Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema.
This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick.
In this October episode of Weird House Cinema, we return once more to the classic universal horror pictures of yesteryear. And I picked this one in large part because it played here in Atlanta the Plaza Theater as part of the Silver Screams spook Show. And I'm a sucker for the chance to see a gorgeous looking black and white horror film in a historic theater that likely showed this movie back in nineteen forty three. It's hard to get exact,
you know. I think you'd have to go in and look at newspaper clippings and so forth to figure out what exactly played there. But given that this was, you know, a major release and a popular film, there's a very good chance that played at that particular theater back in the day.
If I had a time machine, Yeah, to see the either excitement or disappointment on the children's faces when we get to the closing credits.
That's true. I mean the children who are wanting the monster mash that this movie offers up. Yeah, they're they're gonna have to wait a little bit. There's not a lot of mashing at first.
So do we say what the movie is yet? It's nineteen forty three's Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, one of the great later universal horror sequels.
Yes, yes, and note it is Frankenstein meets the wolf Man. You know, it's not versus the Wolfman battles the Wolfman. They meet. They're setting them up with each other. It's kind of like my Dinner with Andre sort of situation, or at least that's what he could seem to imply. So Yet to be clear, this is not generally considered among the best Universal Studios monster pictures, but it is, I believe, the first major film in which a monster from one movie meets, fights, or teams up with the
monster from another film. This sort of monster mash has become just a staple of monster films, and this is where the tradition seems to kick off, Like Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman shambles so that mathra versus Godzilla can run later on.
Yeah, yeah, or Freddy versus Jason for that matter. I mean it started a long tradition, and this does seem to be the first big one. So yeah, my opinion is that while this movie is not the best of the best for Universal, it does not rise to the level of like the really exquisite Frank sequels like Bride and Sun, which are both great. If you think about it as something like a late Universal B movie, it's
a pretty excellent example. And I love the atmosphere and the use of eerie sets, particularly there's one at the beginning that's like this wind swept cemetery and the opening grave robbing scene. I also really love the model and miniature work with the castle at the end, and the you know, the blowing up of the dam and the flood and all that. I love lun Cheney Junior's tortured performance. It's big and emotional and sometimes funny and often you know,
quite empathic. And the monster mash stuff. The fight at the end, while quite brief, is a treat.
Yeah, yeah, I agree. I look forward to discussing that sequence. So yeah, it is a lot of fun. Like we were talking about this off, Mike, I rewatch were actually for me, I watched for the first time in full The Wolfman in preparation for this because I don't think
I'd ever watched the entire picture. And while The Wolfman the immediate predecessor, one of the two immediate predecessors to this film, while it is definitely the better movie, I don't think it would have been as fun a picture to talk about here on Weird House Cinema.
I agree. I mean this confirms a trend we have observed many times in the past, which is the quality of a Weird House episode doesn't necessarily relate to the quality of the film. Yeah, some are just great to talk about whether or not they're actually all that good. But this movie is not bad. Just the ways in which it's good are more limited.
Yeah, the critical reception was luke warm. I meant, I'm to understand that it was a successful movie though from a business standpoint, and it certainly inspired people. You know, just the idea alone of Wolfman meeting Frankenstein. You know, it unleashes the gate for all of these these monster mashes to come. And I've read I've actually mentioned this on the show before, but Spanish horror movie icon Paul
Nashy was was particularly inspired by this motion picture. Saw it at a young age, and it inspired him to eventually become all of the Universal monsters himself, because yes, he did, at some point or another play a version of all of the main universal monsters with the with the exception of the gill Man. I don't I don't think Paul Nashi ever played a gil Man, but everybody else he definitely got in there and played all the big Gothic characters for sure.
Yeah, we saw, of course, he created a full universal monster mash of his own in Assignment Terror. I think that was maybe not the only time he even did
that in the era. And then there's another later career one in a sleazy or nashy movie called Howl of the Devil, which is essentially a slasher film, but it involves a child imagining encounters with his deceased father who was a movie star and played all of the Universal monsters, so he gets to appear in ghostly form in the monster makeup of every one of them.
So, even at a point where Spanish cinema especially was turning away from Gothic horror and embracing slashers, he still managed to shoehorn Gothic universal inspired horror into the picture anyway, Yes, yes, all right, So this is generally considered part of the Universal Monsters timeline, the Universal Frankenstein timeline. So I figured it might make sense to just break down where we
are with this picture in the sequence of films. Okay, okay, So first of all, there came nineteen thirty one Frankenstein James Whale Classic Picture, yep, and then came nineteen thirty five's Bride of Frankenstein. Arguably the best of the whole series, and this is one that we covered on Weird House Cinema several years back.
I would say beyond arguably for me, it's not just the best of the series, it's the best Universal monster movie ever made. It's like, you can't top it. But one of the closest runners up, I think is actually the next one in the series, Son of Frankenstein from thirty nine, which is I saw for the first time when we were getting ready to cover it on the show, and I thought was way better than I would have expected, so much better than really it had any right to be.
That's right. We talked about this film last year and I think it just reran this Monday of this week. But yeah, this is the film that introduced Bella Lugosi's Igor character wonderful, Yeah, which is a wonderful plotting character that becomes increasingly important before he's forgotten. Run him in just a minute. Okay, So that was thirty nine. Then came nineteen forty one's The wolf Man, which which we just alluded to that of course starred Lon Chaney Junior.
He's going to reprise that role in this picture. This movie was a big hit and again is a solid moody where a wolf story that is set in Cardiff.
Yeah.
Now at this point there's no interaction whatsoever between the Frankenstein universe and the Wolfman universe. The first Wolfman movie is a standalone film. We're just mentioning it as one of the multiple streams that feeds into Frankenstein meets the wolf Man.
Yeah.
And I mean, nowadays we kind of know the trope right that you start doing the crossovers once you run out of things to do. And they had not quite run out of things to do, certainly with Frankenstein just yet, because in forty two they put out The Ghost of Frankenstein. This is not one I have seen in full, but I went ahead and pulled up the ending and watched it prior to coming in here, and I read about
the plot. Basically, this film continues the son of Frankenstein plot line, where we get we get a we get another doctor Frankenstein in the mix. We have the monster, yeah, something like that. We have the Monster again. Confusingly, this time the monster is played by Lon Cheney Junior, who is just coming off of playing the wolf Man. And
we had Bella Lagosi once more is Egor. And in this picture there's like a plot to put a new brain in the monster, and Igor, who of course has you know, is suffering from various you know, health problems at this point, manages plots to get his own brain put in the monster. So in the final moments of the film, the monster speaks in Bela Lugosi's voice and and and is talking about how he's you know, you know,
seek vengeance on all his enemies and so forth. But there's been some sort of a mishap some the blood he didn't factor in the blood of the of the host and so forth, and so the man is blind, and the heroes were able to overcome the monster, and the monster burns up in the castle, or so we thought. Okay, because then comes today's film, nineteen forty three's Frankenstein Meets
the wolf Man. This is a movie that comes in and serves as a sequel of sorts to the previous two films, though it's a lot easier, I would argue, to pick up the pieces of the Ghost of Frankenstein than it is to pick up the pieces of the wolf Man, because the Wolfman comes to a pretty satisfying, gloomy close in a way, superstition triumphing over logic, and we have the character of Larry Talbot, the wolf Man, beaten to death with a silver cane by his own father.
It's done.
It's like Highlander one done at that point. But as with Highlander one, sometimes you just got to make a sequel and you've got to just find a way to make it work on the page.
This film today fits mo more comfortably as a Frankenstein sequel than it does as a Wolfman sequel.
And you can.
Especially tell that because of all the ways that it ignores elements of the Wolfman lore and like ret CON's things from the previous Wolfman film. And we'll talk about that more as we go on, but but yeah, it works more as a Frankenstein's sequel, but then, confusingly, we don't get to the Frankenstein stuff until halfway through the movie.
Yeah, we have to. I think we have to put in a lot more legwork to bring the wolf back to life. And then the wolfman is Larry Talbot, and even though he's dealing with like, you know, miraculous or infernal resurrection here, you know, he's still the most relatable human character in the picture, and therefore we spend a lot of time with him. All Right, the Frankenstein series would go three more films after this, House of Frankenstein
in forty four, House of Dracula in forty five. Let's get Dracula into the mix on all this, right, sure, people were paying for it. And then finally Abd and Costello meet Frankenstein in forty eight, which kind of finishes things out on an obvious, obviously comedic level. Bella's in that as well. I believe that's his last performance as Dracula. I've never actually watched it, but I'm to understand, like you know, Bella gives it his all, and he doesn't
he doesn't give into the hamminess of it. He like plays it straight.
I've considered checking out House of Frankenstein for Weird House before. I haven't gotten there yet, but I'm sure i'll watch it at some point.
Maybe maybe we'll get to it next October.
Okay, So I was thinking about how some interesting themes are brought to light by the overlap of the two characters in Frankenstein Meets the wolf Man. Something Frankenstein's Monster and the Wolfman have in common as distinct from the other universal monsters, is that they are the two monsters who both evoke pity. Both of them are dangerous. They you know, they're violent, and they kill, but neither one
is consciously malicious. Larry Talbot, the character who becomes a werewolf in The Wolfman, is depicted as not in control of his actions when he transforms into the beast, so he you know, he wolfs out and then he later awakens in the morning to learn what he has done and is filled with horror and remorse, but he has no ability to stop it or control it.
