Starring Lon Chaney Jr., Ilona Massey, Patric Knowles, Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi
Directed by Roy William Neill
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
After being brought back to life, Lawrence Talbot seeks to find a way to end his cursed existence as The Wolf Man, and goes in search of help from the famed Dr. Frankenstein.
The first meeting of Universal Monsters has many elements to recommend it, including a number of atmospheric scenes, the vibrant and energetic "Festival Of The New Wine" performance, and of course the climactic confrontation between the Wolf Man (played by Chaney Jr.) and Frankenstein's monster (played by Lugosi). Unfortunately the cutting of the Monster's dialogue turns him into a bit player in the film, and I know the reason it was cut was because Lugosi's voice was considered unusable, but it would have added clarity (particularly to viewers who didn't remember the Monster's blindness from The Ghost Of Frankenstein) and more of a unique personality to the creature. The film is also slow-moving at times, and really could have used an original score to help buoy the picture through those passages, instead of an assemblage of stock music. Nevertheless, it's still a classic in my mind, and it's good to see Universal stalwarts like Dwight Frye and Lionel Atwill returning, along with an entertaining role for Rex Evans as the portly, mustachioed and vengeance-seeking barkeep Vazec.
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