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House of Dracula (1945)
House of Dracula (1945)
1945 | Horror, Sci-Fi
8
6.8 (4 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Get The Gang All Together: The Crossover II
House of Dracula- was a direct sequel to House of Frankenstein, and continued the theme of combining Universal's three most popular monsters: Frankenstein's monster (Glenn Strange), Count Dracula (John Carradine), and the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr.).

The plot: This monster movie focuses on the iconic vampire, Count Dracula (John Carradine), and Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney), better known as the Wolf Man. Both beings of the night are tired of their supernatural afflictions, so they seek out Dr. Franz Edelmann (Onslow Stevens) for cures for their respective curses. While trying to aid the imposing creatures, Edelmann himself develops a transformative condition, adding to the many ghouls lurking around the foreboding landscape.

The working titles for the film were Dracula vs. the Wolf Man or The Wolf Man vs. Dracula.

Although Glenn Strange appears as the Monster in most of the film, footage of Chaney as the Monster from The Ghost of Frankenstein and Boris Karloff from Bride of Frankenstein was recycled; Karloff appears in a dream sequence, while Chaney, as well as his double Eddie Parker, are seen in footage in a fire scene.

Strange recounts that a scene with the Monster stuck in quicksand was particularly arduous for him. On top of three hours of getting into makeup, Strange spent the rest of the day buried in cold sand, including during the lunch break, and was so cold by midafternoon that he could barely feel his legs. Lon Chaney Jr. attempted to help Strange keep warm by passing him a bottle of scotch, with the result that Strange was so drunk that after getting out of costume and makeup, he had difficulty dressing himself in his street clothes. Chaney's drinking contributed to his reputation as being difficult to work with, and probably was the reason Universal let him go after the film was completed.

The film, which was the seventh Universal film to feature Frankenstein's monster, as well as the fourth with Count Dracula and the Wolf Man, was a commercial success, but was one of the last Universal movies featuring Frankenstein's monster, vampires, and werewolves, with the exception of the comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), in which all three appear.

Its a fun entertaing horror film starring the universal monsters.
  
The Wolf Man (1941)
The Wolf Man (1941)
1941 | Horror
10
8.1 (9 Ratings)
Movie Rating
A classic Universal Monster Movie (2 more)
Lon Chaney Jr
Claude Rains
Even a Man who is pure of heart....
Even a man who is pure of heart, and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms, and the Autumn moon is bright.

Heard that before in other werewolf movies, well this was it's origin. Created purely for the film, this poem even had some people believing it was an original folklore saying. If you have watched a handful of werewolf movies, then you will have noticed a lot of similarities;

- Silver bullets
- Wolfsbane
- Full Moon
- Not being able to retreat their acts from their loved ones
- Pentagrams
- Gypsies
- Gypsy Curses
- A Bite or scratch from the werewolf turns you

Some of these were originally created by the writers working on this film, and have become stereotypes that inspire many other werewolf films, TV Shows, Books, and Games etc.

The portrayal of Lawrence Talbot, by Lon Chaney Jr. is one that makes the classic Universal Monsters so special. Just like Frankenstein's Monster, the audiences of the 40's would have been frightened and horrified by these creatures, enough so that they wouldn't realise that they are in actual fact, suppose to sympathize with them, because when you watch the creatures being chased and hunted,the angry mobs fail to understand that these creatures never wanted this. Frankenstein's Monster never asked to be created, or to have the brain of a criminal mistakenly placed into his head instead of that of a civilized man. Larry Talbot never asked for the Wolf Man's curse, which he encountered whilst trying to save the life of a young female friend of his love interest.

With a great story and, at the time, revolutionary stop motion effects for the wolf man transformation, but of course the most important aspect, the beautifully crafted practical effects, the makeup that brings the creature to life, is incredible. My favourite of the classic Universal Monster Movies and one of my favourite movies of all time.
  
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
1948 | Classics, Comedy, Horror
9
8.0 (10 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The House of Horrors
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein- is such a classic horror movie mixed with humor, comedy, sci-fi and is in the universal monster universe. Plus this has Lon Chaney Jr. as The Wolfman, Bela Lugosi as Dracula, Glenn Strange as Frankenstein and Vincent Price as the voice of the Invisible Man. OMG so many horror icons/legends within one movie. Love it.

The Plot: In the first of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's horror vehicles for Universal Pictures, the inimitable comic duo star as railway baggage handlers in northern Florida. When a pair of crates belonging to a house of horrors museum are mishandled by Wilbur (Lou Costello), the museum's director, Mr. MacDougal (Frank Ferguson), demands that they deliver them personally so that they can be inspected for insurance purposes, but Lou's friend Chick (Bud Abbott) has grave suspicions.

