Movie review - "Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman" (1942) ***1/2

The first of Universal's sequels to combine the monsters takes the two most logical: Lon Chaney Jnr is revived from his tomb and goes looking for a doctor who might be able to solve his problem, namely Dr Frankenstein - which, you know, I totally buy - and would make rich fodder for a television series: all the weird monsters turning up at the Frankenstein's for medical treatment (Dracula, mummies, invisible men).

However, there is no mad Frankenstein doctor in this one - just a Baronness (I think she's meant to be Colin Clive's granddaughter and the daughter of Basil Rathbone or Cedric Hardwicke - you'd think the latter because Evelyn Ankers played that role in the previous film but Ilona Massey who plays here here has a European accent).

Massey's character is disappointingly normal - so, too, is that of charisma by-pass Patric Knowles, who plays Chaney's doctor who has enough spare money and time on his hands to follow Chaney to Transylvania. When Knowles eventually finds himself at the operating table, as all good doctors do in these films, he doesn't really get into it - you find yourself wishing that Lionel Atwill, who plays the town's mayor, had that part. And the final act is a bit of a mess.

Still, there are many delights: Roy William Neil directed and Curt Siodmark wrote the script so it is full of atmosphere, Chaney's return as the Wolf Man (he's very good, oh so tragic), ditto Maria Ouspensaka has the gypsy woman, Dennis Hoey's inspector (as if he had a free day from the Sherlock Holmes films), we see Bela Lugosi's version of the monster (not bad but OK - just like Lon Chaney Jnr's really and certainly not one to make you go "ah if only he'd played the role in 1931 - missing this role didn't stuff Lugosi's career, he got plenty of chances after, lousy script selection, his own addictions, poor agents and Universal executive's attitudes did), there's a totally random production number in the middle of the film sung by gypsies, and most of all the Monster and Wolf Man have a brawl at the finale.

Alright! Apparently the film as originally shot had Frankenstein talking in Lugosi's voice like he did at the end of Ghost but preview audiences laughed - I can understand that, what made an effective moment in the previous film might seem odd.