The Story Continues with "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man"-Tonight!

Tonight on MeTV- we pick up the stories from the past two weeks of our show – as the tales of “The Wolf Man” and “Ghost of Frankenstein” continue in combination, with two of the top Universal monsters getting revived and forming an uneasy alliance when "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man"!

We begin on the Wolf Man side of things-appropriately in a foggy graveyard at night! Two somewhat inept grave robbers break into the Talbot family burial vault- hoping to steal the valuables that are rumored to have been buried with Master Larry. Upon opening Talbot’s final resting place (as final as it can be in these movies), these two criminal geniuses make a couple mistakes- first, they remove the wolf’s bane covering Larry's body, and second, they fail to notice that it's the night of a full moon!

Jumping forward in time- we find an injured man, who has been discovered on a street in a far-away town, who has been hospitalized- and, upon gaining consciousness, tells the doctor that he is Larry Talbot. When the authorities check on his past- they tend not to believe him- since records show that Larry Talbot is dead and was buried!

Regardless, Larry knows who (and what) he is- and that he needs help that no hospital can provide. He escapes the institution, and searches out that one person who knows all about his cursed condition, who might be able to help him- Maleva the gypsy! She admits that his continuing plight is beyond any help she might offer- but suggests that stories have persisted of a great doctor who might be able to supply some answers- one Dr. Frankenstein!

However, those answers are not to be found. Their search for the doctor ends in the village where Frankenstein's creation caused horrible mayhem- where they are told, rather rudely, that the legendary doctor is long dead- and all that remains of his legacy is the rubble of his former castle. Upon arriving at the remains of the castle, an accidental discovery is made- the Frankenstein Monster, entombed in the frozen catacombs beneath the castle! Amazingly, it still holds a spark of life!

That is all it takes to give Larry new hope- that there might be a chance to cure his condition if he can only locate the late doctor's laboratory notes. He seeks out Frankenstein's daughter Elsa ( portrayed by a different actress than last week) to see if she might offer help in finding those vital diaries. Their meeting coincides with the village's Festival of the New Wine, which Larry, at the urging of Elsa and the local authority, begrudgingly attends -and has to sit through the beloved song bellowed by a goggle-eyed troubadour- "Fa Ro La, Fa Ro Lee!" As if that isn’t bad enough, more unfortunate coincidences follow- when a doctor from the hospital Larry escaped from arrives having tracked Talbot - while a certain recently defrosted monster decides to stroll into town! More trouble is on the horizon, as the doctor and Elsa try to help Larry- but the lure of restoring the Monster to full power, once again, proves to be too enticing for one man!

This 1943 film features Bela Lugosi as the Monster- which makes sense, since he played Ygor, whose brain was transplanted into the Monster at the end of “Ghost…” However, we'll talk about how the preview audience's reaction to his dialogue, etc., caused the studio to make some significant changes in the film. This was actually the first of the Universal “monster mash-ups”- the first time they had two of their classic monsters in the same film, leading to more down the line, like “House of Frankenstein”, “House of Dracula”, and “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein”. We'll talk about the movie’s cast, share some Sven shtick, and bring you another special segment from the Chicago Museum of Broadcast Communications’ special celebration of my 40^th anniversary as Svengoolie!

"Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" begins at 8 pm eastern/pacific, 7 central on MeTV. If you are not sure of time and channel where you are, just check your local listings- or at www.metv.com . You can join in the live-Tweeting on Twitter during the show- just make sure to add the hashtag #svengoolie to your posts. And, yes, that finned frightmaster Sventoonie will again show up following our program! This morning on our local Chicago airwaves, viewers can review for tonight by watching “Ghost of Frankenstein” at 11 am on CW26.

Have you checked out the great Tervis drinkware in our store? ( Yes, “I have a store?!”- so many of you have asked why the commercial with that phrase and “no personal checks” has not been following the mail segment- we are working on a new version. Never did we think so many fans would miss those catchphrases!) Check out all the Sven merchandise, as well as taking a look at  the awesome new shirts coming from our new licensing partner FrightRags- take at look at www.fright-rags.com !

We appreciate the many kind words about the passing of our friend Gilbert Gottfried-we are hoping to talk about him a little more in our show the first week of May, as well as in the next monthly newsletter.

Join us tonight on MeTV- when two monsters who cannot die try to battle each other to the death!