Yeah, and Larry Talbot is portrayed in both films as basically a likable guy, you know, really kind of an everyday guy. Because ultimately, you know, we have a character actor playing the role. You know, he doesn't have that kind of like sharp job leading man vibe that various other leads have. He feels very relatable and people like him, the ladies like him. He's easy going, you know, and except for the fact that he does turn into a murderous monster on a full note.
Yeah, but it's not by his choice, right though, I do recall in the original wolf Man is something about he's like really really trying to date a lady who's already engaged something like that. But you know, maybe that's a more minor character flaw here. So that's Larry Talbot very sympathetic, you know, pitiable character even though he's a monster. It's not his fault. Meanwhile, Frankenstein's creature is it seems very much also not his fault. He has reanimated against
his own will. As he says at the end of Bride of Frankenstein, we be long dead, like he recognizes that he should not be and he comes into the world as an innocent only harming people at first by accident and then later out of desperation and rage after being persecuted. And so you could contrast this with the other universal horror villains of the era, such as Dracula, The Mummy, the Invisible Man, which are all much more
vicious and devilish. I think it's an interesting choice. The first ever monster mash film decided to combine the two monsters that don't want to be monsters and would live in peace if they could.
Yeah, that's a great point. Yeah, even when you listen Dracula, the Mummy and the Invisible Man, like the Invisible Man is kind of the most evil.
Yeah, like some megalomaniac.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean at least Dracula and the Mummy they have undead status, like they're not completely human anymore. But the Invisible Man is just a man who has made himself invisible. And uh, and I mean that's I think that's ultimately as part of why he's so fascinating. It's the whole idea, like if if I were invisible as well, would I become if I had some sort of a power that was brought upon me, would it change me like.
This as well?
Yeah, that one asks the question what would you do if you could get away with anything?
Yeah, but again this movie is also interesting and just how you forced the whole concept basically is because both titular monsters had effectively been killed off in their previous film, the movie has to first really put in the work to not only bring one of them back to life, but bring them both back to life, get them in the same plot, in the same place at the same time, arrange the plot so that they have to meet, they have to essentially work together, and the plot entails the
resurrection of one monster to kill the other essentially, And as we'll discuss, by the end of the film, you'll be wondering what really came of any of this.
Yeah, by the end of the film, I was very fuzzy on what exactly the mechanics were, Why are they training the energies from one monster? What exactly is the doctor trying to do? We know there's what he says he's going to do, but then it's clear that his actual intentions are different, and I think it's never made clear really what they are. Certainly with regard to Talbot, we do get an idea of what he wants to do with regard to the monster.
Right, Yeah, And as we'll discuss, even though it is cinematically treated as a victory at the end, I really have some serious questions about whether there was any victory at all, but we'll come back to all that.
Also, one thing I just have to mention at the top here is the main character of the wolfman in this movie. His name is Larry Talbot. I think it's almost certain that at least once in this episode I'm going to accidentally call him Lyle Talbot, which is the
name of a prolific mid twentieth century American actor. The reason I would Sayle Talbot is that I'm aware of him because he ended up repeatedly collaborating with ed Wood by virtue of the fact that Talbot, by his own admission, never once in his entire career, turned down a job offer. So if you've got a movie, he'll be in it.
All right, Joe, do you have an elevator pitch for this one?
It is, can't medical science find a way to kill me?
Like?
What's a guy got to do to get dead? Around here?
All right, let's listen to some of that trailer audio.
But he doesn't understand there's a curse upon me. I changed into a wolf. Listen to the movie. I saw my father become obsessed plankings collar he died a horrible there's no deeps order storm after her. She would come in to by Oscar. Why should we treat it so fancy? She's a Frankenstein, all right?
If you want to go watch Frankenstein Meets the wolf Man, well it's widely available wherever you get your Universal Studios Monster movies. You want to watch them, uh streaming, you want to watch them and on on Blu ray, on DVD, VHS, laser disc, what have you. There is a way out there. This is This one has been released so many in so many different formats. Alright, let's get into the people behind the picture here, starting with the director. This one
was directed by Roy William Neil. He lived eighteen eighty seven through nineteen forty six, Irish born American film director, best remembered for this film as well as a whole bunch of Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies. He directed I Think most of them like eleven films from nineteen forty
three through nineteen forty six. His other movies include nineteen thirty four's Black Moon starring Fey Ray, thirty four as the ninth Guest, and nineteen thirty five's of The Black Room starring Boris Karloff.
Black Moon and the Black Room.
Yeah, that's right. I don't think these films are at all related, but he did direct both of them. I think well, black Moon is like a voodoo picture, all right, And the screenplay on this one is once more the word of Kurtziodnik, who lived nineteen oh two through the year two thousand. We discussed him previously on Weird House, as he wrote the screenplay for nineteen forty six's The Beast with Five Fingers, as well as another movie.
Oh Creature with the Adam Brain.
That's right. So, Siodnc was a German born novelist, screenwriter, and director who left Germany for first first for the United Kingdom and then for the United States due to concerns over rising anti Semitism under the Nazis. His German output was already pretty successful prior to this, including a sci fi film that I haven't seen, but it involves a sort of an aircraft carrier base titled FP One
Doesn't Answer. And he did British war thrillers and some comedies, and then he struck it big with his nineteen forty one screenplay for The Invisible Man Returns and his original screenplay for forty one's The Wolfman. He went on to write tons of screenplays, let's say, including this one, also a nineteen forty three film titled Oh.
I didn't realize what you were getting at for a second, I walked with a zombie. So Rocky went in on two songs for two so Odmac scripts.
That's right, that's right. I mean, this guy was prolific, Son of Dracula in forty three, House of Frankenstein in forty four, and many more. He also wrote the nineteen forty two sci fi novel Donovan's Brain, which has been adapted three different times as The Lady in The Monster in forty four, Donovan's Brain in fifty three, and The
Brain in sixty two. Now, I found it notable that multiple films based on his work or screenplays that he wrote for motion pictures concern mind or brain transference, most famously Donovan's Brain in its various adaptations, but also nineteen forties Black Friday, which by the way, stars Karloff and Lagosi and I think is otherwise like a crime thriller, but it has brain or mind transference in it. And
then in nineteen seventy film titled House Memory. And the really interesting part about Frankenstein meets the Wolfman is that you wouldn't be able to guess this from watching the film, but this movie was also supposed to feature a mind or brain transference plot as.
Well, between who between Frankenstein and the Wolfman or somebody else.
No, no, So it's this would not be original to this picture, but it's picking up the pieces from the end of nineteen forty twos The Ghost of Frankenstein, in which again Lugosi's Igor manages to get his own brain transplant planted into the body of the monster again played in that film by Lyncheney Junior, before the castle gets
burned up. So in this film, the monster, who will now be played by Lugosi was originally had dialogue spoken by Lagosi, because it's not just Frankenstein's monster, It is supposed to be Igor's brain in the monster's body, and so he would have been he was blind. That's why in this film we'll see Frankenstein's monster walking with arms outstretched, which became kind of like a cartoon stereotype or trope
of Frankenstein's monster, and that's where it comes from. This film, but you would know this from the film because they don't mention the blindness. They certainly don't mention the Egor's brain plot, like that's just completely removed along with all of Lugosi's dialogue.
That would make sense, and that would also kind of spoil some of the themes I was talking about if they had stuck with the Egor's brain thing, though, I guess you could still assume that they just don't discuss it in this movie, because so I was talking about how Frankenstein is essentially an innocent but Egor is not
an Igor is a malicious, sadistic killer. In fact, it's part of his character and son of Frankenstein that he was already once hanged for his crimes but survived the hanging, putting him in a kind of legal limbo where he couldn't be punished again.
Yeah, you know, we're obviously we're speculating here about a version of the film that didn't survive. But I don't know, maybe Egor is more to be pitied in this film because he's kind of like really written himself into a corner here and it's like, oh, well, I'm stuck in the body of a blind monster that apparently can't die either.
But as you said, apart from the fact that the monster in this film is being played by Bella Lagosi, there's nothing about it that would indicate it his ego or like, he never identifies with the igor and the characters don't discuss this.
Yeah, You've got to.
You have to have read about that or heard about that somewhere else. It is not It is not a part of the picture experience here, Okay, all right. Lon Chaney Junior once more, yeah, plays Lawrence Talbot The Wolfman. Ln Chaney Junior lived nineteen oh six through nineteen seventy three, second generation horror film icon, son of the legendary Ln Cheney. Lon Chaney himself lived eighteen eighty three through nineteen thirty.
The Man of a Thousand Faces right across four decades of cinema, Lon Chaney Junior's role as Larry Talbot the wolf Man easily his most famous role and one that in many ways just ends up defining his career. In many ways, you could even argue I would say that Lawn Cheney Junior becomes more famous than his father. I mean, he is the guy mentioned in where Wolves of London after all, he and he is one of the like the Key, he's on the Mount rushmore of Universal monsters.
You know, he is the Wolfman now and forever.
That's right. It is not a woo.
I saw Lawn Chaney Senior walking with the Queen.
Yeah, not to take anything away from lawn Chaney Senior's career, obviously a very important figure in his own era, but I would say overall, more people are going to be familiar with Lawn Chaney Junior. So he apparently had a pretty rough childhood. He was discouraged from entering show business by his father and instead went into business, only to begin his own acting career after his father's death from
throat cancer. At first, he acted under his own name and steadily got larger parts and serials and action movies. He also did stunt work to pay the bills, and after some bigger independent roles in the mid thirties, ultimately Universal Studios signs him and they say, hey, you know, we're going to sign it to this contract. We're going to put you in some movies. But what about what about let's go ahead and call you Lawn Cheney Junior.
