For those hording toilet paper

 

Talbot was last seen dead by a cane to the skull by his father, but four years have passed and two graverobbers open his tomb, unknowingly releasing a werewolf to potentially savage innocents. Talbot will soon encounter Frankenstein's Monster, trapped in ice, in a weakened state, and dormant. Can Vasaria withstand not just a werewolf but undead brute as well?

While I think Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (Or, better titled, Frankenstein’s Monster Meets the Wolf Man, but I digress…) can be fun at times, the screenplay is a shambles of ideas, some making little logical sense:

·       Dr. Mannering (a London doctor who helped treat Lawrence Talbot after he is freed from his tomb by two bumbling grave robbers, allowing him to once again endanger the public) becomes inexplicably obsessed with providing Frankenstein’s Monster with full power even though this would encourage incredible horrors to the nearby village of Vasaria

·       Frankenstein’s Monster seems unable to speak, even though Ygor was able to in Ghost of Frankenstein, and sometimes he seems to see while other times he doesn’t.

·        A member of the village (Rex Evans), who lost a waitress to the wolf man, decides to blow up a dam so it will destroy any remaining ruins of Castle Frankenstein, but doing this would realistically flood the village, but all the villagers celebrate from a distance (seeing the flood erupting downward would seem to indicate such a result, but again, I guess applying logic to such a scenario would be wasted time)

·       Frankenstein’s Monster (thanks to production problems and sketchy decisions during production and plot-to-screen) stilts and walks arms stretched wide (this is used when critics and non-fans mock the Monster or send it up, ambushing Karloff’s terrific performances in the role) sometimes while other times Lugosi seems to indicate that he/it has proper movement.

·         Maleva, the gypsy, knowing how it went for Bela when he was accursed with lycanthropy, decides she will watch over and guard Talbot, although it is clear that once the full moon is out there with all its glory that he will turn werewolf and threaten her life (and the lives of others)

·         Talbot notices the Monster encased in ice in the catacombs underneath Frankenstein castle decides without a single thought of doing so to break him open and free him.

·         Frankenstein’s daughter (Ilona Massey) knows exactly where her father’s diary (notes on his Monster and the use of electricity to give life to the dead) is but how? If she knew its location why didn’t she destroy it? She said she’d destroy it if its whereabouts were known. And why wouldn’t she destroy it considering the diary is so toxic and caused her family such notoriety?

 There’s one moment—Lugosi’s sole bright spot as the Monster (I can only imagine if given the chance, Lugosi might could have done something with the part, particularly since he spoke while in the body of the Monster in Ghost of Frankenstein)—has that old devilish grin that is so Ygor in a close-up as Mannering gives him power thanks to the old Frankenstein lab machinery (powered by the dam’s turbine). It is to me a sign that this was a missed opportunity. Sure, Lugosi would sound Hungarian (that thick Ygor-ish accent would shine through) but that comes with the character that actually inhabits the body of the Monster (curse of the test screening, I guess: it is rumored that was why the idea of the Monster speaking in Ygor’s voice was nixed; too bad). It is kind of fascinating knowing that in the previous Ghost of Frankenstein that Chaney was in the role of the Monster and Lugosi was leading him around, with the roles reversed in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.

A great deal of the film is Chaney as sad sack Talbot, always in a state of melancholy and despair. Look, I’m a Chaney, Jr. guy. But by the time House of Dracula rolled around, the pitiable Talbot character was even wearying to me. There’s only so much whining and agony, bitching and moaning anybody can stand…even those of us who sympathize with the big lug. In this film, he just wants to die. Could Mannering just assist him in the kind of sympathetic demise he deserves? Actually asking that has me questioning my own personal ethics, but anyway…

The opening, to me, is more interesting than the latter stages of the film when logic takes a hike and remains absent. I like the London of director Roy William Neill and the gothic graveyard and mausoleum of the Talbots when the graverobbers open the tomb of Lawrence. I really loved the idea (and presentation) of a European Werewolf in London with Larry loose to feed on a copper or potential others that might be in the midst of the wolf man. In fact, I even liked the inclusion of Dennis Hoey (who worked on Sherlock Holmes films with director Neill) as the Inspector, finding Larry’s ravings of being a wolf when the moon’s full nonsensical gibberish. Patric Knowles is yet another in a long line of boring secondary characters with a little empathy for Larry (even finding him in Vasaria and not informing the authorities) but could have used a little personality (granted these kinds of characters have little color to them).

The sets once again are an asset, especially the wintry catacombs and the ruins of the castle (it really does look like it was gutted by explosives). The whole deal with Mannering summoning the mania of Frankenstein just didn’t wash with me…if fact, I found this development forced and absurd. At least it was better than the half-assed Frankenstein Monster resurrection in House of Dracula, though.

I can’t really say the final climactic showdown is any great shakes, with the dueling stunt doubles going at it, but there are some large props tipped over, not to mention, the lab is flooded, so it could have been worse, I guess. Lugosi might have wisely abandoned the project when it was offered to him, but maybe he expected the part to be as intended; we’ll never know.