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As a child, this was the first Universal Monster film I watched, and it made me want to watch more. I still find it very entertaining and it serves as an excellent sequel to The Wolf Man from 1941. The absence of Frankenstein’s Monster may be disappointing to some, as well as how he is portrayed.
The filmmakers originally wanted the blind Monster with Ygor’s voice to start with him picking up from where he was with Ghost of Frankenstein. This time around, Ygor is played by Bela Lugosi, but for whatever reason, all of his lines were cut. The end result is bad choreography for Lugosi and no context for his staggered movement.
Honestly, it’s kind of depressing that no one has done as much justice to that character as Karloff did.
I have heard that one of the reasons the studio chose to throw this idea away was because they could not take Lugosi’s voice, which had a heavy accent, coming from the Monster very seriously. I had also read that the Monster’s dialogue was, in the fitting Ygor custom, all about world domination and might have sounded a bit too much like Hitler. Whatever the reason, this is what we got.
The first act begins with some grave robbers trying to break into the Talbot crypt in order to steal something from Lawrence Talbot’s (Lon Chaney, Jr.) corpse a ring or something. The best part is that the grave robbers do it on a full moon which brings him back to life. One of the robbers arms is grabbed by Lawrence, while the other gets away.
The Talbot is found on the edge of some street with several injuries and is taken to the hospital where no one believes he is actually Lawrence Talbot or that he is a werewolf. He eventually transforms and kills a policeman in the process.
After Talbot is strapped down, a doctor and detective reconsider his case which possess a body that does not belong to Lawrence Talbot. Meanwhile, the Wolfman has already escaped.
Talbot eventually tracks down the gypsy Malva, who informs him that the Dr. Frankenstein may be of assistance. Talbot now goes to Vasari believing that Dr. Frankenstein might be able to end his life by scientific means. This is because Talbot knows that his curse has outlived him.
In the end, he gets to the Monster encased in a block of ice and he pulls the Monster out. The Monster takes Talbot to the doctor’s files, but he is too much of a drunken buffoon to be of any assistance at all.
He then goes looking for Baroness Elsa Frankenstein (Ilona Massey), but she is not willing to assist. Still, they both participate in the Festival of New Wine having scenes that include musical singing.
Talbot begins to yell at the locals causing quite the scene and while doing that Dr. Mannering (Patric Knowles) appears, having been following Talbot, so that he could help him get back to Wales.
There is then a festival that the Monster crashes. And after Talbot tries to calm him down, he, Elsa, Malva, and Dr. Mannering decide to escort the Monster to the castle. Some notes Dr. Mannering was studying allow him to siphon life out of both Talbot and the Monster.
Worried that the Monster has begun a new era of destruction, the villagers decide to break one of the dams and flood the castle.
Dr. Mannering lets his scientific curiosity get the better of him and ends up wasting the monster by restoring his strength and vision. He frees himself from his bounds, just as Talbot now the Wolfman does too.
The fight is perhaps the most entertaining part of the movie. And for a good reason. It is well worth the wait, but with all those additional scenes in between, expect it to take a little over one hour before you reach this portion.
With the dam broken, there is no real winner. Both monsters are seemingly killed with the drowning of the castle.
Even if it isn’t the best movie in existence, it is very entertaining. So long as you accept that the great character of Lawrence Talbot is played by the even greater Lon Chaney, Jr. You won’t be disappointed. The ending more than makes up for the slow start.
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