Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943)

Genre: Horror, Werewolf, Monster

Source: TV ( Channel AMC )

Grade: A+


 This is one of my favorite movies, period. For a variety of reasons though, first being this was one of the very first Classic Horror and one of the first Universal Monster I ever saw(I think the first on I ever saw was Dracula), I think it might have been one of the first I watched because the title stuck out to me so much. Another reason being I love the films story its just a overall  amazing sequel story that made it to the first movies standers.
       That's another thing, their is some debt in the horror community over which this movie is actually a sequel to. All I have to say is, its completely obvious its a direct sequel to The Wolf Man. Because first of all it takes place three or four years after the events in the Wolf Man, plus if it was a sequel to Frankenstein it would not even match up with any of the films in the Frankenstein series, I mean if it were a sequel to Frankenstein it would be a third or fourth installment  instead and have to have been a sequel to Bride of Frankenstein but that wouldn't make sense because Son of Frankenstein was a sequel to Bride, and since the castles destroyed in this movie it couldn't have happened before Son for the castle is main point in Son. So this movie really doesn't fit in with the Frankenstein series but fits perfectly in with the Wolf Man series. Also you have a couple of the characters from the Wolf Man returning like Maleva the gypsy women.

The story like I said before is just a classic awesome Universal Monster style story. Written by the master Curt Siodmak who wrote other such masterpieces as the original Wolf Man, and House of Frankenstein. So write of the bat the dialogue is awesome and the atmosphere is great. Everything in this movie to me was put together so well, I mean the Wolf Mans accidental resurrection by Grave robbers and the way they managed to incorporate the Frankenstein Monster was all so perfectly done. That even being my third time watching this movie i`m never bored and am always intrigued by its story.
The climax at the end was pretty epic if you ask me, the Wolf Man and Frankenstein go one on one in a awesome fight thats unfortunately interrupted so neither comes out as a clear winner, though if you ask me it looked like Frankenstein was winning.

Now on to the cast, the first person billed was Lon Chaney JR which is correct because he was the central character in this film. And once again he does an amazing job as the Wolf Man by making him sympathetic yet scary and evil like when he kills the constable at the beginning of the movie that was pretty dang scary. Then you had Bela Lugosi as the Frankenstein monster, now his version of the monster wasn`t bad I liked it better than Glenn Stranges portrayal of the monster but it just couldn`t match up with Boris Karloff`s portrayal of the monster. Especially in the sense of facial features, Karloff just had the best facial features for the monster that no other actor has been able to even remotely match.
Lionel Atwill even had a little role in this movie as the mayor of the town. He was great in the way he made his character more intellectual then all the superstitious villagers who were very easy to arouse into a mob. You know I love how Atwill always had some role in all Frankenstein movies after the secound one. And all his characters were different then each other like in Son of Frankenstein  he`s the awesome inspector, then he`s the Doctor in Ghost of Frankenstein, and yet another inspector character in House of Frankenstein, the list goes on.
Sadly no Evelyn Ankers as the films scream queen instead you have Ilona Massey playing the daughter of Frankenstein. Though not as good a actress as Ankers she was equally gorgeous. Dennis Hoey even has a role in this movie, fans of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies will recognize him as the snooty pompous Inspector Lestrade. His Character in this movie was the exact same type of character, a annoying pompous police inspector.
Heck even the great Dwight Frye has a small role, actually its more of a cameo. Infact this was the first time I watched this movie and noticed him.


So all in all this movie is really good Universal Monster flick that I would highly recommend, Now I know there is a lot of people out their who don`t regard this movie nearly as high as I do, but hey what more could ask for from this type of movie? Oh, well anyways since I first discovered this movie when I think I was in eighth grade, I have made a point of watching it ever October, and so far I have been very successful.  So by all means make a point of watching this one night, i`m sure you won`t be disappointed.