Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man/House Of Frankenstein

I'm going to try and get a little logical here. Nothing too new in thoughts, but still, I'm going to try. In the fourth film in the "Frankenstein" series, "The Ghost Of Frankenstein", the main plot of the film was to replace the brain of The Monster. In that film The Monster in that film was played by Lon Chaney Jr. The brain that ultimately found its way into the head of the monster was that of Ygor, played by Bela Lugosi.

O.K., flash forward now to the next film in the series, "Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man". In this film Universal was starting to wear a little thin on the plot points, so they needed something else to make people want to see a monster in need of a new brain and a reason to see mad doctors again. In the time between "Ghost" and this film, Lon Chaney had brought to the screen his own classic monster in the film "The Wolf Man". So Universal decided to do the logical thing, they could have Bela play The Monster since The Monster would obviously take on the facial features and voice of Ygor since his brain was in the skull, and they could have Lon join the cast in the role he had made in the guise of Larry Talbot a.k.a. The Wolf Man! The film had to be a winner!

The film starts out working more of a sequel to "The Wolf Man" than having any connection to any of the "Frankenstein" films. A couple of grave robbers attempt to steal treasures from the grave of Larry Talbot, played again by Lon Chaney Jr. Upon opening the tomb they find the body covered in wolfsbane. After removing the ring from Talbot's hand, Talbot awakens and stops the one thief while the other heroically runs from the graveyard. We then cut to a scene in London of a police officer finding the beaten body of Talbot.

Everybody is shocked that this might be the same Larry Talbot who had been killed 4 years prior. Obviously we get Larry eventually turning into his old fuzzy self and heading on out for a few killings! In "The Wolf Man" Larry Talbot was a tortured man who didn't enjoy the curse that was bestowed upon him. He didn't want to live like he was. In this film, now having been brought back to life and finding that he his curse is still with him, he is even more distraught. For all the goofy things that might happen within these films, Lon Chaney Jr. always brought a very good performance with him. You always felt his pain. Eventually Talbot finds himself in the ruins of Frankenstein's castle. There he finds the remains of the creature. This time looking like Bela Lugosi and not Larry Talbot. Somehow he manages to get the help of a doctor that had tried to help him in the beginning of the movie. But as is the case with all of these films, the doctor decides that he can't destroy the Monster that Frankenstein had created! So he comes up with a plan.

In the end the villagers get agitated and decide to take manners into their own hands. In the final film to carry the Frankenstein name, "House Of Frankenstein", we get to see an old friend again. That being Boris Karloff! Karloff makes a return to the films that would set him into the minds of films fans for the rest of time, but not as the character that gave him the honors, but as a mad doctor this time!

"House Of Frankenstein" plays more like an anthology piece than a normal film. First we meet Karloff in a jail cell. Here we find that his character Professor Nieman is also on the same path as Dr. Frankenstein was with his attempts at bringing back to life the dead. In the cell next to him is the hunchback Daniel. Hell of a creepy name for a hunchback, eh? Thanks to the most fantastic storm in history, the jail is busted apart and our two bad guys escape into the night! Both being the good Samaritans that they are stop to help a wagon out of the mud. As luck would have it the wagon is a traveling carnival that is carrying the corpse of Count Dracula! Well, it doesn't take long before our two heroes get to work on killing the guys in the carnival and taking it over, then resurrecting Dracula, turning him into their slave, of sorts, and then letting the good Count get himself killed. At which point we find ourselves in the way to the town of Frankenstein!

There we find the Wolf Man and Monster in their graves from the previous movies. Look, the film runs through all of the clichés that we are to expect from these films. The thing is, for all of what we have come to feel is "cheesy", the film is well acted, very well shot, very moody, and just very fun! This is not a film that makes you think. But it is full of monsters and evil doctors. I also am fine with the way The Monster is no longer the sympathetic creature he was with Karloff. The thing is that this is not the same Creature. The brain of that Monster was replaced by that of the twisted Ygor, so then it only makes sense that he is no longer a sympathetic creature. My logic, but I like it!

In this film the character of Dracula is played by John Carradine. I was never comfortable with his portrayal. He seemed too American or something. The moustache also used to bug me…until I realized that the Dracula in the book also had a moustache. Though that is really the only similarity. But he does a good job of acting, just not my idea of Dracula.

Glen Strange is The Monster in this film, and he does a fine job of it. In "Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man", Bela Lugosi turns in a very stiff, yet spastic portrayal of The Monster. Here, Strange gives The Monster the best portrayal since Karloff. Though it is a rather brief appearance, it works well. Lon Chaney is, well, the same as all the other times he plays Talbot, yet even more down on life! The transfer of the disc is actually very good…again. These films did not get the clean up that "Frankenstein" got, but that really is not too bad a thing since these are nice transfers to begin with. Oddly enough though, "House" does suffer from a few nicks and scratches in the very beginning. Even a very harsh "pop" and skip in the film appears at one point. But then all settles down and we have a very nice picture and sound for the rest of the running time.

The extras on these films are very, very, very skimpy. We get a trailer and the typical "Cast and Crew" sheets plus a little bit of "Production Notes".

What makes these disc's worth buying is the stable side of DVD. These won't go through the same wear and tear as you videos, as we all know. I still say that all fans of these films should get the disc's. If we want to see all the films show up eventually, we have to support the format and the films. BUT, I do recommend you find the cheapest way of buying them!

Review by Carl Isonhart