On a foggy night in 1931, a charismatic monster from the European mainland makes his way down the streets of London. A poor girl selling flowers on the streets would be the first victim of his evil, but she would not be the last as he planned to unleash untold terrors upon The Big Smoke. Luckily, this nightmare exists only in black-and-white images onscreen in the groundbreaking Universal Studios film Dracula. However, a mere nine years later, a true charismatic European monster would unleash his own form of terror upon London. Not with supernatural powers but with machines of war. It has been said to the point of redundancy that the horror genre, from stories swapped by hunter-gatherers around the fire to the contemporary new cinematic releases, continually evolves in order to reflect the darkest elements of our society.
Few times in human history have been darker than in World War II so the impact on the genre was inevitable, especially now that the region of the world where modern horror first took root was now a theater of combat. During the war, the most prominent franchise of the genre was the Universal Monsters. From the era of the silent picture through the talkies, the regime of studio founder Carl Laemmle relied heavily on the success of their cavalcade of now classic horror pictures like Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, the Mummy, Frankenstein, and their crown jewel, Bride of Frankenstein. After the Laemmle family lost control of Universal the new studio heads learned quickly that the monsters were box office gold, though the production of the new offerings was demoted to the B-unit. Now that the world was embroiled in violence and destruction, it was inevitable the monsters would have to be part of the war effort in some form. 
The influence of the horrors of the Second World War appeared when Universal released a movie mere days following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This would be their first monster that didn’t owe its origins to the literary world like Dracula or the Invisible Man. The Wolf-Man debuted in late 1941, and not even the ominous glow of the full moon could keep audiences away. In this influential horror film Larry Talbot, portrayed by Lon Chaney Jr., returns to his ancestral home only to encounter a Romani clan and contracts the curse of the werewolf. Rather than drawing inspiration from the centuries of preexisting lycanthropic folklore, screenwriter Curt Siodmak crafted the modern werewolf mythos largely from his own imagination. As film scholar Jan-Christopher Hoark famously observed, being a Jewish man forced to flee his native Germany, Siodmak undoubtedly witnessed firsthand that even those who appear pure of heart and say their prayers by night are capable of becoming monsters.
Amplifying the terrors of The Wolf-Man was the fact that Hitler and his followers embraced the symbology of the werewolf as part of their fearsome identity. High-ranking Nazi Alfred Rosenberg once wrote “the incarnation of the werewolf runs through Aryan and German fairytales”. Identification with lycanthropy became a popular naming convention with the Third Reich as seen in Hitler naming one of his headquarters the Wolfsschanze, or “wolf’s lair”; Himmler and Goebels were responsible for crafting Operation Werewolf, and the ancient emblem of the Wolfsangel was adopted by several German military units.
Given all this, perhaps it was inevitable the sequel would see the Wolf-Man throw hands -or claws- with Universal’s marquee monster in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf-Man, the first crossover feature of the Universal Monsters. While it is highly unlikely the filmmakers set out to make a statement with the first “monster rally” the undertones were inescapable. After all the conflict boiled down to a British-created monster born of science versus an occult-based monster of lore heralded by the Nazis. Even the New York Times took notice of this in their cheekily entitled review of the movie “When Gentlemen Meet”. According to Hollywood lore, executives at Universal made a concerted effort to make the influence of World War II less pronounced. In the previous Frankenstein film, Ghost of Frankenstein, the creature was given the ability to speak thanks to receiving the brain of the doctor’s assistant Ygor. But when his grandiose dialogue concerning global domination in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf-Man was deemed too reminiscent of Hitler’s megalomaniacal speeches Doctor Frankenstein’s creation was rendered mute once more.
The year following The Wolf-Man’s release, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Office of War Information, or OFI, to align American media with the national war effort. As part of their mission, the OFI created the Bureau of Motion Pictures to ensure Hollywood toed the line. Unsurprising to most, this smug and serious group largely held the horror genre in low regard. They famously wrote-off Universal’s 1943 Dracula sequel Son of Dracula entirely as being too fantastic and silly to take seriously. Ironically, the perfect wartime “Dracula” sequel was in fact produced in 1943, only it came from Columbia Pictures rather than Universal. In The Return of the Vampire, Bela Lugosi once again brings to un-life an aristocratic bloodsucker identical to his legendary portrayal of the Count, only this time the Hungarian actor played Armand Tesla. In this film, Tesla was initially defeated during World War I by a Van Helsing stand-in. Years later, he is resurrected during the Blitz to once again prey upon London. Helmed by director Lew Landers, the Return of the Vampire does not shy away from its wartime London setting, instead embracing it as a key part of the film.
The Universal Monster film of this era that conveyed the strongest pro-American sentiment was ironically one the BMP took the strongest issue with: 1942’s Invisible Agent. Also penned by Curt Siodmak, who scripted countless monster pictures for the studio during the 40s, Invisible Agent sees the grandson of the original Invisible Man, Robert Griffin Jr., emotionally compelled by the attack on Pearl Harbor to volunteer the use of his family’s Monocaine formula to act as an unseen saboteur against the Axis. In both original 1933 film and its sequel Invisible Man Returns, a driving plot point was the fact that exposure to Monocaine drove the transparent ones into grand criminal insanity. In Invisible Agent this side effect takes a backseat to the need to stop a Nazi attack on New York. In memos between the Bureau and the Office of War Information, officials criticized the portrayal of Nazi and Japanese officials as bumbling morons instead of terrifying and imposing -a legitimate complaint considering it was a horror film after all. One memo in particular called out the climax which sees the main antagonist, Japanese agent Baron Ikito (played by the notoriously non- Asian actor Peter Lorre) kill his Nazi counterpart before committing seppuku. Officials were afraid that this would influence American audiences into believing Germany and Japan were in reality “unwilling partners” and not a united formidable force that we could only defeat by being equally united.
