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The Invisible Man [Claude Rains]

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The Invisible Man (1933), starring Claude Rains, directed by James Whale

The signature adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man stars Claude Rains as a scientist who discovers a serum that makes him invisible. Covered by bandages and dark glasses, the scientist arrives at a small English village and attempts to reverse his discovery.

However, the same drug that renders him invisible is slowly driving him insane … And capable of committing acts of terror. Directed by James Whale, the horror classic features groundbreaking special effects by John P. Fulton.

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The Mummy’s Curse

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The Mummy’s Curse (1944) starring Lon Chaney Jr., Virginia Christine, Dennis Moore, Peter Coe, Kay Harding, Martin Kosleck

The Mummy’s Curse marks Lon Chaney Jr.s final appearance as The Mummy. He seeks his revived Princess Ananka. But she suffers from amnesia, and flees from the murdering mummy …

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House of Dracula

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House of Dracula (1944), starring John Carradine, Onslow Stevens, Lon Chaney Jr., Glenn Strange

Synopsis of House of Dracula

In House of Dracula, Wolf Man (Lon Chaney, Jr.) & Dracula (John Carradine) beg Dr. Edelman (Onslow Stevens) to cure them of their killing instincts. But Dracula schemes to seduce the doctor’s nurse.

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House of Frankenstein [monster movie]

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House of Frankenstein (1944), starring Boris Karloff, John Carradine, Lon Chaney Jr., J. Carrol Naish, Glenn Strange, Lionel Atwill, Anne Gwynne, Peter Coe

Synopsis of House of Frankenstein

House of Frankenstein is the first of the Universal Studios monster mashes.  In short, mad scientist Niemann and “friend Daniel” his hunchback assistant escape prison and enact a series of revenges on the people who had him imprisoned.  They murder a proprietor of a travelling show of horrors, impersonate him and revive his corpse of Dracula.  Dracula succeeds in the first part of the revenge scheme, but Niemann abandons him to be destroyed in the sunlight.  Niemann then travels to the ruins of Frankenstein’s castle.  He hopes to recover the dead doctor’s secrets, but instead recovers both the Wolf Man and Frankenstein’s monster.  He revives them both, but a romantic triangle unravels the plot.

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Ghost of Frankenstein

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Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) starring Lon Chaney, Jr., Cedric Hardwicke, Ralph Bellamy, Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi, Evelyn Ankers

Synopsis of Ghost of Frankenstein

In  Ghost of Frankenstein, the ghost isn’t literal, but psychological.  Another son of Victor Frankenstein, brain surgeon Ludwig (played well by Cedric Hardwicke), who is manipulated by Ygor (wonderfully done by Bela Lugosi) who also manipulates Ludwig’s former mentor and current assistant, Dr. Bohmer (Lionel Atwill) as well as the childlike Frankenstein’s monster (portrayed here by Lon Chaney Jr.)

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Dracula (1931)

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Dracula (1931) starring Bela Lugosi, Dwight Frye, Edward Van Sloan, directed by Tod Browning

Synopsis of Dracula

A truly great adaptation of the classic vampire novel.  Dracula is the story of the European vampire who comes to England to find fresh victims …  And stumbles across a young woman who reminds him of his long-lost love. This is actually based on the Broadway play, and not directly on the original novel by Bram Stoker.

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Bride of Frankenstein

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Bride of Frankenstein (1935) starring Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Colin Clive
reviewed by: The masked reviewer

Bride of Frankenstein begins with Mary Shelley informing her friends that she has written a sequel to her masterpiece. She begins this story at the end of Frankenstein with Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) recovering from his injuries, and the mill fire still crackling. A curious villager and his worried wife are watching the fire when a familiar hand strangles the man and throws the wife down to her death.Minnie (Una O’Connor) starts screaming when she spots the monster walking away from the ruins. The monster runs away before the mobs can begin their monster hunt again. Henry refuses to accept the monster as his creation and decides to quiet the evil experiment business to follow in the family business.

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Son of Dracula

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Son of Dracula (1943) starring Lon Chaney Jr., Louise Allbritton, Robert Paige, Evelyn Ankers

Son of Dracula is a very interesting entry into Universal Pictures’ series of  Dracula movies — and not only due to Lon Chaney Jr. playing the title character — although Chaney does a good job. He portrays Dracula (or Alucard, if you prefer) as a very powerful, savage creature, with only a veneer of culture and civilization. I frankly enjoyed his portrayal very much — although his southern accent was totally out of place for a European character. But as I say, Chaney’s depiction isn’t the only reason that I enjoyed  Son of Dracula.

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