Frankenstein meets The WolfMan

[d3M0n]

Here's everything you NEED to know about this movie!
Immediately following his success in Dracula, Lugosi had been the first choice to play the Monster in Universal's original Frankenstein film, but Lugosi famously either turned down the non-speaking part or was disinvited after director Robert Florey was replaced by James Whale; the virtually unknown Boris Karloff then was cast in his star-making role. (Florey later wrote that "the Hungarian actor didn't show himself very enthusiastic for the role and didn't want to play it.") Eight years later, Lugosi joined the franchise with one of his greatest portrayals, the Monster's twisted companion Ygor in Son of Frankenstein. He returned to the role in the sequel, The Ghost of Frankenstein, in which Ygor's brain is implanted into the Monster (now Chaney), causing the creature to take on Lugosi/Ygor's voice. After plans for Chaney to play both the Monster and his original Larry Talbot in the next film fell through for logistical reasons, the natural next step was for Lugosi, at 60, to take on the part that he once was slated to originate.

That next film was Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, which as originally written served as a sequel both to The Ghost of Frankenstein and The Wolf Man. The original script — and indeed the movie as originally filmed — had the Monster performing dialogue throughout the film, including references to the events of Ghost and indicating that the Monster is now nearly blind (a side-effect of the transplant as revealed at the end of the previous film). According to screenwriter Curt Siodmak, a screening audience (studio or public) reacted negatively to this, finding the idea of the Monster speaking with a thick Hungarian accent unintentionally funny (although the Monster spoke with Lugosi's voice at the end of Ghost of Frankenstein and audiences didn't hoot it off the screen). Though it cannot be confirmed through any other sources, this has been generally accepted as the reason virtually all scenes in which Lugosi speaks were deleted (though two brief scenes remain in the film that show Lugosi's mouth moving without sound). Consequently, Lugosi is onscreen literally for only a few minutes, leaving the Wolf Man as the film's primary focus.

Lugosi suffered exhaustion at some point during the filming, and his absence from the set, combined with his physical limitations at age 60, required the liberal use of stand-ins. Stuntman Gil Perkins actually portrayed the Monster in the character's first scene (thirty-five minutes into the film) and during much of the monsters' fight. Although a still exists of Lugosi in the ice, when viewers see the Monster for the first time (including closeups), it is actually Perkins. Stuntman Eddie Parker is usually credited as Lugosi's sole double, but his primary stunt role was that of the Wolf Man. However, he does appear as the Monster in at least one shot, and yet a possible third stuntman also stands in for Lugosi. The edited result unfairly suggests that Lugosi had to be doubled even in non-strenuous scenes, and the multiple use of alternating stuntmen in both closeups and medium shots damages the continuity of Lugosi's characterization. As an example, the doubles in the fight scene stiffen their arms, even though that was a cautious habit of the previously-blind Monster; for instance, a medium shot shows Lugosi pulling down a cabinet with his arms naturally bent at the elbows, but the next shot is of a double completing the task with straightened arms.


Lugosi as Frankenstein's Monster
While Lugosi has suffered years of critical derision for his performance, many horror buffs have attempted to rehabilitate his reputation as the Monster. Allowing for the extensive edits and poor continuity during the stunt sequences, some believe an extremely original portrayal still remains. From the previous film, we do know that this is a different Monster, one with the brain of a broken-down grave robber who thought his new super-human body would allow him to exact vengeance on a world that cruelly disdains misfits like himself and the Monster.

Lugosi's debilitated creature is defeated but proud; though he is unable to see very much in front of him, he walks with a patrician assurance. He is noticeably pleased with himself when he finds the documents, and he assumes the self-confident stance of a mandarin when Talbot opens them and finds nothing but personal papers. He hisses and gurgles when cornered, and the reanimation sequence during the film's climax allows an engaged Lugosi some of the most celebrated close-ups of the Universal horror canon. Scenes like that one (and a village musical number) also have helped elevate the film to camp status, the very notion of Bela Lugosi as Frankenstein's Monster engendering a perverse affection among absurdists.

