Chainsawmidget and the Universal Monsters.

[chainsaw midget]

House of Dracula

The movie poster promises 5 monsters.  Dracula, the Wolfman, Frankenstein, "Mad Doctor" and "Hunchback."

The hunchback is a nice sweet girl.  Certainly not a monster. 

The movie mostly sends it's time with the mad doctor.  Dracula and the Wolf Man both show up to his plae looking for a cure to their separate conditions.  Sadly, they don't really interact.  In fact, none of the big three do.  The doctor comes up with some scientific explanations for vampirism and lycanthropy which don't really fit the tone of the rest of the movies, or for that matter, explain why Dracula can turn into a bat, but whatever.

When Larry Talbot learns that the cure is going to take some time, he flips out, jumps off a cliff and tries to kill himself.  They later find him in a cave where he's discovered the body of the Frankenstein's Monster, clutching the skeleton of Boris Karloff's character from the last movie. 

Oddly enough, while this sort of explains how he got here, both Dracula and the WOlfman were previous killed in their movies and no explanation is made as to how they're back.

For some reason, Dracula decideds part way through the treatment to go back to his old tricks.  He contaminates the doctor with some of his own blood during a transfusion then tries to prey on the doctor's other nurse.  The one that's not a hunchback. 

Since Dracula was STUPID enough to put his coffin in the doctor's lab, and within feet of sunbeams, he's killed pretty easily once he turns on them.  And that's only about half way through the movie. 

Dracula's blood turns the doctor into a Mr. Hyde like guy at night time and his antics are the ones that bring the required angry mob of villagers down on them. 

Not that the mob does anything. 

The Wolfman is cured (and his reaction to seeing the moon is actually one of the movies better scenes).  The mad doctor strangles his hunchbacked helper and with two minutes left in the movie, the mad doctor decides to revive the Frankenstein Monster.  Larry Talbot shoots the doctor dead, and the monster knocks over some lab equipment and dies in a fire. 

The end. 


The movie has a few brief moments of being decent, but the whole thing really feels like a waste.  Dracula's motivations are never really explained.  Did he want help or not and if so, why did he change his mind? 

Also why didn't they call the mad doctor Jekyll?  That one single detail would have made things a lot more forgivable. 

[chainsaw midget]

She-Wolf of London


There's some nice sets here.  Some good performances.  Some suitably spooky fog.  And, it even has June Lockhart in it.  So, you know, current event appeal. 

What it doesn't have in it, is a She-wolf. 
There are no werewolves or any other kind of monsters at all in this story. 
There's just a murderer gaslighting a girl into thinking she's a werewolf. 

Completely skippable. 

[M.10rda]

Huh... weird inclusion (though at least the title promises a WolfWoman).

So is NIGHT MONSTER in this set? NIGHT MONSTER actually has a night monster, of sorts, which may be a homicidal invisible man, though the film keeps waffling on exactly what the night monster looks like or doesn't look like or what it is.

[Trevor]

Other than that, the Mummy just kind of walks around alot.

😆😂😄😃😀

[chainsaw midget]

Huh... weird inclusion (though at least the title promises a WolfWoman).

So is NIGHT MONSTER in this set? NIGHT MONSTER actually has a night monster, of sorts, which may be a homicidal invisible man, though the film keeps waffling on exactly what the night monster looks like or doesn't look like or what it is.

Night Monster is NOT in this set. 

[chainsaw midget]

Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein

Honestly, this one I've been looking forward to.  It's on my list of Halloween MUST WACTHs even on regular year, and seeing it in context makes it stand out even more. 

Lugosi's back replacing the lackluster Carradine. 
We're back to really nicely done creepy swamps and gothic castles, even a suitably impressive mad science lab. 
The lackluster bland heroes that are typical of movies from this time have been replaced by the almost always entertaining Abbott and Costello and even Glenn Strange gets to do more as the monster than he has in his last several movies.  It's a shame they couldn't get Karloff in there somewhere, but watching Lon Chaney and Bela Lugosi together is a treat. 

Lugosi's performance as Dracula feels less like a man out of time and more natural.  This is a Dracula that's not fresh from his castle into the modern world, but one that has been around a while. 


While the mood on this might be a touch sillier than monster fans are accustom to, the monsters themselves are treated as serious (and spooky threats) and other than a very slight bit of slapstick with the Wolfman, never come across as jokes.  Plus, unlike the previous monster mash movies, we actually get to see the monsters interact with each other! 

The Vincent Price cameo at the end is just a chef's kiss. 

Despite the fact that nothing we see in the movie should have killed Dracula, Frankenstein, or the Wolfman, this would be the curtain call for them in the classic age of monsters and it's a wonderful send off.