The Universal monster films formed what might now be termed a “shared universe”, a concept now readily recognized amongst fans of superhero films but which was quite novel and innovative in the 1930s and 1940s. In this era, before the advent of television or home video, filmmakers could never be sure that viewers had seen the previous entries in a given series and so, instead of a continuity of events, they featured a continuity of character, catchphrase and so on that would signal familiarity in the viewer. This can be seen in detective series such as Charlie Chan, Sherlock Holmes and Mr. Moto.
A rare exception to this was the Universal monster series, particularly those concerning Frankenstein’s Monster and the Wolf Man. This is all the more surprising as
The Wolf Man
(1941) had an ostensibly modern setting, explicitly in the Welsh countryside, while the Frankenstein series seemed to take place in a more indistinct time period somewhere in Central Europe where everyone dressed in Bavarian lederhosen and the Burgomaster would strive to keep his terrified villagers calm.
Frankenstein
(1931) had a mixture of modern and what seems to be nineteenth century fashions and given the Burgomaster (Lionel Belmore) and Herr Baron Frankenstein (Frederick Kerr) the film must be taking place in Germany, Austria or perhaps a German speaking district of Switzerland or Czechoslovakia. Mary Shelley’s novel took place largely around Lake Geneva in Switzerland, a region where French is the dominant language.
The Bride of Frankenstein
(1935) continues with this indefinite sense of time and place. The film’s pressbook, however, did indicate that the plot was taking place in the then-present. If so it is a present and a setting so remote as to be devoid of any of the events that were roiling Central Europe in the 1930s.
Unless, of course, we are meant to understand these events, as well as the events of
Frankenstein
and all subsequent films from this point forward, as unfolding from the imagination of Mary Shelley, who is seen in the opening of
Bride
telling her tale to Lord Byron (Gavin Gordon) and Percy Shelley (Douglas Walton). Are the inconsistencies of time and technology seen in the series stemming from Mary Shelley’s early nineteenth century imagination, projecting what she thinks the future might look like?
Son of Frankenstein
(1939) gives us the first clues, vague though they may be, of time and place. When Wolf von Frankenstein arrives at his ancestral castle he observes that the servants “look like Tyroleans”. This leads to Benson (Edgar Norton), his butler, telling Wolf that none of the local villagers could be induced to work at the benighted Frankenstein estate. The ancient state of Tyrol was originally a district of the Holy Roman Empire which has since been incorporated partly into Northern Italy, partly into Western Austria. Later when Inspector Krogh (Lionel Atwill) arrives, young Peter (Donnie Dunagan) inquires about the Inspector’s missing arm, In
fact it has been torn off by the Monster (Boris Karloff) but Wolf fabricates a story to the child about the Inspector losing his arm “in the war”. Whether this is a reference to World War I or some other conflict in this fantasy universe is never explained.
Ghost of Frankenstein
(1942) transfers the action to Visaria with Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Ludwig Frankenstein dressed in a snappy 1940s double-breasted suit while the villagers in Frankenstein village seem to live in medieval primitivism. There are no references to World War II in this obviously Germanic setting. When Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney) arrives in Visaria seeking Ludwig’s help in
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
(1943), unaware of his death, it seems to confirm that we are indeed in a shared universe but one totally apart from the realities of 1940s Europe.
The Wales that Talbot comes from early in the film has no references to war or Blitzkrieg. In the film Dr. Mannering (Patric Knowles) follows Talbot from Wales, indicating that he made stops along the way in Fontainebleau (north-central France), Aachen (along the west-central German border) and another locale that sounds like Elrad before arriving in Visaria. Perhaps Aachen is the last real-world town one encounters in the Universal Universe before one plunges into the Middle European nightmare realm of the Frankensteins.
House of Frankenstein
(1944) and
House of Dracula
(1945) move things still further into a fantastical continuity, the latter film suddenly and inconsistently resetting Visaria as a seaside locale. If so the film would have to be taking place somewhere in northwestern Germany that abuts the North Sea.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
(1948) for its part takes place in a very commonplace Florida and shares little in common continuity-wise with its predecessors.
Perhaps the vagueness regarding time and place were Universal’s way of inviting wartime audiences to “play” for an hour or so in a fantasy land devoid of the harsh realities facing the world in the 1930s and 1940s. The studio succeeded in combining the familiar with the unfamiliar and creating a fantastical continuity in a host of horror classics that endure to this day.