Another subject of contention is whether the clumsiness of Lugosi's Monster is rendered ludicrous by the cutting of all references to the reasons for it. There were, after all, precedents in each of the three earlier sequels for audiences to expect the Monster to suffer physically from the calamity at the end of the film it followed. While he survived his first ordeal (the windmill fire) with his strength intact, he was cosmetically damaged, and in the next two films he is introduced with greatly diminished physical capacity. Therefore, it is perfectly logical to attribute the Monster's clumsiness to his years in a frozen state. (Interestingly, it is Lugosi's performance that firmly established the Frankenstein's Monster stereotype of walking stiff-legged with arms outstretched.) And his obviously poor vision would appear to be a form of "snow blindness" to viewers unaware that it was a result of the transplant rather than his entombment.

The deleted footage with Lugosi speaking as the Monster has become legendarily elusive, and few horror-film fans are willing to accept the thesis that Lugosi's speaking voice would have ruined the film, at least not without seeing it first. Some speculate that the megalomaniacal dialogue written for him by Siodmak would have been more likely to cause the audience to laugh, if in fact they did. As of mid-2007, the footage has yet to surface.

This would be the final Universal horror film in which the Monster played a major role; in the subsequent films House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula, the Monster, now played by Glenn Strange, comes to life only in the final scenes. In the 1948 Universal comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (the second and only other film in which Lugosi plays Dracula), Strange has a larger role and the creature once again has the ability of speech, albeit very limited dialogue, twice muttering, "Yes, master".
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein_meets_the_wolf_man

[d3M0n]

Th is probably one of my favs ever! I only gave it a 4 however because I am upset about the MAJOR edits to it...
How can they cut the whole Ygor brain out of this movie? They made Lugosi look like a fool for playing the Monster blindly.

It was a HUGE whole in the series...

I also didnt like Patrik Knowels coming back after playing Gwens boyfriend in The Wolfman to play Dr. Mannering in this movie. I think he did a great job... however I wish he didnt play a role in The Wolfman too.

This is the only movie in the world that I watched 3 times in one week since I was under 10yrs old. I did that about 6 months ago.

I love the way the movie was shot! I think its funny how Jason Part 6 stole the intro from this movie.

Lon Chaney and Lugosi did great job IMO and Im so happy Lugosi got to play the monster in this film! Thats really cool!

Really great movie! Great idea for a film too!

[Xч]

Honestly i love every single Classic movie in my collection the same..I even love Dracula's daughter..

5 all the way..the movie mistakes didn't bother me at all.

[Drayton Sawyer]

A 4 from me as well. If they hadn't cut out Ygor's story line it would have been a 5 easy.
I really think the only reason it ended up so good is who was involved in it. Without Bela and Lon the editing they did to this movie would have ruined the film.
But those two just made this an incredible film. The fact lugosi played the Monster so well at 60 is amazing.
Lord how I'd love to see it the way it was originally meant to be.

[The Darkness]

I agree with Kyle. 4/5

I thought it was pretty good. I liked the ending:

[d3M0n]

I see you found my YouTube account Darkness.I made that video

[The Darkness]

oh......cool!

[Rich]

I'll give it a 4. It was a very good sequel to The Wolf Man. Bela was the wrong person for the job of the monster, but I forgive that aspect of the movie because otherwise it was very good.

[d3M0n]

Maleva's disappearance in the finished film is never even explained.

The original script for FMTW does show additional
scenes for her in paragraphs 234,256, 260, 261,265,270.

234 Maleva puts the horse in between the shafts of
her carriage - then looks towards the sky, mumuring
anxiously, in fear of the impending disaster.

256 Malevea, about to get into her carriage, has
heard this explosion. She turns and walks back to
the ruins - without fear.

260 As Maleva sees Harley and Elsa running towards
her, while behind them, the ruins are shaking....

261 The carriage with Maleva's horse. The animal,
frightened but unable to get free of the carriage ,
kicks its hind legs against the driver's seat, trying to
tear loose. Harley, half carrying Elsa, puts the girl on
the back of the wagon, them quiets the horse and takes
the reigns. Helping Maleva on the seat beside him,
he snaps the whip-lash in the air and drives away
with the women.

