A Mansão de Frankenstein

Mad scientist Boris Karloff escapes from prison with hunchbacked assistant Daniel (J. Carrol Naish). He plans revenge against the men who put him there and wants to revive the Frankenstein monster. Along the way they revive Dracula (John Carradine) and Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) pops up as the Wolf Man. Silly but enjoyable all-star monster mash. Naish, Karloff, Carradine are all very good as is Elena Verdugo as a gypsy who falls in love with Talbot. Chaney Jr. just walks through his role. No great shakes (or scares) but there's tons of atmosphere, beautiful sets, pretty good special effects and it moves quickly. Worth seeing.

House of Frankenstein features Lon Chaney Jr. and John Carradine alongside the masterful Boris Karloff -- who is absolutely amazing for sheer presence alone -- as an enthusiastic, budding mad-scientist named Dr. Niemann who escapes from prison after a bolt of lightning inexplicably strikes the granite reformatory that he and his servant -- a hunchback assistant played by J. Carrol Naish -- are bound in.

Fortunately, after his escape, Niemann comes across the creepy Professor Bruno Lampini, who is conveniently taking a traveling show of horrors across the country. His main attraction is the skeletal remains of Count Dracula (complete with wooden stake jutting from ribs). As expected, Niemann kills Lampini, poses as the renowned crackpot, and revives the vampire (played by a 'princely' young Carradine), who, in turn, takes revenge on one of Niemann's enemies as a favor. Oh, and then Dracula dies like a wussy and his dull little role is over as if it never existed since it never helped move along or even remotely create a plot out of this revolving-door mishmash of monster cameos (read on).

Though this is essentially a sequel to 1943's Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman, the title sort of refers to Neimann's aspiration to carry on Dr. Henry Frankenstein's work (speaking of which, the Monster doesn't appear until about 45 minutes into the film), though Neimann's objectives are never quite revealed to the viewer. Nevertheless, while exploring the ruins of the great doctor's decimated Vasarian castle and to generate some semblance of plot, Neimann finds the monster offspring of Frankenstein frozen in a block of ice near the Wolfman (Chaney), who is quickly unthawed and put to work by Neimann. For some reason, the escaped doctor intends to switch the brain of Frankenstein's Monster with the brain of the Wolf Man, which, in itself, might have been funny. I just wonder if the Wolfman's curse would have followed the brain or the body, and how a Wolfman with poor motor-skills would have convincingly frightened someone - `I'll rip you to shreds like a wild dog as soon as I make my way over to the other side of this room!')

Again, aside from revenge, I couldn't really detect a plot, and the film has the single most abrupt ending I've ever seen! Plus, Frankenstein's Monster (played by cowboy actor Glenn Strange rather than Karloff) does absolutely nothing as the film plods on! Besides getting to toss a hunchback through a window (and who doesn't enjoy doing just that every now and again), he descends - quite dramatically -- into quicksand and lies around comatose the rest of the time (how about a cross-promotion film with the Weekend At Bernie's franchise -- Bernie Does Vasaria?).

As the famous Universal Studios monsters continued to parade out, I began to think of the marketing possibilities this film might have had if the whole state of affairs would have been placed in the here-and-now - playsets, lunch-boxes, limited-edition bobble-heads, House of Frankenstein-flavored fruit bars, Taco Bell Wolfman Burrito tie-ins, Dr. Neimann chemistry sets, etc.! In short, House of Frankenstein was obviously a crass attempt to bleed quick dollars out of a highly profitable franchise. There was no attempt at veiled artistry, and you can almost hear executives counting out the money beneath the hackneyed layer of canned shrieks! On a lighter note, the film would have easily qualified for 'self-parody' status with a bonus appearance from the Mummy! I certainly wouldn't have been surprised if he had been worked into the plot somewhere!!

Despite all the film's shortcomings, I was truly mesmerized by Karloff's hammy staging. In fact, his best performance comes during the film's opening scene, where his peculiar character strangles a prison guard for a piece of chalk just so he can continue to draw scientific diagrams on his wall. If only a screenwriter had been so arduous with the script for this film!

I grew up in the 60s, and my dad introduced me to the Universal Horror movies through TV reruns. Among the attractions: the mysterious atmosphere, the B&W photography, the convincing and committed performances, the occasional wit and humor. These films never fail to please me and put me in a good mood, and this one is one of my favorites. Lots of fun with the monsters, moods and music. Call me old-fashioned, but I'd rather watch just one of these old chestnuts than a year's worth of Freddies, Jasons, etc.

The movie begins with evil Dr. Gustav Niemann and his sidekick, Daniel roaming the countryside doing evil and making a few bucks on the side. It's a simple life traveling the countryside and creating mayhem, but somebody's gotta do it, right?! Well, the maniacal doctor has a lot of unforeseen luck, as he stumbles first upon the skeleton of Dracula (who he wisely decides to revive). For some odd reason, the long-dead Dracula comes back not as Bela Lugosi but John Carradine. While a decent enough villain, it just made no sense why Lugosi didn't reprise the role. Anyway, they later discover the Frankenstein monster and the Wolfman frozen in a cave (since their last film) and spend much of their time trying to revive them--so they can kick butt and spread terror. Well, they did not foresee that the Wolfman, when in the form of nice-guy Larry Talbot, didn't want to spread terror and death (shucks). Well, the plan is shot and evil is thwarted. Cool.

Strengths of the film are the evil doctor--he's a really nasty menace, having three monsters instead of the usual one and the fact that it is a Universal horror film with all its campy fun. The weaknesses are that the series is getting a little old, the pathos concerning Daniel falling for the gypsy girl is a tad annoying, and John Carradine just isn't and never could be Dracula!

Instead of being the usual "monster-fest", the film focuses on Boris Karloff, who uses the creatures to murder the people who sent him to an asylum.

The "Dracula" bit (in the beginning of the film) doesn't quite seem to "fit" the film; it looks as if it was added as an after-thought. (Plus, Carradine's Dracula is VERY "sloppy" about self-preservation; he is "discovred" and destroyed in the very beginning of the film. I don't think that LUGOSI'S Dracula would've let that happen! I wonder if that's why Lugosi

didn't play Dracula).

A new "twist" is added to the "killing a werewolf with a silver bullet" theme....it must be done by someone "who loves him enuff to do it".

The Frankenstein monster is "wasted", too -- only coming to life in the last 10 mins. of the film.

But, forget all it's shortcomings. Just sit back and enjoy Karloff's performance. (I like the bit where he tries to strangle the asylum guard for a piece of chalk!).

An "odd little film". Norm