Thiel-a-Vision Review: The Wolf Man / Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

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The Wolf Man was the last major addition to Universal Studios' roster of movie monsters of the '30s and '40s. Four years after his debut in 1941, Universal's horror factory closed up shop with the release of House of Dracula. By 1945, all pretense of logic and continuity seen in previous Transylvanian epics had fallen away in favor of multi-monster mashes. Though it was not his fault, the Wolf Man led the march during the final decline of the classic monster franchise.

The Wolf Man wasn't Universal's first attempt at a werewolf film, but it was certainly the most famous. Much of that is almost certainly due to Jack Pierce's iconic makeup design, which truth to tell, doesn't much resemble a wolf. However, Lon Chaney Jr.'s portrayal of the cursed Larry Talbot is also memorable, particularly in later appearances in which he appears to walk under a perpetual cloud of inevitable doom.

One thing that I like about the Wolf Man is that he's an energetic beast. Frankenstein's Monster and the Mummy lumbered about so slowly that I felt only babies, invalids and the very stupid would be truly threatened by them in a chase. But the Wolf Man runs and leaps; even caught in a bear trap, he whirls like a dervish. He's not content to throttle you; he'll rip out your throat while you scream for help.

That said, one problem with most of the old Universal horror films is that they simply aren't scary anymore. It's not just their lack of graphic gore, but rather their lack of suspense. At 75 minutes, there isn't much time for The Wolf Man to build a mounting sense of terror, and the filmmakers were so intent on getting their star creature on the screen that we see too much, too soon.

The Wolf Man is perhaps the single greatest filmic influence on werewolf lore, even though it doesn't quite add up. (Why does Bela Lugosi's gypsy character become an actual wolf while Chaney turns into a humanoid beast?) The notion of silver weapons as a werewolf deterrent begins here. (It occurred to me while rewatching the film that the silver-tipped, wolf-headed cane Chaney buys from a curio shop in an early scene may have been made specifically as an anti-werewolf device.)

Two years after the Wolf Man's demise thanks to that very same cane, the monsters were in a bit of a rut, and so Universal decided that the next logical step was to pit one against the other. Hence, Larry Talbot was (literally) roused from his grave for the first monstrous match-up, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. 

While Frankenstein gets top billing, this is really the Wolf Man's film. When his tomb is disturbed by thieves, he is revived by the full moon, ultimately coming to the conclusion that the curse he suffers also dooms him to an unwanted eternal life. (Why this should be is unclear, as the werewolf who bit him in the first film stayed quite dead after being struck with the aforementioned silver cane.) Larry's quest for death ultimately brings him to the ruins of Castle Frankenstein and the Baron's lost secrets. 

Again, the logic doesn't totally follow. Why does the gypsy woman (played by Maria Ouspenskaya in her signature role) know of Dr. Frankenstein? Why would his experiments on dead tissue have any relevance to breaking a supernatural curse? No matter, the point is to bring the Wolf Man and the Monster together just in time for an exploding dam to wash away the castle ruins and put an inconclusive (and short-lived) end to the combatants. For all the build-up to the monster-on-monster action, the actual fight is disappointingly short.

There's still plenty of fun to be had with the Universal Monsters films and their timeless setting. The monsters live in a vague European playground of crypts, foggy graveyards, crumbling stonework and sparking machinery. Aside from the occasional presence of modern devices such as automobiles, there's little sense of exactly where and when they occur. The village may be called "Vasaria" or whatever, but it's all Transylvania to me.

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