265 The crowd stands and stares, as into the picture
gallops the horse, as fast as his old legs can carry
him, pulling the wagon with Harley, Elsa, and Maleva.

(Harley and Elsa exit the wagon)

270 Maleva touches her horse with her whip and
drives away from the crowd, unnoticed by them as
they still silently stare toward the mountain.

The reason why this was not filmed from the same page

On November 5, 1942,
Maria Ouspenskaya was rushed to Cedars of Lebanon
Hospital ; The Hollywood Reporter noted a carriage
had run over her foot, fracturing her ankle. She did
leave Cedars on November 9th.

On November 11, 1942, shooting was completed.

This explains her abrupt disappearance in the film.

It's also interesting to consider how long the film might have been had all of the missing scenes not been deleted. I think it might be safe to say that this film would have been one of the longer films in the series (although that applies in varying degrees to the other Frankenstein films as well--each had some deletions, with the possible exception of House Of Frankenstein).

Based on production stills, the first deleted scene was in the hospital when various items of Talbot's clothes are examined by Mannering, Owen, etc. The next deletion was apparently of Lugosi's scene in the ice--if it involved references to his blindness, or any Monster dialogue (which, to be fair, is not in the script), that was likely longer than the scene with Perkins dug out of the ice. Then there is the "chat around the fire" between the Monster and Talbot missing, together with the Monster feeling his way around the ice(a still in the filmscript book shows this.

Then, in the completed film, we see Chaney helping Lugosi through the ruins while overdubbed dialogue bridges missing action. (Funny that Chaney's mouth doesn't move, and we hear him speak, while Lugosi's mouth moves, and no sound comes out!) Then another deleted scene involved the dialogue between Chaney and Lugosi regardin Talbot's desire to die, while the Monster confirms his desire to live, and the need for the diary to accomplish this. A still of Chaney holding the Monster's coat lapels is probably from this scene.

The next deletion occurs when Chaney is going through Frankenstein's strongbox, and deleted Monster dialogue is covered by a close-up of Elsa's picture. After the barrel-rolling scene, the film is missing the dialogue between the Monster and Talbot where Talbot berates the Monster for coming down to the town. Each was undwer a warm blanket for this dialogue, and a still survives from that scene as well.

Next, it appears that deleted dialogue with Mannering examining the Monster is covered by bridging footage of Elsa and Maleva. Soon after, the Monster hears the turbines kicking in, and his dialogue scene is deleted in favor of Chaney saying "That's the water..." in front of that Damned white curtain.

Once the machinery starts to fire up, and Bela's eyes start blinking, we may have more deleted dialogue amid all that mouth twitching (it's not in the script, but it sure looks like the Monster is forming some words here). Then, more overdubbed dialogue from Knowles after Elsa grabs the switch. Once the explosions start and the debris falls, we leave the script entirely for a different climax where there seem to be inserts isolated from the main action (in front of that damned curtain again) and an attack by the Monster that makes little sense if you follow the script's original characterization for him--although I do like the suggestion that the Monster's leer on the table meant that his newly-restored sight gave him a case of the hots for Elsa, except that we don't know his sight is newly-restored in the finished film.

Maleva's disappearance in the finished film is never even explained. So how much longer would the film be without these excisions? I would think at least 80 minutes, which would certainly make it stand out from the other monster films from Universal at the time.


A couple of points here; this really seems to suggest that MCA should go back and look in th Universal vaults for all of this footage--if the hospital scene is first, they might not know what they are looking at! Additionally, all of this work on the film suggests to me that Universal didn't view the movie as the B-picture it is now identified to be.

It would have been longer than a B-unit picture, it was ballyhooed in other rfilms released by Universal at the time, it was written by Siodmak (who was riding high at the time), it was produced by Waggner (ditto), directed by Neill rather than Kenton, planned to star Chaney in dual roles, had well-fleshed out supporting characters (for a Frankenstein film), an elaborate musical sequence, an elaborate fight scene, and top-lined by a former MGM star together with a former Warner Bros. star.

Doesn't it look like Universal THOUGHT the movie was an A-production? Would they have spent the time re-shooting so many scenes for a B-movie? In contrast, look at House of Frankenstein, where Kenton SHOULD have re-shot a bunch of bloopers that wound up in the final print! What says the membership?

