What Kind Of Boots Did Frankenstein's Monster Wear? (video)

In "Frankenstein" (1931), Boris Karloff wore special boots for greater height.

They were a modified pair of knee-high "asphalt spreader" boots with the soles greatly enlarged.
Each boot is said to have weighed 13 pounds.  This added to the Monster's lumbering gait.

There have been conflicting accounts over the years...
...as to how the construction and weight of the boots vary in subsequent sequels.
They do seem smoother and more custom crafted in later films.

The Monster has been caught without his trademark boots only once...
...at the end of "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" (1944).

I neither own nor claim any rights to this material. Just having some fun with it!

Thanks to Joro Gaming for the music.

What Kind Of Boots Did Frankenstein's Monster Wear? (video)

Strangest & Most Violent Mummy Film? "The Mummy's Curse" (1944) (video)

(spoilers)

"The Mummy's Curse" is the final film in Universal's "Mummy" series.

And despite some lighter moments than the two previous films...
...it may also be the most violent, if judging by body count alone.

The Mummy (Lon Chaney) makes the most of his ample screen time in this one.

The film also contains perhaps the single strangest scene in any "Mummy" movie...
...the mud-caked resurrection of Kharis' beloved Princess Ananka (Virginia Christine).

Ananka struggles stiffly out of her earthen tomb, then staggers toward the light.

The film is a lively swan song for Kharis--one of vintage horror's weirdest monsters.  


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

Strangest & Most Violent Mummy Film? "The Mummy's Curse" (1944) (video)

THE CYCLOPS -- Movie Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 10/19/09

 

One of my earliest movie-watching memories is sitting in my mom's lap in the livingroom while my older brother watched THE CYCLOPS (1957) on TV. When the monster, a giant man in a loin cloth with an ultra-hideously scarred face and one big, bulging eyeball, thrust his ugly mug into the mouth of the cave where the main characters were hiding and started roaring at them, it scared the ever-livin' crap outta me. At one point during this grueling ordeal of sheer terror, my mom tried to calm me down by saying, "Ohh, he's not scary...he looks like a funny clown." Well, he didn't look like a funny clown.

In 1993, I caught THE CYCLOPS again on TNT's Monstervision and watched it for nostalgia's sake, just to see what had been so traumatically frightening to me as a young tricycle motor. Back then, even the cheapest B-movie had a documentary realism to it, but now I could see THE CYCLOPS for what it was--a cheap, not-very-competently made schockfest with really bad special effects.

Fortunately, I taped the movie that night and watched it again today after all these years, and, strangely enough, I found it pretty enjoyable this time around. The always adorable Gloria Talbott of I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE fame plays Susan Winter, a woman who is determined to find her missing husband, Bruce, and hires a pilot named Lee Brand (Tom Drake, in a bit of a career comedown from his MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS days) to fly her into the isolated canyon in Mexico where Bruce disappeared three years earlier. Accompanying them on the expedition are Russ Bradford (James Craig), an old friend with romantic designs on Susan, and big-ape Marty Melville, who comes along only because he's heard the canyon is full of uranium and wants to get rich quick. Marty's a blustery, hair-triggered loose cannon, so it's fitting that the aging, alcoholic, unpredictable Lon Chaney, Jr. is cast in the role.

The film is written and directed by Bert I. Gordon ("B.I.G."), who loved to make cheap horror flicks about giant men (THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST), women (VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS, a personal fave), and creatures (EARTH VS. THE SPIDER, KING DINOSAUR, THE FOOD OF THE GODS). He also seemed to have an affinity for really crappy special effects, because his movies are full of them. In this one, the Cyclops and other over-sized beasts that Susan and the boys run into are often transparent, and they rarely seem to blend convincingly into their surroundings.

There's a battle between an iguana and a gila monster in which you can see them being thrown at each other from off camera, then slowly turned over and over by their tails like rolling pins to make it look like they're locked in mortal combat. In one of the worst FX shots ever, a large, superimposed hand seems to close around Gloria Talbott, and then the entire picture, background and all, is simply whisked upward out of the frame to make it look like she's being picked up. You have to marvel at Gordon's wrong-way audacity here even as you shake your head in disbelief.

Meanwhile, the googly-eyed Chaney is so scary as "Marty" that he almost overshadows the Cyclops. During the flight into the canyon, he goes nuts when the plane hits an updraft and, in a blind panic, slugs the pilot out cold! Hilarity ensues as Russ struggles to restrain Marty, who doesn't know how to fly a plane, from taking over the controls while Susan frantically tries to wake up Lee.

Later, the totally selfish and mercenary Marty is so anxious to get back to civilization and file a claim on the valley that he is constantly harassing Lee to fly him back and leave Susan and Russ behind to fend for themselves against the giant critters. I think that if Gordon had just replaced the Cyclops with a screaming, 25-foot-tall Lon Chaney, Jr. stomping around in a loin cloth looking for a bottle of hooch, the movie would've been a hundred times scarier. As "skelton knaggs", a fellow member of the Classic Horror Film Board once put it: "When Lon Chaney throws on the ham, I can just smell dem eggs frying."

But as it is, the Cyclops is the main attraction here, and after all these years I still think he's a pretty cool monster. The makeup job by Jack H. Young, who worked on Margaret Hamilton in THE WIZARD OF OZ and would go on to other triumphs with such films as THE BROOD, APOCALYPSE NOW, and TV's SALEM'S LOT, is a real doozy. Actor Duncan Parkin had his head shaved and was given a gash of a mouth with half the flesh ripped away to reveal his teeth, a protruding bloodshot left eye, and a horrid flap of skin stretched over his other eye. The look is similar to the monster in Gordon's WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST, and it would be hard to decide which is more disturbing--but I think the Cyclops has the edge for pure hideousness.

Renowned voice artist Paul Frees gives the monster a constant series of blood-curdling grunts, bellows, and growls, which was a big part of what scared me so much as a kid. Another unsettling element is the overwhelmingly aggressive musical score by the Luca Brasi of film music, Albert Glasser. As I mentioned in my review of THE NEANDERTHAL MAN, Glasser was the king of blatant, overbearing musical bombast that assaulted the listener like a caveman wielding a big gnarly club. Glasser only knew one gear--over the top--and he floored it. Just listening to his music alone could probably cause some people to suffer a panic attack.

The simple story takes a tragic turn as Susan and Russ make a startling discovery about the Cyclops. (You can probably guess what it is without expending too many brain cells.) When the group finally escapes from the cave and makes it back to the plane, the giant monster shambles toward them as Lee tries unsuccessfully to start the engine. As a last resort, Russ decides to draw his attention away from the others by offering himself as a target for the monster's wrath. What happens next will come as no surprise to those in any way familiar with Homer's "Odyssey."

Seeing the enraged Cyclops bearing down on our heroes brought back some residual childhood fears that still make it hard for me to be impartial about this movie--somehow, the big, ugly oaf still scares me while others might see him only as something to laugh at. But like I said, I still think he's a pretty cool monster. THE CYCLOPS is a movie that isn't nearly good enough to take seriously, but isn't bad in a totally "funny ha-ha" way like PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE or Gordon's schlock epic VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS. It's just a fairly, or maybe barely, decent grade-Z monster flick that is either a fun watch or a grueling bore, depending on your point of view. For me, it's a fun watch. But I still don't think that damn monster looks anything like a "funny clown."


(Thanks to Kerry Gammill for the "Cyclown" pic.)

THE CYCLOPS -- Movie Review by Porfle

Porfle's Trivia Quiz: "ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN" (1948) (video)

Here's one of the most popular horror-comedies of all time...

...which is beloved by fans of both Abbott & Costello and classic monsters.

How much do you remember about it?


Question: What does Lou swipe from Larry Talbot's hotel room?

A. Banana
B. Pillow
C. Apple
D. Book
E. Hat

Question: What does Bud go to the costume party dressed as?

A. Werewolf
B. Mummy
C. Frankenstein
D. Vampire
E. Ghoul

Question: Who does the Monster hurl through a window?

A. Bud
B. Lou
C. Sandra
D. Dracula
E. The Wolf Man

Question: What does Dracula throw at the Wolf Man?

A. Sword
B. Flowerpot
C. Lamp
D. Doorstop
E. Board

Question: What Universal "monster" makes a surprise appearance at the end?

A. Kharis (The Mummy)
B. Phantom of the Opera
C. Invisible Man
D. Hunchback
E. Son of Dracula


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

Porfle's Trivia Quiz: "ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN" (1948) (video)

SON OF DRACULA (1943) -- Movie Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 3/10/17

 

Universal's belated follow-up to DRACULA (1931) and DRACULA'S DAUGHTER (1936) is the richly atmospheric horror tale SON OF DRACULA (1943), one of the studio's finest supernatural films of the 40s. 

