HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN
House of Frankenstein may bill itself as an all-star cast of Universal Studios monsters. I would argue that while House of Frankenstein does have a rogue's gallery of them, the title itself is a misnomer. While not as good as what had come before, House of Frankenstein is serviceable entertainment.
Mad scientist Gustave Niemann (Boris Karloff) languishes in prison for attempting to be like the fabled Doctor Frankenstein and bring life from death. His fellow prisoner is Daniel (J. Carroll Naish), a hunchback. Fortune smiles on them when during a fierce storm, their prison is destroyed and they escape. More good fortune comes when they help Professor Lampini (George Zucco). Lampini has a traveling carnival show, which Niemann and Daniel relieve Lampini off when they kill him.
Now, disguised as Niemann and his assistant, our wicked duo makes their way to Visaria, the most doomed town in all Europe. Niemann is set on getting revenge against the Visaria leaders who locked him up and denied him his genius. At the top of that list is the Hussman family. Burgermeister Hussman (Sig Ruman) is unaware of any of this. He is more interested in his grandson Carl (Peter Coe) and his new wife, the American Rita (Anne Gwynne). To help Niemann get his revenge, he is not relying on Daniel. He is relying on the carnival's main exhibit: Count Dracula (John Carridine). Once Niemann removes the stake from Dracula's bones, he comes back to life.
Dracula, calling himself Baron Lantos, soon has Rita under his spell. The Burgermeister meets his end, but Niemann has no scruples of letting the Baron get burnt by the sun during their escape. Now, it is off to the ruins of Castle Frankenstein. Here, Niemann and Daniel come across a Gypsy encampment. Daniel falls for Gypsy maiden Ilonka (Elena Verdugo), whom he rescues from an abusive Gypsy. She agrees to go with them to the Castle. Here, they find the frozen remains of Frankenstein's Monster (Glenn Strange) and Lawrence Talbot aka The Wolf Man (Lon Chaney, Jr.). They will do for Niemann's mad plan for revenge.
Niemann has promised Daniel a better body in exchange for helping him. Daniel thinks the best body available to transfer his brain into is that of Talbot. That would help both Daniel and Larry. Daniel sees that Ilonka is smitten with the melancholy Talbot. Talbot for his part will finally be released from his living death as the Wolf Man. However, Niemann is too obsessed with revenge to note what Daniel or Talbot want. Niemann revives Frankenstein's monster as part of his wicked plan for vengeance. However, a lycanthrope, a hunchback and a Gypsy maiden will all involve themselves to bring the mad scientist and the monster to a gruesome end.
In short, Dracula could have been eliminated from Edward T. Lowe's screenplay, and it would have worked just fine.
It might have even worked better given John Carradine's performance. He is able to hypnotize Rita, but the methods might elicit more chuckles than frights. When director Erle C. Kenton focuses on Carradine's eyes to show his hypnotic power the end result looks hilarious. I do not think that was the intention.
We also have a very curious situation in that there is a lot of brain-hopping going on. Niemann's plans involve transferring the brains of his two enemies into the Monster and Talbot to condemn them to eternal misery. I think we have seen this kind of whacked-out scheme already. It does seem a bit too much to have all of this mind-shifting. Come to think of it, I think we have seen Frankenstein's Monster frozen already too.
I was impressed by J. Caroll Naish's turn as Daniel. He is not as good as Bela Lugosi's Ygor. However, he had good moments of drama when he sees that his unrequited love for Ilonka will not be returned. It does look curious whenever he does commit murder. However, Naish makes for a good, almost sympathetic, lackey.
Our Frankenstein regular Lionel Atwill is not forgotten in House of Frankenstein. Here, he is Inspector Arnz, a Hussmann family friend who tracks down the Burgermeister's killer. I suppose that Atwill had to pop up in a Frankenstein movie somehow. Also returning is Lon Chaney, Jr. as the cursed Wolf Man. He continues to make Talbot a sympathetic and tragic figure. This is a haunted man, knowing that he does evil things despite his basic goodness. Chaney keeps to how well he has done in the role.
Glenn Strange makes his first appearance as Frankenstein's Monster. He was not on Karloff's level. However, he did a respectable job in the role. Unfortunately, for this being the House of Frankenstein, he had very little to do. As mentioned, David Carradine was a bit silly as Dracula/Lantos. That, however, was not the whole of his performance. He did well when Dracula first rises from the dead. Elena Verdugo's Ilonka also did well as our Gypsy princess. Less so was her American counterpart. Anne Gwynne was not terrible. I put her weakness on the material than on herself.
House of Frankenstein also has some surprisingly good camera work. Of particular note is when the camera flows to the Frankenstein Castle ruins as the Lampini Caravan travels on.
House of Frankenstein is a B-Picture. It feeds off of what has come before. However, it is entertaining and almost no one embarrasses themselves here. This is not a great or even particularly good film. It is, however, good enough to keep to this surprisingly strong franchise.
FRANKENSTEIN UNIVERSAL FILMS
House of Dracula
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