To finish off this Halloween Film marathon, I wanted to watch something fun, such as some of the better dark films intended for children (or at least for all of us adults with a sense of whimsey.) Regrettably, since I’ve been a fan of that sort thing for a long time, I’ve seen virtually all of the ones that are worth anyone’s time.
So I went with the next best thing and went to the place where most of these tropes came from, Universal Pictures, monster mashups. These are the films where all of Universal’s monsters come together creating a single continuity and we enjoy every bit of it.
The first of these films, Roy William Neill’s Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, (with Lon Chaney Jr. reprising his role as Lawrence Talbot the Wolf Man and Bela Lugosi playing the monster,) starts where The Wolf Man left off. A pair of grave robbers breaks into the Talbot Mausoleum where the body of Larry Talbot lies. However, when the moon shines through the window into his open coffin, Talbot is revived and once again turns into the Wolf Man killing the grave robbers.
Now that he knows even death cannot free him from the curse, Talbot searches for ways to end his existence. He is told that Dr. Frankenstein may be able to help him. However, he finds Frankenstein’s Castle a ruin. While he desperately searches for any piece of information that can help him. he finds the Monster where he was buried in The Ghost of Frankenstein.
This was an entertaining film. For the most part, Talbot is the main protagonist with Lugosi’s Monster little more than a shambling automaton. Chaney plays him with just the right amount of pathos (though admittedly he does come off as a bit of a whiner.
In the next film. Erle C. Kenton’s House of Frankenstein features Boris Karloff as Dr. Gustav Niemann, a scientist who has been following in Dr. Frankenstien’s footsteps and is now in prison for it. He manages to escape with his hunchbacked assistant Daniel (J. Carrol Naish),. He travels to Frankenstein’s Castle disguised as a traveling showman named Dr. Lampini (having killed the real Lampini) It turns out Lampini’s Wagon contains Dracula’s coffin. Of course, Dracula is revived and can the Wolfman and Frankenstein’s monster (Glenn Strange) be far behind?
This one was okay. Once again, it’s mostly Larry Talbot’s movie. Dracula (John Carradine) pretty much only exists as a subplot which is resolved halfway through the film with little comment, and the monster is little more than a prop until the end of the movie.
In the final film on this list, Erle C. Kenton’s The House of Dracula, Dracula contacts Dr. Franz Edlemann (Onslow Stevens) to try to find a cure for his vampirism. Edelman is skeptical at first but cooperates. Soon Larry Talbot shows up seeking a cure for his Lycanthropy and soon they find the body of Frankenstein’s Monster.
This film was a lot better balanced than House of Frankenstein giving most of the characters more screen time, except for the Monster. Once again he’s just a prop until the end of the film.
This is also one of the only films where Talbot gets a happy ending, seemingly cured of his curse. Though he appears to have relapsed by Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein
