House of Frankenstein (film)

Dr. Gustav Niemann escapes from prison along with his hunchbacked assistant Daniel, for whom he promises to create a new, beautiful body. The two murder Professor Lampini, a traveling showman, and take over his horror exhibit, which includes the recovered corpse of Count Dracula. To exact revenge on Burgomaster Hussman for putting him in prison, Niemann revives the Count. Dracula seduces Hussman's granddaughter-in-law Rita and kills Hussman. In a subsequent chase, Niemann disposes of Dracula's coffin. As the vampire scrambles to get back inside, the sun rises and kills him.

Niemann and Daniel move on to the flooded ruins of Castle Frankenstein in Visaria, where they find the bodies of Frankenstein's Monster and Larry Talbot, the Wolf Man, preserved in the frozen cavern beneath the castle. Niemann thaws their bodies and promises to find Talbot a cure for his werewolf curse. Niemann, however, is more interested in reviving the Monster and exacting revenge on two traitorous former associates than in keeping his promises. Talbot transforms into a werewolf and kills a man, sending the villagers into a panic.

Niemann and Daniel save a gypsy girl named Ilonka, whom Daniel falls in love with. It is unrequited, however, as Ilonka falls in love with Talbot. Daniel tells Ilonka that Talbot is a werewolf, but she is undeterred and promises Talbot that she will help him. There is suddenly a crisis when Niemann revives the Monster, and Talbot again turns into a werewolf. Talbot, as a werewolf, attacks and fatally wounds Ilonka, but she manages to shoot and kill him with a silver bullet before she dies. Daniel blames Niemann for Ilonka's death and turns on him. The Monster intervenes, throws Daniel out of the window, and carries the half-conscious Niemann outside, where the villagers chase them into the marshes. There, both the Monster and Niemann drown in quicksand.

Cast sourced from the book Universal Horrors:[1]

House of Frankenstein was shown at the 594-seat Rialto Theatre in New York City on December 15, 1944.[15][16] The film was so popular that it ran all night and then played at the theatre for three weeks.[16] On December 22, House of Frankenstein and The Mummy's Curse opened at the 1,100-seat Hawaii Theatre in Hollywood. The film continued screening there for six weeks.[16] On February 20, the film had a week-long run at Los Angeles's 2,200-seat Orpheum Theatre.[17] The film was distributed theatrically by Universal Pictures.[2] The film was released nationally on February 16, 1945, following the initial in New York premieres in December 1944.[18] According to the National Box Office Digest, the film grossed between $200,000 to $500,000.[19] It was not among the highest grossing films for Universal that year which included Can't Help Singing (1944) and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944), as well as the studio's other horror outings with The Climax (1944).[19] It managed to outgross similar horror-related output from Universal such as Ghost Catchers (1944) and The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944).[19]

The first news of a follow-up to House of Frankenstein appeared in Hollywood trade papers in April 1944 with the announcement of a film titled The Wolf Man vs. Dracula. This sequel would become House of Dracula (1945), albeit with a different script.[20] Bernard Schubert was hired to write the script and turned in his first draft on May 19, 1944.[21] House of Dracula is a continuation of the film House of Frankenstein and used much of that film's crew.[20] Actors John Carradine, Glen Strange, and Lon Chaney Jr. reprise their roles as Count Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and the Wolf Man, respectively.[20] It was released on December 7, 1945.[22]

House of Frankenstein was released on home video in 1992 by MCA Home Video.[23] The film was released on DVD as part of The Monster Legacy Collection and Frankenstein: The Legacy Collection on April 27, 2004.[24] House of Frankenstein was released on Blu-ray on August 28, 2018.[25]

Film historian Gregory W. Mank declared that, on the film's premiere in New York City, critics "made mincemeat" out of it.[4] Wanda Hale of the New York Daily News gave the film a two-and-a-half star rating, commenting that "settings, lighting and costumes, impressively eerie and horrendous, will help you enter into the sinister proceedings", while noting that audiences should "be sure and check your credulity outside".[26] A. H. Weiler of The New York Times stated that as a film "this grisly congress doesn't hit hard; it merely has speed and a change of pace. As such, then, it is bound to garner as many chuckles as it does chills".[27] The New York Herald Tribune gave a negative review stating the "plot stumbles along endlessly in its top-heavy attempt to carry on its shoulders too many of yesterday's nightmares" concluding that the film "is only a little more terrifying than the house that Jack built".[4] Harrison's Reports called it "only a mild horror picture, more ludicrous than terrifying. The whole thing is a rehash of the fantastic doings of these characters in previous pictures and, since they do exactly what is expected of them, the spectator is neither shocked nor chilled".[28]

A reviewer for the Motion Picture Herald deemed the picture an "excellent horror film", complimenting the acting, makeup, clever photography, lighting and score, also noting that at their screening at the Rialto Theatre in New York the "matinee audience was more than satisfied".[29] In 1946 Boris Karloff, referred to the film as "the monster clambake", while working on Val Lewton-produced pictures for RKO, referring to Lewton as "the man who rescued me from the living dead and restored my soul."[30] Gwynne spoke of her role later in her career stating that "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!"[6]

In retrospective reviews, Carlos Clarens wrote about Universal's character cross-over films, also known as the Monster Rally films, in his book An Illustrated History of the Horror Film summarizing that "the sole charm of these films resides in the very proficient contract players that populated them, portraying gypsies, mad scientists, lustful high priests, vampire-killers, or mere red herrings".[31][32] Kim Newman discussed the Monster Rally films in his book The Definitive Guide to Horror Movies, stating that they were endearing in trying to find ways around the monsters seemingly permanent deaths but that they also "don't even try to be terrifying, and seem to be entirely pitched at children's matinees."[33] In his book Horror!, Drake Douglas commented that "The Monster became a clumsy automation", noting that Strange's monster "had chubby cheeks and dead eyes and the face of a mindless somnambulist rather than a vibrantly living, evil creature".[4] In his book overviewing Universal's Frankenstein series, Gregory W. Mank stated that, despite virtues of a "beautiful score and its grand cast", the film "never succeeded in transcending its ignoble purpose: to cram together as many horrors as 70 minutes allow. Nor has it ever been forgiven by the more discriminating terror film aficionados for taking another giant step in the degradation of Frankenstein's monster".[4] A review in Phil Hardy's book Science Fiction (1984) declared that "the film's cheap-skate opportunity verges on surrealism at times as it moves from monster to monster with bewildering rapidity" while finding the film less ludicrous than its follow-up, House of Dracula.[34]

• List of horror films of the 1940s
• List of Universal Pictures films (1940–1949)

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• House of Frankenstein at AllMovie
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• House of Frankenstein at the TCM Movie Database