The Grim Cellar

1943, US, Directed by Roy William Neill

Black & White, Running Time: 70 minutes

DVD, Region 2, Universal, Video: 1.33:1, Audio: Mono

George Waggner returned from directing The Wolf Man to produce this combined continuation of both the Larry Talbot and Frankenstein series, amalgamating the two to supposedly offer the audience twice the terror (so the marketing campaign would claim). Siodmark also wrote the script once again while Lon Chaney Junior would reprise Talbot, the cursed werewolf, with Bela Lugosi taking up the role of the monster itself, this potentially making some sense considering his character’s brain was inserted into the monster at the end of Ghost… However the monster’s inconsistent ability to speak prevails here as it just grunts and snarls despite last time uttering a few words following Ygor’s cerebral take over, though dialogue reportedly existed in the first cut of Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man prior to last minute tinkering. Siodmark’s story has the wolf man revived when grave robbers disturb his tomb under full moon light, and a disorientated Larry Talbot is later found unconscious in the street by an officer. Taken to hospital they begin to doubt his sanity when he offers the name of a certified dead man as his own while claiming to change into a wolf under the moon. Of course nobody really believes him until some positive identification confirms his story, by which time Talbot has given them the slip to seek out Maleva, the old gypsy woman from the previous chapter. She tells him of a man that she thinks can help end his undying state, someone who mastered the secrets of life and death: Doctor Frankenstein. Travelling to ‘Vasaria’ they find the ruins where the scientist last conducted experiments in hope that the notes of the deceased man will provide them with the answers for ending Talbot’s life. Talbot finds the monster frozen in ice and breaks him free believing that the blind, dumb creature can aid him. The doctor that nursed him to health back at the hospital shows up only for Talbot to encourage him to take Frankenstein’s notes and conduct an experiment to absorb the energy from his immortal body, but a few deliberate miscalculations on the doctor’s part ensure both wolf man and monster are returned to full strength, setting the scene for the final conflict between them.

I’ve never understood what Talbot thinks Frankenstein’s findings will do to help him - the logic is nonexistent and transparently a contrived device to bring together the two famous monsters. It doesn’t actually matter a great deal in the end, that particular aspect coming across more like one of Hitchcock’s notorious macguffins, because the end result is quite enjoyable as we’re tagged along with Talbot’s quest for self-destruction. The emphasis on his threat to others, present in the first film, is shifted to his personal drive to cease his own pitiful existence, something which seems impossible given the fact that he’s already been revived from death once and conventional damage to his body heals rapidly. Consequently Talbot is from this film on shrouded in a near constant melancholic state, though he still evidently possesses an eye for the women (this time, the daughter of the great scientist - how come her brothers never mentioned her?). At one stage they’re enjoying the local festivities together and his face is like he’s going for world’s most miserable bugger contest - what a date! Anyway, Bela Lugosi finally took on the role of the monster here after turning it down years before, inadvertently providing the catalyst that would shoot Boris Karloff to stardom. Aside from the actor just not having the right shape of head (he looks strangely disproportionate), Lugosi’s performance is almost universally maligned and, despite the fact that the creature was pronounced blind at the end of Ghost… therefore giving good reason for it to stumble about, it’s difficult to warm to his take on Shelley’s abomination. He staggers about with all four limbs clumsily protruding in various directions as if his creator never gave him joints - it’s not nice. The partial saving grace is the fact that the creature doesn’t appear until half way into the movie and is then only taking back seat to Talbot’s suicidal obsession. Actually some of the monster’s takes had one of the stunt men in make up rather than Lugosi, including the creature’s initial shots in the ice grave - with his creepier appearance, could he have done a better job all round? There are some great scenes, including the opening graveyard sequence - taking place on a masterful set - where Talbot is awakened from deathly slumber by a couple of rather surprised grave robbers, the panic that ensues at the festival when the monster appears, and of course the climactic showdown between the two monsters which is a little too short but quite rousing nonetheless.

Supported by a sumptuous transfer on DVD (if a little bright) Universal’s first teaming of monsters is, aside from lapses in logic and Lugosi’s awful interpretation of the monster, a well paced adventure leading via a nice story to a cool concluding act.