At first, Lon Chaney, Jr. may seem a bit beefy for the role of Dracula's son (some believe the title to be a misnomer and that this is actually Dracula, Sr. himself) but he gives the Count an aggressive physicality that predates Christopher Lee's similar portrayal in the later Hammer films.

Chaney's Count, however, augments Lee's aloofness with a manic emotionalism.  Having settled in the American South due to a shortage of "fresh blood" in his own little corner of Transylvania, Dracula falls in with the native tendency toward steamy melodrama (in fiction, at least) and surrenders to passions of both the flesh and the spirit when choosing tempestuous, raven-haired Southern belle Kay Caldwell (Louise Allbritton) as his bride.

 

Kay, it turns out, is more of a "monster" here than the Count, seducing and then manipulating him into vampirizing her so that she can then eliminate him and put the bite on her real love, Frank Stanley (Robert Paige, looking remarkably like Gomer Pyle in some shots), allowing them to flitter off into eternity together.

This, in fact, has been her plan all along, with the aid of an old gypsy woman who lives in a wagon beside a nearby swamp. It's during one of the old hag's crystal ball readings that she delivers one of my favorite (and most unabashedly morbid) lines from any Universal horror movie in foretelling Kay's future:  "I see you...marrying a corpse!  Living in a grave!"

With the doomed Count falling prey to the devious machinations of the conniving Kay, this atmospheric black and white film has a distinct noirish quality.  We see that the lovestruck Drac is definitely unprepared for someone like her, even giving in to such a romantic film trope as rousting the town's justice of the peace out of bed for a hasty wedding that will make the Count master of Kay's inherited estate.

 

Frank, naturally, is crushed, especially when his futile attack on undead alpha-male Dracula--in the mansion that he now owns--results in Kay's (temporary) death.  But in this uniquely offbeat vampire tale, this is just when things start to heat up for the unholy love triangle. 

Thanks to John P. Fulton's special effects, this is the first film to actually show a man turning into a bat and vice versa.  We also get to see Dracula seep under a doorway as a wisp of smoke and then rematerialize before the astonished eyes of Dr. Brewster (Frank Craven) and Prof. Lazlo (J. Edward Bromberg), a Van Helsing-like vampire expert summoned by Brewster to help combat the evil that has come to their humble burg.

The first chilling close-up of Chaney, in which he looks over his shoulder and glares directly at us, is giddy-cool.  I also like it when he shows up at the front door of the Caldwell estate that night but is refused entrance by a mournful butler since the master of the house has just died under mysterious circumstances.  "ANNOUNCE ME!" Dracula barks menacingly at the poor guy.

 

There's also a glorious sequence in which a beaming Kay watches from the bayou's edge as Dracula's coffin rises to the water's surface, and then, music swelling, he stands imperiously atop it as it glides slowly to the shore.  The effect is sublime, surely one of Universal's most memorable horror movie moments of the forties.

Evelyn Ankers (THE WOLF MAN, GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN) is as appealing as ever playing Kay's unsuspecting little sister, who reluctantly helps Dr. Brewster sort out the mystery behind Kay and the Count. 

Paige gets to emote his head off for most of the film as tragic-hero Frank gets dumped by his fiance' for a vampire, is thrown in jail for murdering her, and then finds out she's a member of the undead who wants him to join her.

Allbritton plays her role for all it's worth, with Kay taking a mad delight in each phase of her descent into evil (unlike the earlier DRACULA'S DAUGHTER, in which Gloria Holden's vampire Countess Zaleska yearns to be a normal person.) 

She's stiff competition for Chaney, but SON OF DRACULA is nonetheless Lon's movie and he makes the most of this rare chance to play a monster who's suave, nattily dressed, and doesn't have six hours of makeup obscuring his face.

SON OF DRACULA (1943) -- Movie Review by Porfle

BELA LUGOSI AS THE FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER: "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" (1943)

 

(Originally posted on 2/25/18)

 

Since the brain of Ygor (Bela Lugosi) was placed into the Monster's skull in GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN(1942)...

...Lugosi was chosen to play the Monster in the follow-up, FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (1943).

Thus, the Monster, now partially-blind, would speak with Ygor's voice.

But before the film's release, all references to the Monster's speech and blindness were removed.

The Monster's stiff, lurching walk is now unexplained...as are his silent mouth movements. 

At 60, Lugosi was in need of stand-ins for the more strenuous scenes.
Actor/stuntman Gil Perkins looked so good in the makeup, it is he whom we first see in close-up as the Monster.  Another actor/stuntman, Eddie Parker, also plays the Monster.

Perkins and Parker then take turns as Monster and Wolf Man during their climactic fight...with Bela appearing in the close-ups.

Mystery and confusion as to "who did what", compounded by extensive reshoots, continue to surround the production.

Fans of the film mourn the missing footage, which will most likely never be recovered.

And they imagine being able to watch the film, and Lugosi's performance, in their original form.


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material. Just having some fun with it!

Read our review of the movie HERE.

BELA LUGOSI AS THE FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER: "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" (1943)

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (1943) -- Movie Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 1/5/22

 

I love FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (Universal, 1943) because Lon Chaney, Jr.'s Wolf Man is my favorite monster, and this is the best Wolf Man movie ever, at least in that you get to see a lot of him, his story is interesting, and there are some great transformation scenes. Also because you get two awesome Frankenstein Monsters for the price of one--Bela Lugosi and Gil Perkins--combined to make one great tag-team performance that somehow comes together.

Bela, as many will know, was getting on in years when finally given the role of the Monster after famously refusing it in 1931.  To be fair, the part probably wasn't all that much as originally conceived, before director James Whale entered the picture with his imaginative revisions.

By the time Bela finally donned the makeup over a decade later, he had Karloff's definitive interpretation to live up to as well as the fact that his distinctive features seemed oddly ill-suited for the role.

Most damaging to his performance, however, was the fact that the script originally specified that the Monster be both blind and capable of speech, a result of Bela's "Ygor" character having his brain transplanted into the Monster's skull in the previous film, GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN. 

While this would seem a logical development, the subsequent excision of all references in the film to the Monster's blindness rendered Lugosi's stumbling, groping movements extremely awkward-looking.  The missing dialogue (the story goes that Bela's voice coming out of the Monster sounded unintentionally funny) also resulted in shots in which the Monster's lips moved soundlessly.

By now pushing sixty, Bela was happy to turn over the role's more strenuous "acting" requirements to stuntman Gil Perkins, who not only went mano-a-mano with the Wolf Man in the final scenes but also withstood being packed into that wall of ice where he's first discovered and then freed by Lawrence Talbot (Chaney). 

Oddly, the burly Perkins looked so impressive in the Monster's makeup that it's a closeup of him we first see in the ice, and a stunning one at that.  So much so that one might wonder why he wasn't given the role in the subsequent films that featured fellow actor/stuntman Glenn Strange instead.

But aside from my affection for Bela and his ill-fated turn as the Monster, it's my love for the Wolf Man that most warms my heart toward this film.  For, indeed, FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN is more a sequel to the 1941 classic THE WOLF MAN than anything else, and a terrific one at that. 

It begins with that famous scene of two graverobbers invading Lawrence Talbot's crypt and getting much more than they bargained for, exposing his dormant body to the rays of the full moon and releasing the Wolf Man into the wild once again.

Talbot subsequently ends up in a hospital under the care of Dr. Mannering (Patrick Knowles, who played a different character in THE WOLF MAN), during which the full moon rises again and we get to see the first (and perhaps best) actual close-up transformation scene from man to wolf, done in a series of meticulous lap-dissolves featuring gradually increasing werewolf makeup in an exhaustive process that took all day and was an ordeal for all involved, especially Chaney.

Leaving the hospital--with a concerned Dr. Mannering on his heels--Talbot seeks help from the gypsy woman, Maleva (venerable actress Maria Ouspenskaya), who once cared for her own lycanthropic son Bela (played by Lugosi in THE WOLF MAN) before he passed his terrible curse on to Talbot and was then killed by him.  Together they travel to the village of Vasaria, where Maleva is sure Dr. Frankenstein (that is, the original Dr. Frankenstein's son Ludwig) will be able to help Talbot. 

When they arrive, they discover that Dr. Frankenstein is dead and his castle (into which the mental institution of the previous film seems to have morphed) is in ruins.  The full moon rises, and Talbot once again becomes the Wolf Man.  With a passel of torch-wielding villagers hot on his heels (including Lionel Atwill as mayor and Dwight Frye in a bit part), he darts into the ruins of Frankenstein's castle and falls through a hole into an underground ice cavern. 

There, after returning to human form, he discovers the Frankenstein Monster (Perkins) frozen in that wall of ice.  How did he get there, after last being seen burning alive in Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory?  Hmmm.  I guess he fell through the floor again like he did in the windmill at the end of the first movie. 

