Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man (1943)
Faro-la, faro-li!! It’s double trouble with two monsters!
Brief Backstory
Universal Studios, still having the monopoly on the horror movie industry, continued the 1940s with a new creature to brace the screen in 1941, Lawrence Talbot, who would become the Wolf Man. The Wolf Man, released in 1941, was a favorite among many, and it was high time to give Talbot an encore, along with another incarceration of Frankenstein’s monster. This new movie was called Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man, and while not as highly acclaimed as the Wolf Man, it became a cult favorite. Other movies like this would follow later onwards, presumably due to World War II’s economic toll.
Story
Resurrected from the dead, Lawrence Talbot AKA the Wolf Man, searches for Dr. Frankenstein to rid of him the curse of being a werewolf. Unfortunately, Dr. Frankenstein has passed away, and instead his monster is left behind. This proves to be a danger for Talbot as the monster goes after Elsa Frankenstein, a love of Talbot’s.
Random Facts
One of the only Universal Monster movies to have a song number excluding Jaws if that counts as a Universal Monster movie.
The actual fight itself happens near the end of the movie, which seems common with many of these monster vs. monster movies.
The Frankenstein monster seen here is different from the Boris Karloff Frankenstein.
No dialogue for the Frankenstein monster. Apparently people who saw the test screening complained about the monster talking and preferred him not to.
Random Opinions
The festival of the new wine song sounds Celtic.
Only guess for why the cast change on the Frankenstein monster is that it’s a different monster instead of the one seen in the 1930s. I think it had something to do with Ghost of Frankenstein but I haven’t seen it.
Like so many of these horror movies, I was introduced to this by James Rolfe. Apparently this was one of the first ones he watched in the early 1990s.
Pros
- The festival song is probably the star scene of the movie.
- A fight against two monsters that’s worth seeing for horror buffs.
- The screen time of Talbot as a werewolf is limited, keeping the times where he turns into a werewolf (which isn’t many) scary. The same is done with the Frankenstein monster.
Cons
- Looks like they forgot to rework the scenes of the Frankenstein monster’s mouth moving.
Rating: 7/10 – Good
Like a lot of these old monster movies, you need to have an acquired taste for them. If you liked watching some of the other Universal Monster movies then I recommend this – but wait until you watch the Wolf Man to do so, and probably Ghost of Frankenstein as well to understand the storyline a little more. Otherwise you’ll probably get confused.
2 responses to “Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man”
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There goes my interest in seeing the monsters duke it out due to a lack of screentime. I prefer Freddy VS. Jason. At least they have more interactions than Frankenstein and Wolf Man.
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I wrote a review on my blog. I’m sorry, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man’s not a good crossover movie. I’m not a classic horror fan, I’m more of a ’90s to modern horror guy.
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