RALEIGH \u2014 Prepare for the shock of your life: a film that will overwhelm you with horror twice as grim, a hundred times more terrifying, with two mighty monsters locked in mortal combat. You can be afraid, but don\u2019t miss one of the great classic horror films of the 1940s, when the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences shows \u201cFrankenstein Meets the Wolfman\u201d on First Friday, October 2 at 7pm.<\/p>\n
Lawrence Stewart Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) is plagued by a physical oddity that turns him into a crazed werewolf after sundown. His desire to rid himself of this ailment leads him to the castle owned by mad scientist Dr. Frankenstein. Frankenstein, it turns out, is now dead, yet Talbot believes that the scientist’s daughter, Baroness Elsa Frankenstein (Ilona Massey), can help him. However, his quest to right himself puts him on a collision course with Frankenstein’s monster (Bela Lugosi).<\/p>\n
In this film, Lugosi takes over the role made famous by Boris Karloff, and also manages to introduce the iconic Frankenstein monster-walk. Although not explained in the movie, the monster is now blind; a side-effect of having Ygor\u2019s brain implanted in him at the end of \u201cThe Ghost of Frankenstein\u201d (1942). That is why he lumbers around with his arms outstretched. Lugosi\u2019s starring role in Bram Stoker\u2019s \u201cCount Dracula\u201d (1931) established him as one of the screen’s greatest personifications of pure evil. His reputation rapidly declined, mainly because he was only too happy to accept any part handed to him, and ended up playing pathetic parodies of his greatest role.<\/p>\n
Lon Chaney Jr. \u2013 aka the Prince of Pain \u2013 once again sinks his teeth into the role of Talbot\/Wolfman. Junior\u2019s career was influenced (and often overshadowed) by that of his father, silent film star Lon Chaney, who is best known for his role as Quasimodo in the silent movie \u201cThe Hunchback of Notre Dame\u201d (1923). It was not until after his father\u2019s death in 1930 that Junior went to work in films. Most of the parts he played were unmemorable until he was given the role of the simple-minded Lennie in the film adaptation of John Steinbeck\u2019s \u201cOf Mice and Men\u201d (1939). Junior was cast as the tortured Lawrence Talbot in \u201cThe Wolf Man\u201d (1941) and appeared in a slew of horror films after that, but never achieved his father\u2019s level of stardom.<\/p>\n