This is really as cheeky a concept as you can get for a movie: a classic literary character from the work of Mary Shelley meets a 1940s-created Hollywood werewolf! And yet, as my ten-year old self discovered, and as my older and not in the least more sophisticated adult self realises, it's a film that really works.
For one thing, it's wonderfully atmospheric, thanks to Roy William Neill's moody direction, crisp cinematography and sincere performances from the actors. The opening shot is one of the best in Universal's horror cannon, the camera dollying over a gloomy cemetery while crows hop and croak as two grave robbers make their way to the Talbot tomb. They didn't choose the time particularly well, for it is a full moon, and all that's needed to bring the Wolfman (Lon Chaney) back from the dead is its silver-white touch on Talbot's dead hand.
Chaney is excellent as the tormented Talbot; unfortunately studio interference - the editing out of the monster's (played by Bela Lugosi) dialogue and blindness (until the end) make Bela's performance inexplicable to those not in the know. Happily we have compensations in the form of Lionel Atwill, Maria Ouspenskaya, Dwight Frye (back for a last Universal hurrah before his untimely death) and the ravishing Ilona Massey. We even have Inspector Lestrade turn up in the form of Denis Hoey. He might be called Inspector Owen in this movie, but he's got the same overcoat and bowler Hoey wears in his Rathbone Sherlock Holmes' movies.
Talbot escapes from an asylum and heads for Visaria, seeking the secret of Frankenstein's unholy science. He just wants to die and end the torture of his 3 times a month transformations. After various adventures he thaws out Henry's creation and the two quickly turn up Frankenstein's Secrets of Life And Death diary; the monster (with Ygor's brain inside him - see Ghost of Frankenstein) is also seeking to be restored to full power.
Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman even has a barnstorming musical song as the village celebrates the Festival of The New Wine, "For life is short and death is long" being verbal torture for Talbot. The monster comes searching for his new friend and certainly puts a dampener on things for the villagers!
The climactic fight between our titans of terror may have dated but it worked for audiences of the time and on the whole this is a film I never tire of re-watching.
To summarise, cheeky concept, excellent movie!
For one thing, it's wonderfully atmospheric, thanks to Roy William Neill's moody direction, crisp cinematography and sincere performances from the actors. The opening shot is one of the best in Universal's horror cannon, the camera dollying over a gloomy cemetery while crows hop and croak as two grave robbers make their way to the Talbot tomb. They didn't choose the time particularly well, for it is a full moon, and all that's needed to bring the Wolfman (Lon Chaney) back from the dead is its silver-white touch on Talbot's dead hand.
Chaney is excellent as the tormented Talbot; unfortunately studio interference - the editing out of the monster's (played by Bela Lugosi) dialogue and blindness (until the end) make Bela's performance inexplicable to those not in the know. Happily we have compensations in the form of Lionel Atwill, Maria Ouspenskaya, Dwight Frye (back for a last Universal hurrah before his untimely death) and the ravishing Ilona Massey. We even have Inspector Lestrade turn up in the form of Denis Hoey. He might be called Inspector Owen in this movie, but he's got the same overcoat and bowler Hoey wears in his Rathbone Sherlock Holmes' movies.
Talbot escapes from an asylum and heads for Visaria, seeking the secret of Frankenstein's unholy science. He just wants to die and end the torture of his 3 times a month transformations. After various adventures he thaws out Henry's creation and the two quickly turn up Frankenstein's Secrets of Life And Death diary; the monster (with Ygor's brain inside him - see Ghost of Frankenstein) is also seeking to be restored to full power.
Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman even has a barnstorming musical song as the village celebrates the Festival of The New Wine, "For life is short and death is long" being verbal torture for Talbot. The monster comes searching for his new friend and certainly puts a dampener on things for the villagers!
The climactic fight between our titans of terror may have dated but it worked for audiences of the time and on the whole this is a film I never tire of re-watching.
To summarise, cheeky concept, excellent movie!