Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man Reviews

Desperate to entice audiences to its waning horror series, Universal decided to combine two of its most popular monsters--Frankenstein's monster and the Wolf Man--thus creating one sequel for two films: THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942) and THE WOLF MAN (1941). Inexplicably alive after having been bludgeoned to death in THE WOLF MAN, Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) searches out Dr. Frankenstein to cure his lycanthropy. Although Talbot finds that the doctor--his only hope--is dead, he does stumble upon Frankenstein's monster (Bela Lugosi), frozen in the ice beneath the destroyed castle. Aided by an idealistic young scientist (Patric Knowles) who wants to re-create Frankenstein's experiments, Talbot revives the monster and prepares it for an experiment that will cure Talbot of his affliction. Unfortunately, the experiment goes awry, with Talbot becoming the Wolf Man, and a fight to the death with the revitalized monster ensues. Having played both the Wolf Man and the monster (in GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN), Chaney was originally intended by Universal to play both parts in this film, but it was decided that this would be too difficult and expensive. Ironically, Bela Lugosi, who had originally been slated to play the monster in FRANKENSTEIN (1931), but refused the part because of the lack of dialog, was cast to replace Chaney as the monster. Not only did Curt Siodmak's script call for the monster to remain mute, but he was blind as well (as he was at the conclusion of THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN)--although studio cuts later eliminated any reference to the monster's blindness. Lugosi is woefully miscast here, and his cause was not helped by either the cuts (he still played the monster as if he were blind) or the fact that the actor was sick for most of the shoot. Stuntman Eddie Parker doubled for him through much of the filming, and the first close-up of the monster is actually of Parker. Universal's marketing scheme--multiple monsters--worked, spurring the studio to toss in even more creatures for their next film, THE HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944), which featured the monster, the Wolf Man, Dracula, and a hunchback.