Movie Review: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
Synopsis: Seeking a cure for his werewolf curse, Larry Talbot travels to Ludwig Frankenstein's castle only to discover it has been burned to the ground and the monster still lives.
Who's in it? The movie stars Bela Lugosi, Patric Knowles, Dwight Frye, Lionel Atwill and Lon Chaney Jr.
Synopsis: It had been ages since I last watched Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man so, when I came across it this morning, I just had to take the time to watch it again. Unfortunately, while I usually enjoy the original Universal monster movies and the expanded universe that was created by them long before that became a regular thing, this one wasn't as good as I remembered.
My biggest problem with this movie is, despite the title, Frankenstein's monster (Lugosi) and the Wolf Man (Chaney) share surprisingly little screen time. I would describe this as a film that was more or less a sequel to The Wolf Man that happens to have a cameo from the other monster that lasted only about 10 minutes (maybe even less).
Plus, while it pains me to say it, as much as I love Chaney's version of the Wolf Man, the monster's human alter ego Lyle Talbot has got to be one of the whiniest horror movie characters ever created. Look, I get it, being a werewolf isn't a picnic. However, it's not like you hear Dracula constantly complaining about being a vampire.
Speaking of Dracula, or at least one of the actors who played the character, Lugosi's performance as the monster is just awful. The sad part about that is it wasn't even his fault.
By this point in the Frankenstein monster timeline, the creature should have the ability to speak and should also be blind, and Lugosi was clearly portraying the monster that way. However, because the filmmakers either changed their mind about that narrative or because bad editing that cut out the explanation, the monster just looks clumsy and awkward. It's hard to consider the creature scary when it is much easier to feel sorry for it.
Final Opinion: This is a movie that, just from the title alone, set some high standards but clearly failed to meet them. It's not the worst classic monster movie I've seen, but it is still a disappointment and I'm only scoring it as an average film because Lugosi's desperate attempt to make his monster believable despite reportedly being in poor health deserves as much.
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