La Maison de Frankenstein

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!

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.

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

This has some of the best vintage sequences in the series, great George Robinson photography, eerie sets and a nice score from Hans J Salter that expands on the previous entries. And everyone does their professional best to spout the inane dialogue they're saddled with. What's wrong is the silly story that surrounds the events. A movie that promises a Monster Mash results in a collection of Monster cameos.

This is a semi remake of 'Son of Frankenstein', where broken-neck Ygor used the Monster to exact his revenge. This time around, it's mad scientist Karloff (with hunchback Naish) doing the same on those who imprisoned him. But the only 'monsters' used as his proxy for revenge are Dracula and Daniel. The Wolf Man and Frankenstein's Monster show up just long enough to do their snarls before being dispatched. A nice touch was the triangle love between Talbot, the gypsy Ilonka and Daniel. And like 'Ghost of Frankenstein', there's a difference of opinion on who should be the recipient of whose brain.

But this movie is still fun, probably because it's based more on my nostalgic memories from the first time I saw it as a kid rather than my harsh adult perception. (A & C Meet Frankenstein I saw 1st, at 5 yrs old...another movie with all these monsters in it??...too cool! [just my silly 6 yr old opinion].

This one has the best 'Wolf Man' make-up and man-to-beast transformation (the footprints & the mirror sequence). Carradine's turn as Dracula is very good, but you can't help but wonder if only Lugosi had been allowed to reprise his most famous role. And for his limited input, Strange does just fine as the Monster (better than what Chaney and Lugosi did with the role in the last two) helped by Karloff's coaching on how the monster moved and walked. And it's complete with gypsies, a castle, fog forests and an angry mob (again).

So just grab some popcorn; and double up with Universal's 'House of Dracula' for a fun double feature. Just don't swallow too hard.

A nostalgic 6 out of 10!