Because that is not his birth name birth name actually frightened Toll Cheney, and so his earlier appearances he's builled as such, but universal is like, nope, you're the son of Lawn Cheney. You're Lawn Cheney junior. Okay. So at this point he begins appearing in all manner of films. He even plays Lenny in a nineteen thirty nine adaptation of Mice and Men. But he didn't actually act in a horror film until nineteen forty one, when he appear in Man Made Monster and of course The Wolfman, and
this film's the Wolfman's success and legendary status. This propels him into a horror icon territory pretty quickly, with subsequent horror films including well The Ghost of Frankenstein, which we've mentioned, in which he plays the monster. Nineteen forty two is The Mummy's Tomb, in which he plays the Mummy. Then he's back for Frankenstein meets Wolfman. Then he's in Son of Dracula in forty three, playing Count Alocard. I guess is Dracula junr.
He does not have vampire energy.
He doesn't. He really has a great like I say, I watched part of Ghost of Frankenstein. And he has a great Frankenstein's monster face. You know, he's a big guy. Yeah, and so you know, he really embodies the monster rather well, as we'll discuss. I think a lot. Eve embodies the monster far better than Bela Lagosi.
Yeah.
Let's see, he played more mummies in two nineteen forty four movies, The Mummies Ghost and The Mummies Curse. Let's see forty four's House of Frankenstein as Larry Talbot once more, forty five's House of Dracula Talbot again. And then he's also in forty eight's Avid in Costello Meet Frankenstein. I think he's just built as the wolfman in that, but I guess it's less important who the wolfman is. And of course that's the final movie in the classic universal
Frankenstein series. And from here list goes on, but a few notable horror entries meant to mention include nineteen fifty nine's The Alligator People.
Oh, Alligator Person's in the Bog and Fog.
Yeah, yeah, another Rocky ericson reference. Another one is nineteen sixty three's The Haunted Palace.
Oh, I've got that one on disc, but I haven't watched it yet. The is Corman Poe is Vincent Price in that one he.
Is, Yes, he plays Charles dexter Ward. This is the one that is they're giving it the Poe treatment, call it Edgar Allen Poe's The Haunted Palace, but it's actually to some extent based on an HP Lovecraft story. That's fun case of Charles dexter Ward. Yeah, let's see. Then there's a sixty seven's Hillbilly's in a Haunted House, which I think I watched the riff version of that, and oh,
nineteen sixty seven Spider Baby. If you haven't seen this one, this is a great proto Texas Chainsaw Massacre film, directed by Jack Hill. He plays the patriarch of like a you know, like a killer hillbilly family, but with some interesting twists, basically like their two daughters, in particular, one of which likes to play spider Uh.
Oh, I haven't seen that one.
It's good.
I recommend it. I think I watched that one on Criterion Channel. Other films of note, just to pull out another couple these are non horror films, but he was in nineteen fifty two is High Noon, and also nineteen
fifty eight's The Defiant Ones. So again, this is a ridiculous movie in so many ways, but Lon Chaney Junior's performance is Larry Talbot Tragic Cursed where wolf turned wandering immortal seeking death is easily the most commanding performance in the picture, and it gives us, weirdly, the most relatable character despite his very unrelatable circumstances. Like again, clearly a gifted character actor, you know, charismatic and relatable, and we get to see him employ all of his talents in
a lead role here quite nicely. Yeah.
Yeah, despite the fact that, as you say, his main character struggle is h I can't get death in me. But he is really good in the role. And I
can't remember if you already mentioned this. I apologize, but I think it is strange that I was reading he was originally when they're planning to make this movie, they were originally going to have him play both roles, Frankenstein's Monster and the wolf Man, and then they were like, and no, that would be too difficult, So maybe he'll just play Frankenstein's Monster because he had done that also, and goes to Frankenstein and then they were like, oh no,
he'll just be the wolf Man. So this was like the third option for who Lonchani Junior would be in the film.
I think it's the right choice, though, Yeah, I mean you can't have I mean, he's the only guy who can play Larry Talbot, so it had to be. Now, if he played the monster as well, I mean, that could have worked. But again, setting up this film, the whole idea was that the monster would speak with Belo Lagosi's voice. So what if the monster was played by Bela Lagosi? Like on paper, that makes sense?
Oh, should we talk about Bella Agosi?
Now, yeah, we're already talking about him. Let's let's talk about Bella. So yeah, Belo Lagos, we've talked about him multiple times in the show already, with eighteen eighty two through nineteen fifty six here playing the role or a version of it that he allegedly passed on back in nineteen thirty one. I'm not sure if there's one hundred
percent certainty on any of this. You know, help film mythmaking goes and you know, one person says one thing, one says the other, but the story generally goes that. Writing high on the success of Dracula, he wanted the part of Frankenstein doctor Frankenstein for himself, and he didn't want to play a mute monster as the monster appeared in the script at that time, and so it just didn't come together.
So when you say frankenzein, he wanted to play the doctor the creator, Okay, yes.
Yeah, that speaking role. And you know, I think at the time the story is that he considered the monster part beneath his abilities.
You know, I.
Adore Bella Legosi, but somehow I think this is one of the weakest performances of his that I've seen something about. He seems to have not found his them or ever landed on the right posture as the Frankenstein Monster here. And this really makes me appreciate all the more how extraordinary Boris Karloff's performance is. Carloff in the role is not, to quote the film ed would all grunting and makeup.
He's bringing a lot of He's bringing a lot to the performance, and you really appreciate it when you see somebody else, even as somebody as wonderful of an actor as Bella Legosi, try to do the role and I think sort of fail. Worth flagging again however, that despite his turn as the Monster being a low point, I think Bella still did play one of the best villains ever in the Frankenstein universe. I mean, there's actually a lot of great competition because you got Septimus Pretorious and
Bride that's all time great villain. But right up there with Septimus Pretorious is Bella Leegosi as Igor and son of Frankenstein. Again, one of my favorite Universal films and my favorite role in that film.
Yeah, I agree with all that I can. Granted, again, we don't get to see the performance and the character here as it was originally intended, the Igor Monster. But yeah, Lugosi's Monster just always feels awkward to me in this picture. It's just nothing. It just doesn't click for me for some reason.
Yeah, he does have some great moments in close up on his face, that is true. Yeah, I'll give him that, but the full physicality of the performance doesn't quite work.
All right, Let's look at some of we've covered the big hitters here. Let's talk about some of the supporting human roles here. So we do have a descendant of Frankenstein a showing back up and this is the character Baroness Else of Frankenstein, and she is played by Ilona Massey, who lived nineteen ten through nineteen seventy four Hungarian American, film, stage and radio performer, best remembered for this film. It would seem her only true horror movie, but she also
starred in nineteen forty two's Invisible Agent. This was a comedy thriller in which the Invisible Man's grandson battles Nazis. Peter Lorrie co starred in it, but that alone has not been enough to get me to watch it just yet.
That is an interesting premise.
Yeah, I don't know.
It's like, Yeah, I don't know horror comedies of this era, I'm weary of.
It's not her fault. I would blame it more on the writing, but I would say her presence in this film is largely curious. She is often kind of standing around in a scene where you would think she would be having more of a reaction to what's going on, but she doesn't.
Yeah, I feel like, especially since she is the Frankenstein character in this picture, I wanted her to be more involved in everything. I guess she feels a little more passive than she could have been, Like she's not strapping on the goggles herself if I remember correctly.
I mean she does go at the end in like sort of short circuit all the machinery and that lab. But yeah, that's basically the one moment like that.
Otherwise, her role in this movie seems to be just to light up the screen as a porcelain starlet. Like she's always wearing like white and she has like basically white hair, super white skin, so she amid all the gloom and the grayness. It really feels like she's almost has like an angelic presence despite being a Frankenstein. And yeah, she also another important role she has is to be physically carried around like an unconscious bride by the monster.
At one point, this is teased on the poster, and for once, we actually get it in the film. As we've discussed many times, there's so many movies where the poster art features the monster carrying a woman around and it doesn't actually happen. Here, we get it Monster Bridle carry certified.
That is true true advertising in this case. She also this character does indirectly contribute one of the most unintentionally funny moments of the movie, and it's when Lon Chaney Junior is digging through the burned remnants of the ruined Frankenstein Castle, and he identifies a new lead in his detective work by finding the glamour photo of Ilona Massey autographed as like elsa Frankenstein to my father, but it's like a Hollywood photo, like posing in a sequin dress.
Yeah, all right, let's see other supporting characters. We have Patrick Knowles playing doctor frank mannering. I mean, he's more than supporting this is he's an important.
Character, major in terms of plot developments, but also feels very much like a rando who wandered into the story, you know what I mean.
Yeah, Like, in a way, shouldn't the baroness be doing all the things that he's doing. I feel like, yeah, she would if she were a male character. But yeah, they're just switching it up and they're like, oh, well, the female character can't actually be the mad scientist.
It would have been a lot better if she had been. That could have worked, but instead, no, we have this character like, oh, remember this random guy who didn't really make an impression from the first act. He's going to do some mad science now.
