FAQ

If it remained "the Autumn moon", it would suggest Talbot could only change into the wolfman in the Autumn; which would seriously cut down his opportunities for wolfman-style shenanigans!

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, like all Frankenstein movies, is based on a character created in the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, by 19-year old British author Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley [1797-1851]. The movie was the first of a series of "ensemble" monster films combining characters from several film series. It is both the fifth in the series of Universal Studios films based upon Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and a sequel to The Wolf Man (1941) (1941). The Wolf Man (1941) was based on a screenplay that may have been influenced by Werewolf of London (1935), a less-successful Universal Studio movie made in 1935, six years prior to The Wolf Man. The screenplays for The Wolf Man and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man were both written by German-born screenwriter Curt Siodmak.

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man was Universal Studio's attempt to bring together the characters of the wolfman (Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.)) and the Frankenstein monster. With respect to The Wolf Man, the movie begins four years after Talbot's death at the end of The Wolf Man. With respect to the last Frankenstein sequel, The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) (1942), the passage of time is not as clear. Reference is made to the fire that killed Ludwig Frankenstein as well as the monster at the end of The Ghost of Frankenstein. Ludwig's daughter Elsa (Ilona Massey) now wishes to sell the estate. Thus, the storyline is upheld, but the actual number of years between the events at the end of The Ghost of Frankenstein and the beginning of Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man are not clear. Make a guess. Two years? Five years? Ten years?

Two graverobbers open his tomb and remove the wolfbane from on top of his body. The light of the full moon falls on his face.

Yes, Dwight Frye is one of the Vasarian villagers (credited as Rudi) who goes in search of the "wolf" that killed one of the village girls. He's the one who asks what animals are around Vasaria that could do this to someone. Then the wolf's cry is heard.

That was Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya). It was her son Bela who first bit Talbot in The Wolf Man and turned him into a werewolf.

Talbot wants to die. Maleva tells him that Frankenstein's notes may hold the secrets to life, death, and immortality, so Larry wants to get his hands on them.

After the Vasarian villagers shoot Larry Talbot, he tries to hide in an alcove of the burnt-out Frankenstein sanitarium. He falls through the floor into an ice cave where he finds the monster (Bela Lugosi) frozen behind a sheet of ice. He breaks the ice and sets the monster free.

Eventually, yes. He tries to sweet talk Elsa into giving them to him, but she claims not to have them. When the villagers threaten to kill her, Maleva, and Dr Mannering (Patric Knowles), she finally reveals their hiding place in the laboratory that was destroyed in The Ghost of Frankenstein. Dr Mannering reads the notes and thinks that he might be able to restore the laboratory and use the notes to help both Larry and the Frankenstein monster.

After Dr Mannering has restored the laboratory, he hitches up Larry and the monster to the machines. As he is about to reverse polarity in order to destroy them both, he has a change of heart. Elsa sees that he is making the monster stronger and tries to stop him by pulling that old laboratory destruct lever. The machines start to blow up. Larry and the monster attack each other as Mannering and Elsa escape the lab. Meanwhile, the villagers have decided to blow up the dam in order to destroy the lab. In the final scene, the water comes tumbling through the valley, knocking over the remains of the sanitarium and carrying it away in pieces.

Universal Studios made eight Frankenstein movies, starting with Frankenstein (1931) (1931), which starred Boris Karloff as the monster. In Bride of Frankenstein (1935) (1935), the monster gets a mate. In Son of Frankenstein (1939) (1939), Dr Frankenstein's son Wolf (Basil Rathbone) revives his father's monster. The monster (Lon Chaney Jr.) is revived again in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) (1942) and treated by Dr Frankenstein's son Ludwig (Cedric Hardwicke). The Wolfman (Lon Chaney, Jr) recovers the monster (Bela Lugosi)'s body from a block of ice and he is revived again by Dr Mannering (Patric Knowles) in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) (1943). In House of Frankenstein (1944) (1944), mad Doctor Neiman (Boris Karloff) revives the monster (Glenn Strange) in order to exact revenge on his enemies. In House of Dracula (1945) (1945), the monster (Glenn Strange) is again found by the Wolfman (Lon Chaney, Jr) and revived by renown Doctor Edelman (Onslow Stevens). Many purists insist that the classic Universal Frankenstein saga ends here, but some also count Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) (1948) in which Dracula (Bela Lugosi) and Doctor Sandra Mornay (Lenore Aubert) attempt to transplant Wilbur (Lou Costello)'s brain into the monster (Glenn Strange).

Already mentioned is Werewolf of London (1935) and The Wolf Man (1941), which is really the start of the Larry Talbot story, and this movie Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. Larry Talbot surfaced again in House of Frankenstein (1944) (1944), House of Dracula (1945) (1945) and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) (1948).