The House of Frankenstein (1944)

Film: The House of Frankenstein (1944)
Stars: Boris Karloff, J. Carrol Naish, Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine, Glenn Strange, Elena Verdugo
Director: Erle C. Kenton
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

While we may still have one more dance with Frankenstein, this is our last dramatic entry with the monster who has in many ways defined our Classic Horror Movie month.  I have had such a good time watching these films, and there are so many left for me to see that we won't get to this month (including two more Frankenstein pictures-Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man and House of Dracula), that I think I'll probably do a sequel to this next October (it wouldn't be a monster movie without a sequel), but for now let's get into our last (dramatic) moment with the monster, this time played by Glenn Strange.

(Spoilers Ahead) After nearly a decade of monster movies, Universal Studios was trying to find a way to spice up the monster movie franchise, and like most series that are toward the end of their run hoping to boost ratings, they relied upon gimmicks and "special events."  As a result, we get the first film in the series to feature Dracula, the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein's Monster, albeit in abbreviated storylines.  The film focuses on Dr. Niemann (Karloff), a mad scientist who escapes from prison with his hunchbacked sidekick Daniel (Naish), and together they set off to both seek revenge against those who imprisoned Niemann as well as to recreate the work of Niemann's hero, Dr. Frankenstein.  Initially they meet a man who has Dracula's bones trapped in his cart of curiosities, and after killing him, Niemann brings Dracula (Carradine) back to life, only to quickly have Dracula die (after he has time to seduce a young woman, of course), when he is caught in the sun.  Then we go to Dr. Niemann's lab, where he unfreezes the monster and the Wolf Man (Chaney), and tries to do some more brain-swapping to bring the monster back to life, but in the process his hubris causes his downfall.  The Wolf Man is killed by the gypsy Ilonka (Verdugo, who sadly died just last year) with a silver bullet after she falls in love with his human form, and Daniel, angered at the doctor for not giving him a new body so he can impress Ilonka, causes a chain reaction that kills himself, Dr. Niemann, and the monster...until of course the monster will return in a sequel.

The movie is short despite the heavy lift of plot that I just name-checked there, and that's a large part of the problem.  The movie has too many plots, and largely skates by the entire Dracula story, not really involving him in much of the rest of the film (Carradine, arguably the most prolific Hollywood actor of all time, played Dracula again in a sequel so someday I'll see if they make more of his work as the Count, as I found him somewhat dashing in the role).  The movie reminds me in a way of modern-day comic book movies, where there are too many headliners, and as a result no one is particularly compelling.  Certainly the best of the bunch is Karloff (and while I've ragged on him a lot, this is one of the better performances I've seen from Lon Chaney, Jr.), but this has more to do with Karloff's strong acting ability in general than anything interesting to do with Niemann.  Overall this is a pretty forgettable chapter other than finally getting all three of these monsters onscreen together.  It's titillating when they unveil each monster, but what follows is a bit blasé.

Since we've been learning a bit about horror movie classics throughout this month, I can't leave without the anecdote about why Bela Lugosi isn't in this film.  Originally, Lugosi was supposed to reprise his role as Count Dracula, which would have been the first time since the original 1931 hit that he played the part.  However, Boris Karloff was doing a theatrical run of Arsenic and Old Lace, and the studio wanted to get Karloff to play Dr. Niemann in this film, so they waited and by the time he was available, Lugosi had a prior engagement...in a theatrical run of Arsenic and Old Lace.  This was Karloff's final appearance in any of the classic-run Universal horror films, and so we never got to see Lugosi's Dracula meet Karloff on the big screen.  Lugosi would finally be able to reprise his role as Dracula a few years later in the smash hit Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, which (Netflix-willing) may be our final movie of this marathon...though they've been a little bit unpredictable in what they're sending me so I make no promises (just hopes).

This Month We Are Seeing As Many Classic Horror Movies from the Pre-1970 Era as Possible.  If you want to check out some of our past reviews, here they are:

Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Dracula, Mad Love, Son of Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Mummy, Freaks, The Ghost of Frankenstein, It Came from Outer Space