Universal Monster Mash

Universal Monster Mash

• Ghost of Frankenstein
• Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
• House of Frankenstein

Turner Classics has done well to provide horror fans with marathons on Frankenstein’s Monster the last two Sundays, and the Legacy sets, very affordable and attainable, offer us the chance to watch them whenever we want. I have these movies, but they were on and Sunday nights were just the right time to give them their time in the month. It isn’t that I feel the need to watch them and get them over with, but I do want to make sure they get their play during the month. While I do think you can sure see the decline in quality and storytelling after Son of Frankenstein (1939) with Ghost of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, and House of Frankenstein, the fun is still there. You get the stars, even if considered B movie in status (to horror fans they are worth their weight in gold, even if the A-listers didn’t exactly look at them as so), popping up in the ensembles. Out of the three tonight, Neill’s atmospheric direction and strong opening in Cardiff in Meets the Wolf Man really stood out of the three B-movie sequels. As much as I love the guy, watching tormented Chaney in three straight films kind of exhausted me, admittedly. I think if there was something I wouldn’t do again is watch so many Chaney/Talbot movies back to back. I think I would prefer to spread those throughout the early part of the month. He just wants to die: that is the case throughout those three films. Chaney does that with the Talbot character, as he’s pitiable, tragic, and agonizing mainly because of the killing he commits while a savage animal. I think that kind of character is understandably justified in all the pity we could give him, but seeing it over and over three films was a bit much. Out of the whole trio, what really annoyed the most was Elena Verdugo’s dancing gypsy, Ilonka. It is every time I watch this: she infuriates me. Her instant repulsion to J. Carrol Naish despite how soft-spoken he is, the way he rescued her from being severely whipped, and his treatment of her, and the later “I hate you!” for just telling her the truth about Talbot paints her as disrespectful, shallow, and superficial. Hadn’t it been for Naish, she would have been left behind to starve, no money, and possibly dead. That’s being grateful, eh? Not to send all the praises in the world to Naish’s character, but it is a testament to the actor (who I think highly of) that he can get us to care about him at all. He murders people in cold blood just to get a new body in helping mad scientist Karloff who promises a lot but delivers very little. Karloff finally gets to act out of the makeup and just offer the mannerisms of a vengeful, insidious, dedicated-to-finish-what-Frankenstein-started scientist, using whoever he must to see that he’s successful. Talbot and Daniel are tools to see that he rescues the Monster (poor Glenn Strange) from deterioration, with plans to swap brains of those he hates with the bodies of the Wolf Man and the Monster. Ghost really benefits from Lugosi and Atwill. Those brought it with Lugosi looking to go places through the use of the Monster while Atwill seethes with jealousy and envy as he’s reminded of “a slight miscalculation” in the field of brain surgery by Cedrick Hardwicke’s success, hoping to someday get his chance to usurp the doctor currently ahead of him. Ygor remains the star villain, overshadowing the Monster (Chaney doesn’t exactly offer much of a challenge in that regard), using cunning and devious methods to get what he wants. I have so much fun watching Lugosi work his villainy, and this character just seems to be a diamond in his career. Characters like Hardwicke’s Frankenstein (the brother of Wolf, son of Henry) in Ghost and Ilona Massey as Elsa Frankenstein (the daughter of Hardwicke’s Ludwig) in Meets the Wolf Man don’t seem to fit any other Frankenstein film previously or after. Karloff’s Gustav Niemann, in House, was the brother of a Frankenstein assistant, but whom? It doesn’t matter. I don’t put much effort in how characters can live after dying and the screenplays finding ways (or not; “House of Dracula” just has Talbot and Dracula alive and well) to resurrect them because it is rather beside the point: give the audience some more Monsters and don’t bother trying to find realistic ways to explain it. Sulfur pits, plentiful bullets, exploded rushing dam, castle explosions, fire, silver bullets, stakes through the heart, and sunlight: the Monsters of Universal Studio take a licking and keep on ticking.