Talbot frees the Monster, hoping he can lead him to Dr. Frankenstein's diary and perhaps a way to end his own life of misery.  He then devises a plan to contact Frankenstein's daughter, Elsa (played by Evelyn Ankers in GHOST, but now embodied by bombshell Ilona Massey), to see if she knows the diary's whereabouts.  Talbot persuades Elsa to come to the castle with him, where she shows him a hidden compartment that contains the actual Frankenstein records.

Dr. Mannering shows up and inexplicably agrees to help Talbot in his suicidal endeavor (one of the troubled script's most puzzling elements), restoring Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory and using his records to come up with a way to drain off Talbot's life energies.  Elsa urges him to use the same technology to finish off the Monster as well, to which he agrees. 

Everything builds up to the film's highly-anticipated final confrontation.  As hotheaded villager Vaszec (Rex Evans) plots to blow up the dam overlooking the castle ruins and drown its inhabitants, both the Monster and Lawrence Talbot are strapped to lab tables, ostensibly so that Dr. Mannering can drain them both of their life energies and provide each a merciful death. 

Of course, it doesn't work that way--just at the point of throwing the proper switch, Mannering gets that old "mad doctor" gleam in his eyes (familiar to Universal monster movie fans) and suddenly decides he simply must see the Monster at his full power. 

Bela blinks his eyes as his sight returns, making the Monster more dangerous than he's been since the climax of GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN.  The resulting surge of renewed energy gives us his finest closeup in the film, a crazed look of juiced-up triumph that turns into an evil sideways leer as he focuses his attention upon the lovely Elsa (apparently electricity acts as a sort of Viagra for monsters). 

Just at the point where the later films in the series began to fizzle out (Monster breaks straps, galumphs around for a while, blunders into quicksand or fire and conveniently expires), this one switches into high gear. When Elsa hits the wrong switch in an attempt to turn off the machine and the lab is shaken by explosions, with heavy wooden beams falling from the ceiling, a thrill of anticipation fills the air and we just know things are about to get really good.

The Monster bursts his straps and grabs Elsa--it's the only time in Universal's "Frankenstein" series when he'll do the traditional "monster carries girl" move--and the Wolf Man (for the full moon has just risen and Talbot has turned) follows suit soon after, attacking him from behind as Mannering whisks Elsa to safety. 

The fight itself isn't all that imaginatively staged, with the Wolf Man leaping on the Monster from various perches and the Monster throwing him around, with a little old-fashioned wrestling thrown in for good measure.  But it's still an exciting monster rumble designed to delight the fans. The dam blowing up and the raging waters surging downhill toward the castle add to the suspense.

Adding to the eternal confusion as to how many people played the Monster in this film, the shot of him bursting his straps and sullenly lumbering down off the lab table looks for all the world like an insert of actor/stuntman Eddie Parker (who reportedly doubled Chaney as the Wolf Man) in the makeup, as do some of the subsequent shots during the fight. 

This would attest to the notion of the film's final sequence being heavily redone to account for script changes, with the Monster's oversized boots being filled by whomever happened to be available that day.  In some shots he seems to be a poorly made-up Parker; in others, he's unmistakably Perkins.
 
The interspersed closeups of Bela--growling, sneering, wickedly gleeful--seem to be from the original version of the sequence which featured a talking Monster gloating over his renewed strength and power.  At one point right before the deluge he throws his arms up in a grin of triumph--is this a glimpse of the Monster right after electrical rejuvenation, when the original strap-bursting scene featured a talking, gloating Monster? I believe so, although we'll probably never know for sure.

One thing is sure, however--for pure all-around fun, the Universal horror pictures rarely, if ever, get any better than this.  While more serious critics ponder its many mysteries and hash over its faults, of which there are, admittedly, a few, fans revel in the undiluted monster goodness that is FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN.  It's a priceless example of richly-evocative vintage filmmaking that continues to fascinate and find renewed appreciation as time goes by.
  

Read the in-depth discussion of the film at Classic Horror Film Board

Getting the Story Straight: The Universal "Frankenstein" Series, Part One

Getting the Story Straight: The Universal "Frankenstein" Series, Part Two

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (1943) -- Movie Review by Porfle

ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 9/7/09

 

Old monsters never die, they just fade away... Unless, that is, they're given one last chance to shine, as Universal pictures did for their classic monsters Dracula, the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein (really Frankenstein's Monster, since it was the doctor who created him who was named Frankenstein -- but, let's face it, people were calling the Monster "Frankenstein" way back in the early thirties, including Universal's promotional department). 

By 1948, the various series starring these definitive movie monsters had wound down -- the scriptwriters were unable to think of new ways to rehash the same old formulas, the Gothic horror style that made these movies what they were had begun to diminish in the shadow of the Cold War and the Atomic Age, and new chapters in these sagas were beginning to end up at the bottom of double bills that drew increasingly smaller audiences. 

And so, as Universal became Universal-International and began to cut budgetary corners wherever possible, many of the men who played these monsters and the technicians responsible for bringing them to the screen were, one by one, given their pink slips and sent packing. 

However, two stars who were having no trouble getting people to buy movie tickets were the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. And since U-I had all these classic monster characters just sitting around collecting cobwebs, it was decided to team them with the two comics in an attempt to combine the last vestiges of the monsters' popularity with the ongoing success of Bud and Lou, and create what would become a unique and thoroughly entertaining comedy/horror experience. The result was ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN. 

Thankfully, the monsters were pretty much allowed to play it straight, without forcing them to perform a lot of pratfalls and silliness. In fact, the opening scene, which finds hapless lycanthrope Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) in a London hotel room fretfully awaiting the rising of the full moon, would have fit perfectly into any of the serious horror films of earlier years. Talbot, it seems, has been on the trail of Dracula, because he knows the infamous King of the Vampires is now in possession of the Frankenstein Monster and is trying to find a suitably compliant brain to surgically pop into his skull and transform the lumbering beast into a willing servant who will do his bidding. 

 

 

Having discovered that Dracula and the Monster have been transported to a "house of horrors" exhibit in Florida, Talbot is desperately trying to contact the shipping company by phone in order to intercept the crates before they're delivered. And who should answer the phone but Wilbur Grey (Lou Costello), who works there with his buddy Chick (Bud Abbott)? 

As Talbot tries to explain the situation to Wilbur, the full moon rises and he begins to sprout hair and fangs (in the first of two excellent transformation scenes). Wilbur hears growling on the other end of the line and thinks that, for some reason, the man has put his dog on the phone. But what he hears is the Wolf Man rampaging through the hotel room, savagely ripping the furniture to shreds in a scene that is every bit as chilling as any of the "official" Wolf Man movies. 

 After night descends on Florida, Wilbur and Chick deliver the crates containing Dracula and the Monster to McDougal's House Of Horrors. Wilbur, of course, discovers them and is suitably terrified, but a skeptical Chick will have none of it. 

Finally Dracula arises from his coffin and takes the Monster to a castle on a nearby island (I know, there aren't very many castles in Florida, but that's not important) where his accomplice, Dr. Sandra Mornay (Lenore Aubert), who possesses the actual diary of Dr. Frankenstein, will perform the brain transplant. Unfortunately, the brain she has chosen for its simplicity and compliance is none other than that of her "boyfriend", Wilbur! 

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN is a dream-come-true for fans of both Bud and Lou and the classic Universal monsters. Although the humor is more situational, with less of the usual comedy "routines" that are found in most Abbott and Costello movies, it is one of their funniest efforts. And it's a real joy to see Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Glenn Strange performing their unforgettable characters one last time. 

Lugosi, denied by Universal the chance to portray his most famous character since 1931 (John Carradine assumed the role in HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and HOUSE OF DRACULA; Lon Chaney, Jr. appeared as SON OF DRACULA around the same time), relishes the chance to don the famous cape again and gives a wonderfully sinister performance. 

 Chaney, of course, is great as Larry Talbot/the Wolf Man, and even though he wears a masklike appliance here (master make-up man Jack Pierce, who created the famous make-ups for the Monster, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, et al, had since been let go by the studio, and faster, more cost-efficient methods were now employed), thus making his face less mobile and expressive, still manages to convey the frightening viciousness of the Wolf Man, even in certain scenes in which he must clumsily fail in his attempts to sink his claws into an unsuspecting Lou Costello. 

And Glenn Strange, the former stunt man and bit actor who played the Monster in the last two serious entries in the Frankenstein series (HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and HOUSE OF DRACULA) has more to do here than in either of the previous films in which he spent most of his screen time strapped to a laboratory table. 

The climax of the film takes place in the castle as Dracula and Dr. Mornay prepare to transfer Wilbur's brain into the skull of the Monster while Chick and Talbot come to his rescue. As fate would have it, the full moon rises yet again and Talbot undergoes his transformation, which leads to a rare battle between Dracula and the Wolf Man (just as Lugosi and Chaney, and their respective stunt doubles, fought in FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN five years earlier), while the newly-recharged Monster breaks free of his restraints and goes after Bud and Lou. This results in an extended free-for-all that will delight fans of both genres. 

