House of Frankenstein review.
This cycle’s Full Moon Feature looks back at Universal’s 1944 “monster rally” featuring the return of Lon Chaney Jr. as Lawrence Talbot.
Classic movie reviews will contain spoilers.
House of Frankenstein
Directed by Erle C. Kenton
Screenplay by Edward T. Lowe
Starring Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine, J. Carrol Naish, Anne Gwynne, Peter Coe and Elena Verdugo
House of Frankenstein Review
House of Frankenstein arrived in 1944 as the second “monster rally” from Universal Pictures. It’s a sequel to the previous year’s Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man…which you probably deduced was the first monster rally. Essentially…Universal ran out of ideas for their classic monster and just started throwing them into the same movies. Lon Chaney Jr. returns as the doomed Lawrence Talbot. Boris Karloff is on board…as a mad scientist. Glenn Strange takes over the role of Frankenstein’s Monster for the first of three outings. Dracula appears…as played by John Carradine. Carradine would play the famous vampire a few more times in different productions…including the next Universal monster rally House of Dracula.
As this is a Full Moon Feature, we will be directing most of the discussion on Chaney’s Talbot. It’s a funny thing with Lawrence Talbot…he basically has the same storyline every time he pops up in a movie. He also only ever had one appearance in his own film…if you can believe that. Other than his debut in 1941’s The Wolf Man…Chaney’s iconic character was relegated to these monster rallies. Each one sees Talbot return from his death in the previous film…depressed to find himself alive. Lawrence Talbot is the most consistently suicidal character in the history of film. He can’t stand his curse or that the animal inside will hurt/murder people when it’s in control. Each story also dangles the potential of a cure for his affliction…though that only works out in House of Dracula. Which is, honestly, a nice ending to his story.
House of Frankenstein doesn’t re-introduce Talbot’s character until it deals with its Dracula arc. Mad scientist Gustav Niemann (Karloff) ends up in possession of Dracula’s bones and resurrects him to do some evil business for him. Dracula doesn’t last long…meeting the sunlight before Talbot or the Monster can make an appearance. Carradine’s Dracula is interesting enough…but it is jarring to see how different it is from Bela Lugosi’s iconic take on him. Talbot (and the Monster) are frozen in the caves beneath Frankenstein’s castle after being swept away in a flood at the end of Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. Which…sure.
The overarching plot of House of Frankenstein involves Dr. Niemann trying to procure another body for his hunchback henchman Daniel. Niemann meets Daniel in jail. He’s incarcerated for attempting to replicate Doctor Frankenstein’s experiments. That’s another running theme of this series. Someone is always trying to be Doctor Frankenstein. Colin Clive passed away a short time after reviving the character in Bride of Frankenstein. I’ve always wondered if Universal would have ruined the character growth from Bride to shoehorn him into more movies if he hadn’t died. They just couldn’t quit the character archetype.
After he’s thawed out, Lawrence Talbot is, as always, upset to be alive. Niemann offers to cure Talbot by…transferring his brain into a different body. Daniel wants the body after the woman he fancies falls in love with Talbot. That’s another recurring bit in Wolf Man movies. Women are desperately attracted to his depression. Niemann needs Frankenstein’s notes to complete the operation…but also plans to double cross both Talbot and Daniel by using a brain to bring back the Monster. He wants to put the brains of two former colleagues into the monsters so that they will suffer their fates.
Talbot has been burned by promises of cures enough times to not trust anyone. Which, of course, only leaves killing himself…the consistent Lawrence Talbot plan B. Talbot transforms into the Wolf Man and attacks his love interest…who fires silver bullets into him leaving him, once again, happily deceased. He literally dies with a smile on his face. Maybe death is actually his consistent plan A and pursuing a cure is a temporary distraction. The transformation is done with time lapse makeup effects. It’s still a good way to do it. Wolf Man’s look feels weathered by this point. It matches Chaney’s tired looking performance…which fits the state of the character perfectly.
The Monster eventually returns, kills Daniel and carries Niemann away. His kryptonite…angry villagers…are waiting for him. He ends up carrying Niemann into…I guess quicksand…where they both perish. If you’re keeping track…House of Frankenstein eliminates all the monsters in its story. Not that it matters. They’ll all return in House of Dracula a year later. Karloff wouldn’t return to another Classic Monster movie for Universal…but he would get his own Abbott and Costello movie years later.
Cards on the table…House of Frankenstein isn’t a very good movie. It’s watchable due to the commitment of its performers…but it’s also deeply stupid and cheap looking. The James Whale quality found in the peak era of the franchise is long gone. Karloff is still good. Chaney is as well. That’s enough to make House of Frankenstein one that you don’t need to skip in the series…but nothing more than that. The biggest issue is Glenn Strange’s Monster. It’s a stumbling mess compared to the deeply nuanced and interesting performance of Karloff. I can’t imagine what Karloff was thinking while doing scenes with him. No wonder this was his last monster movie.
The Wolf Man portions of House of Frankenstein are easily the highlight of the movie. Lon Chaney Jr. understands his character completely. A task made much easier by the fact that the character never changes. Return…be depressed…seek a cure…die like he wanted all along. The cycle will be broken in next year’s House of Dracula. But…frankly…it remains my favorite werewolf character arc. Watching Chaney return to Talbot and immediately become depressed that he’s still alive brings me more joy than you’d think possible the third time around. He doesn’t get to cut as loose as the previous two appearances…but it’s still an inherently interesting take on the curse. Which is what we’re looking for here.
Scare Value
House of Frankenstein is deep into the diminishing returns era of the Universal Classic Monsters. Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr. lead the charge…though only one is playing his famous monster. Lawrence Talbot might get the same story every time out…but it is, thankfully, the right story. The actors commit and make House of Frankenstein a watchable affair…even if it is a far cry from the glory days of the series.
2/5
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