A Last Hurrah - Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein.

 

  The last hurrah of the Universal monsters took a big risk in going for laughs with Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) but, somehow, it works. Some weird alchemy was at work here, in what could have been a total embarrassment for Universal’s gallery of horrors. House of Dracula (1945) had left things in a precarious position, with everything looking well past its sell by date to me, and to end things on that note would have been a shame; which does make me wonder about the decision to have the Wolf Man, Dracula and Frankenstein’s Monster support arguably the biggest comedy duo in US cinema at that time. Would they simply be there to provide laughs and be mocked? What audiences got was a pretty well-judged balance between comedy and horror, with our favourite ghouls played straight while the humour largely came from Bud and Lou’s reactions as well as their usual interactions.

 

 Bud and Lou play Chick Young (a name which should amuse Scottish Football fans of a certain age) and Wilbur Gray, respectively, who work in a parcel office. They receive two large boxes, to be delivered to the unreasonably antagonistic Mr McDougall. Seriously, this guy shouts from the outset, slapping Lou around and demanding they both be jailed for losing the contents of his boxes. Boxes, we learn, which contain Frankenstein’s Monster (Glenn Strange) and Count Dracula himself. Gone is the thin faced, totally wrong John Carradine and returning is the original Count himself, Bela Lugosi. It’s well known that Lugosi’s final years were marked by appearances in very poor z-grade horror films and I feared that he might have been doing himself a disservice appearing here, but he’s great. He knows who the stars really are and plays it all straight and with aplomb. Of course, this is nowhere near like his original appearance as Dracula, but he reaffirms his decades-long identification with the role. Strange gets a bit more to do here at the end and even gets some lines, lumbering around after our heroes. 

 Lon Chaney. Jr joins in the fun as Lawrence Talbot, this time featuring make-up from Bud Westmore, which really looks like a poorer man’s version of Jack Pierce’s original design. While Pierce liked to build up layers of make-up, I’ve read that Westmore was keener on larger appliances, which just look a bit stuck on. A scene in Talbot’s apartment where he stalks an unsuspecting Wilbur does have more of an element of scariness than they previous couple of films in the series, but of course we know Abbott & Costello aren’t about to get their throats ripped out. The Wolf-Man and Dracula get an expensive exit as they plummet into the sea, with what looks like an early matte effect folloed by an animated splash. The Count’s own animated transitions into a bat also look far better than Carradine’s, with the animation looking far slicker. Seems more money was spent on this one that the previous Universal monster movies.

 

  Regarded as one of the greatest horror comedies ever made, it made me laugh a fair bit and a surprise “appearance” from another Universal horror character in the closing seconds of the film came as a pleasant surprise, voiced by another horror icon (no spoilers). It's not meant to be taken that seriously, but the serious approach to the monsters among the comedy lifts up what could have been an ignominious end for them. It was the end for this Holy Trinity of the Wolf Man, Dracula and Frankenstein appearing together like this, but Bud and Lou would go on to meet more of Universal's other monsters. But, since this is a werewolf thing I'm doing, those will have to wait.

She-Wolf of London

  

 She Wolf of London (1946) stands as not a Universal horror but more of a Universal period chiller. June Lockhart (she of TV’s Lost in Space fame) stars as a young woman, Phyllis Allenby, about to get married to her rich prospect, Barry (Don Porter). But her “aunt” has other ideas that involve a series of killings in a local park, to be blamed on a werewolf-woman, or at least someone who believes that they are a wolf, which is more relevant to the actual real-world concept of lycanthropy, where people behave like wolves (as opposed to becoming them). 

 

 Lockhart may seem to try her best, her wide eyes emanating mostly inert fear, but there is really not much for her character to do aside from lie in bed as she becomes more and more isolated in her fear that she is a werewolf. in the second half of the film, all agency is taken form her and she barely exists as a character. This fear is sparked by the supposed Curse of the Allenbys, not dissimilar to the source of the beast in The Undying Monster (1942), except they dealt with a real werewolf, whereas She Wolf of London is more about psychological abuse and someone pretending to be an animal as they rip out the throats of unlucky park-goers.

 

 Another element this film has in common with Undying Monster is the presence of Eily Malyon, who plays the housekeeper in both films. Her face is amazing, thin and gaunt but she puts it to good use in both films, playing it for deceptiveness in Undying Monster while playing far more sympathetic in She Wolf, as she attempts to save the day. She looks a little like Ernest Thesiger. But far less camp.