Yeah, so the actor here. He lived nineteen eleven through nineteen ninety five. He'd previously appeared in The Wolfman, though in a different role. He also played Will Scarlett in nineteen thirty eight's The Adventures of Robin Hood, so he was a certified swashbuckler. His other credits include nineteen forty one's How Green Was My Valley, nineteen forty two is the Strange Case of Doctor RX Prescription, Okay, and then nineteen seventy three is Terror in the Wax Museum.
Okay. He's very smooth in this film. Do you notice how smooth his skin is? Extreme babyface?
That's true, that's true. Let's see Lionel app while is back in this one. He's in a number of these universal horror movies, this time in a more reduced role. He played the inspector and son of Frankenstein, you know, with he had the artificial arm and had got to really eat up up fairly ample screen time and had some great scenes. Here he plays the mayor, so he
has much less to do. But by god, Lionel Atwell is going to act his heart out in any scene you get him in, so he really chews it up, and there's there are a few scenes where he's standing amid other villagers kind of looking up at things occurring, like Castle's exploding and whatnot. And he's the most animated of the bunch.
Oh yes, which is also in contrast to the way this character is written, who is just the calming voice of reason as other goings on are happening. Like He'll literally be in scenes where he's standing there as other characters are discussing the planning of a terrorist plot and he's just like, Oh, you don't mean any of what you're saying, and then he walks away.
Yeah, but he Yeah, he was. He was in a bunch of these old films and was a numerous Frankenstein movies. In fact, he was in Ghost of Frankenstein previously. I believe I could be mistaken here, but I think he is the doctor that ends up betraying Frankenstein by helping Igor put his brain in the monster.
Uh.
Oh yeah, Well, I would like to see lionel atwill do more villain roles, so I'm gonna have to check out Ghosts next.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm very interested based on all of the crazy choices it seems to make. Yeah, all right, let's see other We also have another like returning player from the Universal Horror franchise. Dwight Frye is back. Dwight fry you remember played Renfield opposite Lugosi and Dracula and pops up in bit sometimes almost invisible roles in other pictures. Here he plays a character named Rudy who's just kind of one of the vocal townspeople.
Right, Yeah, he's a he's a villager. It feels almost like a cameo. He's only got a few lines, but.
When he when he does speak though, he has that that signature Dwight fry kind of live wire energy.
So yeah, I really like him.
All right.
We have another returning actor reprising her role as the wise roma woman Maleva. We have Maria Ospinskaya who lived eighteen seventy six through nineteen forty nine. She played this character in The Wolfman. Russian actress who started out in silent film and then late in her career played a lot of older woman roles in Hollywood. Two time Academy Award nominee for Best Supporting Actress for nineteen thirty seven's
Dodsworth and nineteen forty's Love Affair. Her only other horror film was nineteen forty two's The Mystery of Marie Roget which I've not read the original story. This is an Edgar Allan Poe story, a sequel to the Murders in the Room Morgue. Does it have gorillas in it? I don't know. I would hope like doing a Dracula sequel without vampires, right, yeah, totally.
Okay.
One more character. This is another film has a number of these. The character is not much, seems to be just the background side character, but ends up being very pivotal to the plot. Yeah, and that is the character Vazik, the Innkeeper, played by Rex Evans who lived nineteen oh three through nineteen sixty nine. This guy, I was in various films at the time. A heavyset actor did a
lot of heavy set character roles. Played Hermann Goring in the nineteen forty three anti Axis Powers comedy Nazi Nuisance.
I could see that.
Okay, Yeah, I think it's one that was like positioning the leaders of the Axis Powers is like three stooges. I am not putting this on the watch list, but interesting connection for this actor. His other credits, though, include nineteen forties The Philadelphia Story, nineteen forties The Invisible Man, returns and Hitchcock's Suspicion in nineteen forty one. All right, I'll just mention in passing that Jack P. Pierce, the monster makeup Master, returns once more to do the makeup.
Here he worked on nineteen twenty eight's The Man Who Laughs, thirty one's Dracula, thirty two is The Mummy, thirty three is The Invisible Man, forty one's The Wolfman, and and so forth. So you know everything, all the makeup looks pretty darn good, especially the Wolfman makeup, as we'll discuss, and then the music comes to us from Hans Jay Salter born eighteen ninety six died in nineteen ninety four
Austrian American film composer. His most celebrated scores or scores that he worked on include The Wolfman from forty one, Scarlett Street from forty five, and he's also he's not credited, but he's one of like three different uncredited composers on
The Creature from the Black Lagoon from fifty four. He's one of these composers who is Oftentimes he's either uncredited or he's one of two or three different composers whose work was used and sometimes it's stock music, but he himself was a six time Oscar nominee himself.
All right, are you ready to talk about the plot?
Let's do it.
So the title in opening credits play over a chemistry laboratory set with a bunch of bubbling flasks and beakers pouring fog all over the table. And I think this opening imagery feels like an odd fit for most of the runtime of the film, because while unrestrained scientific research is a major theme of the original Frankenstein series, it does not really become a major theme of this movie until the very end, until like right at the end.
The first half is all wolfman stuff and there's very little laboratory work until the climax.
Yeah, but it's like like a glass with the dry eyes in it, you know, getting the smoking like you want to reach up and grab it off the screen and take a sip.
It does look nice.
Yeah.
So the action opens on a lonely cemetery at night. And I said this earlier, but I love this opening set. The atmosphere is wonderful. There's a bright full moon and banks of mist pour across the sky down on the ground. We can see. It must be late autumn or winter, because the trees and the shrubs are bare, they've got black limbs casting shadows in the moonlight. The cemetery is surrounded by this ancient tumble down all of stone, which
has wrought iron spikes and marble ornaments on top. And then on one of these gateside flourishes there is a raven perch just cawing, so the wind rattles the tree branches and it blows these little dead leaves through the air like confetti, and we see a bronze placard on the stone gate engraved with the words here rest the Dead of Lenwelly and Lenwlly viewers would probably remember at the time this movie came out is the fictional village in Wales that is the setting of The Wolf Man,
and I think later became the setting of a bunch of horror stories and films. So up the hillside path to the cemetery come two men. They're both kind of leaning and staggering as they walk. One carries a lantern, the other a shovel. These guys do not feel like the first string of the grave robbing team. They seem a little incompetent, but perhaps under the influence and they approach a big old as a liam in the cemetery bearing the name Talbot.
Well, you know they're not robbing graves because things were working out well for them elsewhere in life.
You know.
Yeah, now we've sort of already covered this, but just to get the backstory straight again, Talbot is the name of the family. In the original film The wolf Man, the main character played by Lon Chaney Junior is Larry Talbot who comes back to visit his ancestral estate in Wales after being away for many years. He gets bitten I think, on the chest one night by a werewolf and the curse is transferred to him. You know, you probably know the general lightline of the story from there.
Wakes up in the morning, what have I done? But worth noting is that at the end of The Wolfman, Larry Talbot is dead, dead, dead, beaten to death with a silver headed cane by his own father played by Claude Rains.
Yeah, and it's sad, it's grim. And again this is not a moment that leaves you wondering, I wonder what will happen to Larry Talbot all these adventures continue, No, it seems done.
So the two grave robbers climb through the transom over the door to the mausoleum. They head inside and they surveyed the tombs, eventually coming to the one they're looking for. The shorter grave robber reads the inscription out loud, saying, Lawrence Stewart Talbot, who died at the youthful age of thirty one. R ip ooh man. When viewing this, this is really one of those I am older than Homer
Simpson moments. Larry Talbot does not read as younger than I am now to be fair Lawn Cheney Junior was a bit older than the character, but still younger than me. Wild Wow, I assume many people your age, my age, or anywhere in between, we have a similar reaction. Just he seems like a more mature fellow. Yes, it was a different time anyway. So the grave robberies here crack the vault with a chisel while discussing what they're looking for.
Room around the village is that Talbot buried with a big wad of cash, a gold watch and a ring, And they say it's a sin to bury good money when it could help people. The taller one says, what do you think it'll look like after so many years, and the other one says, just bones in an empty skull. So the lid pops open and they peer inside, and the body appears to be covered in some kind of dried herb. They pull like crispy branches of this herb off the body, and one of them recognizes what it is.
It is wolf spain. Then the lead grave robber freezes as if startled, and he begins to recite a poem he knows by heart. Even a man who's pure at heart and says his prayers by night may become a wolf. When the wolf Spain blooms and the moon is full and bright, the face of the body lying in the tomb is then uncovered, and it is clearly not just bones in an empty skull. The body is fleshy and quick.
One of the robbers mutters that he looks to be merely sleeping, and despite this, the smaller thief gets to work. He lifts Talbot's dead hand and wrenches a ring from his finger, observing it in the moonlight to see that it's made of gold. But then suddenly Talbot stirs and we see his long fingernails, which they press on nails aren't they. He's got sharp, long fingernails, revealing he is not dead, and he reaches up with one hand and snatches the arm of the smaller thief. Note that at
this point he is fully human looking. There's no wolfman makeup in this scene except for we see the long nails, and the thief cries for help. He drops his lantern into the ground that starts a fire. The second grave robber panics and abandons his partner, escaping through the transom, over the door and running away through the graveyard while the wind shakes the trees, and I think, okay, good start,
strong opening scene. The writing and the acting don't especially sing, but they're good enough, and the set design and cinematography are wonderful, so it's a really good mood at the beginning.
Yeah.
