My Review of House Of Frankenstein (1944)

 

Written by Edward T. Lowe

Directed by Erle C. Kenton 

Larry (re Frankenstein's Monster): "He wanted life and strength. I wanted only death. Yet, here we are."

For Halloween, I'm giving a double bill of crossover events from the Universal Monsters and I'll admit, while they're not among the best movies in the bunch, they're also not lacking their moments. 

The funny thing was that both movies seemingly put a certain monster centre but the monster in question didn't have as much screentime as you'd hope for them to have. In fact, Frankenstein's monster (Glenn Strange) only popped up towards the second of this film.

The first half focused on mad scientist Dr. Gustav Niemann (Boris Karloff) and his hunchback henchman, Daniel (J. Carrol Naish). They managed to escape from a prison and then found themselves assisting a travelling freak show. The real show being led by Professor Lampini (George Zucco). It didn't take long for Niemann to betray Lampini either.

On top of that, Niemann also managed to revive Dracula (John Carradine) in order to get revenge on Burgomaster Hussman (Sig Runan). Dracula however found himself fixated on Hussman's granddaughter-in-law Rita (Anne Gwynne), much to her husband, Carl's (Peter Coe) displeasure. Throw in some death and the Dracula bit was hastily paused to get to the rest of the story.

Niemann and Daniel encountered gypsies with the latter being smitten by Ilonka (Elena Verdugo) but she didn't reciprocate his feelings. Instead she was in love with the new unfrozen Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr) as the latter found himself drawn into Niemann's schemes.

As for Frankenstein's monster, he got revived very late in the movie, killed Daniel after the latter attempted to murder Niemann and then walked into quicksand. There's a tragic romance/mutual killing between Ilonka and the Wolf Man but it's rather unsatisfactory in it's execution.

- A sequel, titled House Of Dracula was released several months after this movie. Most of the cast in this returned for it.

- I got to admire that Lon Chaney Jr consistently played the Wolf Man while Dracula and Frankenstein's monster actors kept changing.

- Edward T. Lowe previously wrote the scripts for The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1923) and The Vampire Batman (1933).

- Chronology: Mostly taking place in Visaria, following the events of Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man. 

House Of Frankenstein isn't a bad start to the two part crossover events but it may disappoint you if you were hoping for more of Frankenstein's monster or even Dracula, who was killed off midway through. It also didn't really do anything new with the Wolf Man and neither will the next one.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man (1943)

 

Written by Curt Siodmak 

Directed by Roy William Neill

Maleva (re the Wolf Man): "He is not insane. He simply wants to die."

For one of these characters, it's their first sequel and for the other, it's a fourth in this particular continuity. Yup, these two characters just to meet with one another.

However, there was the issue that the last time both characters appeared, they died. However in the Universal Monsters World, death doesn't really mean anything. Also despite the name order in the movie title, one had more screentime than the other.

The Wolf Man aka, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr) turned out not to be dead. He also didn't waste time in killing a local police officer or finding out that a lot of time has passed since being killed off in his own movie.

In a lot of ways, this movie felt more like a Wolf Man sequel with a side order of Frankenstein (Bela Lugosi). Larry wanted to die and found himself reunited with Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya), who still couldn't give him the release he wanted.

Not that it matter because Larry managed to uncover Frankenstein's body and teamed up with Baroness Elsa Frankenstein (Ilona Massey) and  Dr. Frank Mannering (Patric Knowles). However they were more interested in resurrecting Frankenstein than helping the Wolf Man himself.

Where this film somewhat doesn't stick the landing was the actual meeting of the two monsters themselves. It happened way too late into the movie and it ended on a frustrating cliffhanger where both of their respective fates were left unknown.

- Bela Lugosi really went from Dracula to Frankenstein monster in the manner of twelve years.

- Larry's father died of grief in between movies. There wee also plans to have Lon Chaney Jr play both roles before Bela Lugosi was cast as Frankenstein's monster.

- These two would clash again in House Of Frankenstein (1944) and House Of Dracula (1945) along with other monsters.

- Chronology: Four years since the events since The Wolf Man (1941) and The Ghost Of Frankenstein (1942). Set in Cardiff and the village of Vasaria.

I admire the fact that Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man got the ball rolling for these crossover events but it's a disappointing start with not enough interaction between both monsters. I'll catch up with the other ones soon.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of Frankenstein (1931)

 

Written by Garrett Fort And Francis Edward Faragoh

Directed by James Whale

Henry Frankenstein: "Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's alive... It's alive, it's moving, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!"

Victor Moritz: "Henry - In the name of God!"

Henry Frankenstein: "Oh, in the name of God! Now I know what it feels like to be God!"

I did things out of order. I watched and reviewed Bride Of Frankenstein last year but of course, I should've watched and reviewed this one first. The most important adaptation of the Mary Shelley classic.

First of all, the movie started with Edward Van Sloan (who also played Dr Waldman) introducing the movie to the audience, which was a nice but unusual bit. Then there was the movie itself. Creator versus creation. Who was worse or more tragic?

The actual Frankenstein himself was Dr Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive). The film really began with him and assistant Fritz (Dwight Frye) are digging up the graveyard for body parts. It seems that Victor had a much bigger priority than his upcoming nuptials.

Yup, Victor had a beautiful would be bride in Elizabeth Lavenza (Mae Clarke) but his true desire was the need to play God. Collecting the body parts, he put them together and created The Monster (Boris Karloff). What should've been a scientific advancement immediately became an absolute disaster.

The Monster couldn't be controlled and had no problem even drowning a child named Maria (Marilyn Harris). Needless to say, that certainly put a target on The Monster's back and the last few minutes are dedicated to his downfall. Boris Karloff does a great in giving The Monster some sympathy.

Less sympathetic however would be Dr Frankenstein himself. He's a selfish, vain, arrogant man whose God complex nearly destroyed his village and even almost resulted in his own death. In some ways, he's a lot worse than The Monster he brought to life and doesn't really suffer any consequences for his actions.

- This movie would result in two sequels while James Whale would also direct The Invisible Man (1933).

- The Monster's look in this movie became iconic but it's not the same as the description in Shelley's book itself.

- In the book, Frankenstein is called Victor but was renamed Henry to sound friendly to American audiences.

- Chronology: Set in a village in the Bavarian Alps in the 1800s.

Frankenstein undeniably should be considered a classic in the horror genre and it's still a sight to behold nearly a century later. An excellent adaptation of the source with a brilliant performance from Boris Karloff as The Creature.

Rating: 9 out of 10