This would be considered the last Universal Horror film, or at least the last serious one to feature the classic monsters.
Dracula (John Carradine) arrives at the stately home of Dr. Edelmann (Onslow Stevens). It's late at night, and the vampire enters after staring at the good doctor's assistant Milizia (Martha O'Driscoll) for a bit.
The count; although he introduces himself as Baron Latos, appears before the sleeping doctor and demands his help. He quickly explains why he appeared in the middle of the night and why he can't come back in the morning...by leading the doctor down the catacombs and showing him a coffin with the crest of Dracula on the lid.
Faced with the possibility of curing a vampire, the doctor goes to work. His main research is devoted to cultivating a special breed of fungus that can soften and reshape bone. He is doing this to help his other assistant, Nina (Jane Adams) the titular hunchback on the poster.
That night Edelmann gets another visitor, one Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.). Talbot is rather keen to see the doctor but when he's told to come back in the morning, the distraught man rushes into the nearby town of Visaria and causes so much of a ruckus he's thrown in jail.
Inspector Holz (Lionel Atwill) comes to the conclusion that Talbot is some kind of a nut and sends for Edelmann. The doctor arrives as Talbot revives. Talbot also turns into a werewolf, which is enough proof for the doctor.
The next day Talbot is released into the doctor's custody. After a series of tests, it is determined that Talbot turning into a werewolf has nothing to do with the moon, rather a part of his skull is pushing down on the wrong area. If Edelmann can use the fungus to reshape Talbot's skull, that should cure him.
Of course, such an operation would take time to prep and prepare. Talbot doesn't want to hear that and flings himself off the nearby cliff as the moon starts to rise. Edelmann grabs some rope and follows him, finding him in time as he transforms back. He also finds the Frankenstein's Monster (Glenn Strange), still clutching Dr. Niemann's bones.
With all our monsters assembled, how do things go wrong? Well, the cure for Dracula involves him having a massive blood transfusion, with Edelmann as the donor. The doctor's blood doesn't seem to do much for the count, but the count's blood has the effect of turning Edelmann into a Mr. Hyde type, who besides murdering the occasional farmhand also plots to restore the Frankenstein Monster back to full power.
Edelmann manages to drag Dracula's coffin into the waiting daylight, but then he turns back just as villagers find a great deal on pitchforks and torches. Who will survive the burning castle?
As far as endings go, this could have been a lot worse. It could have been better, but at this point mild competence is probably the best we could hope for. Carradine steals the show but for good and ill. Dracula takes over the first half then just vanishes. The Frankenstein Monster does little aside from sitting on a slab until a brief rampage. Larry Talbot's whining and werewolfism grows thin by this point. If Universal had simply ended the entire series with this, the ending coda of Talbot walking out into the moonlight would have been fine, but that's a matter for another review.
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