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If there is anything that a movie fan can look forward to it is the annual American Movie Classics TV presentation of Monstervision where for 24 hrs a day, 7 straight days, the TV is loaded with horror films. While one really needs to question the logic of slop like Hellraiser II and Friday the 13th the Final Chapter being promoted as classics, the channel does offer a ton of old Universal Horror film classics. (On a side note, the once great, now hopelessly pathetic Sci-Fi Channel used to have exclusive rights to the Universal horror library and now AMC does which is bizarre considering that Universal owns the Sci-Fi Channel)AMC did offer a cool triple feature of THE WOLFMAN, FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN, and HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and viewing the three films in a row is the same sequence these films were released theatrically in 1942, 1944 and 1945 respectively.

While THE WOLFMAN was the more serious of the two, the pulp oriented fun of the other two films does not detract from their quality.THE WOLFMAN introduces Lon Chaney Jr. to the world as Lawrence Talbot, a wayward son who returns home to stay with his estranged father in England after his older brother has been killed in a hunting accident. After stirring a great deal of controversy trying to pick up Gwen, a woman who is engaged to another man, Larry Talbot finds himself bitten by a werewolf trying to save a young woman who the werewolf has attacked. Now that he has been bitten, Larry Talbot is doomed to turn into a werewolf when the moon rises and no one believes him when he tells of his curse until it is too late. More than just a horror film, THE WOLFMAN has a tremendous amount of symbolism present with regards to the dysfunction of the family as well as a caustic warning of what can happen to a man who refuses to grow up and accept responsibility in life. This is not to say that the film is devoid of scares as Lon Chaney's fearsome portrayal of the werewolf is top notch.

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN sees Larry Talbot awakened from his dead slumber by would be grave robbers. When he realizes that he cannot truly be killed, he seeks out Dr. Frankenstein who understands the secrets to life and death and might be able to give Larry the eternal piece that he requests. He ends up accidentally awakening the Frankenstein Monster (played by Bela Lugosi) and discovers that the Doctor has long since died, but that his granddaughter might hold the key to Larry's troubles. On a side note: pay attention to the way the Monster's lips move and no sounds come out. In the original cut of the film, the Monster had extensive dialogue as he learned developed the ability to speak at the end of the previous film GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN when Ygor's brain (Ygor was played by Bela). However, when the film was tested in front of audiences, they found the Monster speaking with Bela's Hungarian accent laughable so the dialogue was cut out or overdubbed and remains lost forever.

HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN is a fun and silly monster mash with Baris Karloff joining John Carridine's Dracula, the underrated Glenn Strange's Frankenstein Monster and Lon Chaney Jr. once again appearing as the long suffering Wolfman. While this film is the sillier of the three, it still has some genuine scares present in the form of Karloff's utterly malevolent Mad Scientist role.Even after nearly 70 years, these films hold up quite well and are highly entertaining. While the latter two films are far more pulpy than scary, they do not detract from the seriousness and fearsomeness of the monsters as opposed to, say, the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET films where Freddy ceased being frightening and became a silly Henny Youngman joke spouting villain.

When I was a kid and watched these films for the first time on UHF TV on an old black and white set, I thought these films were fantastic. Today, they still come off as fantastic and will continue to age well. This is what happens when a film (or film series) is made well.