Unfairly maligned by many critics as the final degradation of the classic Universal monsters, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN is actually a wonderful tribute to them, and a fond way of bidding farewell to these familiar characters that provided so much entertainment to their many fans over the years. If you're one of those fans, and you also appreciate the comedy of Abbott and Costello, this is a film that you'll want to watch over and over again.

 

ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN -- Movie Review by Porfle

GETTING THE STORY STRAIGHT: THE UNIVERSAL "FRANKENSTEIN" SERIES (Part Two of Two) by Porfle

Here's the intro for Part One:

If you're just a casual viewer of the classic Universal horror films from the 30s and 40s, you might sometimes wonder exactly what's going on in a particular episode of the "Frankenstein" saga.  How come the Monster can talk in one movie, but is mute in the next?  How did he end up in that block of ice?  Why does he suddenly look like Bela Lugosi? 

Let's see if we can't get the story straight, and make as much sense out of things as possible, so that the next time you watch a "Frankenstein" movie, you'll know exactly where it fits in the continuing story of the Monster.  Although there's certainly more nitpicking that can be done with these films, such as various anachronisms, changing locations, and multiple spellings of certain names, we'll be dealing with the basic storylines and more fun-type details here.

And if you already know all of this stuff--well, what the heck, you can read it anyway.

And now, continuing with our recap of Universal's classic "Frankenstein" series with regard to its film-to-film continuity, we set our sights on the final four films...

(Warning: wall-to-wall spoilers ahead!)



FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (1943)

In this installment, which is more a sequel to THE WOLF MAN than anything else, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) once again finds himself roaming the earth waiting for those dreaded nights in which the full moon will transform him into a bloodthirsty beast.  He seeks help from the gypsy woman, Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya), who once cared for her own lycanthropic son Bela before he passed his terrible curse on to Talbot and was then killed by him.  Together they travel to the village of Vasaria, where Maleva is sure Dr. Frankenstein will be able to help Talbot. 

When they arrive, they discover that Dr. Frankenstein is dead and his castle (into which the mental institution of the previous film seems to have morphed) is in ruins.  The full moon rises, and Talbot once again becomes the Wolf Man.  With a passel of torch-wielding villagers hot on his heels, he darts into the ruins of Frankenstein's castle and falls through a hole into an underground ice cavern.  There, after returning to his human form, he discovers the Frankenstein Monster frozen in a wall of ice (with stuntman Gil Perkins in full makeup providing the impressive first closeup).  How did he get there, after last being seen burning alive in Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory?  Hmmm.  I guess he fell through the floor again like he did in the windmill at the end of the first movie. 

Anyway, Talbot has the bright idea that the Monster might be able to lead him to Frankenstein's records, which contain the secrets of life and death and might show him a way to end his miserable existence.  The Monster, now played by Bela Lugosi (which is fitting, since Lugosi's "Ygor" donated his brain to the Monster in the last movie), obligingly leads Talbot to a hidden panel where he believes Frankenstein's diary resides.  But it is empty.  Talbot then devises a plan to contact Frankenstein's daughter, Elsa (played by Evelyn Ankers in GHOST, but now embodied by bombshell Ilona Massey), to see if she knows the diary's whereabouts.  Talbot persuades Elsa to come to the castle with him, where she shows him a hidden compartment that contains the actual Frankenstein records.
 

Dr. Mannering (Patrick Knowles), who treated an injured Talbot earlier in the film and believes him to be dangerously delusional, inexplicably agrees to help him in his self-destructive endeavors, restoring Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory and using his records to come up with a way to drain off Talbot's life energies.  Elsa urges him to use the same technology to finish off the Monster as well, to which he agrees.  But at the crucial moment, Mannering realizes that he can't destroy such a monumental scientific achievement as the Frankenstein Monster, and must see it at its full power. 

With Talbot and the Monster both strapped to tables in the laboratory, Mannering fires up the machinery and fills the Monster with life-giving electricity.  The Monster blinks his eyes--he can see again!  For indeed, in the original script he was blind just as he had been at the end of the previous film, and what's more, he spoke throughout the film in Ygor's voice.  But, as the story goes, the studio executives thought this sounded too gosh-darn funny (especially when they heard Lugosi speaking some of the really bad lines that Curt Siodmak had written for him), so they simply cut all of the Monster's speech, and references to his blindness as well, out of the finished film.  This explains why Lugosi plays the Monster with his arms stiffly outstretched, and why in some scenes his mouth moves even though there are no words coming out of it!  It's also one of the main reasons Lugosi's earnest performance as the Monster has been so unfairly maligned ever since this film premiered. 

But back to the story--the Monster can see again, and he feels unlimited power surging through his body as he breaks the straps and lumbers off of the table to grab the unwilling Elsa (apparently electricity works pretty much like Viagra).  Meanwhile, the full moon has risen again and Talbot has turned into the Wolf Man.  He also breaks free, then performs a flying tackle on the Monster. 

Elsa and Dr. Mannering hightail it out of the castle just as one of the villagers blows up the dam above, sending a raging wall of water down the mountainside while the Wolf Man and the Monster (with stuntmen Gil Perkins and Eddie Parker filling in for the aging Lugosi) take each other on in the monster rumble to end all monster rumbles.  The water hits the castle and destroys it, washing both monsters away as the villagers gape at each other in confusion.  Should they be happy?  Or should they run for their lives as the massive wall of water descends upon their village?



HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944)

Karloff is back, but this time he plays the evil Dr. Niemann, a maniacal devotee of the late Dr. Frankenstein's scientific endeavors who has no qualms about applying this knowledge to such dubious efforts as transplanting the brain of a man into the head of a dog.  In the opening scenes, Niemann and his hunchbacked minion Daniel (J. Carrol Naish) escape from prison and kill the owner of a traveling horror show (George Zucco), assuming the identities of him and his driver. 

As this film is a multi-monster extravaganza (with the classic monster era fading, Universal was drawing audiences into theaters with the promise of more monsters for their money), they have a brief encounter with Dracula (John Carradine) before arriving at Frankenstein's castle to look for his records.  Venturing into the same underground ice cavern seen in the previous film, they discover the frozen bodies of both the Monster and the Wolf Man, apparently deposited there by the flood waters, and set about thawing them out.  Talbot comes to first, none the worse for wear but a bit cranky after his long nap ("Why have you freed me from the ice that imprisoned the beast that lives within me?" he asks). 

But the Monster is in bad shape and in need of rejuvenation again, which Dr. Niemann is quite willing to provide once they journey to his old laboratory with Talbot and the Monster in tow.  On the way there, they pick up a gypsy girl named Ilonka (Elena Verdugo), who turns the smitten Daniel into a palpitating bundle of jealousy when she promptly falls in love with Talbot.  Back at the lab, Niemann straps the Monster to a table (where Glenn Strange, the former stuntman and bit player who now plays the role, will spend most of his time in this movie and the next) to prepare him for his electrical "pepper-upper".
 

Talbot grows more and more agitated as the next full moon approaches, impatient for the doctor to help him instead of fiddling around with the Monster.  Ilonka takes pity on him, and plans to shoot him with a silver bullet ("fired by the hand...of one who loves him enough...to understand" she recites gravely) the next time he turns.  In one of the best transformation scenes in any of the Wolf Man films, Talbot once again becomes a hairy, fanged beast and rushes out into the night looking for a jugular vein to bite.  Ilonka follows him and is fatally wounded, but not before she can fire the crucial shot that will end Talbot's misery. 

Daniel is heartbroken when he finds her body, and blames Dr. Niemann for devoting all his attention to the Monster instead of fulfilling his promise to put Daniel's brain into Talbot's healthy body and turn him into a chick-magnet.  He attacks the doctor and breaks his back.  The Monster, grateful to the doctor for restoring his strength, breaks his straps and lunges off of the table, grabbing Daniel and heaving him through a window to his death.  At this point, the omnipresent torch-wielding villagers arrive right on schedule to herd the Monster, carrying the dying Niemann, into a nearby swamp where he stumbles into some quicksand and the two of them sink slowly into oblivion.



 HOUSE OF DRACULA (1945)

This is the last film in the series and is another monsterfest like the previous one, again featuring the Frankenstein Monster, the Wolf Man, and Dracula.  Also on hand to make it even more monster-packed are "The Mad Doctor" and "The Hunchback", although Jane Adams as a kindly hunchbacked nurse named Nina isn't exactly my idea of a monster. 

The "Mad Doctor" in question, Dr. Edelman (Onslow Stevens), is first seen as a respected physician and scientist who is currently working on the creation of a special technique that can heal all sorts of physical maladies without traditional surgery.  But progress is slow, and Nina longs for the day in which the doctor can finally work his magic on her. 

