FAQ

House of Frankenstein (1944), like all Frankenstein films, is based on characters created in the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by 19-year old British author Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley (1797-1851). This film was the second of a series of four "monster rally" films combining characters from several Universal Studios film series, including the Wolf Man and Dracula. It is a sequel to Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) (1943). The script for House of Frankenstein was written by screenwriters Curt Siodmak and Edward T Lowe, Jr.

A policeman from the village of Frankenstein says that it has been several years since the dam was blown up and the resulting flood swept away the Wolf Man and Frankenstein's Monster (as shown in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)).

Dr. Niemann tells Daniel (J. Carrol Naish), his hunchbacked assistant, that his brother worked as Henry Frankenstein's assistant and that Henry passed his secrets on to Niemann's brother before he died.

His identity is not revealed in the film. Viewers have suggested that it could have been (1) Frankenstein's assistant, Fritz (from Frankenstein (1931)), (2) Dr. Pretorius (from Bride of Frankenstein (1935)), or (3) another assistant that Henry worked with after escaping the destruction of the castle at the end of Bride of Frankenstein.

Fifteen years ago in Visaria, Dr. Niemann was imprisoned for trying to transplant the brain of a human being into a dog.

Dr. Niemann and Daniel escape from the prison and hijack the traveling show wagon of Professor Bruno Lampini in an attempt to get to the village of Frankenstein and find Henry Frankenstein's records in the flooded house. Part of Lampini's show is the coffin and skeleton of Dracula with a wooden stake in it where the heart would be. Niemann opens the coffin, pulls out the stake, and revives Dracula (John Carradine), who now calls himself Baron Latos. It is Niemann's plan to use Dracula to exact revenge on Burgomeister Hussmann (Sig Ruman) one of the men who was responsible for sending him to prison in the first place. When Dracula kidnaps Hussman's granddaughter, Rita, and brings the police bearing down on Dr. Niemann and Daniel, they throw Dracula's coffin off of the wagon. Before he can get into it, the sun comes up and disintegrates him into a skeleton again.

While rummaging through the flooded ruins of Henry Frankenstein's son Ludwig's house in the village of Frankenstein, Daniel falls through the floor into an ice-covered cavern, where he and Dr. Niemann find both the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr.) and Frankenstein's Monster (Glenn Strange) frozen in ice. Daniel and Dr. Niemann get a good fire going, and Larry Talbot (the Wolf Man) is revived. Dr. Niemann promises Talbot that he will cure him of his curse if he shows him where Frankenstein's records are located, which Talbot does. However, the Monster has suffered tissue degradation and cannot be revived until they can get him to Niemann's laboratory, which is 152 km away in Visaria.

Dr. Niemann's plan is to put the Wolf Man's brain into the body of his disloyal assistant, Strauss, and the brain of another of his disloyal assistants, Ullmann, into the Monster's body. He then plans to transplant the Monster's brain into Larry Talbot's body, a part of the plan that Daniel does not like, because he wants Niemann to transfer his brain into Talbot's body so that he can romance the kindly Gypsy dancing girl Ilonka (Elena Verdugo), whom they picked up back in the village of Frankenstein.

Since a werewolf can only be killed by a silver bullet fired from a gun by someone who loves him enough to understand, Ilonka makes a silver bullet and loads it into a pistol. When Larry Talbot changes into the Wolf Man, she follows him into the woods. He attacks and kills her, but she is able to get off the one shot that she needs. Talbot falls to the ground, dead. When Daniel finds Ilonka also dead, he carries her into the laboratory, then attacks Dr. Niemann for not giving him Talbot's body and, thus, causing Ilonka's death. However, Frankenstein's Monster sees Daniel attacking Niemann, breaks out of the straps that are holding him to an operating table, and attacks Daniel. The Monster then throws Daniel through the laboratory's skylight to his death. Meanwhile, the angry villagers with their torches have begun to storm Niemann's laboratory. Fearing the fire, the Monster picks up Niemann and carries him out into the swamp. where they both sink into a pool of quicksand and drown.

Universal Studios made eight Frankenstein films, starting with Frankenstein (1931), which starred Boris Karloff as the Monster. In Bride of Frankenstein (1935), the Monster gets a bride. In Son of Frankenstein (1939), Henry 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) and treated by Henry Frankenstein's other son, Ludwig (Cedric Hardwicke). The Wolf Man (Lon Chaney, Jr) frees the Monster's (Bela Lugosi) body from a block of ice and he is revived again by Dr. Mannering (Patric Knowles) in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943). In House of Frankenstein (1944), the mad Dr. Gustav Neimann (Boris Karloff) revives the Monster (Glenn Strange) in order to use him to exact revenge on his enemies. In House of Dracula (1945), the Monster (Glenn Strange) is again found by the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney, Jr) and revived by Doctor Eidelmann (Onslow Stevens). Many purists insist that the classic Universal Frankenstein saga ends here, but some also include Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), in which Dracula (Bela Lugosi) and Dr. Sandra Mornay (Lenore Aubert) attempt to transplant Wilbur Gray's (Lou Costello) brain into the Monster (Glenn Strange).