I love this sequence, And it was ultimately rather rather a revelation concerning other werewolf films that I've seen that you know, all were clearly influenced by this and The wolf Man on one level. I mentioned Paul Nashy earlier, and we previously discussed nineteen eighties Night of the Werewolf on Weird House Cinema. This movie basically opens the same way grave robbers come to the tomb, this time of Voldemar Leninski Nashi's werewolf character. They're going to rob the grave,
but when they open it up, werewolf gets them. Though in the Nashy picture, the werewolf is already like fully transformed, and it's a good bit more terrifying, you know.
Is riping in wolf mode?
Yes, And then this scene also solves another puzzle from another werewolf film, and that is why does a werewolf emerge from a casket? In nineteen sixty five Sola Loba, in my opinion and anyway, excellent female werewolf film from Mexico, we see the werewolf arising fully transformed out of a casket. And in that episode we were discussing and we're like,
why is she getting out of a casket? And I think this is probably the reason because that movie, like a lot of werewolf movies, was inspired by Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man.
That does make a lot of sense because typically the werewolf is not understood as an undead type of character, so why would it be coming out of a grave.
It's not dead.
This is a living person who transforms. But yeah, if it's a callback to this scene where the werewolf has been assumed dead and lying, you know, laying. I think the implication is that all of the wolf spain piled up on top of him is some kind of talisman that has like suppressed his power and kept him down there. Did you read it the same way?
I guess so. Yeah, Like, you know, one of the big problems with the plot of this picture is that, yeah, Talbot is like, I wish I could die. There's got
to be a way to me die. And despite the fact that he very clearly died in the first film, and we had, you know, lore that established that werewolves could die, and then it also just seems like, isn't this something you could maybe manage, like, I don't know, shackle yourself whenever there's a full moon, or you have somebody lay a bunch of wolf'spine on you and you can just kind of like cry o sleep through the full moons. Like it seems like there might be another way forward here.
It really does, but the film it just elides these details. Don't worry about that. Yeah, you know, we got we got a plot to persist a film.
Yeah.
Yeah. Anyway, what happens next is we cut to a nearby city. I didn't know where this was at first, but I think this is supposed to be already in Cardiff, in you know, the big city in Wales, where a policeman is patrolling an empty street at night and he comes across the unconscious body of Lon Chaney Junior, collapsed on the cobblestones with a gaping head wound. And then we cut to some time later in a hospital where Talbot is recovering in bed with bandages around his head.
His surgeon, a doctor Mannering played by again a very baby faced Patrick Knowles, enters the ward accompanied by a police inspector named Owen. They are informed that not only is the patient recovering well from surgery, he is already conscious and talking, and this is quite unexpected given the severity of his head wound and the procedure required to fix it. So the doctor and the inspector go to see him. Talbot's awake, but at this point very soft
spoken and tentative. He says that he feels no pain at the moment, but he's confused. He doesn't know where he is, and to his distress, he doesn't remember how he got there. Talbot gives them his name, and the doctor and inspector leave to go see what they can find out. So Owen phones police in Llanwelly to inquire about Lawrence Talbot and they inform him with certainty that yes, Lawrence Talbot is from Lanwelli, but he is also dead. He died four years ago, so it was supposed to
be four years since the events of the first film. Also, I will say that the inside of the land Welly police station does not look like a police station, looks like a beer hall. It's got these stone arches, long tables and big roaring fireplace. And then one of the policemen is pumping air into the tire of a bicycle in the middle of the room. Seems like outdoor work.
But yeah, anyway, of course, Inspector Owen concludes that Talbot is an impostor, but doctor Mannering convinces the police to hold off on interrogating him any further, you know, until he's recovered. But unfortunately before that can happen. There is a full moon.
Something about the pacing and the sense of time in this film, but it feels like there are roughly four full moons a week in the universe of Frankenstein Mee's the Wolfman.
Full moons are constantly happening and randomly.
You don't know when's going to occur. You can't possibly prepare for them.
That does seem like part of the plot. You don't know when it will be a full moon, which is not how it works.
Yeah, Larry's like, oh, geez, when's the next full moon. He's like, oh, it's right now.
Yeah.
So Talbot is lying in his hospital bed and the moonlight falls on him through a large window at the end of the room. His eyes go glassy, and then as he lies there in his bed staring into space, we begin to see the changes. And this is the classic Wolfman transformation, where a sequence of different shots fade into one another, and in each one he has more of the wolfman makeup applied, so he quickly grows a beard.
The beard creeps in from his jaw toward the center of his face until his head and face are fully covered in dark hair, his teeth turned into piercing canines. His nose becomes somewhat canine too, though to be clear, this is not the long snout kind of where wolf makeup. We've talked about these differences in other episodes in the past, but the wolfman makeup is relatively humanoid, flat faced, just with lots of hair, claws and fangs.
Yeah.
And I think I've probably said this before, but yeah, on with snouted were wolves, I don't okay anymore. It's it's the wolfman slash wolf woman. Look, that's what I'm into. That's that's that's what I like to see. And so yeah, the makeup here looks incredible. I mean, you could maybe critique it and say, well, maybe the nose looks a little peaky there's but you still can't take much away from it. It is the classic wolf man.
Look.
All other wolfman's, wolf men and wolf women wolf people exist in the shadow of this creation.
Yeah.
One more note I want to add about this transformation scene is that we've all seen sloppy versions of this effect or I don't know if your cinematic diet is like us, you've seen sloppy versions of this kind of transformation.
But it's really smooth here, looks great. And one thing that was pointed out by Shane Morton at the Silver Scream Spook Show is that the pillow that his head is on for the transformation was made out of porcelain, because you know, you have to like film stop apply makeup, film stop, apply makeup, and you can't have the pillow changing underneath lawn Cheney Junior's head. So you have a porcelain pillow there behind his head, which wow, I thought was very fascinating.
That's a good solution. I wouldn't have guessed that by looking at it. Yeah, But once the transformation is complete, we see the Wolfman on the loose in Cardiff, tearing through the city streets in the dark, sort of doing parkourp yeah, yeah, jumping up on top of crates and these cotton bales piled up in the street. He attacks a policeman, snarling and grabbing him by the throat, and then we can see in shadow as the Wolfman drags the body away down an alley.
He's really scary and intimidating, looking the same as in The Wolfman. I saw this film with my family and afterwards my wife was asking me. She's like, do you think people who saw this movie originally, if they were they scared by it? Did they find this particular film scary? And I don't know. There's some based on some aspects of the plot, I could see an argument for it being not that scary, but I don't know these thnes with the wolf I think hold up really well.
Yeah, some of the later stuff, especially the big climax, by that point, it doesn't feel like it's supposed to be scary. That's like fun mode. At this point it has turned into Godzilla versus King Kong.
Once the monsters are fighting each other, you're safe. Yeah, It's like, yes, right, have them fight each other and I will slip out the back.
So the next morning, the hospital staff find Talbot lying face down sideways on his bed. He's kind of dirty, his hair is must bandages are missing missing, and the window is hanging open. And he suddenly awakes and asks Mannering his doctor to call the police. He says, because I am a murderer. So Talbot has no control over his actions when he is in wolf mode. And I think there is some question about whether he remembers anything when he wakes up. I recall from the original Wolfman.
Rob correct me if I'm wrong that he does not remember anything when he wakes up. But maybe what's going on here is he's just putting the pieces together based on what happened in the first movie, not based on memories of the previous night.
He has a lot to figure out here. Yeah, what you know, Like, even if he is remembering, oh yeah, I'm a were wolf, he has to he's probably thinking, didn't I die? Yeah?
So anyway, they call up Inspector Owen, but Mannering convinces he or he tries to convince Talbot that he is not a murderer. He says, true, there was a constable killed last night, but that was several streets away, and he was killed by a wild animal. Talbot says, that's just it, I turn into an animal.
I love that.
I did laugh at that line.
That was great.
Nothing on his delivery, but the line itself was pretty funny.
Yeah.
Mannering explains it all away. He's like, no, no, no, you're not a murderer. You're suffering from a delusion. So what's a guy got to do to get arrested for murder around here? Anyway? When Owen arrives, Talbot desperately recaps the major events of the first film. He was bitten by a wolf on the chest, though it wasn't a wolf, it was a man, a were wolf. Talbot killed the
original werewolf in a fight. He beat it to death with the silver cane, but then he began himself to transform at night and roam Hill and Dale in a bloodthirsty rage beyond his control. And then he says, ask Maleva, you know she'll tell you this is again a character from the first movie. It is the mother of the werewolf played by Bella Lagosi that turned Talbot, and she's
going to be back in the sequel. And I think the werewolf character in the first movie is not only played by Bella Lagosi, but is named Bella.
Yes you're correct, yes, yeah.
Then Talbot gets really bad news. Owen says, come on, tell us your real name. You can't be Lawrence Talbot. He died four years ago, and this leads Talbot to realize that he has the curse of immortality because he is a werewolf. He cannot die now. I recall several reviewers saying that the movie This movie has serious plot holes or at least inconsistency and premises that were not
really reconciled with the events of the previous films. Unless I'm missing something, this does seem to be the big one, or at least a major one. It is clearly established in The wolf Man that you can kill a were wolf you need a silver weapon. Not only is this said by the characters, it actually happens multiple times in the film. The premise is proven.
Yeah.
Yeah, Like there are multiple places in The wolf Man where he's like, I just killed a wolf and they're like, no, you kill a were wolf? Like, yes, you can kill werewolf, otherwise there'd be like six of them in this movie.