 

 

 For a B film, it’s running time is as brief as just about all of the films in this blog series so far, and the production design is stretched, featuring some decent period costumes but a location that couldn’t be further from London if it tried. Direction from Jean Yarborough feels a bit staid, but there is a bit of flourish in the film’s climax, with tilted angles telegraphing that the villain is about to not only be revealed but engage in monologing that buys our heroine far more time. Scenes in the dark and misty park have a stage bound feel, even with the mysterious hooded wolf-woman swooping through the brush. There could be more to be made of the story's gothic drama potential, but everything seems limited. A scene where Phyllis finds blood n her hands is a it confusing as the blood can barely be seen at all, so pulled back is the actual horror element.

 It’s all a bit boring really, and could maybe have gone that little bit further in what could have been an interesting commentary on what women of a certain class who wished to retain their lifestyle may have had to do in order to survive and remain solvent when there was no man to support them and a career was off-limits. A bit of a shame on that front.

(More) Houses of Horror, Universally Speaking Part 2

 
House of Dracula (1945) is not great. It’s creaky as hell, but at least there’s more Dracula and he is integral to the plot, until he’s done away with. A film of two distinct halves, for sure. Earl C. Kenton returns to direct one of the last (if not the last) films of Universal’s horror/monster cycle. His direction doesn’t seem quite as assured as his previous entry, House of Frankenstein (1944), and this one seems to resurrect all three monsters without any explanation. When we last saw them, Dracula had come a cropper off a horse drawn coach and shrivelled in the sunshine, the Wolfman was shot "dead" with a silver bullet by his love, and Frankenstein’s monster sank into quicksand. At least we get a little hint of the Monster’s fate when they discover his corpse in a cave, along with the skeleton of Boris Karloff’s Dr Niemann. How they got from quicksand into a rocky cave is…ah, why should we ask? I do ask, why Dracula is even looking for a cure to his vampirism, especially when he has no compunction at seducing another victim and then turning the tables on the doctor trying to cure him.

 Driven by either co-incidence, or the unspoken fact the Onslow Stevens’ Dr Edelman is clearly a magnet for monsters who seek to be free of the respective curses, the film focuses on the good doctor, until a ropey blood transfusion involving Dracula, turns him into more of a Mr Hyde, jumping between good and bad incarnations as he either tries to save Lawrence Talbot (his curse is actually pressure on the brain…) or resurrect Glenn Strange’s Monster. It seems he’s successful with the former, but things go awry when the Monster witnesses Edelman murdering his hunchbacked assistant, Nina (Jane Adams). Scoliosis seems to be quite the rage in Visaria, even if Nina’s own affliction looks remarkably convincing as a real case of scoliosis. In the ensuing chaos, guns are fired and the mob attends with the usual aplomb; Skelton Knaggs (possessor of one the greatest names in film history) gurns and grimaces his way through it as leader of the mob. Universal stalwart, Lionel Atwill, in one of his final roles, gets a dynamic send off when he’s thrust into an electrical circuit, but the castle falls prey to the usual destruction

 

 In terms of the Wolf Man, there is some fun to be had but not as much as usual. What differs is his initial transformation in a police cell is witnessed by the other characters, leaving his curse in no doubt to the others. There is the usual scene of Talbot sitting in a garden, bemoaning his curse as the attractive female lead finds him, sits down and pours pity on him. All getting a bit samey. Chaney first turns up dressed very differently than in previous entries, looking almost like a London spiv from the Second World War, black shirt and white tie and moustache. Story goes that Chaney was drinking a lot during this shoot and got Glenn Strange hammered when he had to lie down in the freezing cold for an extended period (I would presume it's during the scene in the cave where they find the Monster). Convinced booze would warm him up, Chaney slipped him booze throughout the day. Once the scene was in the can, Strange was so pished he couldn't stand up.

 

 Speaking of Strange, Frankenstein’s Monster is given particular short shrift, only coming to life in the film’s final moments. The poster has the same rogue’s gallery as the previous film to invite the audience, just with a few different faces with the same labels. But it feels like it’s all run its course here. The end was surely in sight for the Universal Monsters…

Houses of Horror, Universally Speaking: Part 1.

Misleading poster - no beard on this film's Hunchback!

