Four Frankenstein movies, four Dracula movies, two Wolf Man movies, and still we wanted more. And, well, I guess it was about time they put all three monsters together in one movie.

It's all wonderfully silly ... an insane doctor called Gustav Niemann manages to escape from a lunatic asylum along with his hunchback assistant, and decides to continue the work of Frankenstein. By pure chance he happens to run across a travelling circus which happens to have the genuine skeleton of Count Dracula. It isn't long before he slaughters the circus folk and removes the stake from the vampire's heart, reviving him. He then makes his way to the castle of Frankenstein and in a glacial ice cavern he discovers both Frankenstein's monster and the Wolf Man frozen in ice. He thaws them and takes them back to his laboratory, promising new life for the monster and a cure for the Wolf Man. But a beautiful gypsy girl causes conflict between them ...

While the story for this one comes from Curt Siodmak, the team of director Erle C. Kenton and scriptwriter Edward T. Lowe Jr. created both the "House of Frankenstein" and the "House of Dracula" sequels. The only one of the monsters that's actually still being played by the same actor here is Lon Chaney Jr's Wolf Man. Boris Karloff appears, but not as the Frankenstein monster. Instead he plays Doctor Niemann (who amusingly gets called a 'would-be Frankenstein' in the first scene), while Glenn Strange plays the monster. But fear not -- both turn in excellent performances all the same, with Glenn Strange proving himself to be such a great choice for the monster that he would return again in "House of Dracula" and "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein".

J. Carrol Naish is also noteworthy as Niemann's hunchback assistant. However, this was John Carradine's first appearance as Dracula, and he's barely even slightly creepy. He's not a patch on Bela Lugosi (although much better then some of the other actors who portrayed Dracula), and the "vampire bat" effects are as bad as ever, if not worse. Thankfully he only has a very small part anyway. And considering the movie is called "House of Frankenstein", Frankenstein's monster doesn't have a very big part either, but what small screen time he has is particularly memorable -- the climax is one of the most thrilling out of any of the Universal monster movies. The Wolf Man is the more interesting and sympathetic character, so once again he has the most screentime.

This is an entertaining movie that throws in everything but the kitchen sink. Fans of the Universal monster movies will be suitably thrilled by it, regardless of how silly it all is.

The Wolf Ah, when will Larry Talbot learn that werewolves CAN'T TRUST SCIENTISTS? You'd think after his unpleasant experience in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man he might have learned his lesson, but no! He falls into the trap of the insane Doctor Niemann as ignorant as a newborn baby. Oh well ... Niemann promises he can cure Talbot of his lycanthropy by building him a new brain, when what he intends to to do is switch his brain with someone elses. I fail to see how this would help, as apparently the werewolfism would be carried over along with the brain. Unless Talbot's soul would remain in his own body when somebody elses lycanthropy-free brain is ... okay, this is getting way too philosophical. Anyway, once again in this movie they can't seem to quote Siodmak's poem accurately -- this time it's "even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a WEREWOLF when the Wolfsbane blooms ...". Bah, never mind. For some reason or other, Talbot once again makes absolutely no effort to restrain himself when he's about to turn into the monster, and just allows himself to run around killing as he pleases. Lon Chaney Jr makes the character sympathetic all the same, delivering a typically reliable performance as both man and beast. The transformation scenes in this movie are particularly cool -- there's one where he runs out of the house and we follow his footprints, which become increasingly wolf-like, before panning up to reveal him as a werewolf (see second photo down). The other transformation involves him standing in front of mirror as crossfades show him changing (see bottom photo). Once again, the poor torch-wielding citizens are upset by all the murders taking place, and decide to bag themselves a werewolf. But before they can do this, will he be "killed by a silver bullet fired by the hand of someone who loves him enough to understand" (see third photo down), and finally granted eternal rest?

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