House of Frankenstein promises an aggregation of cinema’s worst villains running around the screen like drunken midgets on acid. However, what director Erle Kenton delivers is a film which counterbalances itself: For every unforgivable, no-brainer misstep, he posits a startlingly clever scenario or character which rises above what one would expect from such a project, the culmination of which settles itself into being a mere entertaining evening with the legends of the Golden Age of Horror.
After escaping Neustadt prison, mad scientist Gustav Niemann (Boris Karloff) and his hunchbacked assistant, Daniel (J. Carrol Naish), hijack the Lampini Chamber of Horrors, a traveling freak show which houses the remains of Dracula (John Carradine). Niemann’s plans are to seek revenge upon those who condemned him fifteen years prior–including Friedrich Strauss (Michael Mark), Ullman (Frank Reicher), and Burgomeister Tobermann (Charles Miller)–as he searches for the lost notes of his idol, Frankenstein. However, during his first faux performance as the sideshow host in Reigelberg, Tobermann’s home town, fearing that the Burgomeister recognized him, Niemann extracts the stake which was used to bring Dracula to an end, but before he can utilize the weapon on Tobermann, the vampire reappears. Shortly thereafter, Niemann locates Frankenstein’s notes after discovering the frozen remains of both the legendary Monster (Glenn Strange) and the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr.). Mayhem ensues as the mad scientist attempts to devise and implement his own experiments as Daniel’s love interest, a gypsy woman named Ilonka (Elena Verdugo), takes a fancy to Lawrence Talbot.
Admittedly, I was rather apprehensive going into this film considering Erle Kenton, director of The Ghost of Frankenstein, and Curt Siodmak, screenwriter of Roy William Neill’s Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, were involved in the project in their respected capacities. Their aforementioned efforts involving the Universal monsters are both strong contenders for worst film in the studio’s horror canon thus, I wasn’t looking forward to another, highly probable lesser foray back into the Monster collective with these two individuals as my guides.
Understandably, the work posits no great truths concerning humanity as its storyline is predictably weak considering the limited running time while housing a gaggle of lead roles. But this is part of the fun of such a picture as horror aficionados froth at the opportunity to play cinematic trivia with themselves as we watch as the characters’ histories are either supported or arbitrarily forgotten, nonetheless serving as a just alibi to reminisce about the creatures’ glory days.
Yet, for all my trepidation, as with most fans of the Golden Age of Horror, I was intrigued by how the monsters would be brought together. As such, the Hunchback of Notre Dame is merely given a cursory title as the Wolf Man and Frankenstein’s Monster’s resurgences are merely a redux of their previous outing in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. However, perhaps one of the most creative (and fairly plausible) revivals of the Universal lot, Dracula is resurrected via his remains as the stake set by Van Helsing is extracted from the coffin in which the vampire previously perished (in lieu of the logically indulgent fact that the Count’s offspring, Marya Zaleska, burned her father’s remains in Lambert Hillyer’s Dracula’s Daughter).
For the slightly above-average mark the filmmakers earn for bringing forth their antagonists, they dip below even the minimal expectations for such a project in regards to their storyline yet set the bar at even once more as they surprising issue two out of four convincing and entertaining characterizations during the journey.
The plot is too shaky from the offset as Niemann’s duel agendas seem to take precedence over one another time and time again, one of which being his makeshift plan–not to kill those who condemned him as we are given to believe at the film’s offset–but to exchange their brains for those of the monsters’ (that is, the Wolf Man and Frankenstein’s creation). However, considering that we saw the effects of a brain exchange in The Ghost of Frankenstein–Ygor pouncing on his newfound omnipotence–one hesitates, as the viewer attempts to find the logic in Niemann’s agenda in giving his enemies the bodies of murderous monsters. (Such an enquiry is quickly lost upon inquisitive minds after the deus ex machina lightening conveniently strikes the cells containing Niemann and his assistant, thus permitting the filmmaker’s an all-too-easy segue into the action.) Also, entering into the film, we eagerly anticipate the finale, in which we are all but promised that the monsters involved will clash as they did in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. However, the wind is quickly let out of the audience’s sails once Dracula is dispatched midway through the production. Furthermore, Talbot’s ensuing self-loathing and thanophilia dampens the breakneck pace of the film while Frankenstein’s monster is only given life during the final minutes of the production. What remains is what could have comprised a fairly sound storyline in and of itself without the impediment of the reanimated product of mad science or the Transylvanian villain.
In a surprisingly clever move, the character of Daniel, a latter day Hunchback, is presented in a 2-for-1 role: Not only is he the production’s successor to Lon Chaney Sr.’s character of twenty-one years prior, but he serves as the demented assistant to the Niemann. Naish does an outstanding job of recalling his forerunner as he dangles and freely swings along the outside of the caravan (much like Chaney Sr. did repelling down the walls of the famed Catholic cathedral) before finding himself in another scenario involving unrequited love as Ilonka shifts her interest in the hunchback who saved her from being beaten to death to the tall, dark, and handsome Talbot. The antagonism witnessed between the two psychologically tortured souls house enough pathos to sustain an entire narrative without the aide of the other beasts. Thus, the filmmakers missed the prospective opportunity to shoot the potentially entertaining, if not rewarding, The Wolf Man Meets the Hunchback. Naish’s representation of the empathy-inducing invalid (which would parallel Talbot’s mindset) also succeeds in distracting the viewer from noticing that his plight echoes Talbot’s quest in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man almost verbatim, down to the character falling through the dilapidated floors of the Frankenstein laboratory.
With all the hyperactive bells and whistles perpetually sounding throughout the production, it is surprising to see an attempt at expanding of the characters’ mythos as the far-fetched solution to the Wolf Man’s plight is posited in the form of a silver bullet distributed at the hand of a loved one. Fortunately, Siodmak doesn’t esteem to reestablish any of the now-resolute laws of the respective creatures as the always dependable lynch mob hurries forward once more in pursuit of the societal menaces. Lastly, and of minor interest, is the make-up of Jack Pierce, the mastermind behind the creation of the Mummy, Frankenstein’s monster, and the Wolf Man. As tired as the creatures had become, it seems as if the legendary man behind the effects had also become exhausted on his creatures as Strange appears, not threatening, but browbeaten.
House of Frankenstein, from its conception, couldn’t have been more than a fun romp and excuse for horror fans to revisit their favorite monsters yet another time. Even though the characters of Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster could have easily been abandoned to little effect, the remaining cast of villains are convincingly conveyed as the underdog character of the hunchback played by J. Carrol Naish steals the show. Of course, the one anticipatory pleasure which does not go unheeded is Boris Karloff in a speaking role as he maliciously, yet artfully, depicts his own version of a megalomaniac using science as his ruse for fame and power. What results is Erle Kenton finally issuing a piece of pure horror escapism at its mind-numbing best.
-Egregious Gurnow
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