Its funny, entertaining, thrilling, and overall excellent. If you havent seen it, than go and watch it.
  
The Haunted Palace (1963)
The Haunted Palace (1963)
1963 | Horror
7
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Brooding Gothic horror from Roger Corman and Vincent Price. A notorious warlock is killed by an angry mob, but a century later his great-grandson moves into his old mansion and is possessed by his ancestor's spirit. One of the stronger and darker Corman-Price movies, but disingenuously billed as part of their Poe series: the story's fixation with the influence of the past on the present and the horrors of miscegenation would mark it out as an H.P. Lovecraft adaptation even if they hadn't retained the original character names and references to HPL's wider mythology.

Memorable more for an unsettling atmosphere than for being actually scary, though there are some very creepy moments concerning the deformed mutant villagers Price's experiments have produced. Terrific performance from Price, as you'd expect, also from Lon Chaney Jr as his sidekick, which you perhaps wouldn't. A seminal movie for Lovecraft followers and a pretty good one for anyone who likes old-style horror films.
  
The Haunted Palace (1963)
The Haunted Palace (1963)
1963 | Horror
7
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Vincent Price (0 more)
Something Wicked
The Haunted Palace- is anethor Poe, Price and Corrman film. But Although marketed as "Edgar Allan Poe's The Haunted Palace", the film actually derives its plot from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, a novella by H. P. Lovecraft. The title The Haunted Palace is borrowed from the 6-stanza poem by Poe, published in 1839 (which was later incorporated into Poe's horror short story "The Fall of the House of Usher"), and the film uses eight lines from the poem within the framing of the story. So in reality its a H.P. Lovecraft story and a Poe title.

The plot: Condemned warlock Joseph Curwen (Vincent Price) curses a New England village just before being burned alive. More than a century later, Curwen's kindly great-great grandson Charles Ward (also Price) arrives in town and moves into Curwen's old mansion. Caretaker Simon Orne (Lon Chaney Jr.) helps Charles and his wife Ann (Debra Paget) adjust to their new home. The ancient curse, however, takes hold of Joseph, awakening inside him a long-dormant evil passed on through blood.

Its a decent film.
  
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
1943 | Classics, Horror
5
7.0 (6 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Lon Chaney Jr. (1 more)
Bela Lugosi
Huge Disappointment
Contains spoilers, click to show
Frankenstien Meets The Wolf Man- was a huge disappointment but ill get to that later. First lets talk about the film.

The plot: Lawrence Stewart Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) is plagued by a physical oddity that turns him into a crazed werewolf after sundown. His desire to rid himself of this ailment leads him to the castle owned by mad scientist Dr. Frankenstein. Frankenstein, it turns out, is now dead, yet Talbot believes that the scientist's daughter, Baroness Elsa Frankenstein (Ilona Massey), can help him. However, his quest to right himself puts him on a collision course with Frankenstein's monster (Bela Lugosi).

This was the first of a series of "ensemble" monster films combining characters from several film series. This film, therefore, is both the fifth in the series of films based upon Mary Shelley's 1818 book Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, directly after The Ghost of Frankenstein, and a sequel to The Wolf Man.

As ultimately edited and released, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man is told in two almost equal parts. The opening scenes tell the story of Talbot's resurrection, killing spree, hospitalization, and escape across Europe. Much time is spent with a secondary policeman, Inspector Owen, and on scenes with a desperate Talbot hospitalized by Dr. Mannering. The discovery of the Monster and pursuit of Dr. Frankenstein's scientific notes do not begin until thirty-five minutes into the film. The second half introduces the Monster, Elsa, and the village of Vasaria and its inhabitants.

Immediately following his success in Dracula, Bela Lugosi had been the first choice to play the Monster in Universal's original Frankenstein film, but Lugosi famously turned down the nonspeaking, heavily made-up role: as conceived by the original director Robert Florey, the Monster was nothing more than a mindless killing machine and not suitable for Lugosi's rising stardom and career as a leading actor, and the original make-up for Lugosi's screen test was closely based on the doll-like clay robot in The Golem.

Eight years later, Lugosi joined the film as the Monster's twisted companion Ygor in Son of Frankenstein. He returned to the role in the sequel, The Ghost of Frankenstein, in which Ygor's brain is implanted into the Monster (now Chaney), causing the creature to take on Lugosi/Ygor's voice. After plans for Chaney to play both the Monster and the Wolf Man in the next film fell through for logistical reasons (Chaney demurred), the natural next step was for Lugosi, who turned 60 during the film's production, to take on the part that he once was slated to originate.

