Directed by:
Roy William NeillScreenplay:
Curt SiodmakCinematography:
George RobinsonComposer:
Hans J. SalterCast:
Ilona Massey, Patric Knowles, Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi, Maria Ouspenskaya, Dennis Hoey, Lon Chaney Jr., Dwight Frye, Jeff Corey, Lance Fuller, Martha Vickers (more)VOD (1)
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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: he's 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. (Universal Pictures UK)
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The opening scene in the graveyard is vital for the rest of the movie. Atmospheric, excellently filmed and ending for some reason when everything is going so well. And that is the story of the entire picture. An unbelievably bad Lugosi in the role of Frankenstein’s Monster is enough to make you cry. It is malevolently pleasing that he doesn’t make much of an appearance. Lucky that he didn’t get the role of the monster in the original, 1931 version of Frankenstein. That would immediately have robbed the world of cinema of one of its all-time classics. And I had better not even mention Ilona Massey’s stiff acting. So we are left just with Chaney Jr. who again is absolutely convincing and gets lots of room to perform. Primarily, it is thanks to him that these two classic silver-screen monsters appearing together works. Too bad that the initial part in Cardiff is so isolated in its perfection. All qualities that it has are quickly forgotten with the journey to Vasaria and the B-movie action that follows. So, at the beginning it has all the ingredients to make it the best continuation of the series which might have been admired even from non-horror movie fans, but as I wrote at the beginning - it starts well, but runs out of fuel, remaining just at the departure point for a perfect movie. But it doesn’t arrive at its destination. Unfortunately.
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