FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN

Lon Chaney and Bela Lugosi

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN (1943). Director: Roy William Neill. Colorized.

Awakened in his tomb, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney) seeks the help of the gypsy woman Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya) to finally rid himself of the curse of werewolf-ism. The pair initially wind up in the town of Frankenstein, where Talbot attempts to find the doctor's diary, inexplicably believing that he can learn the secret of ending his immortality in there. Instead he finds the monster (Bela Lugosi). A doctor, Mannering (Patric Knowles), follows Talbot's trail, and discovers he has reached out to Frankenstein's granddaughter, Elsa (Ilona Massey) to ask her aid in finding the diary. As Elsa and Mannering bond, eventually the two monsters engage in a brief battle that seems to finish both of them off. 

Dennis Hoey and Patric Knowles

Right away you can see the slapdash quality of the picture when according to the opening credits the main stars of the picture are not Chaney and Lugosi, but Knowles and Massey! Everything in the movie seems thrown together in great haste to bring the thing quickly into theaters. Chaney repeats his Wolfman role and is adequate, the great Lugosi is better, Knowles is professional, and Massey is vaguely attractive. Dennis Hoey as Inspector Owen, Lionel Atwill as the Mayor, Rex Evans as bar owner Vazec, and the wonderful Ouspenskaya are more on the mark. But even back in the day the meeting of these two great monsters must have been a big disappointment to the fans. 

Verdict: Not one of the better Franky movies. **1/2. 

SON OF FRANKENSTEIN

Karloff and Lugosi

SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939). Director: Rowland V. Lee. Colorized.

Baron Wolf von Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone of Hillbillies in a Haunted House) arrives in the town where his father created his monster with his wife Elsa (Josephine Hutchinson) and little boy, Peter (Donnie Dunagan), in tow. No one in the village is pleased to see this new Frankenstein, but at least the Inspector (Lionel Atwill of Captain America). whose arm was torn off by the monster, is willing to provide protection for him. Wolf learns that not only is the monster still alive, but that the malevolent Ygor (Bela Lugosi of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein) has been using him to kill off those who sentenced him to die for graverobbing. (Instead he just wound up with a broken neck.) The monster has been inactive since being struck by lightning, but Wolf stupidly decides to revive him. Naturally havoc ensues ...

Rathbone and Hutchinson

Son of Frankenstein is a fun and absorbing picture with weird art deco sets and some terrific performances. Lugosi arguably gives the best performance of his career as the gleefully conniving and cackling Ygor. Rathbone, Hutchinson and Atwill are also excellent, and little Dunagan gets by on sheer adorableness. Karloff is basically mute in this but still quite effective. The film has genuine suspense and moves at a swift pace. If there's any problem with the movie it's that Wolf Frankenstein is essentially an asshole, endangering his wife and child, and never really gets his comeuppance for this. The film also has a very interesting score by Frank Skinner. 

Verdict: Wonderful old Universal horror flick. ***1/4. 

CAPTAIN AMERICA

Dick Purcell as Captain America

CAPTAIN AMERICA (15-chapter Republic serial/1944). Directors: Elmer Clifton and John English. Colorized version. 

Dr. Maldor (Lionel Atwill of Lady in the Death House) is royally pissed. All he got out of a trip to some Mayan ruins with several associates is a lowly position at the Drummond Museum of Arts and Sciences. Maldor is not about to take this slight lying down, so he uses a drug called the purple death to force the other men to commit suicide and calls himself the Scarab.  And that's just for starters. Maldor has other nefarious plans in mind and has to continually keep dealing with District Attorney Grant Gardner (Dick Purcell of X Marks the Spot) and his alter ego Captain America, who is out to stop him whatever it takes. Maldor uses a "dynamic vibrator" to make an entire building collapse in chapter one, and then uses a stolen "electronic firebolt" to rob banks and the like. He even gets involved with a professor who can bring dead animals and even people back to life. Grant/Cap has a take no prisoners attitude, and it seems as if every other chapter one of Maldor's gunsels is being thrown to his death from a great height. 

