Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) – Well they’d thrown a bunch of the Universal Monsters into single movies. Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolf Man all wreaked havoc in the “monster mash” movies House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula. What else could be done? Obviously, humor! The series had kind of descended … Continue reading

House of Frankenstein (1944) & House of Dracula (1945)

So Universal had gone through all the classic monsters: Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, and the Wolf Man. Then they decided to mash the franchises together with Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. Then they figured “if two, why not three?” That’s where these movies come in. These are commonly referred to as … Continue reading

Son of Frankenstein (1939) & The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)

I’ve been marathoning my way through the Universal Monster films of the 1920s-50s. By and large I’ve found them to be as excellent as I remember from my youth (in the early 90s, I was not yet born when they were made… hell, my dad wasn’t born when most of them were made). However as … Continue reading

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935) – The horror genre is one that is often met with dismissiveness if not outright derision. There’s a spectrum, to be sure, and on the lower end of it you have exploitation films that promise and deliver no more than jumps, blood, maybe a little gratuitous nudity. On the upper end … Continue reading

Frankenstein (1931)

Frankenstein (1931) – So I have saved the best for not-quite-last (since some of the other movies I intend to watch are sequels to this one). Frankenstein is my favorite of the old Universal Monster movies. It’s also the most popular with five sequels and a crossover with Abbott and Costello. Boris Karloff and Jack … Continue reading

The Mummy (1932)

The Mummy (1932) – Two reviews into my retrospective of the Universal Monster films, I haven’t yet mentioned one of the people largely responsible for their classic iconography: Jack Pierce. Well, third time’s the charm. Jack Pierce was the leading make-up guy at Universal after Lon Chaney (Sr.) walked off the set of The Man … Continue reading