Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) - film review

One dark night, two grave robbers break into the tomb of Larry Talbot, hoping to steal the jewels that were buried along with his body.  At the moment the coffin is opened, Talbot is brought back to life by the light of the moon and is transformed into a savage werewolf...   That same evening, Talbot is found loitering in Cardiff.  Having returned to his human form, he is taken to the local sanatorium.  Here, Talbot tries desperately to convince Dr Frank Mannering and Inspector Owen that he is a dangerous lycanthrope, but his words are wasted.  At the next full moon, he becomes a werewolf once more and goes on another killing spree.  Determined to find a way to end his miserable existence, Talbot travels to Europe to track down the old gypsy woman Maleva, the only person who understands the curse of the werewolf.   Maleva remembers the work of a certain Dr Frankenstein, who had devoted his career to unravelling the mysteries of life and death.  Convinced that Frankenstein’s private research papers will provide a clue to how he may end his life, Talbot visits his ruined castle in Vasaria.   Here, he falls into an underground cavern where he finds Frankenstein’s monster, perfectly preserved in a block of ice...

It must have seemed like a no-brainer at the time.  Universal was doing good business with its Gothic horror monsters in their solo outings, so why not bring them together in one film and do even better business?   By this stage, Universal was no longer committed (as they had been previously) to making quality pictures that might stand the test of time.  The studio’s Gothic horror series had now well and truly been relegated to B movie status and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man marked the sad point at which art was well and truly sacrificed in favour of a quick buck.  This would be the beginning of the end for Dracula, Frankenstein, et al.

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man begins promisingly enough as a direct sequel to The Wolf Man (1941).  Lon Chaney Jr’s transformation into a ravenous hirsute monstrosity is as effective as ever and there are some genuine thrills as the werewolf goes on the rampage in, of all places, Cardiff city centre.  But even in this first half of the film, the plot failings are painfully noticeable.  There is no satisfactory explanation as to why Talbot survived his apparent killing at the end of the last Wolf Man film, nor is it explained why Inspector Lestrade (from Universal’s Sherlock Holmes series) is working under an assumed name in the Welsh capital.

Things only really go wrong in the second half of the film, and the blame for this must surely be placed at the feet of screenwriter Curt Siodmak.  Allow me to summarise.   Larry Talbot wants to die.  It never occurred to him that all he had to do was to ask someone to fire a silver bullet into him.  No, instead, he pins all his hopes on Dr Frankenstein.  Which Dr Frankenstein? you may ask.  By this stage, everyone, myself included, has lost count.  Never mind.  Dr Frankenstein is dead, but Larry, the eternal optimist, is sure that the scientist kept notes in which he recorded his research, on the off-chance that a suicidal werewolf would one day come along and make use of them.

This naturally provides Larry with the perfect pretext for breaking into Frankenstein’s castle.  Of course, we all know what will happen next.  Larry will fall through a hole in the ground and find Frankenstein’s monster frozen in a block of ice.  Now how do you suppose the creature got there, given that, when we last saw him, he was burned alive at Frankenstein’s other residence (or should that be the residence of the other Frankenstein?)?

Larry, not being particularly well-endowed in the cerebral department then decides to free the monster.  He probably belongs to one of those fringe militant conservationist societies.  Luckily, the monster is running at half power, so his anti-social tendencies, which involve ripping off people’s arms and things, have yet to show themselves.

Larry and his new monster friend (who by the way is blind and so can’t do much other than look scary and knock over all the furniture) begin to look for Frankenstein’s research notes.  Larry, for all his other failings, can read remarkably quickly, judging by the rate at which he is able to assimilate and discard the mass of papers he finds in Frankenstein’s safe.  Luckily, Frankenstein (i.e. the dead doctor, not his  pet monster)  has a picture of his daughter Elsa on his desk,.  As sure as night follows day, Larry will now go after Elsa, confident that she will know where the scientist kept his most intimate journal.  But first, he must pay a visit to his tailor and get a new suit.

Whilst Larry is busy having his inside leg measured, the good Dr Mannering (known to his friends as Frank, appropriately enough) has been busy hobnobbing with the local population.  Just why he has been following Larry across Europe like a bloodhound is anyone’s guess, although the alternative (i.e. being stuck in Cardiff for the rest of his life) may have had something to do with it.  Alternatively, he might just have been one of those pesky autograph hunters.

Once Elsa has uncovered the missing diary, Larry enlists Frank’s help in rebuilding the apparatus by which Frankenstein first brought the monster to life.  In his diary, the helpful Dr Frankenstein has revealed that the monster can be destroyed only by draining off its energy.  This is achieved, and I quote (using the precise scientific terminology of a serious scientific practitioner): "Change the poles from plus to minus".  In other words, swap the electrodes round and bob’s your uncle.  Obvious when you think about it.  Larry naturally thinks this bit of pole switching will do for him and persuades Frank to wire him up for a bit of harmless euthanasia.

Unfortunately, Frank is not the rational, sensible and frankly boring Welsh-based medical practitioner we have been led to believe he is.  He is in fact an inquisitive little blighter.  So, rather than switch the electrodes round and drain the monster as any sane person would do, he keeps them the right way round and gives the monster a full recharge.  It’s not quite clear what happens to Larry at this point, but he is clearly hoping mad when the moon comes out and turns him into a werewolf.  So, we now have an angry Larry-angry monster situation, which cannot end well.  Luckily, one enterprising villager has had the good sense to flood the whole town by blowing up the dam.  I do like a happy ending.

Despite some generally impressive production values, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man marked a low point in the series, thanks to its abysmal screenplay, and things would not improve much with the subsequent Dracula - Frankenstein - Wolf Man run-ins.  Universal was determined to run their horror franchise into the ground, and it certainly succeeded.

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man commits one notable faux pas, and that is its title.  This is the first of Universal’s Frankenstein films in which Dr Frankenstein does not appear, and so the Frankenstein of the title presumably now refers to the monster, something which any true horror aficionado will cringe at.  (The pedants may argue that Frankenstein does actually appear in the film, in the guise of the doctor’s granddaughter Elsa.  Hence the title can be considered accurate, albeit highly misleading.)

I’m much less concerned by this syntactic blooper than by Inspector Lestrade’s presence in this film, however.  Just what was he doing hanging about in Cardiff when he should be propping up Scotland Yard?  Maybe someone had dropped a hint that Sherlock Holmes had been seen recently posing as the son of Frankenstein?    

Another thing that worries me is why Frankenstein’s monster keeps changing his appearance in the course of this film.  One minute he’s Bela Lugosi, overacting horrifically but mercifully silent (apparently because a preview audience objected to his accent); the next he is some other unknown actor, looking strangely subdued and actually rather cute with a Kirk Douglas-like dimple.  Maybe there are in fact two Frankenstein monsters!  Universal missed a trick here.  The next Frankenstein film could have been: Frankenstein Meets Frankenstein (in which Elsa Frankenstein meets her uncle, the third son of the original Dr Frankenstein, played by Nigel Bruce).  Could that have been any more implausible than what really came next: The House of Frankenstein...?

© Alex Sullivan 2010

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