More Halloweenies

Last night, we watched House of Frankenstein (1945), despite some strong competition from a fat bellowing pothead who was having a jam session at the apartment across the street. I wish I could record some of his fatuous roots-rockin' tunes for you, so that you could share the experience. Since it happened last night, I think we're off the hook for the rest of the weekend.Anyway--House of Frankenstein. This is a late Universal Studios effort, released 14 years after their initial Drac/Frank films. Boris Karloff plays Dr. Niemann, who wants to continue the experiments of Henry Frankenstein. He and his handy/tragic hunchback assistant, Daniel (is that really a good hunchback name?) escape from prison and end up with Dracula's corpse in a coffin, whom they revive to do a grudge killing against a burgomeister, and then Dracula (John Carradine) is quickly dispatched by the first rays of the morning sun, after only about 30 minutes of the movie, which is a strange plotting decision. Then, the Frank-monster and the Wolfman, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) are unfrozen, a gypsy girl falls in love with Larry, making the hunchback sad, the gypsy girl shoots Larry with a silver bullet, the monster throws the hunchback out a window, the villagers attack the castle, and the monster carries Dr. Niemann into quicksand. The End.

There's a lot of overt explanation of how vampires and werewolves can be killed, to set up their later deaths, and there's a lot of familiar set pieces and archetypal Universal horror characters. The next year brought House of Dracula, with the return of Carradine and Chaney, but no Boris. After that, all that was left was for the monsters to meet Abbott & Costello, since the franchise had pretty well burnt itself out (though A&C Meet F is a good movie). Would I recommend HoF? No, if you haven't seen the good Universals, yes (why not?) if you have.