fang. As she frantically searches for the doctor’s matter-destroying formula, the three monsters follow her. Francesca wields a torch and a pick of wolfsbane in self-dense, only for the monsters to over-power her and take them away from her. But their attempts to stop Francesca are all in vain, as she escapes once more by jumping out a nearby window into the moat below. The Mate assures her cohorts that the crocodiles in the moat should finish off Francesca. However, Felix, who was fishing in the moat at that time, rescues Francesca. The Mate suggests to Dracula they round up the other monsters to kill Felix and Francesca.
Later, all the monsters gather together in Dracula’s room and agree to the Count’s plan, even the doctor’s zombie butler, Yetch, who only agrees to join in after Dracula tells him that Francesca (who he has a crush on) doesn’t belong to him. The Mate and the others join in the chase through the jungle to find and kill Felix. Francesca ends up getting captured, and Dracula, Fang, the Mate, the Hunchback and the Creature corner Felix. But before they can do the boy any harm, It, a giant ape whom the doctor has always despised, appears, much to their horror.
It captures Francesca, as well as Dracula, Fang, the Mate and the Hunchback. The Mate nags Fang to do something to possibly save them, but instead he bawls out of cowardice. As the Baron and his zombie servants come to Francesca’s rescue, he orders It to release her and take him instead. He does so, and the doctor, unhappy that the monsters tried to kill Felix, uses his matter-destroying formula to completely destroy the island and everything on it, as a means to pay them all back for their treachery and put an end to It forever. Thus, the Mate and the others are never seen nor heard from again.