Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man

Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, released in 1943 was the first of the monster mashups that would begin to bring the monsters together. I had actually forgotten about this movie, which is evident in my last review. This movie has Lon Cheney Jr reprising his famous role as the Wolf Man and this time has Bela Lugosi as the Monster. Bela playing the monster is interesting because he was actually the first actor to be offered the role of the Monster in the original movie Frankenstein, but turned it down, which in turn launched Boris Karloff's career as a horror movie monster. Again, we should mention that this movie is plagued with inconsistencies, as for example all of the dialog that Bela Lugosi had recorded for the movie had been removed, as for some reason it was decided that the monster should again be mute. There are other inconsistencies as a continuation of the Frankenstein series, it is more of a faithful follow-up to The Wolf Man . This film takes place 4 years after the events of the Wolf Man, and starts with some robbers breaking into Larry Talbot's tomb to steal gold and jewelry. They however remove the wolfsbane during a full moon causing Talbot to again turn into a wolf and rise from the grave, because we are taught that it is impossible to kill a werewolf (though silver is supposed to work, but whatever continuity is thrown out the window folks, this is Hollywood, so who cares). This movie isn't the monster mash that it seems to promise on the poster, as most of the movie is the emotional broody Larry Talbot seeking a way to die and be ended up his curse (hmmm....I wonder if any emo bands ever thought of basing their songs on the Wolf Man). In his quest for death he finds the gypsy woman who was the mother of Bela (who turned Talbot into a werewolf in the first movie). She tells him about Frankenstein and suggests that they seek him out to see if he can cure the curse. They however learn that Frankenstein is dead (as we know from The Ghost Of Frankenstein), and Talbot turns into the wolf and runs off into the wilderness being chased by villagers, which causes him to fall into a hole, here he finds the monster frozen behind a wall of ice, but very much still alive. Well Talbot asks the monster to lead him to Frankenstein's notes, which he doesn't find what he is looking for but leads him to contacting Frankenstein's daughter. Now the dr that was treating Talbot earlier in the movie (I know I didn't mention him, but please just carry on anyway, it doesn't matter), well the dr, the gypsy, Frankenstein's daughter, Talbot, and the monster work towards freeing Talbot from the curse, but the dr like all of those before him start going mad with the idea of the power of creating life... The villagers are not too happy that there is shit going down at the Frankenstein house, and one dipshit villager decides it would be a good idea to blow up the dam that would then flood and destroy the Frankenstein castle... This leads up to the final climax of the movie where we finally see the Monster and the Wolf Man face off, which was what this movie was hyped up to be all about. Okay, let me be fair, this isn't a bad movie, I actually quite enjoy it, to me this is a fair follow up to the classic Wolf Man movie, and as far as the Frankenstein franchise, I feel that it started going off the rails in Ghost of Frankenstein, and that this was a bit of a mess as far as the Frankenstein and Monster aspect goes. But to be fair, the rumour is that this movie was only suggested as a joke, but Universal gave it a go ahead seeing profit potentials in it. But let's put ourselves into the head of a kid in 1948 who is going out the the Friday picture show, and sees that Frankenstein's monster is going to be facing off against the Wolf Man, let's be honest that would have sounded pretty fucking cool. Then to pay your admission and see a decent sequel to Wolf Man play out on the silver screen, and to have the chance to see Wolf Man square off against the great Frankenstein's Monster in the thrilling climax would have been pretty cool. I imagine there were girls screaming in the theater in parts, and that it was probably seeing this in the theater was a really fun and great time. Now, when I watch a movie like this I try to see it through the eyes of those who would be seeing it for the first time then, and not now after we have seen countless movies bringing the monsters together, and movies that would make a classic like this look tame and almost quaint and child friendly compared to some of the grotesque shit that we have become accustomed to, I mean really there is not much that can shock a modern horror movie fan. So remove yourself from that jaded over stimulated viewpoint, and put yourself in the mind of a kid in 1948, and though this was a b-horror movie even then, it is still pretty damn cool. Would I recommend this movie? Yes, absolutely, this should be on everyone's must see list, this is a movie that should be watched every year in your classic monster movie marathons leading up to Halloween. Definitely seek out this movie, it really is definitely worth the watch.