If Boris Karloff wouldn't or couldn't reprise his iconic horror character, The Frankenstein Monster, then at least the film makers did the next best thing. In the opening scene, a prison guard describes inmate Professor Niemann (Karloff) as a 'would-be' Frankenstein for his prior efforts at transplanting a human brain into a dog. This is now the third movie in which I've caught such a reference made to Karloff or the character he was portraying as having a connection to Frankenstein. The other two are the 1936 film "Charlie Chan at the Opera", and the 1947 flick "Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome". Check my reviews of those pictures if you want to know the specifics.
Well, except for the absence of Bela Lugosi, this one had all the horror greats of the era that I would have wanted to see in one place at one time. You had Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., Lionel Atwill and George Zucco working in the same picture, with commendable support from John Carradine and J. Carroll Naish. All that makes some of the continuity issues from film to film superfluous; who cares with all the atmospheric sets and spooky stuff going on, especially with Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolf Man brought together for the very first time.
So as I consider that each of the 'monsters' die in this picture before it's over, I had to wonder why the script writers even bothered with that little formality in the prior five pictures of the Frankenstein series. Each successive time out, they had to twist themselves into pretzels to make sense of it all, when there's no way to make sense of it. Just go with Professor Lampini's (Zucco) explanation before he gets offed by Niemann and Daniel (Naish) - "...believe me my friends, this is no fake!"
With this sixth entry in the Universal series, the Frankenstein mythos is put to rest unless you want to consider (as I do) one final stab at reuniting The Monster and Wolf Man in 1948's "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein", this time with an assist from Bela Lugosi's Dracula. As much as Karloff resolved not to appear in film as The Monster he made famous, he actually DID portray the character one more time. I would draw the reader's attention to a 1962 TV episode of 'Route 66' entitled 'Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing'. It's a humorous Halloween story in which Karloff and Chaney reprise their characters one last time, with Peter Lorre filling in as Dracula. The show is a blast, and is one I've written about in my reviews as well. Check it out.
Well, except for the absence of Bela Lugosi, this one had all the horror greats of the era that I would have wanted to see in one place at one time. You had Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., Lionel Atwill and George Zucco working in the same picture, with commendable support from John Carradine and J. Carroll Naish. All that makes some of the continuity issues from film to film superfluous; who cares with all the atmospheric sets and spooky stuff going on, especially with Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolf Man brought together for the very first time.
So as I consider that each of the 'monsters' die in this picture before it's over, I had to wonder why the script writers even bothered with that little formality in the prior five pictures of the Frankenstein series. Each successive time out, they had to twist themselves into pretzels to make sense of it all, when there's no way to make sense of it. Just go with Professor Lampini's (Zucco) explanation before he gets offed by Niemann and Daniel (Naish) - "...believe me my friends, this is no fake!"
With this sixth entry in the Universal series, the Frankenstein mythos is put to rest unless you want to consider (as I do) one final stab at reuniting The Monster and Wolf Man in 1948's "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein", this time with an assist from Bela Lugosi's Dracula. As much as Karloff resolved not to appear in film as The Monster he made famous, he actually DID portray the character one more time. I would draw the reader's attention to a 1962 TV episode of 'Route 66' entitled 'Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing'. It's a humorous Halloween story in which Karloff and Chaney reprise their characters one last time, with Peter Lorre filling in as Dracula. The show is a blast, and is one I've written about in my reviews as well. Check it out.