Our journey through the Universal monster movie list continues.
Today we have Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943).
My son, James, will go first:
Well, today we the battle of the century, Frankeinstein Meets/vs Wolfman! The story is the wolfman finds frank , they battle, it’s totally epic! But they make you wait until the last few minutes of the movie of course.
So, rating wise, i’ll say 4.7 out of 5 creepy monster of deadlyness!
After the debacle that was 1943’s Phantom of the Opera, anything would be an improvement. Luckily, Frank Meets Wolf is actually pretty good.
When we last left the Monster, his brain had been replaced by that of the evil assistant Ygor (also played by Bela Lugosi). In that film, the procedure rendered the Ygor-Monster blind.
When we last left the Wolf Man, Lawrence Talbot had been accidentally killed by his father with a silver cane.
This movie helps solidify in my mind the Wolf Man as my favorite of these monsters so far. Most of them have been one dimensional, but Larry Talbot is a cursed man. A reluctant monster. Lon Chaney Jr. gives him a great deal of humanity and though you want to see him wolf out and kill people, you feel bad for it.
The plot is simple and effective. Thanks to some graverobbers, Talbot is revived. He finds the Gypsy woman from his past, who seems particularly stunned to see him alive. Touchingly, she adopts Larry as her son and swears to help him. Hoping for answers, she leads him to the home of Dr. Frankenstein, where she believes the doc can help kill or cure him. That’s when he finds the burned-down castle and the frozen Monster.
Unfortunately, we lose a bit of continuity and the Monster isn’t blind, nor does he speak with Bela Lugosi’s voice. (Apparently, both the blindness and the Monster’s speech was addressed in the original cut of the film, but test audiences didn’t get it. They must not have seen Ghost of Frankenstein.)
Talbot’s doctor from England arrives and is seduced by the potential of Dr. Frankenstein’s work. He fully recharges the Monster … on the night of a full moon. Oops. The duo scrap a bit before a dam is busted and they get swept away. (In the fight, the Wolf Man likes to jump, and a few times, it seems like Lon is really dragging and pushing Bela around.)
The film’s cast is a cavalcade of Universal monster stars: Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr., Dwight Frye (Dracula, Frankenstein, etc.), Maria Ouspenskaya (the Gypsy woman), Lionel Atwill (Son of Frank's inspector), Ilona Massey (Invisible Agent), Harry Stubbs (Mummy’s Hand, Invisible Man), … and there’s more, I’m sure.
The Wolf Man’s transformation sequences are even better. The Monster’s makeup isn’t consistent, but it’s a different actor, so we’ll let it slide.
Bad stuff? I’d love to see the version with the Ygor-Monster’s dialogue intact. As it is, the continuity doesn’t flow that smoothly from Ghost to this. … Dr. Mannering seems to be a bit too quick to leap into Frankenstein’s work. … After all the rabble rousing post-attack, the mob seemed to quiet down rather quickly.
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man … a solid entry and the first crossover team up. 4 out of five creeps.
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