This was a movie that the two of us ended up watching completely by random chance (more on that later), and going in I think the both of us weren't expecting a whole lot. Monster team-up movies aren't typically synonymous with great cinema, and with this being the first one of those pretty much ever, it stood to reason that it was a precedent-setter. To our pleasant surprise, we both ended up enjoying it-- it doesn't offer much in the way of scares necessarily, but Lon Chaney Jr's Wolf Man is a really fascinating and compelling character, and some of the sets are very good looking. Also, it's short! It's a little over an hour! If you're reading this we can pretty much guarantee you that you have spent and hour and fifteen minutes doing something much less rewarding than watching this movie, so check it out.AND SPEAKING OF CHECKING IT OUT, the reason why this was a random watch on our part is because of our award-winning* brilliant** podcast, Tara and Andrew Versus the Scarecrow Video Movie Guide-- we're randomly selecting a movie from the aforementioned guide that neither of us have seen before, and then watching and talking about the movie as well as any interesting bits of information we were able to find out after doing some post-viewing research. We try to keep things pretty short, and this episode is only about twenty minutes, so if you think you might want to check us out you can find us at www.taraandandrewversus.com. Thanks for your potential patronage!

Well, I have to admit that it's interesting to see what the first ever film crossover was and it did more or less set the basis for future crossovers. And well, I was kind of disappointed by this. It's mostly because the actual fight between Frankenstein's Monster and the Wolf Man is only three minutes long! When you have an entire movie being set up for that, it's a major strike against it. I still appreciate how they are setting up the story. I like how they are connecting these two popular franchises. "Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein" had a much bigger and better monster brawl.I still appreciate this movie bringing these two characters together and coming up with a single universe. It's just been done better many other times. I also think it was kind of weird how the scientist just seemed to go crazy at the end. Well, they didn't technically get the title wrong. A daughter of Frankenstein did in fact meet up with the Wolf Man. I'm sorry, but the actual interaction between the main characters was too small! I can still appreciate how the plot is good. There's just too much talking. It's still okay for what it is. **1/2

Two graverobbers break into the Talbot crypt on a full moon night. Larwrence Stewart Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) is awaken and kills one of the robbers. Talbot is later found in the streets of Cardiff by the police. In the hospital under the care of Dr. Mannering, he transforms one night and kills a policeman in the street. Inspector Owen investigates but nobody believes Talbot's outlandish story. Talbot escapes in search of old gypsy Maleva who leads him to the remains of Castle Frankenstein. He transforms and gets chased by the villagers down to the catacombs. He turns back and finds the monster (Bela Lugosi). With Dr. Frankenstein dead, he seeks to find the daughter Elsa.It's an early mashup and the dawn of a primordial shared monster universe. The monster comes in around the midpoint and the movie drags until it gets to the epic final battle. The middle part is too rambling. It needs to have more action during that section. The climatic action is big enough but it's a little too late.

In a celebrated opening scene, two grave-robbers scamper over an impressive night-time cemetery scene, into the tomb of the Talbots. They plan to steal valuables from the corpse of Laurence Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr), four years dead – and see the plaque bearing the rhyme: 'Even a man who's pure of heart, and says his prayers at night, may become a wolf when the wolfs bane blooms, and the moon is full and bright.'As the camera reveals, that night boasts a full moon. Not only that, but removing the wolfs bane appears to bring Talbot back to life.It doesn't matter that Talbot's left hand reaches out of the tomb for one of the grave robbers, Freddy (Cyril Delevanti), and yet the hand that grabs him is revealed to be his right. It doesn't matter that the Welsh village of Llanwelly is peopled with Scots, cockneys and Americans, but no Welsh. It doesn't even matter that Talbot, in his white nightwear, changes into a black shirt and trousers-sporting Wolfman and then back again. Because, despite the first two Universal Frankenstein films being my favourite movies ever, this is the most 'fun' of all the entries. And yet, the finished picture could have been so much different.As at the end of the previous 'Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)', The Monster has Ygor's (Bela Lugosi) brain in his head, and speaks with his voice. After considering using Chaney to play both Wolfman and Monster (both roles he had played before), it was decided subsequently to use Lugosi. Scriptwriter Curt Siodmak wrote dialogue for the Monster ("Help me to get up ... Once I had the strength of a hundred men … it's gone ... I'm sick …"), but at a premier, studio executives found a talking Monster hilarious (displaying a lack of memory and imagination, it seems) and all dialogue, and scenes including it, was cut. There's a POV that says the Monster's dialogue was removed because it sounded too much like the rantings of Hitler. Siodmak says Lugosi's accent made the words too 'Hungarian funny'. A little ungenerous of him. Also cut were references to the Monster's blindness, and the restoration of sight and strength at the film's climax.Lugosi, who was over 60, suffered from exhaustion during filming, and reportedly collapsed on set at one point. This is the main reason extensive use was made of stuntmen to double for him. His opening scene, with The Monster trapped in ice, features a close-up of stuntman Gil Perkins instead, despite the scene featuring Lugosi in a promotional photograph. Understandably, the rigours of the climactic fight between the two titans of terror featured Perkins and Edwin Parker in long shots, with close-ups featuring the billed actors (there have been suggestions that close-ups of Lugosi were spliced in from an earlier scene, where the Monster escapes his bonds on the slab, which were subsequently substituted for similar actions from Chaney's Wolfman).So, does Frankenstein actually meet the Wolf Man? Yes, she does. Ilona Massey, lovely as Baroness Elsa Frankenstein, is visited by Talbot, who is desperate to find her father's books, believing they can help rid him of his lycanthropic curse. Talbot is a morose, moody figure, a far cry from the buoyant flirt from his first outing. Lugosi's much criticised Monster, is a spitting, snarling thing. His uncertain stretch-armed stiffness seems over-the-top with all explanation for his blind groping removed – none of which is Lugosi's fault. He is the wrong shape for the Monster, and Jack Pierce's make-up (a make-up designed for more slender features) but is performance does not deserve the criticism it gets; he breathes life into the creature, more so than Chaney did in the previous instalment.Lon Chaney is excellent as Talbot, in what is essentially his film (with the Monster's role sadly reduced). He is intense and brought low by his predicament, and Chaney does a good job of some exposition-heavy lines.Maleva the gypsy woman, who had appeared in 'The Wolfman (1940)' was due to carriage-ride off into the night following the destruction of the laboratory, but Maria Ouspenskaya proved unavailable due to an accident which lead to temporary hospitalisation. This meant that Maleva disappears without mention.The rest of the cast comprise of stalwarts Lionel Atwill, Dwight Frye and Patric Knowles as all-rounder Doctor Mannering. Beginning the picture as the doctor tending to Talbot, he then becomes an investigator who follows him to Vaseria and finally, for no particular reason, the mad scientist who cannot resist bringing the Monster to full strength before the tremendous and hugely entertaining final battle.