Atwill, Gray, Pucell

Captain America is one of the very best Republic serials, with a constant stream of riotous action, fabulous fisticuffs, and some great cliffhangers, including the aforementioned collapsing building, a crushing tractor on a direct path to Cap's prone body, a guillotine that nearly beheads Grant's plucky associate Gail (Lorna Gray), and an ore car that is dropped down a shaft on top of our semi-conscious hero. In one scene Atwill whips John Hamilton when he won't talk, and puts Gail in a case where he intends to employ "mummifying" gas to turn her into a desiccated prune. Gail thinks of a clever way to trap Maldor, making up the name of a doctor which is the Scarab's real name spelt backwards. Purcell and Gray are suitably heroic, but Atwill walks off with the movie with his smooth, amused, and highly sinister turn as the utterly evil and sociopathic Maldor. John Davidson and George J. Lewis are Maldor's primary henchmen, and Jay Novello has a neat scene as a gunsel who comes to a bad end. Mort Glickman's score also works overtime to keep the excitement level up. Gray and Lewis  also appeared together in Federal Operator 99. NOTE: Even though the serial's hero has a different secret identity than in the comic books, this is the very first Marvel Comics movie adaptation.

Verdict: Lots of thrilling fun. ***1/4. 

FOG ISLAND

Formidable adversaries: Atwill; Zucco

FOG ISLAND (1945). Director: Terry O. Morse. Colorized.

Leo Grainer (George Zucco) has a lot to be ticked off about. He believes he spent time in jail because he was framed by certain associates. He also believes that one of those associates murdered his wife. He now lives on an isolated island with his stepdaughter, Gail (Sharon Douglas), and invites all of the suspects there. For their own reasons -- including the possibility of finding a treasure cache -- they all agree. The guests include Ritchfield (Lionel Atwill of Lady in the Death House); fortune teller Emiline (Jacqueline deWit); Grainer's former secretary, Sylvia (Veda Ann Borg of Naked Gun); Doc Kingsley (Ian Keith), who was in jail with Grainer; Kavanaugh (Jerome Cowan of Black Zoo); and others. As the fog rolls in -- and in and in -- people start dying one by one. 

Sharon Douglas and John Whitney

The best -- and best-acted -- scenes have to do with Zucco and Atwill, two excellent performers who make the most out of weak material. Their scenes together are too brief to amount to much, however, and the rest of the creaky movie takes a while to really get going. John Whitney plays a love interest for Gail, who is pretty miserable to him for most of the running time. At the conclusion the picture is enlivened by a death trap sequence in which several of the characters are trapped in a locked underground chamber that is rapidly filling with water. Otherwise this is not that memorable a movie. 

Verdict: The fog machines on the sound stage were working overtime! **1/4. 

LADY IN THE DEATH HOUSE

Jean Parker

LADY IN THE DEATH HOUSE (1944). 

Director: Steve Sekely. 

Psychologist Charles Finch (Lionel Atwill) tells a group of associates the story of Mary Kirk (Jean Parker), who was fated to die in the death house. Finch had originally encountered Mary at a nightclub, when her dress accidentally caught on fire and Finch assisted her, along with Dr. Dwight Bradford (Douglas Fowley), with whom she becomes romantically involved. When a man who knows that her father was a criminal tries to blackmail her, he winds up dead and Mary is accused. Even after she is convicted and as the time of her execution draws very near, Finch suspects that her younger sister, Suzy (Marcia Mae Jones) may know more than she's telling. Will the real killer be discovered before it's too late? 

Douglas Fowley, Lionel Atwill, Jean Parker

The most interesting -- if very contrived -- aspect of the story is that Dr. Bradford, who wants to 
marry Mary, is employed as the executioner at the prison, and when she gets to death row, will get the job of killing her, even though he could easily refuse considering the circumstances. Early in the movie Bradford explains to Finch that he only works at the prison so that he can continue his research into reviving dead animals. But if you're hoping Bradford will kill Mary and then revive her, that whole aspect of the story is completely forgotten, making one wonder why it was ever brought up in the first place.

Although there is an attempt to create some suspense at the climax, Lady in the Death House is less than nail-biting. It's padded and dull and its running time of less than an hour seems twice as long. Atwill is fine but completely wasted, while Parker makes a competent leading lady. Byron Foulger and Cy Kendall have small roles and I believe I heard the voice of Lyle Talbot as a radio announcer. Director Steve Sekely's best-known feature is probably Day of the Triffids. 

Verdict: A very cheap P. R. C. production with little to recommend it. *.