Production
Screenwriter Curt Siodmak claimed that during a lunch in the studio commissary he had joked to producer George Waggner that he had a great title for a new film in the series (half-heartedly — he needed a down payment for a new car): "Frankenstein Wolfs The Meat Man".
Waggner, not known for a casual sense of humor, left to have his lunch; shortly thereafter, he called Siodmak to his office, telling him to "go ahead, buy the car."
Dumbfounded but pleased, the writer went to work; thus that next film was
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, which served as a sequel both to
The Wolf Man and
The Ghost of Frankenstein.
Immediately following his success in
Dracula, Bela Lugosi had been the first choice to play the Monster in Universal's original
Frankenstein film, but Lugosi famously turned down the nonspeaking, heavily made-up role: as conceived by the original director
Robert Florey, the Monster was nothing more than a mindless killing machine and not suitable for Lugosi's rising stardom and career as a leading actor.
After the change of directors to
James Whale, along with a major script and conceptual revision, the virtually unknown
Boris Karloff was then cast in his star-making role. (Florey later wrote that "the Hungarian actor didn't show himself very enthusiastic for the role and didn't want to play it.")
Eight years later, Lugosi joined the franchise as the Monster's twisted companion Ygor in
Son of Frankenstein.
He returned to the role in the sequel,
The Ghost of Frankenstein, in which Ygor's brain is implanted into the Monster (now Chaney), causing the creature to take on Lugosi/Ygor's voice.
After plans for Chaney to play both the Monster and the Wolf Man in the next film fell through for logistical reasons, the natural next step was for Lugosi, who turned sixty during the film's production, to take on the part that he once was slated to originate.
The original script — and indeed the movie as originally filmed — had the Monster performing dialogue throughout the film, including references to the events of
Ghost and indicating that the Monster is now blind (a side-effect of the transplant as revealed at the end of the previous film, and the reason for his iconic stiff-armed "Frankenstein Walk").
According to Siodmak, a studio screening audience reacted negatively to this, finding the idea of the Monster speaking with a Hungarian accent unintentionally funny (although the Monster spoke with Lugosi's voice at the end of
Ghost of Frankenstein, the audiences had been carefully prepared for it by the plot of the film).
This has been generally accepted as the reason virtually all scenes in which Lugosi speaks were deleted (though two brief scenes remain in the film that show Lugosi's mouth moving without sound).
All references to his being blind were also eliminated, rendering the Monster's groping gestures unmotivated.
Close-ups of Lugosi's eyes during the revitalization scene and his evil, knowing leer to Patric Knowles were supposed to indicate that his vision had been restored, but in the ultimate context of the film mean nothing.
Consequently, Lugosi is onscreen literally for only a few minutes, leaving the Wolf Man as the film's primary focus.
Lugosi suffered exhaustion at some point during the filming, and his absence from the set, combined with his physical limitations at age sixty, required the liberal use of stand-ins.
Stuntman Gil Perkins allegedly portrayed the Monster in the character's first scene (thirty-five minutes into the film) and during much of the monsters' fight
Although a still exists of Lugosi in the ice, when viewers see the Monster for the first time (including closeups), it is actually the stunt double Perkins.
Stuntman Eddie Parker is usually credited as Lugosi's sole double, but his primary stunt role was thought to be that of the Wolf Man.
However, he does appear as the Monster in at least one shot, and yet a possible third stuntman also stands in for Lugosi in two brief sequences.
The edited result unfairly suggests that Lugosi had to be doubled even in non-strenuous scenes, and the multiple use of alternating stuntmen in both closeups and medium shots damages the continuity of Lugosi's characterization.
As an example, the doubles in the fight scene stiffen their arms, even though that was a cautious habit of the previously-blind Monster; for instance, a medium shot shows Lugosi pulling down a cabinet with his arms naturally bent at the elbows, but the next shot is of a double completing the task with straightened arms.
This would be the final Universal horror film in which the Monster played a major role; in the subsequent films
House of Frankenstein and
House of Dracula, the Monster, played by
Glenn Strange, comes to life only in the final scenes. (In the 1948 Universal comedy
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein [the second and final film in which Lugosi plays Dracula], Strange has a larger role and the creature once again speaks, albeit very limited dialogue, twice muttering, "Yes, Master.")
It was also the last Universal horror film to feature an actual member of the Frankenstein family as a character.
Reception
Bosley Crowther of
The New York Times called the film "a great disappointment" because he thought that the fight between the two monsters came as too little, too late. "Too bad. Not very horrible. Universal will have to try again," he wrote.
Other contemporary reviews were more positive.
Variety called the film "expertly contrived, and carrying suspenseful chiller tenor throughout ... Director Roy William Neill deftly paces the film with both movement and suspense to keep audience interest on sustained plane."
[
Harrison's Reports wrote: "For those devotees who like their horror pictures strong, this one will fill the bill ... The action and the eerie atmosphere conforms to a familiar pattern, but it does not detract from the film's horrendous nature."
Film Daily called it "a horror feast in which devotees of the weird and the fantastic will gorge themselves to bursting. The opportunities for screams are offered with unparalleled generosity.
