As I mentioned in my Freddy vs Jason review, those two weren’t the first horror heavyweights to lock it up on the silver screens That honor goes to two of the most recognizable faces in horror history! Frankenstein’s Monster and The Wolfman. I also mentioned that most of these films weren’t exactly what their audiences were expecting. Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman showed that the sub genre was still a work in progress.
A pair of grave robbers break into the The Talbot family tomb. What they find is an awakened Larry Talbot who transforms into The Wolfman and kills them. He awakens in a hospital the next day and eventually learns that he’s been dead for 4 years. After escaping the hospital he tracks down the gypsy woman who’s son cursed him years ago. She explains to him that he cannot die. Unwilling to live with his curse, Talbot seeks out Dr.Frankenstein’s research into life and death to find a way to kill himself. What he finds may well just put everyone in danger.
Lon Chaney Jr. returns to The Wolfman role and continues to shine in the role. The majority of the film focuses on his character. The Monster isn’t even introduced until about 3/4 through. Boris Karloff however does not return to the role. Bela Lugosi takes over as The Monster. He performs as best as he can and it’s fine. But Lugosi just does not look the part. Frankenstein’s Monster looks overweight and just not comparable Karloff. It’s not a performance issue as both men are incredible performers. But Karloff will always be the iconic image of the Monster. His absence definitely hurts the film.
The biggest problem however , is the pacing and amount of actual Wolfman vs Frankenstein we get. The story plods along like a tortoise until the ending. The final 15 minutes forces character development seemingly out of nowhere! Instead of watching The Monster and Wolfman throw down as the poster art promises, most of The Monsters dealings are with Talbot and not his Wolfman form. The ending finally gives viewers what they want to see....for a whole 2 minutes before the castle comes crashing down and “The End” immediately flashes over the screen. Great.
When the two finally do clash, what little we see is entertaining. Wolfman keeps finding things to jump off of and Frankenstein’s Monster throws furniture around like it’s a pillow. The fight is great, but it’s so short that it’s hardly worth sitting through the entire movie for. All that build up for such a small payoff is sure to leave a sour taste in anyone’s mouth. I’d recommend this only for hardcore Universal Monster fans and even they’ll probably be let down.
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