HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN Review

1943's THE HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN brings together Dracula, the Wolf Man, the mad scientist, the hunchback, and of course, the Frankenstein monster, all for one low price. Talk about bang for your buck. Universal Studios had already made lots of box office loot on all of the individual characters in this flick, so they figured they could make even more if they put 'em all together in one big super-deluxe creepshow.

The movie stars Boris Karloff, who had vowed to never again play the monster, instead playing Dr. Gustav Niemann, a mad genius busted for giving his dog a brain transplant. Clearly ahead of his time with that medical breakthrough.

Big Glenn Strange takes over as Frankie baby, a role he would play in two more sequels. A six-foot-five hulking giant of a man, Strange took full advantage of co-starring with the guy who created the role, Karloff, who gave him valuable tips on how to play the part. A veteran of many a B-western, Glenn finished out his career playing Sam the bartender on the long-running TV series GUNSMOKE from 1961 until his death in 1973. Lon Chaney Jr. returns for his third go-round as the Wolf Man, J. Carroll Naish plays the hunchback, while John Carradine hams it up as Dracula, a role he would return to again in the incredibly bad 1966 horror western BILLY THE KID VS. DRACULA.

It's a regular who's who of horror movie megastars.

Lon Chaney Jr. made his bones playing the Wolf Man, but also played the Frankenstein monster, the mummy, and the SON OF DRACULA. Later in his career, he appeared in SPIDER BABY, THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN, and THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE. J. Carroll Naish, who plays the lovesick hunchback Daniel, racked up well over 200 screen credits in such films as THE MONSTER MAKER, THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, and THE MISSING HEAD. He also starred in the TV series "Life With Luigi" and "The New Adventures of Charlie Chan."

Carradine had an incredible film career that spanned from the early talkies to the early '90s.

Another great horror heavy, George Zucco makes an all-too-brief appearance in THE HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN as Professor Lampini, who gets his in the first act at the hands of the hunchback. Zucco made his share of "good" movies, but he is best remembered for films like THE MAD MONSTER, THE MONSTER AND THE GIRL, MIDNIGHT MANHUNT, and CHARLIE CHAN IN HONOLULU.

HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN is highly entertaining, even if there aren't any actual Frankensteins in it. Now in the original 1931 FRANKENSTEIN and its 1935 sequel BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, you had the original Dr. Frankenstein, played by Colin Clive, going "It's alive! It's alive!" and then in 1939's SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, Basil Rathbone played the title role as a chip off the old block, carrying on his father's work. In 1942's THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN, Sir Cedric Hardwick played Ludwig, the Baron's other son, while the following year, in FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN, it was the Baroness Elsa Frankenstein doing the reanimating and tightening up the neckbolts on Bela Lugosi, in his only appearance as the monster.

Since it was the unwritten law that at the end of a Frankenstein movie, anybody named Frankenstein would either be killed by the monster or by angry villagers bearing torches and pitchforks, only the house was left by the time they made this one.

The plot is fairly straghtforward, with an incidental Dracula subplot that is jettisoned like the Count himself, early in the second act.

Old Dr. Niemann could have settled down and started a nice little practice in some Bavarian backwater, but no, he had to get even with the Burgomeister. He had to carry on the ungodly experiments of the evil Baron Frankenstein. He just had to happen upon the Wolf Man and the Frankenstein monster, encased in ice after their head-to-head donnybrook in FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN.

Mayhem inevitably ensues.

Available on DVD as part of Universal's THE FRANKENSTEIN COLLECTION or as a two-fer with FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN.