House of Frankenstein *** (1945, Boris Karloff, J Carrol Naish, John Carradine, Lon Chaney Jr, Glenn Strange, Lionel Atwill, George Zucco, Sig Ruman) – Classic Movie Review 2768

‘THE DEVIL’S BROOD! All the Screen’s Titans of Terror – Together in the Greatest of All SCREEN SENSATIONS!’ Monstrously hard to keep up with that, but director Erle C Kenton does his level best when he directs the first of Universal Studios’ monster movie packages in 1945, House of Frankenstein.

In it, Mad Doctor Gustav Niemann (Boris Karloff) escapes from an asylum with his Hunchback sidekick Daniel (J Carrol Naish), revives Count Dracula (John Carradine) and meets the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr) and Frankenstein’s Monster. So now Dr Niemann (Karloff) is plotting to avenge himself on the guys who incarcerated him.

Glenn Strange’s début in the role made him the fourth actor to play the Monster in Universal’s Frankenstein series. This is, by the way, the first Universal Frankenstein film in which a member of the Frankenstein family does not appear.

Karloff himself had been of course Universal’s famous original Frankenstein’s monster in Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein. Another of Karloff’s classic Universal monster characters, Kharis the mummy from The Mummy, was to have been in the movie but was cut for budget reasons.

Indeed, Universal had planned a film titled Chamber of Horrors to include several other of their horror film characters, notably The Invisible Man, The Mad Ghoul and The Mummy, and Bela Lugosi, Peter Lorre, Claude Rains, George Zucco and James Barton in the cast. But this project stalled and instead work began in August 1943 on The Devil’s Brood, later retitled House of Frankenstein.

[Spoiler alert] Dr Niemann revives Count Dracula for revenge on Burgomaster Hussman, who put him in prison, and then Dracula seduces Hussmann’s granddaughter-in-law Rita (Anne Gwynne) and kills Hussmann. Later, after Niemann and Daniel find the frozen bodies of Frankenstein’s monster and Larry Talbot the Wolf Man in the flooded ruins of Castle Frankenstein in Visaria, Niemann thaws them and promises Talbot to find a cure for the werewolf curse.

This robust, lip-smacking, excellent little chiller is packed with plenty of interest because of the complex yarn and entertaining actors (notably including Lionel Atwill as Inspector Arnz, George Zucco as Professor Bruno Lampini, and Sig Ruman as Burgomeister Hussman).

Where was Bela Lugosi though? Well, Lugosi was slated to play Count Dracula, but House of Frankenstein depended on Karloff being released from the US stage tour of Arsenic and Old Lace. After shooting was delayed to free up Karloff, Lugosi couldn’t do the film because he was playing Karloff’s role in another touring company of Arsenic and Old Lace. Karloff was a star – THE star of House of Frankenstein, and got paid twice the amount of the next actor, Chaney Jr, at $20,000. Not bad as the film’s total budget was $354,000.

John Carradine plays Count Dracula.

The Wolf Man half of the film follows on from Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943). The Dracula scenes in House of Frankenstein are completely separate from the Frankenstein and Wolf Man scenes. There is a true meeting of all three monsters in the sequel, House of Dracula (1945).

The Hunchback and his unrequited love for the kindly Gypsy dancer comes from The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo, and The Hunchback is not one of Universal’s monsters. It was then popular via the 1939 RKO film The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Charles Laughton.

The score is a collaborative work between Hans J Salter, Paul Dessau and Charles Previn, mostly written specifically for the film.

The screenplay is by Edward T Lowe, based on a story called The Devil’s Brood by Curt Siodmak, who recalled: ‘The idea was to put all the horror characters into one picture. I only wrote the story. I didn’t write the script. I never saw the picture.’

Filming ran from 4 April 1944 to 8 May. They reused sets from Green Hell (1940), Pittsburgh (1942), Gung Ho! (1943) and Tower of London (1939). It premiered at the Rialto Theatre in New York City on 15 December 1944.

Boris Karloff as Kharis in The Mummy.

The cast are Boris Karloff as Dr Gustav Niemann, Lon Chaney Jr. as Lawrence Stewart Talbot, the Wolf Man, John Carradine as Count Dracula, J Carrol Naish as Daniel, Anne Gwynne as Rita Hussman, Peter Coe as Carl Hussman, Lionel Atwill as Inspector Arnz, George Zucco as Professor Bruno Lampini, Elena Verdugo as Ilonka, Sig Ruman as Burgomaster Hussman, William Edmunds as Fejos, Charles F Miller as Tobermann, Julius Tannen as Hertz, Philip Van Zandt as Inspector Müller, Hans Herbert as Meier, Dick Dickinson as Born, George Lynn as Gerlach, Michael Mark as Frederick Stauss, and Glenn Strange as The Monster, as well as Olaf Hytten, Frank Reicher, Brandon Hurst, Edmund Cobb, Gino Corrado, Belle Mitchell, and Charles Wagenheim.

Anne Gwynne recalled: ‘The part was nice but not great. I had fun with it, but I’m only in the first 25 minutes and then zap, I’m off for the rest of the film!’

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2768

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