Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)

After being awakened, Larry Talbot chips Frankenstein's Monster out of a block of ice. When Talbot changes to the Wolf Man, the two creatures battle each other.

Director:

Roy William Neill

Writer:

Curt Siodmak (original screenplay)

Stars:

Lon Chaney Jr., Ilona Massey, Patric Knowles

2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Lon Chaney Jr.	...	The Wolf Man - Lawrence Talbot (as Lon Chaney)
Ilona Massey	...	Baroness Elsa Frankenstein
Patric Knowles	...	Dr. Frank Mannering
Lionel Atwill	...	Mayor
Bela Lugosi	...	Monster
Maria Ouspenskaya	...	Maleva
Dennis Hoey	...	Inspector Owen
Don Barclay	...	Franzec
Rex Evans	...	Vazec
Dwight Frye	...	Rudi
Harry Stubbs	...	Guno

Storyline

Larry Talbot finds himself in an asylum, recovering from an operation performed by the kindly Dr. Mannering. Inspector Owen finds him there, too, wanting to question him about a recent spate of murders. Talbot escapes and finds Maleva, the old gypsy woman who knows his secret: when the moon is full, he changes to a werewolf. She travels with him to locate the one man who can help him to die - Dr. Frankenstein. The brilliant doctor proves to be dead himself, but they do find Frankenstein's daughter. Talbot begs her for her father's papers containing the secrets of life and death. She doesn't have them, so he goes to the ruins of the Frankenstein castle to find them himself. There he finds the Monster, whom he chips out of a block of ice. Dr. Mannering catches up with him only to become tempted to monomania while using Frankenstein's old equipment.

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Plot Keywords:

monster | doctor | crossover | sequel | blindness | 

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Taglines:

FROZEN EVIL meets FIERY HATE (original ad - mostly caps)

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Genres:

Fantasy | Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 March 1943 (USA)

Also Known As:

Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

74 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

With Bela Lugosi's dialogue scenes cut, he's only on screen for five minutes and 6 seconds, with stunt men and doubles appearing in almost two additional minutes.

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Goofs

In the final fight scene, just as the Wolf Man makes his final jump, his left shirt sleeve pulls up, and you can see Lon Chaney Jr.'s arm, which has no make up on it.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Freddy Jolly - Graverobber: [reading from a headstone] 'Lawrence Stewart Talbot, who died at the youthful age of thirty one. R.I.P.' That's it. Give me the chisel.
Graverobber: Suppose they didn't bury him with the money on him.
Freddy Jolly - Graverobber: Everybody in the village knows about it - his gold watch and ring and money in his pockets.
Graverobber: It's a sin to bury good money when it could help people.
[both chuckle]

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Crazy Credits

A scientist's hand is shown pouring a chemical into a flask, which bubbles over in vapor that coalesces into the film's title and cast names.

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Alternate Versions

Original preview prints of the film included Lugosi speaking dialog as the Monster. Apparently, preview audiences found Lugosi's Hungarian accent hilarious coming from the Monster's mouth, so Lugosi's voice was deleted.

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Connections

Referenced in WatchMojo: Top 10 Plot Points That Were Cut Out of Movies (2015)

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Soundtracks

Faro-La, Faro-Li
(uncredited)
Lyrics by Curt Siodmak
Music by Hans J. Salter
Sung by Adia Kuznetzoff

User Reviews

Fun but flawed, and don't blame Bela

It's true that this is a better sequel to "The Wolf Man" (in fact I like the first twenty-five minutes of this movie more that "The Wolf Man."), but it's a better Frankenstein film than "House of Frankenstein" or "House of Dracula" because the Monster has more to do here, and it's better than "Ghost of Frankenstein" just because it's more fun. Poor Bela Lugosi gets ripped all the time for what a terrible job he did as the Monster in this one, but in fairness his role was severely edited. The monster originally could talk and was blind, but the producers felt Lugosi's voice coming from the Monster was more funny than frightening, and his dialogue wasn't all that great anyway, so out it all went. It's for this reason that the monster acts so strangely in the final cut, and the Monster was supposed to be sick anyway. It was a mistake to cast the too old Lugosi as the Monster, but don't blame Bela -- he probably did the best he could, but we'll never know. I also think it was a mistake to cast Lon Chaney Jr. as the Monster in "Ghost." Both he and Lugosi were too round-faced to take over from Karloff. And the ending of "Ghost" was one of the biggest blunders in the entire series. But this film manages to survive all the mistakes and still be very entertaining. I've probably seen it fifty times in my life, and I can always watch it again.