Cinematic universes are a major thing these days, doing great business for companies. We have the MCU, the Star Wars cinematic universe and the DC film universe, along with attempts such as Universal’s Dark Universe. The last one is a bit interesting however, as Universe; actually are the ones to create the shared movie universe concept. It began decades ago and all started with one film, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.
Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man was a sequel to two different movie series and launched the next several monster films from Universal. It did not happen as many crossover films start today, but was much slower paced. The film begins as a sequel to the Wolf Man, showing the resurrection of the title character Larry Talbot ( Played by Lon Chaney Jr) and his embarking on a way to die again. The plot carries neatly from the previous film, building on it in every way as a sequel should. We finally got a good transformation sequence as a view of the full moon, as well as some truly terrifying scenes. But the movies hits its peak upon Larry learning that the man who can help him is Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein, the protagonist of Ghost of Frankenstein and son of the original Dr. Frankenstein.
Of course, Ludwig died in the previous film but the Monster is still alive, now played by Bela Lugosi. This is one of the most notable performances of the monster, as this continues the plot from Ghost of Frankenstein, with the Monster being blind after the fiend Ygor (also Lugosi) tricked Dr. Frankenstein into putting his brain into the monster’s body. Bela’s portrayal with his arms outstretched, has been mimicked endlessly, albeit with many not realizing that it is Bela Lugosi that they are imitating. Larry does meet Ludwig’s daughter though, so he technically does meet a Frankenstein.
The film built itself up slowly, but when the monsters met thanks to a new mad scientist, movie history was made and things kicked into high gear. The action, though not as impressive by today’s standards, are still great and influenced countless generations of creators and made studious realize there was a lot of potential in crossovers. This is how we got movies like Freddy Vs Jason, King Kong vs Godzilla and so many others. This was the birth of the monster mash and it holds up spectacularly. T his is a film you absolutely must see!