It isn't long before John Carradine's Dracula shows up at the doctor's seaside mansion, this time seeking a cure for his vampirism.  The doctor examines a sample of Dracula's blood under a microscope and discovers that it contains parasites that may cause his craving for blood.  He prescribes a series of transfusions which he hopes will solve the problem.  Of course, Dracula's ever-roving eye is drawn to Dr. Edelman's other nurse, the beautiful Miliza (Martha O'Driscoll), and before you know it he's forgotten that silly notion about being cured and is hard at work luring Miliza over to the dark side. 

Not only that, but during his next blood transfusion he proves what a real first-class jerk he is by reversing the flow and injecting his own blood into Dr. Edelman's veins, which will eventually turn the kindly doctor into a ravening madman (the "Mad Doctor" promised in the film's publicity).  But Dr. Edelman manages to thwart Dracula's plans by dragging his coffin into the light of the rising sun and opening the lid, thus reducing the vampire to skeletal form once again. 

Meanwhile, Larry Talbot (who somehow survived being shot with a silver bullet in the last movie) has also arrived at the mansion hoping for a cure for his particular problem, but he's come at a bad time--the doctor is busy, and it's almost full-moon time again.  He races into town and begs the local police to put him up for the night.  They call upon Dr. Edelman to come and take a look at the "madman" they've got locked up in their cell.  Edelman tries to convince Talbot that his problem is merely psychological, but Talbot effectively proves him wrong by promptly turning into the Wolf Man (in another excellent transformation scene). 

Edelman theorizes that Talbot is so convinced he's a werewolf that it affects him physically, and plans to use his new surgical techniques to attempt a cure.  But the next day a despairing Talbot hurls himself off a cliff next to the mansion and into the sea.  Edelman has himself lowered down the side of the cliff and discovers Talbot in a cave where the sea has deposited him, then almost dies at the Wolf Man's hands before Talbot returns to human form.  Also in the cave is the body of--wouldn't you know it--the Frankenstein Monster.  Somehow, after sinking into that quicksand back in the last movie, he has turned up buried in the muck in this cave beneath Dr. Edelman's house, along with Dr. Niemann's skeleton.  There's a brief line of dialogue that attempts to explain this, but I hardly find it worth repeating. 

Edelman does what anyone else in the circumstances would do--he straps the Monster to a table in his lab, snaps on the old jumper cables, and starts pumping electricity into him.  But Talbot and Nina use some really, really corny dialogue to talk him out of it, and he realizes that, sometimes, dormant monsters are better off left alone.  So he focuses his attention instead on performing Talbot's operation. 

 

That night, Talbot is sitting in his room recuperating, when he looks out the window and sees Dr. Edelman jumping onto a passing horse-drawn wagon.  Edelman, thanks to Dracula's blood, has begun to have spells in which he turns into a maniacal killer.  He murders the driver of the wagon and is chased by the villagers back to the mansion.  When the police arrive, he has reverted back to his normal self and persuades them to search elsewhere for the killer.  But Talbot later confronts him and finds out the truth.  Edelman pleads with Talbot to kill him if he becomes a danger to others again, and wishes only to remain lucid long enough to perform surgery on Nina.

The next night, the full moon rises once again and, after a tense few moments, Talbot realizes that his own operation was a success and he is no longer a werewolf.  But as he and Miliza celebrate, Edelman goes mad and starts recharging the Monster again.  Nina interrupts, so he strangles the poor girl as Talbot rushes in.  Edelman advances with murder in his eyes, and Talbot shoots him.  In a last moment of sanity, Edelman smiles gratefully and falls to the floor, dead. 

Suddenly realizing that all of the other monsters in the movie have either been killed or cured, the Frankenstein Monster breaks his straps and heaves himself wearily off of the table for one last final-reel stomp.  The police arrive and he manages to dispatch a couple of them before clumsily knocking over a tall shelf full of volatile chemicals that burst into flame, which, needless to say, he proceeds to wade around in like an idiot.  Talbot and Miliza escape to live happily ever after, while the last official chapter in the celebrated saga of the Frankenstein Monster concludes with stock footage of Lon Chaney, Jr. stumbling around during the fiery finale of GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN.



ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948)

I don't consider this to be an official part of the Frankenstein series, but it's worth mentioning just to note what our old friends are up to in this alternate comedy universe.  Somehow, Dracula has come into possession of the Monster (played for the third time by Glenn Strange) and is planning to transplant a different brain into his skull to make him more submissive (which would seem unnecessary, since the Monster follows all of Dracula's orders throughout the movie and calls him "Master"). 

As fate would have it, of course, the brain he plans to use belongs to Lou Costello as the not-so-bright "Wilbur."  Wilbur and his bossy companion, Chick (Bud Abbott), happen to work for the shipping company which receives the crates from Europe containing Dracula and the Monster.  Here, Dracula sets up shop in a castle (in Florida?) where, with the help of the evil Dr. Sandra Mornay (Lenore Aubert) posing as Wilbur's girlfriend, he plans to perform the brain transplant.

But Larry Talbot has discovered Dracula's plan and, for some reason, has taken it upon himself to thwart it.  The "cure" given him by Dr. Edelman seems to have worn off--he's still regularly wolfing out (in some fantastic transformation scenes).  Dracula and the Wolf Man finally do battle before the movie is over, and both end up falling from the balcony of the castle into the sea far below, which apparently kills them (not...bloody...likely!) 

After a prolonged slapstick finale--during which Strange racks up more screen time than in the previous two films combined--the Monster chases Bud and Lou onto a dock which is promptly set ablaze, and ends up being roasted alive--again.  But as I said before, as fun as this movie is, I regard it as a fanciful footnote in relation to the rest of the Frankenstein films.  (Read our full review here.)


And there you have it--the Frankenstein story from beginning to end, one film leading into the next (with varying degrees of continuity) in a saga that lasted for seventeen glorious years.  Some of them are among the greatest films ever made, while others are just above-average monster flicks.  But they are all endlessly entertaining classics, and all of them feature the most celebrated character in the history of horror movies--the Frankenstein Monster.

  

GETTING THE STORY STRAIGHT: THE UNIVERSAL "FRANKENSTEIN" SERIES (Part Two of Two) by Porfle

GETTING THE STORY STRAIGHT: THE UNIVERSAL "FRANKENSTEIN" SERIES (Part One of Two) by Porfle

If you're just a casual viewer of the classic Universal horror films from the 30s and 40s, you might sometimes wonder exactly what's going on in a particular episode of the "Frankenstein" saga.  How come the Monster can talk in one movie, but is mute in the next?  How did he end up in that block of ice?  Why does he suddenly look like Bela Lugosi? 

Let's see if we can't get the story straight, and make as much sense out of things as possible, so that the next time you watch a "Frankenstein" movie, you'll know exactly where it fits in the continuing story of the Monster.  Although there's certainly more nitpicking that can be done with these films, such as various anachronisms, changing locations, and multiple spellings of certain names, we'll be dealing with the basic storylines and more fun-type details here.

And if you already know all of this stuff--well, what the heck, you can read it anyway.

(Warning: wall-to-wall spoilers ahead!)



FRANKENSTEIN (1931)

This is the original, the one in which renegade scientist Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) first stitches together various parts of dead bodies to create a man, which he and his hunchbacked assistant Fritz (Dwight Frye) then bring to life via electricity.  (Note that the name "Frankenstein", despite popular misconception, refers to Clive's character and not to the Monster himself.)  While outdone in the sequel, the thunderous creation sequence is still a highlight of horror cinema, punctuated by Clive's frenzied declaration, "It's ALIVE!"

Boris Karloff rightfully became famous overnight for his portrayal of the Monster, a pitiful, confused creature (possessed of a criminal brain thanks to the bumbling Fritz) who longs for acceptance but is greeted only with fear and loathing.  To make matters worse for the poor soul, his fickle creator, despite all of his initial enthusiasm, seems to lose interest in his creation pretty quick when the pitiful brute shows his savage side due to the cruel taunting of a sadistic, torch-wielding Fritz. 

The Monster manages to kill his twisted tormentor, prompting Frankenstein's concerned mentor, Dr. Waldman (Edward van Sloan), to suggest dissection.  The exhausted Henry washes his hands of the whole matter and scampers back to town to marry his sweetheart, Elizabeth (Mae Clarke), leaving Dr. Waldman to perform the grisly task alone.  But as Waldman bends over the lab table with his scapel, the Monster wakes up from his anesthesia and does away with him. 

Free at last, the confused creature makes his way out the front door of the old watchtower laboratory and into the wild. He ends up accidentally drowning the one person who is nice to him, a little girl named Maria (Marilyn Harris), who shows him that flowers float just like boats, but little girls don't.  The Monster then terrorizes Frankenstein's bride Elizabeth on their wedding day, but, unlike what occurs in Mary Shelley's novel, lets her live. 