Despite complaints Agent Griffin was able to complete his mission and take his place as the fourth invisible protagonist in Universal’s series with little issue. Another legendary monster from the studio’s stable would not be so lucky; when the script for 1943’s The Mummy’s Ghost landed on the BMP’s desk they saw little choice than to call Washington for help. Like the other entries in the Ben Pivar produced Mummy films, the mummy Kharis is resurrected by the special tea brewed by his followers. The reanimated Egyptian proceeds to unleash violence on anyone who cross them while seeking means to resurrect his beloved. The complaints about the script had less to do with the bandage-wrapped monster methodically slaughtering hapless victims and more to do with the fact that Egypt had strong ties to the United Kingdom. They feared portraying the Middle Eastern nation as a desolate hellscape filled with murderous cultists, old crypts, and monsters could negatively impact our alliance with Britain.
Enter respected Egyptologist Dr. John S. Badeau who was dispatched to Universal Studios at the request of the OWI. Under his advice, the script was altered in order to ensure more authenticity, or depending on the narrative situation, less authenticity. For instance, the Cult of Karnak who summoned Kharis from his sarcophagus became the Cult of Arkam so that they would no longer share the name of an actual Egyptian city. Fortunately for Universal, Dr. Badeau worked efficiently and ensured completion in time for The Mummy’s Ghost to start shooting on schedule
A noticeable trend in these wartime outings from the Universal Monsters were that their films leaned less into the gothic and macabre than they had in the previous decade. With the actual horrors of war raging throughout the world, audiences weren’t as keen on the morbidity of previous movies. This was evidenced when Universal remade one of their earliest horror hits with 1943’s Phantom of the Opera. The original silent masterpiece still packs a jolt for modern audiences due to the combination of spectacle and terror. Leading man Lon Chaney Sr. gave audiences his most frightening and iconic role yet as the Phantom which he kept under wraps until the now iconic unmasking.
In the wartime remake, the subject matter was toned down to the point that many consider it more of a romantic-comedy than a monster movie. As for the Phantom, instead of a ghoulish, skull-like visage drawn from the source material, star Claude Rains simply had a small silicone prosthetic to create his deformity. The resulting version of Phantom of the Opera was deemed visually stunning, being the only Universal Monster film shot in color, but lacking a certain substance.
Dr. Rick Worland pointed out in his article “OWI Meets the Monsters: Hollywood Horror Films and War Propaganda”, the Universal Monsters were not exactly at a creative peak during the war years. Churning out sequels and substandard fare from the Universal B-unit, it was a far cry from the days when the Laemmle family treated monster movies as serious productions. However, there was the nagging issue that the genre by its nature is reflective of society. The horror couldn’t be written-off entirely by the BMP or OWI lest it come back and bites them in the proverbial neck with metaphorical fangs. While World War II did not see the greatest outings of: Dracula, the Wolf-Man, and Frankenstein’s creation, they and the rest of their gruesome colleagues in monstrosity found a sense of purpose. Following the war’s end, the studio seemed unsure how to proceed with further monster films relying on crossing them over in “monster rallies” or pitting them against legendary comedy duo Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.
In August of 1945, the Office of War Information considered their job done and Universal, like the other studios, found themselves missing their bureaucratic guidance. According to the Journal of American History article “What to Show the World: The Office of Wear Information and Hollywood” an unexpected kinship had developed during the war between Hollywood execs and these regulatory officials. Perhaps all of this was inevitable as the conclusion of the Second World War kicked-off the next evolution for the cinematic monsters. A new generation of monsters would soon dominate the silver screen with creatures like Godzilla, the mutated ants from Them!, and the Gill-Man from Creature from the Black Lagoon birthed by a new era of science. This doesn’t mean a silver bullet hit the classic Universal Monsters as they evolved as well. As generations passed the very monsters who gave horror fans escapism and fun during the days of the Depression and World War II have lived on with their place in popular culture secure.
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Josh Plock has written about some of the most iconic figures in popular culture with contributions to the acclaimed books: The American Superhero, The American Villain, and Robots in Popular Culture published by Bloomsbury. In 2022 he was the co-author of the book We Are Gotham exploring the dark corners of the most iconic city in fiction. Beyond the bookshelf his work has been featured on popular blogs like the House of Geekery and Horror Bound as well as printed in the pages of Ghostwatch Paranormal Zine. Josh is proud to call the city of Memphis his home where he and his wife reside. You can follow him on Instagram at @joshthemonster86.
Josh, you need to go back and proofread your work.
Ygor was not the assistant in Ghost of Frankenstein. He’s a confidant of the Monster from ’39 Son of Frankenstein. His brain was placed into the Monster. This results in his voice emitting from the Monster. The elimination of Ygor’s voice in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man had zero to do with Hitler speeches. Studio heads decided to erase the dialog, as well as cut scenes of the Monster speaking, after some felt Lugosi’s (who now at age 61, was cast as the Monster) dialog comical.
Tod Browning did not direct Columbia’s The Return of the Vampire. The director is Lew Landers. You may have been confused with the ’35 MGM film Mark of the Vampire, directed by Browning, and starring Bela Lugosi. It was a remake of Browning’s silent film with Lon Chaney, London After Midnight.
Later, an article is titled using the word “Wear” when it should be “War.”