“Could Frankenstein Have Made Me Like Other Men?”
1943’s Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man gave us the first team up of Universal Monsters. 1944’s The House of Frankenstein added Dracula to the fray (at least temporarily) and would continue these team ups in later films starting with House of Dracula (1945).
Boris Karloff stars not as Frankenstein’s monster (that would be Glenn Strange, making his debut in the role), but as Dr. Niemann, a mad scientist imprisoned for his cruel and unethical work similar to that of Dr. Frankenstein, who escapes from prison with his new friend, a timid hunchback named Daniel (J. Carrol Naish). Promising to give Daniel a better body, the duo ambush a traveling horror show run by Professor Lampini (George Zucco). They murder Lampini and his assistant, and take over identities. Lampini had the bones of Dracula (John Carradine) in his show, and Neimann frees the vampire from his coffin and uses him to murder one of the men, Burgermeister Hussman (Sig Ruman), that had him imprisoned fifteen years before. Dracula also attempts to take the Burgermeister’s granddaughter (Anne Gwynne) as his eternal love interest but fails. In the crazy chase that happens as a result of Dracula’s attempt, the vampire is trapped in the sunlight just outside of his coffin and dies.
Neimann and Daniel make a run for it as well and head to Frankenstein’s destroyed laboratory. They unearth Frankenstein’s monster and the Wolf Man, Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.), while looking for Dr. Frankenstein’s notes and Neimann decides to use the monster to kill even more people. He tells Larry Talbot that he can save him as well, but wants to use his brain for revenge in reality.
Along the way, Daniel saves a beautiful gypsy woman, Ilonka (Elena Verdugo), who ends up falling in love with Larry Talbot. This makes Daniel jealous of Larry and he demands that Neimiann give him a better body. Neimann lies to Daniel to buy himself sometime to revive the monster.
Neimann’s plans start to unravel as Larry transforms into the Wolf Man, and murders Ilonka, who manages to kill the Wolf Man with a silver bullet just before she dies. Enraged, Daniel attacks Neimann, blaming him for wasting too much time on the monster instead of helping him and the Wolf Man. The monster awakens and fights off Daniel, killing him in the process.
A good ol’ fashioned Universal mob forms and raids Neimann’s laboratory. Fearing for their lives, the monster grabs Neimann and runs out into the night. Unsure of where he is going, the monster blindly runs into quicksand, ignoring Neimann’s pleas to stop. He and Neimann are taken under by the quicksand and the film ends.
This was definitely an interesting movie, but it felt rushed and a tad disjointed as most team up flicks do. It’s as if Universal wanted to cram as much monster madness into a film as they could, but ultimately they just wasted Dracula and Frankenstein and continued poor Larry Talbot’s quest for death. It’s a shame, too, as Carradine did a much better job as the count in this film than he would end up doing in House of Dracula.
The film was successful enough that Universal would milk the trio of monsters again in House of Dracula and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. None of these ensemble films are exceptionally great. I prefer to watch the monsters in their individual films instead.
Give The House of Frankenstein a shot if for no other reason than to see the first film to feature Dracula, the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein’s monster all in one film.
Thanks for reading. I’ve only got two films left to watch and review for the month!
Ken's Alternate Universe! 