BELA'S MONSTER: LUGOSI, THE MONSTER, AND FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN

Film historian Bill Fleck's Bela's Monster: Lugosi, The Monster, and Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman is a massive exploration, comprised of 447 well-researched pages, adorned by photos and available in hard and soft cover. 

The work's focus falls on Lugosi's controversial turn at not playing the Monster and later seizing the opportunity after the success of The Ghost of Frankenstein. In the latter, the creature received the brain of Lugosi's Ygor, which allowed the great, Hungarian thespian to emote through Lon Chaney Jr.'s Monster during the fiery finale. 

Fleck proposes that Lugosi's rejection of the Monster in 1931 (or perhaps Universal's rejection of him for the role) set the studio's "monsterverse" on a specific trajectory. Per Fleck, such began when Lugosi became Universal's heir apparent to Lon Chaney Sr. (who many presumed would headline Dracula and Frankenstein). When Lugosi hit big with Dracula, but bypassed Frankenstein, it gave Boris Karloff and later Chaney Jr. the chance to receive roles that Lugosi may have otherwise assumed.

That Lugosi did not helm Frankenstein resulted in him being teamed with Karloff in productions (before and after the evident Son of Frankenstein, where Ygor was introduced). It also gave Lugosi opportunities to flourish in an independent way, as with White Zombie, in which he directed several, uncredited scenes. 

Fleck explains how Lugosi's fate came full circle in Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (for a time entitled The Wolf Man Meets Frankenstein), where the actor was to flaunt his own spin on the entrenched Monster. As the blind, Ygor-minded creature, Lugosi was scripted to verbalize with Chaney Jr.'s Lawrence Talbot and Patric Knowles' Dr. Frank Mannering (Fleck even supplies script excerpts as proof), but these filmed interactions were cut for the movie's mass release, causing what Lugosi had long feared: the Monster's conspicuous lack of articulation.

If anything (and above all), Bela's Monster leaves one yearning for the restored Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, which would, indeed, be a dream come true for horror afficionados, perhaps second only to London After Midnight's rediscovery.

Beyond any debate, Fleck has given the Universal fanbase a sensible, deterministic analysis, based on Lugosi's ripple-effect decision. As a result, the author's effort is one that no loyal, Universal or Lugosi admirer should be without.

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