When watching the Universal monsters boxset, this movie stands out. It is by far the most entertaining of the bunch, it has great visual effects,
a great score, a great sense of humor. This is definitely the masterpiece of those movies.
It's really good but I have a hard time choosing which is best
shareBetter than House of Frankenstein? That had 3 classic monsters in it plus a hunchback and evil mad scientist
shareYeah but Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster got barely any screentime. I like House of Frankenstein but it's inferior to Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Dracula, and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.
shareBy the time they got around to House of Frankenstein/ House of Dracula, Universal was just going through the motions. They'd identified horror films as regular money-makers, and churned them out on a schedule, as was the norm in the studio era. The only truly great films from that long-running series are the original Dracula and Frankenstein films, and Bride of Frankenstein. The Old Dark House is quite good, too, though I don't think it's on par with the other three.
shareAgreed, I had a similar experience.
I watched most of the major classic Universal Monster films in my teens after buying a boxset and Bride of Frankenstein stood head and shoulders above the rest, an opinion I still hold all these years later.