| Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man |
| Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) (How do you do?Pleased to meetcha). Directed by Roy William Neill (of Sherlock Holmes fame) Written by Curt Siodmak because he wanted a car On the menu: Ilona Massey .... Baroness Elsa Frankenstein Hubba hubba mama! Patric Knowles .... Dr. Frank Mannering Lionel Atwill .... Mayor of Vasaria A bit plump Bela Lugosi & a few others .... Frankenstein's Monster Maria Ouspenskaya .... Maleva (old and stringy) Dennis Hoey .... Inspector Owen channeling Inspector Lestrade Lon Chaney .... The Wolf Man Assorted villagers .... appetizers It is really hard to be "middle of the road" on FMTWM. A lot of folks out there either love it or hate it. It generates quite a bit of discussion on internet boards and a lot of that has to do with Bela Lugosi's outing as the monster. If you don't know (and there may be 5 or 6 of you out there) the monster had Ygor's brain planted in its skull in Ghost of Frankenstein. So he was supposed to be not only blind but he could speak as well. However when Universal execs heard Lugosi's voice as the monster for some reason they nearly had seizures. So not only did they remove all of his dialogue (which was okay in Ghost) they removed all references to the monster being nearly blind. And here you thought he was walking around all stiff legged and groping because he had crapped in his pants. Of course the plot is simple. Two grave robbing fools accidentally resurrect Larry Talbot the Wolf Man. Old Larry winds up in a hospital after he kills a few folks and tries to convince Dr Mannering and Inspector Owen of who he really is and what he is. They think he's smoked too much wolfbane. So Larry escapes and chows down on half of Europe looking for Maleva the old gypsy woman cause all Larry wants to do is die. They team up and she tries to find Dr Frankenstein. In Vasaria all they find are villagers who are hacked off that the mad doctor is dead so they can't kill him again. Well Larry turns into a wolf and gives them something else to hate as he mows through villagers like he's at an all you can eat buffet bar. Larry also stumbles into the Frankenstein monster played by Lugosi and a few stuntmen. The doctor comes along and so does the va va voom Baroness Frankenstein. Mannering gets a blue veiner wanting to restore the monster to full power when he ought to be sacking out with the Baroness. Guess that's why ol' skip ain't a mad scientist! Well after the villagers grumble and thousands of kroners worth of electrical equipment is shipped to the castle, the doc gives in to the dark side of the force. He restores the monster to full power and the battle is on bewteen the two monsters. An angry villager plots to blow up the dam where the cast awaits the frantic outcome of the battle. There is plenty to like in this monster mash. The opening scene of the grave robbing in Lanwilly is probably some of the scariest stuff from the 40's. If I were trying to steal from a corpse and it grabbed me I would violate my underwear. The graveyard is quite spooky and it is a creepy scene. Chaney gives us some real tortured angst as the Wolf Man and the supporting cast is fine. Lugosi takes a lot of heat for his performance. But at least he puts a little life into it whereas in later films the monster just lies around on a table getting fussed over. What doesn't work for me is the doctor getting all sweaty about getting the monster up and about. Then again if he didn't do it we'd have no movie. But there is no logic behind it.The title battle is too short and runs only about two minutes at the most. I also don't care for the Festival Of The New Wine and the song. While it is fondly thought of by most Universal fans I have to fast forward through it. So if you're in the mood for a black and white classic oldie you could do worse than this one. |
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