Classic Movies - Universal Studios Monsters: The Wolf Man - Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

Today let's continue talk Universal Studios Monster - the Wolf Man. The film featured in this post is Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), starring Lon Chaney, Jr., Bela Lugosi, Patric Knowles, Ilona Massey, Lionel Atwill, and Maria Ouspenskaya. Larry Talbot (Chaney) chips the Frankenstein monster (Lugosi) out of a block of ice. When Talbot changes to the Wolf Man, the two creatures go into battle.

In Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Larry Talbot finds himself in an asylum, recovering from an operation performed by the kindly Dr. Mannering (Knowles). Inspector Owen (Dennis Hoey) finds him there, too, wanting to question him about a recent spate of murders. Talbot escapes and finds Maleva (Ouspenskaya), the old gypsy woman who knows his secret: when the moon is full, he changes to a werewolf. She travels with him to locate the one man who can help him to die - Dr. Frankenstein. The brilliant doctor proves to be dead himself, but they do find Frankenstein's daughter, Baroness Elsa Frankenstein (Massey). Talbot begs her for her father's papers containing the secrets of life and death. She doesn't have them, so he goes to the ruins of the Frankenstein castle to find them himself. There he finds the Monster, whom he chips out of a block of ice. Dr. Mannering catches up with him only to become tempted to monomania while using Frankenstein's old equipment.

So for a scary "Monster Mash Month" selection, we recommend watching the 1943 classic film, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man with Lon Chaney, Jr. Join "Let's Talk Classic Movies" Friday to read more about the Universal Studios Monster werewolf in House of Dracula.

**Trivia Question for Today: What fact was not explained in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, which established the Frankenstein Monster-walk stereotype?

Trivia Answer for Previous Post: Makeup artist, Jack Pierce, was responsible for the amazing werewolf transformation in The Wolf Man. Lon Chaney, Jr. was fully capable of doing the makeup himself, just as his father had, but due to professional unions within the motion picture industry, he was not allowed to do his own makeup.