DVD Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man / House of Frankenstein

Four years have passed since Larry Talbot's death. He's been lying in his crypt covered in wolf bane, not bothering anyone, and then two grave robbers happen along. The light of the full moon calls Talbot back to life, and he flees into the night in his werewolf form, waking up in a hospital in Cardiff the next morning. A Dr. Mannering (Patric Knowles) has performed surgery on his broken skull, but no one believes his werewolf story, even after he claims his first victim in four years. He ends up bolting the place and making his way to Europe, where he seeks out the old gypsy woman Maleva. She tells him that one man can be of help, a scientist named Frankenstein, but it turns out that the doctor is dead and his castle in ruins. Talbot engineers a means of drawing Baroness Elsa Frankenstein to the village (yet another heretofore unknown heir to the House of Frankenstein), but she refuses to help him. Searching the ruins, Talbot finds Frankenstein's monster frozen in ice and sets him free. Dr. Mannering eventually tracks him down to the village, and he agrees to help both the Wolf Man and the monster, but you know how these scientists get when they start delving into the mysteries of life and death.

Talbot, now afraid he cannot die, longs to be killed and put out of his misery. Baroness Frankenstein is just as desirous of seeing the monster destroyed. Now, if it were me, I would get an axe and just chop these guys into about a million pieces, but I guess that would be too easy. And, with the film being titled Wolf Man Meets Frankenstein, you know there has to be a monster clash before all is said and done, and you don't want your monsters battling it out at less than full strength. The film ends rather abruptly, leaving a slight taste of dissatisfaction in my mouth.

Watching Bela Lugosi play Frankenstein's monster is a pretty weird experience. Lugosi was the ultimate horror actor, but I don't think he was born to play the monster. I found it impossible to even recognize him under all the makeup until, toward the end, a fully recharged monster saw fit to give the audience a couple of vintage Lugosi grins. The film features a number of Universal stalwarts, including Lionel Atwill, Patric Knowles, Maria Ouspenskaya, and Dwight Frye. All in all, I was pretty impressed by this movie. Curtis Siodmak returned to write the script, and it did make for a successful sequel to The Wolf Man.

House of Frankenstein is a sequel to Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, one with its good points and its bad points. This was the first film to feature three of the Universal classic monsters: Frankenstein's Monster (now played by Glenn Strange), the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney, Jr.), and Count Dracula (John Carradine). It also threw the legendary Boris Karloff into the mix as a mad scientist following in Dr. Frankenstein's footsteps. John Carradine is probably the worst Dracula I've ever seen; he brings no sense of power or charisma to the role at all. Dracula doesn't even have a very significant part in the movie, strangely enough.

Boris Karloff is Dr. Gustav Niemann, one of the few mad scientists of note to actually be imprisoned. After fifteen years of prison life, he is still concentrating on his research; he even has a hunchbacked assistant ready to go as soon as he gets his freedom. A powerful electrical storm issues Niemann a pardon, and he heads for Frankenstein's castle in hopes of finding his hero's research notes. A carnival of horrors provides him the cover he needs to make his getaway, and it just so happens that this carnival's main attraction is the actual skeleton of Count Dracula. The Count returns to life (at least as much life as Carradine manages to give the character), but the film would probably be better served had it left Dracula out of the script entirely. Once Niemann reaches the village of Frankenstein, he begins searching the ruins of the castle and finds both The Wolf Man and Frankenstein's Monster frozen in ice. I don't even have to tell you that he revives both of the monsters. Lon Chaney, Jr., is once again superb in his role of the tormented Wolf Man seeking death but, for a time, pinning his hopes on Dr. Niemann for a cure to his cursed affliction. Frankenstein's monster basically just stumbles and bumbles his way through the script, having already fallen victim to the awful stereotype of the big, dumb monster. When Karloff looked into the eyes of the monster, I am sure he saw almost no similarity to the monster he portrayed so powerfully in the first three Frankenstein films.

House of Frankenstein fails to live up to its potential. Its strengths include Karloff's fine performance as a non-monster character, Chaney's impressive performance as the Wolf Man, and the combination of three classic monsters in one movie. Its weaknesses come in the form of Carradine's awful performance as Dracula, the silliness of the whole Dracula subplot to begin with, and a fairly boring conclusion regarding Dr. Niemann and the monster. It's still a fun movie to watch, but it cannot compare to the classic movies that gave birth to the monsters we see exploited here for box office profits.

House of Frankenstein: Karloff escapes from prison, and combines (with his helpful hunchback assistant) to quickly dispose of the host of a traveling horror show. It's an old fashioned (horse and carriage) operation, and Boris assumes the role of driver and imposter. Let the fun begin: Boris Karloff is indeed most delightful (too bad he couldn't play the monster too)! John Carradine is a fairly convincing Count Dracula who discovers the Monster and Wolfman . . . who just happen to be frozen by the dam waters released by furious villagers in the companion to this DVD set. House of Frankenstein is a rare sequel ("Bride of Frankenstein" being more notable) that is clearly superior to the original.

Our large family of adults and children provided the following cumulative ratings of these monster bashes . . . "Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman": B minus (B-); "House of Frankenstein": A minus (A-).

In House of Frankenstein we are treated to Boris Karloff in the role of a mad doctor bent on the revenge of those who sent him to prison. Obsessed with the secrets of life and death, his journey takes him to the ruins of the Frankenstein castle. Here he will find the bodies of the Frankenstein monster and the wolfman, frozen by the dam waters released by the villagers in FMTW. Lon Chaney Jr reprises his role as the tortured Larry Talbot. Glenn Strange plays the Frankenstein monster. I always thought Frank looked a little goofy in this film. John Carradine rounds out the monster cast as Dracula. It's fun to have all of these monsters in the same film, but the real gem here is Karloff. As above, the film transfer is descent with a few scratches and imperfections. Sound quality is very good though.

These films are far from perfect, but are great fun. They are must haves in any classic monster DVD library. It's too bad they are out of print. I've heard rumors that Universal will re-release many of these later in the year along with some of the previously unreleased (at least on DVD) monster flicks. Still, I recommend finding a copy if you can.