However, the actual “Frankenstein” of the film, the Monster now played by Bela Lugosi since Chaney could only be in one place at a time, feels like an afterthought. Lugosi is widely criticized as the worst onscreen depiction of Universal’s Frankenstein Monster, yet it is not entirely the acting legend’s fault. The then-60-year-old Lugosi was given the unenviable burden of continuing a lousy subplot from Ghost of Frankenstein where the creature was awarded Ygor’s brain (also played by Lugosi) but had gone blind as a result. So, Lugosi was forced to stumble around the set as a blind Monster while speaking with a Hungarian accent. The effect…was apparently not good, and Universal executives in post had all of Lugosi’s speaking lines cut, rendering the performance even more incomprehensible.

Luckily, the aftermath was Siodmak and Chaney’s creation taking an even more central focus as the star of the movie, and soon the Universal Shared Cinematic Universe. And no matter what, there’s also not a person alive who cannot grin at Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man’s grand finale when these mutual masters of malevolence have their much hyped Combat in the Castle—throwing lab equipment and each other around like a prophecy of WWE shenanigans to come. If only Zack Snyder could have matched the sheer gonzo joy of this epic brawl.

Very quickly, Universal realized there were far greater rewards with keeping their most popular monsters together than having them stay apart. The same year of Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, the studio also released the overlooked vampire gem Son of Dracula. In spite of its title, and Lon Chaney’s miscalculated pity pleas as the dark count, this is most definitely a story about the original Count Dracula (at least according to the film’s characters) coming to the shores of New Orleans. Long before Anne Rice married the vampire to voodoo, Son of Dracula did just that when a 20th century girl with a taste for the occult ends up getting more than that when she invites “Count Alucard” (get it?) home, becoming his bride.

However, the following year saw what was most certainly meant to be the original Universal Dracula make his first official showing without qualifiers since the original 1931 film. Played by John Carradine with a wispy moustache, this Dracula was angry after having a wooden stake pulled from his heart—he also was not alone in a movie that also featured the Frankenstein Monster, a mad scientist, a hunchback (the horror!), and of course the Wolf Man.

House of Frankenstein(1944) solidified Universal’s Cinematic Universe when wacky Dr. Niemann (Boris Karloff) escapes with a hunchback assistant (J. Carrol Nash) from prison to wreak havoc and revenge on the men who imprisoned Niemann 15 years prior for trying to reanimate the dead. First, Niemann enlists Dracula into his plan by removing the stake from his heart (the count’s corpse had become part of a traveling freak show), and then he finds Larry Talbot and the Frankenstein Monster encased in frozen ice from their last encounter. Soon, all of them, plus a lovely gypsy girl (Elena Verdugo) are attempting to play God over Frankenstein’s creation.