Right, yeah. But then a major theme of this movie is that there is no known way to kill a were wolf. There is no way to do it, and Talbot's desperation at the discovery that he cannot die is what sends him on the collision course with Frankenstein, with the Frankenstein lineage. So this is so big that it feels like it can't just be an oversight. It seems like the sequel appears to have deliberately chose and to ignore a major plot device established in the first movie
for the sake of character pathos. You know, the hopeless frustration of Talbot's search for a way to die, that's like the main emotion in the film.
Yeah, I mean, I guess, on one hand, I come back to Highlander. One is that when a movie wraps up so succinctly, you have to break something in order to make a sequel work. And maybe that's what's going on. But also, I mean, in turn, like, what is the most interesting choice in bringing this character back? There's an argument to be made that I mean, we're talking about it.
This is you're turning him into a sort of another iconic creature of fantasy, like the undying wanderer, someone who maybe wanted well, not in Talbot's case, but in the mythic sense, it's sometimes someone who wanted to live forever and then realizes that that was a ridiculous wish and now they wish they could take it back.
Yeah, but I mean, but Talbot is purely pitiable and tragic, like he didn't ask for this, It just happened to him by accident, terrible fate.
But it fitting that he should be facing all this confusion and existential dread, because it's very much the nature of the character and the Wolfman as well.
Right, So Talbot is put in a straight jacket and carried away by orderlies. He's fighting all the way, and then Mannerling and the Inspector have this bizarre exchange that I can't really decode. They go back to his office and Owen says, you mean to say that Talbot actually experienced that murder last night? And then this is what Mannering says, I'm afraid. So people with brain and injuries sometimes develop super normal mental powers that are quite extraordinary.
Certainly he got up and opened the window. The borderline between delusion and reality is very narrow. Sometimes a patient may unknowingly overstep that line. So what is he alleging happened?
I can't help but think this is sort of plot artifact from the first film, because the first film, I'm to understand that the odd mix the wolfman's grip originally left it rather vague as to whether we were dealing with an actual monster or just purely clinical leacanthropy. So somebody who thought they were turning into a wolf and
you know, was maybe murdering even thinking they were a wolf. Yeah, but then they change it and they realized no, like, moviegoers want to see a wolf man and we're going to give it to them. But the film still plays with this idea a bit, this sort of logic and superstition butting heads about what's occurring. So this just seems like maybe another callback to that theme.
Yeah, and so Mannering clearly thinks that Talbot is a clinical lichnthrow by man under the delusion that he is a wolf. But it sounds like he's implying here that that also gives him supernatural powers.
Why not.
Anyway, the inspector and the doctor decide to take a road trip up to Landwelly to figure out more about Talbot's backstory. So they go to the family mausoleum and the cemetery from the opening scene, and they find that the door has been broken down from the inside. They also find Talbot's coffin empty and the body of a local vagrant lying on the floor of the crypt, dead by way of a severed jugular. They also hear stories from the local constable about a wild animal who killed
many people in these parts four years ago. They say, you know, bit through their throats, drained their blood. John Talbot thought he killed it one night, attacked it in the dark, But it was his son. He killed, poor mister Larry. And so the local police showed them a show our two characters. Here a photo of Lawrence Talbot and Wow he sure does look a lot like our licanthrope in Cardiff, and then Owen says, of course it's not the same.
Man.
If it were, I'd be off me top. So Owen and Mannering make a plan to bring the landwelly constable back to Cardiff to see if he can positively id their patient. But when the doctor calls the hospital, he learns that Talbot tore off his straight jacket in the night and escaped. Oh no, we have loose Talbot and they say, tore off his straight jacket. How bit right through it with his teeth.
Did not wolf proof.
So sometime later we rejoined Talbot as he wanders into a Romani camp dressed like a vagabond with a wide brimmed hat. He is looking for Maliva, the wise old woman from the first movie. Maliva was the mother of Bella, the original werewolf who turned to Talbot and then was killed by Talbot. Both Bella and Meliva were in the first film, Divulgers of Lore. So I think Talbot is here hoping to find answers, primarily to find out how he can be cured, or more likely, how he can
just die. So he meets with Maliva and she receives him with sympathy. He says, Maliva, here, I still carry the sign of the pentagon, the mark of the werewolf. I kill people. When the moon is full, I turn into a wolf. But unfortunately, she says that she has no power to help him. She doesn't seem to know of a way that he can die. But she says that she will join him and take care of him as she would her own son. And while she doesn't have the power to help him, she knows of a
man who might. And here we get dumb, dumb, dumb. Nobody says the name Frankenstein yet, but that should be the audience. They're out there thinking, oh, is she talking about Frankenstein.
That's quick note on pinograms, though, if you like pentagrams, watch The Wolf Man because they talk about pentagrams a lot.
Though it's am I wrong in remembering that in the first Wolfman, it's not the wolf the werewolf who has the pinogram. Isn't it his victims who have the pinogram emblazoned on them?
Well, then you also have the pinogram on the cane. Like the cane has this big round part that has the pentagram on it. And then the wolf's head, so it looks like like like a golf club, and in fact, Talbot makes a joke when he first handles the cane and pretends to play little golf with it.
So Maliva is part of the team now and she is going to lead him to a village in the Alps. It's a place called Visaria, the village in the shadow of the ruined castle Frankenstein. They sort of on the way there, they go on a wagon road trip through Europe, and we see a bunch of still photos of different towns. But Talbot and Meliva when they get to Visaria, they visit the local inn and tavern to ask about doctor Frankenstein.
But of course this gets them a quite frosty reception, particularly from Vazik, the innkeeper, a large bespectacled man with a handlebar mustache. I watched this with Rachel and she was calling him Teddy Brosevelt.
Yeah, and when we first meet it, it seems like a real nice guy. You know, he's bringing around the beer. Yeah, it's a popular place.
But no, he reacts unpleasantly when they ask him about Frankenstein. He leads them to the window and points out at the crumbling castle. We see that it is nestled in a mountain ravine next to a rushing river, just downstream from a large dam, and Vazik says coldly, there that is his burial place. The fire destroyed him and all of his misdeeds. He didn't die any too soon for us. We all wish that he had never been born. What
did you want with him? And Maliva here says that she heard he was a great doctor and that he could help people that other doctors couldn't cure. Is that part of the Frankenstein story. I don't remember anything about that.
You know.
And it seems it's a reasonable suspicion that, hey, he was doing like amazing godlike things. What if uh, we looked at that research again, maybe we could find something helpful in there.
It seems like part of the prep for his treatment is he'd have to go ahead and kill you before he could resurrect you. Right, yeah, anyway, Vazik scoffs at this idea as well. He says that murder is all that frank Stein brought to the people of Visaria. They say he harbored a monster at his house, a fowl being created by black magic and.
He was also a job creator, though I think he is being a little unfair.
The news that Frankenstein is dead hits Talbot very hard. He collapses into a chair. He's like, ah, this was my only hope. And then Vazig tries to throw them out of the bar. He doesn't want to serve anyone who would be asking about the mad doctor, and this leads to a confrontation. Talbot shouts at him on the way out, so they seem to be developing enmity for one another. Afterwards, Maliva and Talbot ride their wagon up the mountain pass and Talbot says, now I must go
on living. There's no hope for me to die. And then oh, surpriseful movement just comes out of nowhere. When Talbot begins the transformation, he jumps off the wagon and runs into the woods as the change takes hold. So while on a wolf Ram page, he kills a young woman of the village, and then we later this all happens very fast, and then we later see the villagers they formed this mournful procession in the streets. Vazak is carrying the woman's dead body and the locals begin to
talk about who could have done this. Could it be Frankenstein's monster returned? They say, no, the monster is long dead. An animal bit her to death, and then Dwight Fry says, what animals are there around here that can kill people? And a wolf howls in the distance. They say, a wolf, a wolf that's his cries, So they form a posse, you know, pitchforks torches, the classic Frankenstein posse.
They've done this a few times before, soiliar quickly, Yeah, familiar with the procedure.
Angry mob torches and pitchforks guns this time, and they go out into the woods hunting the beast. They pursue the wolfman through the forest in the dark, shooting him and driving him into the ruins of the castle, and eventually the wolfman, wounded, stumbles and falls into an underground cavern filled with ice and snow, but there's no snow on the surface. I was confused about this.
Yeah, yeah, it feels like we're almost in a magical land at this point, but it looks really cool.
Yeah.
The villagers also capture Maliva and they take her back to town for interrogation. So later Talbot awakes in this snowy cavern with tattered clothes. He's back in human form, and he searches around and then finds, tucked away in a corner of the space what looks like a great translucent window made of ice under a stone arch. He begins to kind of chip at it. He bashes through the ice with a rock, and then behind it he finds the frozen, unconscious body of Frankenstein's monster. But of
course it is not Karloff. It's Bella Legosi in the Karloff makeup.
Great sequence here with the breaking ice, I did.
Like this, yeah, And so with the ice broken away, the monster begins to stir and regain consciousness, so Talbot thinks his prayers may be answered. We see Talbot in the monster wandering through the room of the castle together. I didn't get this at first, but part of the reason that the monster is walking the way he is is that he's supposed to be blind. I don't think any characters say this.
Right, And then originally he's supposed to speak, So this is like a true team up at this point, Like I don't know, Talbot's saying, like, hey, monster, you want to come with me and maybe we can help each other out and the Monster's like, yeah, let's get out of here. This place sucks.
But I think the producers found the dialogue lines of the monster laughable, so they removed them from the film.
That's what That's what I've read, so Talbot.