A hunting party comprised of enraged villagers tracks him down to an abandoned windmill, where the Monster and his creator have their final confrontation.  Henry Frankenstein survives being throttled and thrown from the mill (thanks to a happy ending tacked on by the studio), but the Monster meets a fiery death when the villagers set the building ablaze and gleefully watch it burn to the ground.  The poor Monster, who is deathly afraid of fire, screams in agony as a heavy beam breaks free and pins him to the floor while the raging flames close in around him.



BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935)

Picking up where the first film left off, we find that the Monster (Karloff again) didn't die in the fire after all.  Instead, he plunged through the collapsing floor into the stream that flows beneath the windmill.  Maria's father, who must see the Monster's charred bones for himself in order to be able to sleep at night, ventures too close and falls in himself.  The Monster angrily drowns him, then kills the man's wife when she offers her hand thinking that it's her husband who is climbing out of the ruins.  Surprise!  It's the Monster, and he's loose upon the countryside once again. 

The villagers hunt him down as before, tying him to a pole like a wild animal and lifting it straight into the air before letting it fall into a hay wagon.  In this moment, as the Monster is suspended over the crowd upon the upraised pole, director James Whale creates an audacious crucifixion analogy featuring the Frankenstein Monster as a Christlike figure.  He escapes from captivity later on, of course, and finds his way to the isolated hut of a blind hermit, who takes him in and cares for him as a fellow outcast from society.  During their time together, the kindly hermit teaches him basic English ("Breeead!  Gooood!"), and introduces him to the dubious pleasures of smoking and drinking before a couple of passing hunters (including a young John Carradine) break up the party and send the Monster stumbling into the wilderness once again. 

Making his way into an underground crypt, he encounters a flamboyantly unbalanced individual named Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Theisiger), who seeks to collaborate with an unwilling Henry Frankenstein in the creation of life and considers the Monster to be the perfect means of persuading him to cooperate.  This persuasion will include the kidnapping of Frankenstein's bride Elizabeth (Valerie Hobson this time) as an additional incentive. 

The Monster is particularly interested when he discovers that Pretorius plans to create a woman as a fitting companion for him ("Wo-man...friend...wife..." he muses).  And in one of the most thrilling sequences ever filmed, full of crackling lightning, blazing showers of sparks, and generally bravura filmmaking, this is accomplished.  But the towering bride (Elsa Lanchester), a magnificent creation of perverse Gothic beauty, rejects him with the same fear and loathing with which he has been greeted by everyone else. 

In a fit of angst and despair, the Monster grabs a convenient lever ("Get away from that lever!  You'll blow us all to atoms!" Pretorius warns) and, after graciously allowing Henry and Elizabeth to escape unharmed, destroys the mountaintop laboratory in a spectacular explosion.  His last words to Pretorius and his erstwhile bride-to-be are:  "We belong dead."

SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939)

Traveling to the village of Frankenstein by train, Wolf von Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone), son of the infamous monster-maker, looks forward to moving into the house he has inherited from his father with his wife Elsa (Josephine Hutchinson) and their young son, Peter (Donnie Dunagan).  While the first film featured a roomy high-ceilinged mansion and the second an even larger and grander one, SON OF FRANKENSTEIN's oversized and stunningly Gothic castle is practically cavernous and designed in a style dripping with German expressionism.  The ruins of the once-remote watchtower laboratory are now situated directly behind it.

The Frankensteins receive a rather chilly reception from the villagers, and the local chief of constables, Inspector Krogh (Lionel Atwill), warns Wolf not to attempt to resume his father's work lest he risk their wrath. Krogh himself has an unfortunate history in this regard, the Monster having torn his arm from its roots when he was a child.  Before long, however, Wolf discovers the comatose Monster (who survived the explosion of the previous film, and is played by Karloff for the third and last time) beneath the ruins of the laboratory, tended by the faithful Ygor (Bela Lugosi in one of his finest performances). 

Ygor, a grotesque, broken-necked graverobber who was hanged for his crimes but survived, now lives in a cave beneath the laboratory with his friend, the Monster.  "He...does things for me," Ygor cryptically tells Wolf, alluding to the fact that, one by one, the Monster has been dispatching the members of the jury that sentenced Ygor to death before being immobilized by an errant bolt of lightning.  (Which is curious, as in other films lightning is the very thing which makes him stronger.)

Wolf is thrilled to discover the indisputable proof of his father's genius, and, even as Inspector Krogh and the volatile villagers become more and more suspicious of his actions, he quickly begins work on bringing the Monster back to full power.  But when this is accomplished, he finds the Monster (inexplicably mute once again) still in the vengeful thrall of the evil Ygor, who tasks him to finish off the rest of the jury that condemned him.  Realizing his mistake in reviving the Monster, Wolf attempts unsuccessfully to kill him, and later is forced to shoot Ygor in self-defense.  

Upon finding Ygor's body, the grief-stricken Monster strikes back by entering Peter's bedroom through a secret passage and kidnapping him.  In a climactic confrontation within the ruined laboratory, with the Monster holding both Wolf and the Inspector at bay with one foot on the little boy's neck, Wolf performs a swashbuckling rope swing and kicks the Monster head over heels into a boiling pit of sulpher, where he apparently meets his parboiled doom.  Wolf decides to take his family and leave the charming little village while the getting's good, and, for some inexplicable reason, the villagers give him a hero's send-off.

GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942)

As this story begins, the villagers are complaining to the mayor about what a dump their little burg has become due to the curse of Frankenstein.  One woman moans that her children cry themselves to sleep each night because "there is no bread."  What, did the Monster eat it all?  ("Breeead...goood.")  Did he knock down the bread factory?  Anyway, the mayor finally gives in and allows the villagers to blow up Frankenstein's castle, which prompts them to grab an armload of the nearest dynamite and gleefully scurry off to perform the impromptu demolition. 

Before you know it, the castle is a smoking, crumbling ruin, and Ygor, who somehow survived having several bullets pumped into his gut by Wolf von Frankenstein in the previous movie, is weaving his way through massive chunks of flying debris until he comes upon a startling sight--a wall has given way to reveal the solidified mass of sulphur which contains the body of the Monster (a stone-faced Lon Chaney, Jr. this time out), and he is still alive.  "The sulphur...was GOOD for you!" Ygor crows as he digs the Monster out.  Together they escape the destruction of the castle and, after the Monster is rejuvenated by an obliging bolt of lightning, make their way to the village of Vasaria, where yet another son of Frankenstein (Cedric Hardwicke as "Ludwig") presides over a mental institution while conducting his own advanced scientific research. 

Ygor is confident that this Dr. Frankenstein can restore the Monster to his full capacity, but his plan is sidetracked when the Monster breaks into the institution and murders an assistant, one Dr. Kettering.  Ludwig will have nothing of Ygor's dastardly plan, instead plotting to destroy the Monster by dissection, until the ghost of his father appears (also Hardwicke) and talks him out of doing away with his creation.  Ludwig decides instead to vindicate his father's genius by replacing the criminal brain within the Monster's skull with that of the murdered Dr. Kettering.

Taking advantage of this rare opportunity, the cunning Ygor persuades Ludwig's unscrupulous associate Dr. Bohmer (a leering Lionel Atwill) to make sure that his own brain is placed in the Monster's skull instead.  (The Monster's idea of having his brain replaced with that of a little girl he has befriended is vetoed.)  When the operation is over, Dr. Frankenstein is shocked to encounter a Monster that speaks not in Kettering's voice, but with the sinister tones of Bela Lugosi's Ygor, who schemes to take over the world now that his evil mind is housed in such a powerful body. 

But neither Ygor nor Bohmer foresaw a crucial element--while Kettering had the same blood type as the Monster, Ygor does not--and sudden blindness is the result.  As the ever-vigilant villagers once again take action and set fire to the institution, Ygorstein kills Dr. Frankenstein and then rampages blindly through the laboratory, knocking over several vials of flammable chemicals and turning the place into an inferno which, presumably, engulfs him.


That's it for part one!  Don't miss the thrill-packed conclusion, in which we'll take a close look at the final four films in the series: FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, HOUSE OF DRACULA, and ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN.  Coming soon to this theater!

 

GETTING THE STORY STRAIGHT: THE UNIVERSAL "FRANKENSTEIN" SERIES (Part One of Two) by Porfle

SHOW ME THE MUMMY: A Look At The Classic Universal "Mummy" Series by Porfle

(The Mummy/The Mummy's Hand/The Mummy's Tomb/The Mummy's Ghost/The Mummy's Curse)

(Originally posted in 2009) 


Run! Or at least walk real fast! Here comes the Mummy--again!

