Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) - Universal's first monster bash is low on frights but entertains

4/14/2018

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) - Universal's first monster bash is low on frights but entertains

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This exciting poster in splashy colors for Roy William Neill's Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man promises monstrous action and a scantily clad blond

The Wolf Man is awoken to life by graverobbers and flees from England to the village of Vasaria, where Dr. Frankenstein's notes are supposed to help him finally die. - But instead Frankenstein's horrific monster is also reawoken!

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man is written by Curt Siodmak (Riders to the Stars (1954)) and directed by Roy William Neill (Hoots Mon (1940)). It is the 5th film in the Frankenstein franchise and the first sequel to George Waggner's great The Wolf Man (1941). It is the first of Universal's 'monster mash' horrors in which established characters meet each other.
The film isn't scary to me: The bizarro monsters were eerie on their own, but when their universes are welded together, the result is almost comical.
Siodmak's script saves the film, along with Lon Chaney Jr.'s (Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971)) portrayal of the Wolf Man, Lawrence Talbot. Siodmak establishes an adventure-like pace in the rather short feature and works in themes of anxiety of insanity and village lynch mob mentality. SPOILER An exploded dam ends up washing the monsters away in a tidal wave of Biblical proportions.

Listen to 13 minutes of Hans J. Salter's score for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain - but likely a box office success
[Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man was released 5 March (USA) and runs 74 minutes. Siodmak came up with the concept, because he needed a new car. Bela Lugosi had turned down playing the monster in the original Frankenstein (1931), thinking it unfit for his sudden stardom after Dracula (1931). He took the job to portray the monster 12 years later here after having played the monster's twisted companion Ygor in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), in which Ygor's brain is implanted into the monster. Shooting took place at Universal in Los Angeles. Siodmak's script had the monster talking, but test audiences reacted poorly to Lugosi's talking Frankenstein, and so this element was cut. Details on the cost and box office performance of the film are not available online, - but based on the continued stream of similar titles from Universal and the general drought of horror titles in period, the film was likely theatrically successful. Both the Frankenstein monster and the Wolf Man returned in House of Frankenstein (1944). Neill returned with Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943). Ilona Massey returned in Holiday in Mexico (1946), Patrick Knowles in Hit the Ice (1943) and Lon Chaney Jr. in What We Are Fighting For (1943, short) and Frontier Badmen (1943). Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man is rotten at 25 % with a 5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (17-24)

4/14/2018

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) - Universal's first monster bash is low on frights but entertains

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Eagerly anticipating this week ... (16-24)

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