[Drayton Sawyer]

Wow Demon. You really did a lot of studying for that post. Great job! It really makes you think just how much better the movie could have been. It was great the way it turned out. Imagine how it would have been if not for accidents and changes in story.

[The Darkness]

Wow I never thought of all that. Real good find, Demon!! #Rock_On#

[Xч]

Excellent read!

[Chhchhchhahhahhahh]

I love how you dissect movies Demon!! #Rock_On#

[d3M0n]

Glad you enjoyed that guys!

[Drayton Sawyer]

I can't wait to read whatever the next movie you do this with. You are able to dig up some pretty great inside info.
I don't think there's another member on the board with your level of knowledge when it comes to the classic Universal films. I'm not shabby but you blow me out of the water.

[d3M0n]

Thanks! Here's some more info on this one! Maybe we can piece this movie together in our own minds since we may never see its original release in our life times.
The story of the drastic changes to FMTW from Siodmak that it was entirely due to the screening room executives' reaction to Lugosi's voice can be called into question, from the Original
Shooting Script book, The Filmscript Series.

Page twenty-three reads:" Then there came the inevitable day when Waggner, Neill, Siodmak and various members of the production staff of FMTW congregated in a studio screening room to see the finished product.
(skip a few lines)...The audience in the screening room was almost in hysterics. Curt Siodmak explains: Do you know why they took out the Monster's dialogue away? Because Bela Lugosi couldn't talk! They had left the dalogue I had wrote for the Monster in the picture when they shot it, but with Lugosi it sounded so Hungarian funny that they had to take it out!Seriously!"

But on page nine of the same Shooting Script book,it reads froman interview with Siodmak " Forty years after the production , I saw the motion picture for the first time. All my life I made it the rule not to see the pictures I had written, since after they reached the screen, I would think of ideas how to write them better, which is devastatingly depressing."

So, in one interview, he's in the screening room seeing the finished product, and in another interview he says he didn't see it until forty years after it was made." It's noteworthy that in the first account, he acknowledges they used the script he had written for the Monster's lines.

Page twenty-five of the book reads: "Universal's FMTW , with it's emergency editing, previewed in Los Angeles February 18, 1943. .... Variety's only complaint was the "spotty performance" of Miss Massey. She is permitted to be too casual in a number of scenes which should have been dominated by more reactionary terror." Nevertheless, Universal sighed in relief: the press audience hadn't noted the editing."

Something is wrong with this story for Variety to make that comment on Miss Massey and not notice Lugosi stumbling about inexplicably and his mouth is moving in some scenes with no words coming out, sharp cuts in the film several times, the post dubbing of the Chaney line about looking for the diary when
his mouth wasn't moving in that scene, rtc. how could the press have not noticed that??

All we can say with certainty is that something happened between November 11, 1942, when production was completed, and March 5, 1943 when it premiered in New York.

It's been written that the storyline of the Monster being weak and ill as written may have been the reason for the edits, but in House of Frankenstein, the monster was also rescued from ice and physically weak, didn't come to life until the closing five minutes of that film. Same with House of Dracula.

I don't think the changes were due to Lugosi's voice because it didn't sound funny in Ghost, and dubbing was always a possibility if it was the voice alone. I happen to like his overall performance, some scenes are classics like the look when he
is revitalized and the scene when he picks up a club and growls. The growl was in a Hungarian accent and that wasn't edited out.

I'm inclined to think that the dialogue of the Monster being weak and cowardly ( "Don't leave me .. Don't go! I'm weak .. they'll catch me and bury me alive!..") and "I will rule the world! I will live to witness the fruits of my wisdom for all eternity!" had a lot to do with the changes, but they should have caught that when reviewing the script and during production, not afterwards.

It would be great to see what the film looked like before the edits were made, so you could judge for yourself.

[Drayton Sawyer]

It really is a shame we'll never see it the way it was meant to be. I seriously doubt the footage even exists anymore.

[d3M0n]

[Drayton Sawyer]

WTF indeed. ;D

[The Darkness]

#24#