Yeah, Talbot leads the monster by hand, asking the monster to show him where he can find doctor Frankenstein's notes and diaries, something that will explain how to kill a werewolf, I guess. So the monster tries to show him a secret hiding place behind a bookshelf, but the safe inside doesn't contain any use anything useful. I don't know how Talbot determines that these papers are not useful. He just dumps them out really quick and he's like, it's not here.
Yeah, what are you looking for? Why would it stand out?
So yeah, and Talbot is filled with despair, but in the safe he finds this is the part where he finds an autographed Hollywood Glamour photo of Alona Massey and it's it's signed Elsa Frankenstein, it says, to my father, So great news.
There is a there is a surviving Frankenstein and she's hot.
She's a movie star. Yeah, to my father, I made it big in Hollywood, signed Elsa. But okay, here's a new angle. Maybe doctor Frankenstein's living descendant, his daughter, Elsa, will know how to help them. So Talbot makes contact with her by deception. He poses as an investor looking to buy the castle, and this gets him a meeting with Elsa. In this part of the film, we also get to know the mayor of Visaria, played by Lionel Atwill, who is acts like he's sort of also Elsa's lawyer.
Yeah, you got to wear a number of hats in this town, you know.
Now.
Elsa wants to be free of the memories of what her father did, and she is eager to sell the estate and put it all behind her, but she hasn't been able to find a buyer, so the prospect is tempting. But when they sit down together, Talbot reveals his true intentions that he simply wanted to meet with her to talk about something, and this was the only way. I have to say, I would have expected her to be more annoyed about this deception, but she takes it rather well, at least at first.
Yeah, like this would be a huge red flag. I need to get away from this individual who just totally misrepresented themselves and is not actually interested in the business proposal that was presented to me.
Yeah, but when he reveals that what he really wants is the records of her father's research on the subject of life and death, she turns cold. At that point, she says she doesn't have any records and if she did, she would have destroyed them long ago. She says, her father was a great scientist, but everything he created brought unhappiness and terror. So it seems like we're at an impasse. But that doesn't mean we can't party a little bit
because outside music is playing. The mayor comes in and says, oh, it's the Festival of the New Wine here at the village, and the mayor convinces Elsa and Talbot to stay for the evening's festivities. Basically, he sets them up on a date.
Basically this is Frankenstein meets the wolf Man, because we we get actual Frankenstein, not Frankenstein's monster, meeting Larry Talbot who is the wolf Man, and yeah, they essentially go on a date.
Also at the wine festival that night, we are treated to a musical number, which I think is wonderful. It's I looked this up to see if this is a traditional song. If it is, I couldn't find evidence of that, but maybe I didn't look hard enough. In the one like YouTube rip of it I found it was just called the Song of the New Wine. Farroh la far aw lee. It's a rousing tune.
Yeah, yeah, they have a good time.
Here, come one and all and sing a song farroh la far a lee for life is short but death is long. Farroh la farrow lee. There'll be no music in the tomb, sing with joy and down with gloom tonight the new Wine is in bloom farro farro far so low. And then also you remember the part the song gets some sick burns in on Vasik, the innkeeper.
Yeah. Yeah.
The singer goes up to him, and the verse he sings for him is I guess he's freestyling because he's just making up verses about the people around in the square. He goes up to Vasik and says, his barrel bellies dipper lipped for drinking wine. He's well equipped, but where's his chest? It must have slipped farroh la farah lee.
Darn yeah.
Unfortunately, when the singer makes his way over to the table where Elsa and Talbot are having their date. He sings a verse toasting to their health and happiness, and he ends on a line wishing that they may live eternally. Whoops, it's a sore subject. Talbot freaks out. He grabs the singer by the collar and screams in his face, I don't want to live eternally. Why did just say that to me?
Yeah, he really shows his butt here. I guess you could say this is a real I think you should leave sort of moment.
Exactly why'd you show that? But in the middle of this explosion of anguish, a character from earlier in the movie suddenly returns. It's doctor Mannering from the hospital in Cardiff. Like, wait, he tracked Talbot down all the way to the Alps. Doesn't he have other patients?
Yeah?
I guess it just seems like this case of clinical like anthropy is too interesting it is worth going on a wolf hunt across Europe.
Yeah. I would say that his interest here is quite suspicious, and that suspicion may pay off.
Yeah, There's been nothing indicated about Mannering so far that would raise eyebrows or make him think make you think that he's like overly curious about no, no, no, secrets of life and death.
At this point, he feels totally like a plot convenience. Yes, he's just there to move the plot along and get us to the point where these two monsters can really do more together.
In Act one, he's a complete square. Yeah, But they discuss how Mannering tracked Talbot here by following newspaper reports of wolf attacks. And by the way, Elsa is just sitting at the table listening to this, and then eventually she almost seems to get bored and she goes to dance with the mayor. So Mannering wants to put Talbot in an asylum where he can't hurt anyone, and you know, seems like a reasonable plan to me, like put you in a locked facility so that you can't escape on
the full moon and harm anyone. But Talbot says, no, no, it wouldn't work. I'd only escape again. I have to die. It's the only solution. Unfortunately, it seems that's impossible unless we can find doctor Frankenstein's diary and discover the secrets of life and death.
Which again feels like a huge leap it like a leap that doctor Frankenstein's discoveries would be applicable to this scenario. But that's what the whole movie is about.
Now, Mannering seems skeptical but a little bit interested. He's heard of Frankenstein, he says. Doctor Frankenstein's ex experiments were considered rather extraordinary. Medical science never recognized them. Meanwhile, by the way, Vasak, the innkeeper, is listening in on them, scheming this conflict here is unjammed by a monster ex machina. Suddenly out of nowhere and for no given reason, Frankenstein's monster comes wandering into the town square, and everybody starts
screaming and running away from the new wine festival. So Talbot saves the day by getting the monster onto a horse drawn cart full of wine barrels, and then he drives them away from the crowd. Farroh la far a lee. But I guess importantly, doctor Mannering here witnesses the monster, and I think this somehow changes what the characters accept as reality. Did you take that as a motivating moment?
Yes, I did, But I have to say I was also just rather distracted by the prospect of Frankenstein's monster and the wolf Man going on adventures together on that cart.
Like what happens next, Yeah, yeah, him traveling a traveling duo, and they've got plenty of wine with them.
So they disguise themselves as school children. I don't know, there's so many hijinks that you could up to.
After this, there is a scene in the tavern where the prominent men of the town discuss what to do next. As you might expect, Vazik is sort of the hot head of the group. He wants to storm the castle and get monster blood immediately. Also seems like he wants to maybe kill Elsa because she's a Frankenstein, but he is thwarted by the reservations of the mayor and some others. The mayor says, we've tried to kill the monster by
force before. We must use our brains for once, and Vasik says brains, I'd rather depend on my fists though he's a real tough guy.
Yeah, and they're all just like oh.
Yeah.
After this, Doctor Mannering, Elsa, and Meliva all somehow end up in this big town argument scene. They're like in the room and the door. The doctor Mannering offers his opinion to the mob. He said, why would he have thoughts on this? I don't know. He says, the monster was created artificially. It must be destroyed by the same means. Artificially.
Yeah.
Sure.
The doctor tells them that if the people of the village trust him, he'll take care of the problem. He'll rid Visaria of this curse once and for all. And instead of being like, who is this guy, the villagers all seem to agree, Oh, yeah, okay, let's give this assignment to doctor Mannering, the doctor from Cardiff who just arrived. So it now seems kind of the gang is getting all together. Maliva elsa doctor Mannering all go up to
the ruins. There they find Talbot with the monster. Talbot calms the monster and convinces the monster that the new arrivals are friends. He says, this is doctor Mannering. He's come to help you, to make you well. Now what exactly is he supposed to be doing the monster, like make him undead? It's not clear what the offer is.
I yeah, I was not able to get a hold of any kind of like prior script to see like what legosis eg or monster would have been saying, like, because I feel like the answer probably can be found there if that exists. Like is he saying like, I will end your existence because you're entombed blind in the body of this monster, or I'll make you better. I'll make it so the monster can see, Like what exactly
is in it for the monster here? Whether we're considering this the same monster that we had in previous films, or is this the monster egor connection that what we got at the end of House of Frankenstein, I mean goes to Frankenstein.
So they all agree that the doctor will help them find a solution, and Elsa reveals that she actually does know where her father's diary is hidden. It's in a secret compartment inside the other secret compartment. Yes, so it's a book called The Secret of Life and Death Triple Secret, and then Mannering. Mannering reads out loud from the book, fascinated. He says, matter ages because it loses energy. This artificial body I have created has been charged with superhuman power
so that its span of life will be extended. Its lifetime will equal the lives of more than one hundred human beings. This my creation, can never perish unless unless its energies are drained off artificially by changing the polls from plus to minus. Okay, that's the secret, all right? And then Talbot he reacts to this by saying, but that's the secret of life. What good does it do me? I'm not interested in life. I wasn't created artificially. I'm a human being. I've got real blood in my veins.
What can we do to end my life? And then the doctor reads on and says, energy which cannot be destroyed can be transmitted. And this seems to mean something to Talbot. He says, well, if that's the case, then the energies from my body can be drained off also, so they formulate a plan by using doctor Frankenstein's old equipment, they can drain off the werewolf energies from Talbot by changing the poles from plus to minus, which should allow him to die.
And conceivably do the same thing to the monster as well. Why, again, we come back to why is the monster necessary for this process?
At this point?
