Frankenstein (Universal) Collection

Boris Karloff

Lon Chaney Jr.

J. Carrol Naish

John Carradine

Anne Gwynne

Peter Coe

Lionel Atwill

George Zucco

Elena Verdugo

Sig Ruman

William Edmunds

Charles Miller

Philip Van Zandt

Julius Tannen

Hans Herbert

Dick Dickinson

George Lynn

Michael Mark

Olaf Hytten

Frank Reicher

Brandon Hurst

Glenn Strange

George Blagoi

Paul Bradley

Edmund Cobb

Gino Corrado

Joe Kirk

Belle Mitchell

Anton Northpole

José Portugal

Anne G. Sterling

Charles Wagenheim

Erle C. Kenton

Edward T. Lowe Jr.

Paul Malvern

Paul Dessau

George Robinson

Philip Cahn

Russell A. Gausman

A.J. Gilmore

Vera West

Jack Pierce

John B. Goodman

Martin Obzina

Bernard B. Brown

William Hedgcock

John P. Fulton

William Tummel

Billy Jones

Carey Loftin

Gil Perkins

Walter Lantz

Hans J. Salter

Paul Neal

Charles Previn

Frank Skinner

Bram Stoker

Curt Siodmak

Mary Shelley

Horror

Science Fiction

House of Frankenstein

Universal Pictures

United States of America

Welcome to the house of fun now I've come of age...

Let the Universal Monster tag team continue unabated! In truth there's not really a whole movie here, it's more a skew-whiff anthology involving Dracula (John Carradine), the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr) and Frankenstein's Monster (Glenn Strange), with Boris Karloff's mad scientist and J. Carrol Naish's hunchback serving as the linking meat in the monster sandwich.

Plot is for the genre at the time the standard Universal fodder, mad scientist and hunchback manage - by an act of god - to escape from prison. Scientist is after revenge, hunchback wants a new body. After a short encounter with Dracula via a travelling chamber of horrors side-show, the pair head off to the Frankenstein castle - with pretty gypsy girl and Larry Talbot/Wolf Man in tow - where hopes and dreams involve a lot of brain swapping.

What transpires is a bit of violent jealousy and disappointments, building up to the monster smack down finale just as the villagers once again take unkindly to the presence of monsters in their midst. It's all good fun, the clichés of the franchise crammed into the hour and ten minute run time ensuring it's never boring. But really the Dracula section will leave you wanting more, while Frankenstein's monster - in the film bearing his name - just lounges around for a bit and then it's pretty much the end!

Enjoyable if disposable 6/10

English

Joe Dante on HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN

House of Frankenstein (1944) Official Trailer #1 - John Carradine Movie