 I found House of Frankenstein (1944) to be a bit of a delight. I was cautious after previously only lasting around 10 minutes when watching House of Dracula (1945) a few years ago. Some of my students are fanatical about the current shared Marvel Cinematic Universe - I had great fun and some real nostalgic kicks myself when I saw superheroes from my childhood together in Marvel’s Avengers back in 2012 – and so they have a bit of an awakening when I tell them that it was Universal Pitcures who came up with the idea of a shared universe on film 70 years earlier. House of Frankenstein was to horror icons what Thanos’ hunt for Infinity Stones is to superhero movies. And what brings this film to my werewolf list is the presence of one Lawrence Talbot. The events of Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) are directly referenced here, making this a direct sequel to that the the previous Wolf Man (1941) and this pretty much a set of movies all connected by the life and fate of Chaney's Wolf Man.

Director Earl C. Kenton keeps things moving along nicely, with some engaging direction. Karloff’s own entrance is great, as his arm whips from a prison cell to strangle his jailor. There is a lot of fun to be had here and Kenton knows exactly which world we’re in. There's a great stunt moment where J. Carrol Naish's hunchback falls beneath some loose rocks in a cave, mid-dialogue and wonderfully timed, well into the shot. And of course there's some juicy, fun dialogue through the proceedings as well.

Yes, it’s immensely silly and the part with Dracula seems tacked on to the beginning as he seems to be there to simply get the mob off the tail of Boris Karloff’s splendid Dr Niemann and his sympathetic hunchback assistant, Daniel (J. Carrol Naish). The entire sequence featuring Dracula and his intended victim is interesting but seems like a separate little film of its own, and once the Count is dispatched the other relevant characters, including Universal Horror stalwart Lionel Atwill, are never seen again. I never bought John Carradine as Count Dracula. Maybe it’s the ‘tache. Or the top hat. Or he just doesn;t suit the role? There are some decent shots of his shadow transforming into a bat; it appears this iteration of the Count prefers to use his bat form to feed on the less attractive male characters, like the true vampire bat.

 The evil Dr Neiman seeks to recover the records of the late Dr Frankenstein so he might continue and improve on his work on resurrecting the dead. Or more like a chain reaction of brain transplants – it does get a little bit difficult to remember which brain is going into what body later o in the film, to the irritation of Lon Chaney Jr’s recently defrosted Lawrence Talbot, found alongside the also frozen Frankenstein Monster, this time played by the giant Glenn Strange, who we recently watched in The Mad Monster (1942). I’d spent many years being a bit cynical about Strange as the monster but he does well, certainly better than Lugosi (as of this writing, I am still to see Chaney’s take on the character), evoking more empathy for the Monster than anyone since Karloff. They may have dropped in one or two of Karloff’s snarls from the first two James Whale films. Another cast member from that Poverty Row effort is George Zucco, here playing Professor Lamprini. Or he does for a short scene before Karloff does away with him and assumes his identity. The entire opening sequence of the film does give us some characters which seem to be cast aside early on.

And so, we once again encounter Lawrence Talbot and his impatient desire to die and be free of his curse. His pleas are met with broken promises by Karloff’s mad scientist, while the hunchback Daniel’s gypsy* travelling companion, Ilonka (Elena Verdugo) falls for the tall and tragic “Larry”. Jealousy ensues, with Daniel now developing a hatred of Talbot and the Frankenstein Monster as Neiman’s promise to fix his physical deformity have been cast asunder in favour of darker experiments. A neat little moment where Daniel takes his temper out on the Monster brings back memories of Dwight Frye’s original hunchback assistant, Fritz, torturing Karloff’s Monster in the original Frankenstein (1931). But here, instead of blind hate, there is some understanding of where his violence comes from.

We have an interesting and different take on Talbot’s transformation into the Wolf Man, as we follow his footprints change from human to werewolf in the mud as he takes off into the night. Another full-face transformation is also terrific, with Jack Pierce’s make up looking even better. 

Of course, it all ends in tears, as lovers destroy each other and Daniel is tossed from a window like a ragdoll by the Monster, before the mob chase him down as he carries the wounded Neiman off into the woods, only to be swallowed up by quicksand. Cue credits. A top time has been had. It;s a bit strange how thes emovies often have no coda. Monsters are despatched and then it's immediately all over.

This has also encouraged me to try watching House of Dracula again. Let's see what happens…

 

*Any uses of the word “gypsy” by me in these blog entries are not intended to be offensive but reflect the simple-minded portrayal of Romani culture of the time and tone of the films.