Themes: Werewolves, Out For Revenge, Mad Scientists
Main Cast: Boris Karloff, J. Carrol Naish, Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine, Lionel Atwill, Anne Gwynne
Release Year: 1944
Country: US
Run Time: 71 minutes
Plot
In many ways the most endearing of Universal's B-grade "monster rallies" of the 1940s, House of Frankenstein manages within its 70-minute time span to make room for Frankenstein's monster (Glenn Strange), Dracula (John Carradine) the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr.), and a couple of new recruits, mad scientist Boris Karloff and demented hunchback J. Carroll Naish. Escaping from prison, Karloff vows to continue his diabolical efforts to emulate Dr. Frankenstein's "eternal life" experiments; he also swears vengeance on the three men (Sig Ruman, Frank Reicher and Michael Mark) who were responsible for sending him to prison. With the help of fellow escapee Naish, Karloff murders a travelling-carnival impresario (George Zucco) and assumes his identity. He travels first to the village where Ruman is burgomaster. Since his carnival is a "chamber of horrors", Karloff utilizes one of those horrors--Count Dracula--to settle his account with Ruman. Dracula does so, but dies when the first rays of sunlight stream across his body. En route to the next village, Naish gives shelter to runaway gypsy girl Elena Verdugo, who joins the caravan (though she remains incredibly naive concerning Karloff's intentions!) Coming to the village when the Frankenstein monster and the Wolfman were presumably drowned at the end of Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1944), Karloff revives the latter, who when he's not baying at the moon is the comparatively good-looking Lawrence Talbot. Karloff secures Talbot's cooperation by promising to perform some brain surgery that will relieve him of his lycanthropy. Later on, Karloff kidnaps and kills his other enemies Mark and Reicher, intending to use their brains to cure Talbot and to reactivate the Frankenstein monster. Jealous of Verdugo's attentions towards Talbot, Naish rebels against Karloff, and is killed for his troubles. Talbot turns into the Wolfman, whereupon Verdugo kills him before expiring herself. And Karloff, rendered immobile by the requisite attack of angry villagers, is dragged by the lumbering Monster into a pit of quicksand. Thus House of Frankenstein has something in common with Hamlet: No one is left alive at fade-out time. It's to scenarist Robert Siodmak's credit that he was able to fashion a coherent screenplay out of the crazy-quilt of copyrighted horror characters handed to him by Universal Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
House of Frankenstein is more of a Boris Karloff revenge film than the monster-fest that Universal Studios advertised; Dracula (John Carradine) is eliminated early in the picture, so there's no interplay between his character and Frankenstein and the Wolf Man, the two other top-billed creatures. Fortunately, Karloff can carry the film on his own. Though nowhere near as stylish as Bride of Frankenstein (1935) or The Wolf Man (1941), House has plenty of atmosphere courtesy of George Robinson's carefully composed cinematography. Director Erle C. Kenton has the good sense to stick with a proven formula: this was the sixth film in Universal's Frankenstein series, and the third each for Dracula and The Wolf Man. Essentially, the first portion of House is a Dracula film, and the remainder a sequel to Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, made earlier that year. All three monsters would return for House of Dracula (1945), where they would appear in the same portions of the story. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide
The film focuses on the exploits of the vengeful Dr. Gustav Niemann, who escapes prison. He is helped by the hunchback Daniel, for whom he promises to create a new, beautiful body. The two murder a traveling showman and take over his horror exhibit. To exact revenge on Hussmann, who had once caused his imprisonment, Niemann revives Count Dracula. Dracula seduces Hussmann's Granddaughter-in-law and kills Hussmann himself, but in a subsequent chase, Niemann disposes of Dracula's coffin, causing the vampire to perish in sunlight. Niemann and Daniel move on to the flooded ruins of Castle Frankenstein, where they find the bodies of the Frankenstein Monster and Lawrence Talbot, the Wolf Man preserved in the frozen waters. Nieman thaws out the two and promises Talbot to find a cure from the curse. However, in fact he is more interested in reviving the Frankenstein monster and exacting revenge on two former associates than in his promises to Daniel or Talbot. Talbot transforms into a werewolf and kills a man, arousing the villagers.
Talbot is also envied by the hunchback Daniel as both love Ilonka, a gypsy girl. She has fallen in love with Talbot but is the object of Daniel's affection. Daniel reveals Talbot's curse to Ilonka but she is not deterred and promises to help him in fighting the curse.
Things enter a critical stage at night, as Niemann revives the Frankenstein monster and Talbot again turns into a werewolf. Talbot is shot by Ilonka with a silver bullet, thereby releasing him, but Ilonka is killed in the process. Daniel blames her death on Niemann and begins to choke him. The Frankenstein monster intervenes, throws Daniel out of the window, and carries the half-conscious Niemann outside, where the villagers begin to chase them and drive them into the marshes. There, both the monster and Niemann drown in quicksand.
This was the first film in which the monster is portrayed by Glenn Strange, of Gunsmoke fame. He received personal instruction from Karloff himself.
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man had been the first on-screen pairing of two Universal Studios monsters, but House of Frankenstein was the first multi-monster (often called "monster rally") movie. Early drafts of the story reportedly involved more characters from the Universal stable, including the Mummy, The Mad Ghoul, and possibly The Invisible Man. Working titles—which included Chamber of Horrors (a reference to Lampini's travelling horror show) and The Devil's Brood--emphasized the multi-monster nature of the story.
House of Frankenstein marked the debut, as the monster, of Glenn Strange, a former cowboy who had been a minor supporting player in dozens low-budget Westerns over the preceding fifteen years. He reprised the role in House of Dracula and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and cemented the popular image of the monster as shambling, clumsy, and inarticulate. Boris Karloff, who had moved on from playing the monster to playing the mad scientist, reportedly coached Strange on how to play the role.
Made near the end of Universal's monster-movie cycle, House of Frankenstein showed evidence of the studio's declining interest in the franchise. The "monster rally" concept sacrificed internal story continuity for audience appeal, and the sets and special effects are noticeably less elaborate than in earlier films in the cycle. The scream that accompanies Daniel the hunchback's fall from the roof is actually the voice of Boris Karloff, recycled from the scene in Son of Frankenstein where the Monster falls into a pit of molten sulfur. The face on the Monster dummy used in the ice and laboratory scenes was a mask of Lon Chaney, who had played the Monster himself in Ghost of Frankenstein.
Glenn Strange, presumably because of his physical skills, did his own stunt work on the film, notably in the climax where he flees across a field of burning grass (actually tumbleweeds, which nearly scorched him when they burned more quickly than expected) and sinks into a pool of quicksand. Stuntman Cary Loftin doubled for Boris Karloff in the fire scenes, but Karloff returned for the final scene in the quicksand.
