[HorrorScience] Frankenstein's Mansion (1944)

Reading time: 7 minutes

Qualification

house of frankenstein

Year

1944

Duration

71 minutes

Director

Erle C. Kenton

Distribution

Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr, John Carradine, J. Carrol Naish, Elena Verdugo, Anne Gwynne, Peter Coe, Lionel Atwill, George Zucco, Sig Rugman, William Edmunds, Charles F. Miller, Phillip Van Zandt, Julius Tannen, Hans Herbert, Dick Dickinson, Glenn Strange, Michael Mark

Script

Curt Siodmak, Edward T. Lowe

After having exploited the Frankenstein saga with Frankenstein (1931) Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Frankenstein's son (1939) Frankenstein's ghost (1942) and having faced another monster in Frankenstein and the Wolf Man (1943) Universal Studios thought the only way to continue making profits out of classic monsters was to exploit them together no matter the reason.

Dracula, the Wolf Man and Frankenstein's monster will join a Mad Scientist and his hunchbacked assistant in a film to complete the initial premise of the film: 5 monsters for the price of 1. With that premise they advertised this film, which curiously was more successful than expected. It also meant the return of Boris Karloff to the monster saga that made him world famous during the 1930s, curiously playing a scientist who idolizes Dr. Frankenstein.

house of frankenstein (known in Spanish as Frankenstein's mansion and also with the curious and quite accurate title The Zingara and the monsters) is one of the last episodes of the classic Universal monster sagas before they were used in comedy films by Abbott and Costello.

A thunderclap destroys a prison wall allowing some of its prisoners to escape, specifically two: Dr Niemann (a scientist who was trying to follow in the footsteps of Dr. Frankenstein) and Daniel (a generally calm hunchbacked man who does not hesitate to kill if he believes it necessary, who follows Niemann in the hope that he will get him a new body).

[HorrorScience] Frankenstein's Mansion (1944) — Boris Karloff returns in style playing Niemann

While savoring their first minutes of freedom, they find a car that has become anchored in a muddy field, from which they manage to get out thanks to the help of the hunchbacked strongman. The car in question was a carny named Lampini, who claims to possess the body of the real Count Dracula in his coffin, as well as other horrors. Seeing that the carnival show would serve as cover for them, Niemann and Daniel kill Lampini and his assistant to impersonate them and head towards Reigelberg, where Niemann plans to carry out his revenge.

The crazy doctor decides to remove the stake from Dracula's heart so that he can help him in his revenge, which he does half-heartedly, because in the end he lets himself be carried away by his instincts. Dracula's actions provoke a horse-drawn carriage chase to catch the vampire, so Niemann decides to get rid of him by getting rid of his coffin, which causes the vampire to try to recover it, being exposed to the sun and disappearing again.

Nieman and David continue their journey posing as Lampini and his assistant and that is when They will meet a gypsy who will immediately become friends with Daniel, who falls in love with her. Exploring the nearby area in search of Dr. Frankenstein's documents that Niemann craves in order to continue his experiments, They find the frozen bodies of Frankenstein's monster and the werewolf, which arouse the interest of the mad scientist.

Frankenstein's mansion it's a movie very far from the seriousness and terrifying atmosphere that the monster movies of the 30s had. However, despite being a somewhat crazy crossover, I think that It is highly recommended for its high level of entertainment, which places it ahead of the previous film, Frankenstein and the Wolfman, which I find heavier and more unsatisfying.

The most serious sin of this film is that the classic characters that the film uses as a lure (Dracula and Frankenstein's monster) are used as mere objects and without much interest in a story. of which they are a secondary part. Frankenstein's monster had already been shown as something secondary in his own more recent films, but it is surprising that Dracula's return is for such a minuscule role. Once again, the Wolf Man wins and is one of the main characters of the film, along with the beautiful gypsy, the hunchback Daniel and Dr. Niemann.

Precisely these last two characters are what make the film worth seeing since they aren much more interesting than famous monsters (as strange as that may seem). Dr. Niemann is a scientist who idolizes Frankenstein and tries to follow in his footsteps with a certain fanaticism and at whatever cost. The hunchback Daniel is a kind-hearted person, but his deformed appearance causes him strong insecurity and provokes ridicule and rejection that makes him angry, at which point he is capable of doing truly evil acts.

The relationship between both characters is quite interesting and I think they have good chemistry (especially at the beginning of the film). Niemann, in addition to offering a solution to his deformed appearance, treats Daniel with more respect than ordinary people, which is why the hunchback offers him his loyalty.

In short, I think this movie mistreats two of his most important monsterses and its story lacks the seriousness of the first Universal monster movies, in fact it can't even be considered consistent with the previous stories due to things like Lampini having Dracula's coffin, when it was burned along with the vampire's remains in La Hija de Drácula. Pero también ofrece personajes nuevos interesantes y es mucho más recomendable que las anteriores de esta saga.

Movie trivia:

En un principio la película iba a incluir a la Momia, el Hombre Invisible, Mad Ghoul (de The Mad Ghoul) y Ape-woman (de Captive Wild Woman) y se iba a llamar Chamber of Horrors (el mismo nombre que el espectáculo circense de Lampini).
Cuando se ve al monstruo de Frankenstein atrapado en el hielo, en realidad es una máscara del monstruo basada en la cara de Lon Chaney cuando lo interpretó en Ghost of Frankenstein.
El grito que hace Daniel cuando cae desde el tejado es el mismo grito que hacia el monstruo en The Son of Frankenstein al encontrar a Ygor muerto.
Glenn Strange hizo el mismo las escenas de riesgo y para su interpretación del monstruo de Frankenstein recibió algunos consejos de Boris Karloff.
Se pensó en Bela Lugosi para el papel de Drácula pero finalmente fue John Carradine quien interpretó al vampiro.
Cuando Drácula trata de recuperar su ataúd se puede ver que le falta un trozo de bigote.