Man Made Monster (1941)
Nov 9, 2016Mad Scientist Creates Electrified Man
An overlooked latter day Universal monster movie with Lionel Atwill on wonderfully demented form as a mad scientist who turns Lon Chaney, Jr. into an electrified human dynamo
George Waggner
The Wolf Man (1941)
Feb 18, 2008Werewolf Film
Although it wasn't the first werewolf film, this is the one the created all the mythology of the werewolf film – full moons, silver bullets etc – while the wolfman went on to join the pantheon of Universal Famous Monsters.
The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
Jul 30, 2000Universal Frankenstein Sequel
The fourth of Universal's Frankenstein films where Lon Chaney Jr inherits the role of the monster and makes it into a stumbling brute that lacks the pathos of Boris Karloff. The plot recycles what has now become the cliches of the series
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
Feb 15, 2001Universal Monster Bash
The first film in which Universal teamed-up their in-house monsters, leading to several other monster bashes throughout the decade. For all that, this fails to make any interesting use of the title set-up
Phantom of the Opera (1943)
Sep 1, 2013Disfigured Madman Beneath the Opera House
The second film version of the story, lavishly remaking the classic 1925 Lon Chaney version in sound and colour. Alas, all this serves to do is stuff and mount the story. With the addition of a sympathetic backstory and cast with a wimpily diminutive Claude Rains, Chaney's magnificently mad Phantom comes across like an indignant fox terrier
The Climax (1944)
Aug 11, 2021Mad Doctor Fixates on an Opera Singer
Made to exploit leftover sets from the 1943 Phantom of the Opera, this is a magnificent colour production that has Boris Karloff as an obsessive surgeon who fixates on a beautiful young opera singer