The original script — and indeed the film as originally filmed — had the Monster performing dialogue throughout the film, including references to the events of Ghost and indicating that the Monster is now blind (a side effect of the brain transplant as revealed at the end of the previous film, and the reason for his iconic stiff-armed "Frankenstein walk"). According to Siodmak, a studio screening audience reacted negatively to this, finding the idea of the Monster speaking with a Hungarian accent unintentionally funny (although the Monster spoke with Lugosi's voice at the end of Ghost, the audiences had been carefully prepared for it by the plot of the film). This has been generally accepted as the reason virtually all scenes in which Lugosi speaks were deleted (though two brief scenes remain in the film that show Lugosi's mouth moving without sound). All references to his being blind were also eliminated, rendering the Monster's groping gestures unmotivated for those unfamiliar with the ending of the previous film. Close-ups of Lugosi's eyes during the revitalization scene and his evil, knowing leer to Patric Knowles were supposed to indicate that his vision had been restored, but in the ultimate context of the film this means nothing. Consequently, Lugosi is onscreen literally for only a few minutes, leaving the Wolf Man as the film's primary focus.

Lugosi suffered exhaustion at some point during the filming, and his absence from the set, combined with his physical limitations at age 60, required the liberal use of stand-ins.

This would be the final Universal horror film in which the Monster played a major role; in the subsequent films The House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula, the Monster, played by Glenn Strange, is brought back to life only in the final scenes (in the 1948 Universal comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (the second and final film in which Lugosi plays Dracula), Strange has a larger role and the creature once again speaks, albeit with very limited dialogue, twice muttering, "Yes, Master."). It was also the last Universal horror film to feature an actual member of the Frankenstein family as a character.

A tribute to this meeting of two horror film legends happens near the beginning of the film Alien vs. Predator, when this film is seen playing on a television at the satellite receiving station. In the US version of the 1962 film King Kong vs. Godzilla (another pairing of prominent monsters), the music from the fight scene at the end of the film also plays during the final fight between Godzilla and Kong.

So the reason why this movie was a huge disappointments that it was universal first ensemble. A meet between two iconic monsters and boy did it disappointment. Their didnt meet until the last 5 minutes, no scratch that the last minute. Yes you read that right, the last minute their meet. Huge disappointment. It was also slow. I dont recordmend watching this one and skip it. The only reason im giving it a 5 is because of Lon Chaney Jr. and Bela Lugosi.
  
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Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated House of Frankenstein (1944) in Movies

Jun 18, 2020 (Updated Jun 18, 2020)  
House of Frankenstein (1944)
House of Frankenstein (1944)
1944 | Classics, Horror
8
7.5 (4 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Get The Gang All Together: The Crossover
House of Frankenstein- is the ultimate monster crossover. It has Frankenstein, Dracula played by John Carradine, the Hunchback and the Wolf-Man played by Lon Chaney Jr. and a mad scientist played by Boris Karloff.

This "monster rally" approach would continue in the following film, House of Dracula, as well as the 1948 comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

The plot: After escaping from prison, the evil Dr. Niemann (Boris Karloff) and his hunchbacked assistant, Daniel (J. Carrol Naish), plot their revenge against those who imprisoned them. For this, they recruit the powerful Wolf Man (Lon Chaney), Frankenstein's monster (Glenn Strange) and even Dracula himself (John Carradine). Niemann pursues those who wrong him, sending each monster out to do his dirty work. But his control on the monsters is weak at best and may prove to be his downfall.

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) had been the first on-screen pairing of two Universal Studios monsters, but The House of Frankenstein was the first multi-monster movie. Early drafts of the story reportedly involved more characters from the Universal stable, including the Mummy, the Ape Woman, 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.

The multi-monster approach, which emphasized box office appeal over continuity, was used in House of Dracula the following year and later in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. The House of Frankenstein marked Glenn Strange's debut as the monster. Strange, a former cowboy, had been a minor supporting player in dozens of low-budget Westerns over the preceding 15 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.

Some continuity errors are evident in the finished film. After Dracula is thrown from the carriage, he looks over to where his coffin has landed; in a close-up, part of his mustache is gone. Also, when Talbot transforms into the Wolf Man for the final time, his hands lack fur.

Karloff's performance in this film is his last in Universal's classic horror cycle.

Its a fun entertaining movie starring the uninversal monsters.