Quick Rating:  **

Universal brought out all the monsters (except the Mummy, surprisingly) to try to revive interest in its horror films.  We're treated to the mad scientist, the hunchback, Dracula, the Frankenstein monster, and the Wolfman.  Karloff is a brilliant but mad scientist (is there any other kind in these movies?) rotting away in jail, with his hunchbacked assistant, Daniel.  Lightning strikes, and brings down the walls of this stone prison (!), and they escape into the night.  A travelling chamber of horrors show (!) has gotten its wagons stuck in the mud, and Karloff & Daniel help them out in exchange for a ride.  Karloff has aspirations of continuing his Frankenstein-like work, and of revenge against his accusers.  They soon take over the travelling show (which boasts the genuine skeleton of Count Dracula) and head out to a town where some of Karloff's enemies reside.  He revives Dracula (Carradine, in a to! p hat), and forces him to attack the local Burgomeister.

After the Dracula story, the scientist and his hunchbacked assistant continue on to the town of Frankenstein, in search of the infamous doctor's notes.  In the ruins, they find frozen in the snow both the Frankenstein's monster (Glenn Strange) and the Wolfman (Chaney), fresh from their battle in the previous film (Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman).  These monsters are revived, and the Wolfman changes back to Larry Talbot, who pines for death.  The doctor provides him an alternative - a promise of a brain transplant to rid him of the wolf curse that plagues him so.

Back to Karloff's hometown and he gets preoccupied with reviving the monster, while ignoring his promises to both Talbot and Daniel (he had promised him a new body as well), which they don't take too kindly too.  The full moon comes, and Talbot transforms.  Daniel gets jealous and mad, and fights back.  And the monster is restored to full power.  Look out, the monsters are loose and mad!

This is really a cheesy movie.  The plot is thin and uninteresting, and there are a few holes.  The cast is great, though, and really carries the picture.  That, and the fact that all the monsters are in it!  Another thing that seems amateurish by today's eyes are the transformations.  The wolfman's are on par with earlier wolfman films (which is to say, not too good), but the Dracula ones are real bad.  From bat to count or count to bat, it's done with animation.  Obvious animation.  Kind of distracting from the film.  So, it was good to see all the monsters, but bad to see them in a meaningless film that's sole purpose was to bring them together.


 
 

Quality: 3.5  Visuals: 3.5  Intensity: 3 
OVERALL RATING: 3.3