Yes, I figure this is as good a time as any to take a look back at the classic original Universal Studios "Mummy" films that started it all back in the 30s and 40s. Let's see what we can dig up, shall we?

(Warning--this article contains a sarcophagus-load of spoilers!)

THE MUMMY (1932) stars Boris Karloff, receiving sole over-the-title billing here only a year after FRANKENSTEIN plucked him from relative obscurity. He plays Im-ho-tep, an Egyptian high priest who was mummified alive for the sacrilege of trying to use the Scroll of Thoth to bring his dead Princess Ankh-es-en-amon back to life. Thousands of years later his tomb is discovered by archeologists led by Sir Joseph Whemple (Arthur Byron), and when a junior member of the team reads aloud from the Scroll of Thoth, the mummified Im-ho-tep returns to life in one of the creepiest and coolest scenes in the Golden Age of Horror and drives the poor guy stark raving mad when the crumbling corpse emerges from his sarcophagus, grabs the scroll, and shuffles off to Buffalo (or its Egyptian equivalent, anyway).

Jack Pierce's makeup job on Karloff here is magnificent, but after a few wide shots and one really great close-up, we never get to see it again. For the rest of the film Karloff appears sans wrappings (but with another fine, densely-wrinkled makeup job by Pierce) under the guise of the fez-headed Ardeth Bay, a mysterious Egyptian who shows up years later to lead the archeological team of Whemple's son Frank (David Manners) straight to the tomb of Princess Ankh-es-en-amon. With the recovery of her mummy and the Scroll of Thoth, Ardeth Bay plans to bring his ancient princess back to life--until he discovers that her soul has been reincarnated in the body of young Helen Grosvenor (the fascinatingly-eccentric actress Zita Johann), whom he now begins to lure into his sinister clutches. Sir Joseph Whemple and his son Frank discover Bay's intentions and try to foil them, with the help of a wise old expert in the Egyptian occult named Dr. Muller (Edward Van Sloan).

Unlike FRANKENSTEIN and THE WOLF MAN, there was no basis in literature or folklore for the character of the living mummy. In fact, the original script by Nina Wilcox Putnam was based on the life of French mystic Cagliostro, who claimed to have been several centuries old. But due to the sensation caused by the discovery of King Tut's tomb, the script was changed to take advantage of the public's mummy-mania at the time and offer Karloff as the undying Im-ho-tep. It was also heavily influenced by the previous year's DRACULA with Bela Lugosi, containing many of the same story elements right down to the almost-identical characters played by Edward Van Sloan and David Manners, and the replacement of the crucifix with an Egyptian ankh as a talisman against evil.


The cinematographer on DRACULA and a major influence on its look (especially in the early scenes in Dracula's castle) was German filmmaker Karl Freund, and THE MUMMY marked his first official stint in the director's chair. He gave the film its beautifully somber, almost expressionistic look and a deliberately-paced restraint that make it, as it has often been called, a "tone poem" of horror as opposed to the more lurid and over-the-top offerings in the genre. Today, many viewers might find it too slow and boring to sit through. But if your attention span encompasses an old-style form of storytelling that offers a wealth of exquisite subtlety and mood over visceral sensation, not to mention a great performance by Karloff, you will most likely find THE MUMMY to be one of the finest horror films ever made.


Strangely enough, it took Universal eight whole years to get around to making a sequel. But in 1940, they finally came up with THE MUMMY'S HAND, which, as it turned out, had nothing to do with the original story. This time, a couple of down-on-their-luck archeologists, the dashing Steve Banning (Dick Foran) and his pudgy comedy-relief sidekick "Babe" Jenson (Wallace Ford) are about ready to give up and leave Egypt when they stumble upon a clue that leads them to the ancient tomb of the Princess Ananka. But the tomb is guarded by the undying mummy of Kharis, who, like Im-ho-tep, was mummified alive for sacrilege. In lieu of the Scroll of Thoth, however, Kharis is kept alive by the fluid of boiled tana leaves, given to him over the years by a succession of High Priests who are dedicated to preserving the sanctity of the princess' tomb. The archeological expedition, which includes financial-backer and stage magician The Great Solvani (the lovable Cecil Kelloway) and his daughter Marta (the even more lovable Peggy Moran), is menaced by the Mummy until Steve and Babe locate the High Priests' temple and, in the exciting finale, vanquish the evil Professor Andoheb, current High Priest of Karnak (George Zucco) and set fire to the Mummy.

By this time, Karloff had better things to do than shuffle around wrapped head-to-toe in gauze, so actor Tom Tyler took over the title role. Better known as the title character of one of the greatest serials ever made, 1941's THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL, as well as a prolific Western star, Tyler brought an eerie presence to the role of the homicidal Kharis. In the movie's trailer and in some of the wider shots of the film itself, Tyler's eyes are menacing and expressive, yet in his close-ups they're masked to appear solid black. Some prefer this and consider it scarier-looking, but I think he looks much more impressive without the special effect. Anyway, this time the Mummy remains mute and leaves his wrappings on, thank goodness--no fez for Kharis--as will also be the case in the subsequent sequels.

Other precendents for the future films are set here as well. THE MUMMY'S HAND begins with an old priest handing down his knowledge and responsibilities to a successor, and relating the history of Kharis and Princess Ananka through flashbacks from the first film. Here, scenes from THE MUMMY are combined with new shots of Tom Tyler replacing those of Karloff to depict Kharis defiling the tomb of Princess Ananka and being condemned to a living death. This is a scenario we'll see again. Another is the discovery of "a greyish mark...like mold" on the throats of the Mummy's victims. And finally, there's the inherently lovelorn and amorous nature of these new-model High Priests of Karnak, who just can't seem to keep their hands off the leading ladies. George Zucco sets this precedent in motion by developing a high-school crush on the captive Peggy Moran and planning to give her and himself the old tana-leaf injection until Steve and Babe show up just in time to stick a fork in his scheme.

With THE MUMMY'S HAND, the series was already double-bill fodder with a running time of only 67 minutes. Even so, the expedition doesn't even reach the desert until the halfway point, and the Mummy makes his initial appearance several minutes after that. But the comedy bits and character scenes leading up to that are fun, and once the action gets started it never stops. The scene of the Mummy coming to life before the horrified eyes of expedition member Dr. Petrie (Charles Trowbridge) and strangling him as the gloating Andoheb looks on is one of the high points of the entire series. The cast is fine and the film as a whole is a polished, competent effort that stands on its own as one of the most likable horror films of the forties.


In 1942 came the follow-up, THE MUMMY'S TOMB, which brought a surprisingly downbeat and decidedly unsentimental aura to the series. Gone was the comedy relief, along with the exotic Egyptian setting itself, and with it the security of knowing that certain characters were immune from the Mummy's wrath. This is powerfully illustrated early on as the Steve Banning character from the previous film, now thirty years older and living in peaceful retirement in the quiet New England town of Mapleton, is visited in his bedroom one night by a vengeful (and somewhat singed) Kharis and strangled to death. The next night his elderly sister Jane, whose misfortune is to be of the same bloodline as a defiler of the Princess Ananka's tomb, meets the same fate. And when Babe (whose last name has somehow changed from Jensen to Hanson) hears the news and comes to Mapleton to pay his respects, sure enough the Mummy runs into him that very night, corners him in an alley, and gives him the old five-finger chokeroo. Even when I saw this as a kid, I was aghast that these characters were getting killed off--this was eighteen years before Janet Leigh's fatal shower in PSYCHO proved that no one was safe.

Well, Steve Banning's goofball son John (John Hubbard) survives and goes skipping merrily through the woods with his fiancee' Isobel (the lovely Elyse Knox, who happens to be actor Mark Harmon's mom) while the new current High Priest of Karnak, Mehemet Bey (Turhan Bey) scarfs an eyeload of her and falls head-over-heels in love just like his predecessor. So, using Kharis as a sort of proactive go-between, he orders him to kidnap Isobel and bring her to the cemetary where he works as caretaker so they can share tana-leaf cocktails and go sailing off into eternity together. Which doesn't seem quite right to Kharis, but he does it anyway (in later films he'll get righteously fed up with such tomfoolery). But this eventually brings the whole town down upon them and, in a fiery finale, John rescues Isobel while the Mummy is trapped on the balcony of the Banning home as it goes up in flames.

