This is a sequel to BOTH 1941’s The Wolf Man and 1942’s Ghost of Frankenstein. Pay little mind to the continuity between the films, though. As in all these Universal monster movies, the puzzle pieces never quite fit as facts from previous installments are disregarded at will. (Some high-minded critics have written that this, along with Universal’s tendency to cast the same actors in completely different parts throughout the series, makes these films “dream-like” when viewed in close succession.)
Here’s what you need to know: Lon Chaney Jr. is back as the Wolf Man (aka Larry Talbot) and an unrecognizable Bela Lugosi gives his one performance here as the Frankenstein Monster. Chaney rises from the grave and turns into a werewolf again. Devastated, he goes looking for the one man who he thinks can help him stop eating peoples’ faces off under the full moon: Dr. Frankenstein. Frankenstein’s dead though, so Chaney pokes around the ruins of the mad scientist’s abandoned castle to see if he can find something that might be of help. Doing that, Chaney wakes up the hibernating Monster and then all hell breaks loose.
It’s entertaining, but be warned: NOTHING in this movie makes a single lick of sense. Once the opening credits are over, you are in La-La Land.
Followed the next year by the also-loony House of Frankenstein.