Unclear? I mean they promised the monster help. Meanwhile, in secret, Elsa goes up to the doctor and she says, did you mean what you said about helping the monster be well? And the Doctor's like, oh, uh no, I mustn't do that. But we could see he's developing a curiosity here. So we've got the plan in place which will lead us to the climax. So we're getting up to the final scene here, doctor mannering. He first sets about preparations. He
orders a bunch of equipment to repair Frankenstein's machines. Meanwhile, Vazik and his crew meet in the tavern grousing about the situation. These guys are very like they remind me of Senator Walter k Powers and the brain eaters. They want action, and the mayor tries to chill them out. But Vasik, Dwight Fry and a couple of the other guys are like, eh, the Frankenstein girl, the doctor, they're all up to no good. And then frank and then Vazik,
in front of everyone, describes a plan. He says, we should blow up the dam that will flood the castle and kill them all.
Yeah, just a little domestic terrorism, That's that's all the situation calls for.
Yeah.
So the mayor, the mayor, by the way, is sitting at the table and here's this whole plan, and his reaction is you're drunk vasik. That's why no one takes your word seriously.
That'll put him in his place.
Yeah yeah.
Meanwhile, up at the castle, a full moon is coming tonight and Talbat is impatient.
This time.
He does seem to know a full moon's on the way.
Don't know.
Finally, but he.
Doesn't want to live through another night of wolf terror, and Mannering promises. He says his work is almost complete and he will be able to kill Talbot before the transformation. By the way, at what point did Mannering become convinced that Talbot was a real werewolf and not a delusional lichanthrope. Was it like when he saw Frankenstein's monster or is he even actually convinced of that at this point? Does he still think that he's not a real werewolf?
I don't.
I mean, I assume that he bought into the werewolf thing by now. Yeah, but why Yeah, the closest we can come to is he saw, well, Frankenstein's monster is real, therefore why not were wolf?
Elsa meanwhile, is working her angle on Mannering, which is destroy the monster. She's like, look, you could just lock Talbot up somewhere, but you've got to do what's really important, destroy my father's creation. And Mannering is, yeah, he's stretched thin by all of this work, but he indicates that Elsa shouldn't worry. He implies he will destroy both of the creatures tonight at the same time. Then he powers up the machines and they begin to arc with this ferocious,
deafening electrical power. And then later that night we see both Talbot and the monster strapped to tables side by side, hooked up to the fantastical laboratory array, and Mannering reads from Frankenstein's notes, reading out loud, connecting the polls plus to minus will charge the energy output of the nervous system, as by connecting the minus to the minus seems utterly nonsensical.
Mannering.
At this point he gets a far away look in his eyes and he says to himself, I can't do it. I can't destroy Frankenstein's creation. I've got to see it at its full power.
So sudden heel turn here where he's He's kind of like the parking valet in Ferris Bueler's Day Off, Ferris Bueler's Day Off, who takes the sports car and you know Garret grabs a buddy and rides it throughout the town, all over Chicago, because he's like, it would it'd be just a crime not to drive the heck out of this car. It'd be a shame a crime not to power Frankenstein's Monster up to full strength.
Right, gotta take it for a spin. So he fiddles with some cables, retools the machine to juice Frankenstein's Monster to maximum frank And we see the effects of this, like the leads connected to the bolts, and the monster's neck starts smoking.
In the monsters.
Yeah, the monster's mouth twitches with stimulation. It's like he's saying words with his lips closed. This is a good detail in Lugosi's performance, by the way, like the close ups on his face are great. Elsa is in bed for some reason. Why didn't she stay up for this? She's awakened from her bed and she comes to check out the action and the lab, and then she realizes what is happening. She shouts at Mannering, no, you're making him strong again. But Mannering doesn't stop. He's got to
see him in full power. So the monster turns to look at Mannering and smiles and again this is a good Lugosi close up. Meanwhile, up at the dam we see Vaazig just planning dynamite. He's getting ready to flood the castle by himself, no crew with him. It seems kind of sad and lonely.
Yeah, and again, he's a big guy, so it took a lot for him to creep up and climb on the dam to find just the right spot to place the dynamite. But he's doing it. He is going to blow up the dam.
He's on a precarious, slippery little ledge there planting this dynamite.
Yeah.
Again, We come back to the castle and Elsa at this point is actively trying to stop mannering. She throws a switch or something and it short circuits the machinery. Stuff explodes and you know, beams and rocks begin falling from the ceiling. But it's too late. The monster is all powered up. He is at full power, and he busts out of the straps and begins to rampage through the room. He goes after Elsa, he picks her up. She faints, of course, immediately goes unconscious, and we get
the monster carrying away. Elsa's unconscious body like the poster promised.
But just then.
Talbot transforms into Wolfman and he comes to save the day. He attacks the monster, rescuing Elsa. I found this so confusing because I thought the whole thing about the Wolfman is that he retains none of Talbot's mind and is just a slavering beast. Why would the Wolfman form of Talbot be trying to save Elsa. That's something Talbot would do, But the Wolfman isn't Talbot anymore, That's the whole point.
Yeah, it seems like the most he would do is like try to drag her away by the neck and eat her himself. Yeah, but no, he's suddenly a hero wolf.
He's more like Valdemar Doninski here.
Yeah. Yeah.
Anyway, so up at the dam of Vaaak lights the fuse on the dynamite and we see the dam is about to blow in the laboratory, the Wolfman and the Monster begin to fight. They you could out Robinnie notes on this on this matchup.
Yes, So it's we have to consider this is the first monster mash, so it is not going to be as advanced as as many of the later battles are going to be. Between various monsters, but it's still really good. There's some you know, throwing each other around. The werewolf's prime strategy is to try and climb on progressively higher pieces of furniture so as to leap off, like luchador style at Frankenstein's Monster, which which is a lot of fun and I don't know, you know, it's we see
shades of that earlier with the world. We're always climbing on stuff. Wolfman likes to get up high like he's a goat.
We saw that in Cardiff when he was running around doing parkour on the cotton bales.
Yeah, keep getting higher and higher till you have some nice height come off the top rope.
The monster is supposed to be a much bulkier, I think, heavyweight style fighter, So I'm imagining this is this kind of like a matchup between Andre the Giant and Mysterio Junior.
Yeah, I think so. Yeah, David Goliath sort of a vibe here. Yeah, each of them have their strengths and so yeah, it's a fun smack down here.
You know.
Again occurs very late in the picture and doesn't last that long. But again, we really hadn't We didn't have this before. This is a this is a first, so everything we get here is a gift.
Yeah.
So while the two monsters fight, Mannering and Elsa flee the laboratory and they escape the castle, do we ever see what happens with Maliva? Does she escape? Do they show show her?
I'd kind of forgotten about her by this point, but yeah, I hope she's okay. Maybe she found a little boat or something. Yeah, she's a survivor. I bet she's fine. She is, But we don't.
I don't think we see her at the end unless there's something I'm forgetting here. So the dam explodes, water rushes toward the castle while the monster wrestling goes on, and then finally a huge, massive water bursts through into the laboratory and we see the rushing river roy the castle entirely, every part of it is washed away in the flood. And here I love the model work. Oh and the dam and the flood and the destruction of the castle looks great. I love this kind of stuff.
Uh.
And then suddenly just the end bump bump, bump, bump, bum feels extremely sudden. I am sure people in the theaters and this came out would have been been like, wait, it's over.
Well, yeah, it feels I mean, on so many levels it feels sudden, because, first of all, we've already established that neither the Wolfman nor Frankenstein's Monster can be easily killed by conventional methods, like it was going to take mad science to do it. A flood is not going to cut it. Collapsing castle is not going to cut it. So I don't you know, I don't have any any there's no indication here that they have defeated the monsters.
They just maybe washed them downstream and now they're you know, the next town's problem. And yeah, what Mannering and the Barrenness escape, But like, are are we supposed to believe that they are a magical item now because they've escaped together, because communication and relationship is very important, And there's already been a very serious betrayal with his decision to power the monster up to full strength instead of destroying.
Mannering has done a serious done some serious crimes and betrayed. Yeah, been deceptive in the perpetration of these crimes now, and it seems like he's just getting away scott free. Yeah, yeah, and we and again maybe this was indicated and I just missed it. We don't know what happens to Maliva, yeah and yeah.
Yeah.
So the main question of this movie is will the Wolfman be able to die to you know, to to end his uh, to end his tormented eternity of immortality? And I don't think they answered that question. Like, it wasn't clear to me whether Mannering actually did anything to cure the Wolfman's immortality. I don't think so. I think all he did was push frank to full power.
Yeah, Like, and we don't even get a firm answer, Like if we'd at least gotten I mean, this would have been a more of a downer ending. But if we'd had a scene where Talbot is like, oh, I guess I'm cursed after all, I'll never die and he just wanders off, you know, into the distance like that you know, incredible hole music. Yeah, that would that would have been That would have felt more like closure. As it is, We're just like, did the movie forget how
the rules that they had already established. They were just like, we gotta have we gotta end the film, folks, Sorry, people have to go home.
Well that is Frankenstein meets the wolf Man they do indeed.
Meet absolutely and again, you know, just despite the ridiculousness that we had some fun with here, really fun film, definitely worth checking out. I really enjoyed it. And you know, it's the again the first monster mash. It's it has almost religious significance for film fans. All Right, we're gonna go ahead and close this one up, but we'll be back later in October with more halloweeny Weird House Cinema selections. In the meantime, will remind you stuff to blow your mind.
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