THE MUMMY'S TOMB establishes Universal's new horror star, Lon Chaney, Jr., as the Mummy for the remaining three films in the series, and the tall, beefy actor is definitely the most intimidating incarnation of Kharis. He's big, mean, and vengeful, and somehow Chaney is able to convey this through the rubber mask now used by Jack Pierce to create the character, with a combination of body language and hand gestures along with his imposing physique. The film itself is a lean one hour long, with a full eleven minutes devoted to a recap of the previous film as recounted by Steve Banning to his disbelieving houseguests right before his final encounter with Kharis, and there's also the traditional passing of the baton from one High Priest to another. This time, it's George Zucco again, who somehow survived being shot two or three times by Babe and managed to keep his job after having failed so miserably, handing things over to the young Turhan Bey, who proves to be a not-so-great choice himself. But somehow, even with its brief running time and generous padding, THE MUMMY'S TOMB manages to generate a good deal of monster-type entertainment. It also adds a curious element to the series' timeline--if THE MUMMY'S HAND takes place in the forties, then how come THE MUMMY'S TOMB, which is supposed to be about thirty years later, also takes place in the forties? Hmm...


Not long after these events, however, comes THE MUMMY'S GHOST (1944), which opens with George Zucco's now-ancient Andoheb yet again breaking in another High Priest and hoping for the best. (They're the High Priests of Arkam instead of Karnak now, for some reason--new management, maybe?) This time it's John Carradine, who made movies like this mainly to support his theater habit, as Yousef Bey. When Andoheb asks him, "You are Yousef Bey?" it sounds like he says "Useless" instead of "Yousef", which turns out to be pretty accurate. With the Bannings and Babe all out of the way (except for the surviving John Banning, who is inexplicably given a free pass), Yousef is charged with a new mission: go to America, where the Mummy is still running around in Mapleton, and bring him and the Princess Ananka back home to their resting place in Egypt. Instead of brewing tana leaves to keep the Mummy alive, since he apparently doesn't need them for that purpose anymore, they're to be used now to lure him in the same way the aroma of a Brontosaurus steak used to lure Fred Flintstone.

The usual flashbacks are dispensed with this time as Andoheb gives Yousef a quick verbal rundown of the story thus far, which he hands off to the previous film's Dr. Norman (Frank Reicher of 1933's KING KONG) to finish in a lecture to his skeptical Egyptology students back in Mapleton. Unfortunately, Dr. Norman brews up a batch of tana leaves himself during a home experiment that night and the Mummy shows up to kill off yet another familiar character before chugging the concoction like a frat rat at a keg party. His presence somehow attracts a sweet young Egyptian college student named Amina (Ramsay Ames), who sleepwalks to the scene of the murder and passes out on Dr. Norman's lawn, then becomes a suspect when she's discovered there the next morning. Her stuffy boyfriend Tom (Robert Lowery, who played a dour Batman in the 1949 serial BATMAN AND ROBIN) whines to the local sheriff about this to no avail, then thoughtfully leaves his dog Peanuts with Amina to help cheer her up. (In one scene it sounds like he says, "Come on, Penis" to the dog--sorry, but this just sounds funny to me because I can't stand the stiff-arsed Tom character).

Yousef Bey's seemingly simple task is made more difficult when he and the Mummy reach the museum where Ananka's body is kept. For just as Kharis reaches out to touch it (he actually cops a feel--really!), it crumbles to dust as her spirit flees to another body. Whose body, you ask? That's right--Amina, who is the physical reincarnation of Princess Ananka, and now serves as the vessel of her living soul as well. So the Mummy kidnaps her and brings her to the abandoned tower where he and Yousef are hiding out. (For some reason, they pick the one place in town with the most steps for the slow-moving Mummy to have to walk up and down.) Yousef, of course, takes one gander at the lovely, bound Amina and goes ga-ga, his priestly vows flying out the window as he grabs for the tana fluid and professes his eternal love to her. The Mummy overhears this sacrilege, however, and turns him into a priest-Frisbee. Meanwhile, Penis--I mean, Peanuts has managed to lead Tom and the other townsfolk to their hideout, and while making his escape with the now rapidly-aging Amina, the Mummy wanders into a swamp and they both sink into the quicksand as the horrified Tom and Peanuts look on.

At 61 minutes, THE MUMMY'S GHOST is a pretty eventful little film with some good Mummy action. A lengthy subplot about Inspector Walgreen (Barton McClane, THE MALTESE FALCON) investigating Dr. Norman's murder and setting a trap for the Mummy at Norman's house goes nowhere, since the Mummy never shows up there again. (It was a dumb idea, anyway--dig a big hole in Norman's yard, cover it with leaves, and hope the Mummy falls in. "Duh.") But the Mummy's angry rampage at the museum after Ananka's body crumbles to dust and his killing of the museum guard are memorable, as are some good, spookily-lit closeups of him during the movie. Chaney's performance is energetic and effective, regardless of the fact that he hated playing the mute, heavily-wrapped character. Plus, the murder of Dr. Norman and the downbeat ending continue the unsentimental, anyone-can-die attitude of the series.


Continuity flies out the window faster than a Mummy-propelled John Carradine in 1944's THE MUMMY'S CURSE, the final film in the series. Timeline? While this one takes place twenty-five years after the events of the last film, it's still the forties. Mapleton? Never heard of it. Now, the Mummy and Amina are buried beneath a bayou in Louisiana which is being drained by land developers. Don't look at me--I don't know how they got there. But the workers start dying, and a Mummy-shaped hole is discovered by Dr. James Halsey (Dennis Moore), who is investigating on behalf of the museum against the wishes of the gruff foreman, Pat Walsh (Addison Richards).

Halsey's assistant is the delightfully-named Dr. Ilzor Zandaab (Peter Coe, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN), and it doesn't take long to find out that Zandaab is the new High Priest of Whatever, sent to finish the job that all the other idiots so overwhelmingly screwed up. This guy's different, though--he's hardcore, and nothing, not even Walsh's beautiful daughter Betty (Kay Harding), can sway him from his task. His eyes gleam with purpose as he narrates the extensive flashbacks (they're back!) for us, and if anybody has a chance of getting this long-standing Mummy business straightened out once and for all, it's this guy. He is my hero. One catch, though...he has a shifty-eyed henchman, Ragheb (Martin Kosleck), and sure enough, the henchman falls for Betty and screws everything up in the end. Somehow, I think Amon-Ra has a sick sense of humor and is just messing with these guys.

Comedy relief returns to the series--sorta--in the form of Cajun Joe (Kurt Katch) and a stereotypically-black swamp worker named Goobie (Napoleon Simpson), who exclaims at one point, "De Debbil's on de loose and he's dancin' wiff de Mummy!" Later, after some reconsideration, he amends this to observe, "De Mummy's on de loose and he's dancin' wiff de Debbil!" (Well, I did say "sorta.") Cajun Joe meets his end in a shot that graced the cover of at least one monster mag back in the 60s, while another likable character, Tante Berthe (Ann Codee), a singer who owns the local bar where everyone hangs out, gets hers while valiantly trying to keep the Mummy from grabbing a young girl found wandering around earlier in the swamp.

Played by Virginia Christine, who was "Mrs. Olson" in the old Folger's coffee commercials ("It's mountain grown!"), she turns out to be Amina herself. Her resurrection from the drained swamp is one of the most impressive, and downright odd, sequences in the entire series. Caked in dried clay, she struggles to break loose from her burial place and then staggers blindly through the woods, her head turned upward to the blazing sun as it glows through her closed eyelids, until finally she descends slowly into the water to cleanse herself. This is such a strangely beautiful, almost surreal sequence, it almost doesn't even fit into a relatively ordinary film like THE MUMMY'S CURSE, and is without a doubt the most memorable thing about it.

The Mummy has a lot more screen time in this film than in most of the others as he keeps trying to apprehend the fleeing Amina and killing anyone who gets in his way. He finally catches her and takes her to the abandoned monastery where he and Zandaab have been hiding out (and yes, it has about a hundred-and-fifty freaking steps for him to schlepp up and down), where he discovers that Ragheb has kidnapped Betty and has her tied up and ready for the old tana-leaf treatment. He's already killed Zandaab, who remained faithful to the cause to the bitter end (my hero!) and is duking it out with Dr. Halsey when the Mummy steps in and makes him sorry he ever went off-mission. Ragheb flees into a cell and locks the door, and the Mummy goes into a rage, ripping the bars out of the wall and bringing the roof down on both of them in a hair-raising scene that serves as a worthy end to this great character's involvement in the series. While discounted by some as the weakest "Mummy" film, I find THE MUMMY'S CURSE to be one of the most entertaining and unusual entries of all.

If you're into classic horror and especially the Universal monster flicks of the thirties and forties, and for some reason have managed to miss out on these movies after all these years, you can't go wrong with the "Mummy" series. From the undisputed classic Karloff original to the less prestigious but still totally cool programmers that followed, they remain some of the most highly-entertaining and rewatchable monster films that Universal Studios ever produced. So stick THE MUMMY--THE LEGACY COLLECTION (which contains all five films plus some cool extras) into your DVD player, pop some popcorn, brew up some tana leaves, and have some fun. It is the will of Amon-Ra!

 

 

SHOW ME THE MUMMY: A Look At The Classic Universal "Mummy" Series by Porfle