Not given as much love critically as the Universal monster movies of the 30's is the so-called "monster rally" cycle of the 40's, such as HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, HOUSE OF DRACULA and ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN.
My favorite of the bunch is FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN. It brings together Universal monster veterans Lon Chaney, Jr., Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, Dwight Frye and Maria Ouspenskya. Patrick Knowles, Ilona Massey, Dennis Hoey fill out the stellar cast. I will also mention a bit part by the lovely Sonia Darrin because she later appeared in an uncredited role as Agnes, the phony Geiger's Rare Books clerk in Bogart's THE BIG SLEEP. Also making a brief appearance is Lance Fuller, who would add a little cast cred to Ed Wood's BRIDE OF THE GORILLA.
Released on March 5, 1943, the film was directed by Roy William Neill (who also helmed a handful of Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes movies) and opens with a killer title sequence and a very creepy and atmospheric prologue (shot by cameraman George Robinson with the help of Art Director John Goodman and John P. Fulton). Curt Siodmak's screenplay continues his imaginative werewolf legendry and Jack Pierce finally gets his shot at making up Lugosi as the Frankenstein monster (on his terms this time!).
The weakest part of the film is not surprisingly Lugosi's monster. His stiff, lumbering gait is laughable and his age is definitely showing in the final battle scene. It was reported that he even passed out on the laboratory operating table from exhaustion. Incredibly, the script called for Lugosi speaking a few lines, but when viewed by test audiences, the shrieking laughter prompted the scene to be wisely cut.
Despite a few flaws, I consider FMTW a highly entertaining film and it happens to be one of my personal favorites of the entire classic Universal horror film catalog.
NOTE: Some of the images seen here have been "spruced" up from another FMTW feature posted here 12 years ago.
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| One sheet theatrical poster. |
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Much more from FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN in tomorrow's post!
This might be the first of the classic Universal monster flickers I ever saw as a kid. It played on the Halloween all-night fright fests on a local TV station. It's a slow build, but the fight at the end is brief but ferocious for the era. It's always fun to watch this one again.
ReplyDeleteI think the Frankenstein/Wolfman storylines worked pretty well with each other. And, of course, it was spectacular seen as a kid with no filters.
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