Comments on: House of Frankenstein

by: paulwjm

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:45:56 +0000

Hi Paul. I’ve got the majority of them in the UK box actually (the one with the busts), which I didn’t mind buying because the omissions were movies I wasn’t too bothered about. There are one or two gems in there I’d never seen before (e.g. Werewolf of London) and one or two I can barely stand (She Wolf of London!), but I’m happy with it. The missing Mummy sequels I’ll probably rectify with the US Mummy set but the Creature and Invisible sequels I think I can live without

by: Paul Hickling

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 15:40:52 +0000

Don’t just think about getting the other Legacy Collections paulwjm, do it! They’re all great value, I couldn’t believe my luck when I came across them. Been a Universal horror fan since I was at primary school, and love ‘em to bits. Apart from the sheer amount of films and documentaries, they’re put together with care and come up with one or two nice surprises. Never seen the (Black Lagoon)creature sequels before or even heard of The She-Wolf of London. All the collections are well worth getting if you’ve even a passing interest in this part of movie history. As for the british releases, what a joke!

by: paulwjm

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:25:01 +0000

Thanks for the supporting historical detail, Gravy. I’m thinking about those Mummy movies too!
I agree with you about Carradine, Colin - in fact I believe he appeared in a Frank. movie previous to this: as one of hunters who discover the monster with the blind man in Bride… He certainly had an unusual look about him and it suited the Dracula role no doubt.

by: Laughing Gravy

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:00:44 +0000

After FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN, Universal commissioned a script called THE WOLF MAN VS. DRACULA, but the censors nixed it because the Wolf Man was the hero and you can’t have a monster be the hero. In lieu of that, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (working title: THE DEVIL’S BROOD) was rather hastily put together. Boris Karloff, hot off Broadway’s ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, was given a generous contract to return to Universal for this and THE CLIMAX. Portions of the WOLF MAN VS. DRACULA script were salvaged for the next one in the series, HOUSE OF DRACULA, which got around the “Wolf Man as hero” problem by curing him of his lycanthropy. In response to an earlier question, the various Mummy sequels are fun little B-movies, but don’t watch ‘em all at once. You’ll especially enjoy THE MUMMY’S HAND (1940), a comedy-horror film with genuine moments of terror… check out Kharis’ eyes! *shudders*

by: livius

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:00:46 +0000

I also thought Carradine made a good and creepy Dracula here and I’m glad he was retained for HoD. Really makes you wish he had been cast in ‘Son of Dracula’, doesn’t it? I guess Chaney’s name was always going to pull in a bigger audience, but still…