In Llanwelly village, two grave robbers break in the crypt of Lawrence "Larry" Stewart Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) to steal his possessions. When they open the casket, they find the body covered with wolfbane and they are attacked by a creature. Soon Talbot awakes in Cardiff at the Queen's Hospital recovering from a surgery performed by Dr. Mannering (Patric Knowles) and Inspector Owen (Dennis Hoey) is ready to interrogate him about recent murders.

Talbot flees from the hospital and seeks out the gypsy Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya),who knows that he is a werewolf, asking her to help him. Talbot wants to die and they travel to find Dr. Frankenstein. Talbot transforms into the werewolf and falls into the frozen catacombs of Dr. Frankenstein's castle. He finds the Monster (Bela Lugosi) frozen and he breaks the ice and release it. Soon Talbot discovers that Dr. Frankenstein is dead and he seeks out the daughter of Dr. Frankenstein, Baroness Elsa Frankenstein (Ilona Massey),expecting to borrow his journal that contains the secret of life and death. Meanwhile Dr. Mannering arrives in the village following the blood track left by the werewolf. When Elsa lends the diary of her father, Dr. Mannering prepares the equipment to drain power from Talbot to the Monster. But he becomes insane with the power on his hands and the experiment goes wrong.

"Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" is a movie by Universal with a creepy beginning in the environment of the cemetery and a sensational transformation of Talbot into the werewolf in slow motion. The development of the plot is dramatic and funny, with the encounter of the Wolf Man with the Monster and Talbot wishing to die. Unfortunately the lame conclusion is terrible. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Frankenstein Encontra o Lobisomem" ("Frankenstein Meets the Werewolf")

Okay, so far Boris Karloff played the monster in the first three Frankenstein films. Next, Lon Chaney, Jr. played him. However, now the monster was to meet the Wolfman---who is ALSO played by Chaney! So, the studio asked another guy to don the costume--the even shorter Bela Lugosi! This is pretty ironic, as many years earlier Lugosi had refused to play the monster in the original film (a lousy career move in hindsight).

This time, the two monsters meet and for some inexplicable reason don't get along very well. Considering they are BOTH hell-bent on murder, it sure SEEMED like an ideal friendship. By the end of the film, the monsters are both assumed to be dead--until they miraculously appear once again--and none the worse for wear. This ending, by the way, was pretty spectacular and memorable.

The movie is competently directed and the stars try their best. The mood and cinematography, though, are not so hot--the film just looks a bit tired, but it's still fun. Just don't look too closely at the final battle in the film--you may notice that in many scenes it's NOT Lugosi playing the monster but a stuntman! If you look, it's pretty easy to tell--showing that Universal really didn't care too much about this or continuity.

Not one of Universal's best horror entries (it's not as good as its predecessor The Wolf Man, which is a very good film indeed),but it holds up well as a fun and charming film with a lot of atmosphere. It does end too abruptly for my tastes and Bela Lugosi looks very ill at ease, too sharp-featured and far from imposing as the Frankenstein monster. To be fair though to Lugosi it is not entirely his fault, as the character is poorly developed and written and you can actually tell that his screen time was intended to have been longer, hence why some of the story was in want of more explanation(the blindness was important and that was literally ignored). Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man is a very good-looking film, it's beautifully shot with eerie lighting and the sets give off a real Gothic horror atmosphere but look sumptuous at the same time. The music fits well, complimenting the thrills without sounding overbearing and stock. The script is very witty and cohesive with only with the monster where it felt incomplete, while the story is always compelling filled with entertainment and the scares positively thrill. Especially good is the opening sequence which is brilliant, so chilling and effectively atmospheric that you are excited to see what follows afterwards, to me it is one of the best openings to a Universal horror during this period and even after. The monster brawl is a lot of fun as well. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man is skilfully directed throughout, is briskly paced, the characters are engaging without being fully dimensional and the acting is mostly solid apart from Lugosi. Illona Massey is a smouldering and unusually smart Elsa and Dwight Frye and Lionel Atwill provide entertaining support. Coming off best is Lon Chaney Jnr as Talbot aka The Wolf Man who's superb, goose bump-inducing but movingly sympathetic as well. His makeup is just as good as it was in The Wolf Man. Overall, fun, charming and atmospheric, not perfect by any stretch but well worth the watch and goes very well with The Wolf Man. 7/10 Bethany Cox