SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939)

DIRECTED BY Rowland V. Lee

SCREENPLAY by Willis Cooper

STARRING - Basil Rathbone as Baron Wolf Von Frankenstein,  Boris Karloff as The Monster,  Bela Lugosi as Ygor,  Lionel Atwill as Inspector Krogh,  Josephine Hutchinson as Baroness Elsa Von Frankenstein,  Donnie Dunagan as Peter Von Frankenstein.

PLOT - Baron Henry Frankenstein - the man who infamously created a living monster from grave robbed body parts is dead.

Frankenstein's son Wolf has inherited Castle Frankenstein and all its secrets. Arriving at the nearby village with his wife and infant son, Wolf finds that he and his family are shunned and viewed with fear and suspicion by the locals. Angry at the enduring terror that is generated by his father's legacy, Wolf vows to clear his family's name and reputation.

However, fate has other plans for the baron. Ygor - the original Frankenstein's assistant - a man who should by all rights be dead himself has returned and with him he brings the monster that Wolf's father created.

The monster is weakened and Ygor needs Wolf's help to fully revive it. By helping Ygor will Wolf finally clear his family's name or by doing so will he damn them forevermore?...

PERFORMANCES - It goes without saying that the cast of this movie is pretty much classic horror royalty. All the performers are at the top of their game, leading to a film that is satisfying on many different levels.

Leading the cast is Basil Rathbone as Wolf Frankenstein. He does a pretty decent job of putting across his character's frustration. Wolf is a man who is torn between his family's past and his own destiny. He respects his father's memory and believes that he wasn't evil, merely misunderstood (to be fair this does tally with what we see of the original Frankenstein's character in the first two movies), He's slightly wary of his father's legacy but also can't resist being drawn towards it once Ygor comes knocking on his door (I'm guessing that inherited scientific curiosity just gets too much for him). 

As the film progresses Wolf gets increasingly on edge as things inevitably start to go wrong and crumble around him. It's these scenes where Rathbone really shines I think. He's like a coiled spring, you're just waiting for him to snap. It's great.

Adding to Wolf's frustrations is the local head of Police - Inspector Krogh (Lionel Atwill). Krogh had a run in with Frankenstein's monster when he was a kid and lost his arm as a result. This thwarted his desire to become a soldier and led to him having a wooden arm. 

As a result of this Krogh is embittered (he could have been a general by now, instead he's running a shitty little police force consisting of about four men in a tiny little village).

Instinctively mistrusting Wolf he goes about trying to bring him in, constantly hounding him and dogging his every step. Atwill shares some great scenes with Rathbone as they engage each other in a battle of wits. You can tell they're both characters who are used to getting thier own way, so you find yourself wondering who's going to be the first to back down (neither of them do). As the story progresses the two adversaries seem to gain a grudging respect for one another and by the end (when it becomes obvious to Krogh that Wolf really is one of the good guys) you can almost sense the beginning of a friendship starting to form.

Bela Lugosi absolutely shines as Ygor, the true villain of the piece. Everyone always bangs on about how good Lugosi was as Dracula and he WAS good, no doubt about it, you don't get to be that iconic by being shit (I still prefer Christopher Lee though) but to me Lugosi's absolute BEST role is here as Ygor.

He's just such a loveable rogue, he's undoubtedly as evil as they come - he's murderous, manipulative, shifty, deeply creepy and he looks like he hasn't had a wash for a good decade or so. Despite all this you just can't help liking him. Partly this is down to the sense of humour the character has. He gets all the best lines and Lugosi delivers them with a mischievous gleam in his eyes at all times. I love the bit where he coughs in a village official's face, you can almost smell the bad breath and phlegm. It's gross and funny. Ygor is a man who revels in his own pestilence.

There's also a bit of a mystery surrounding Ygor - he was convicted and hung for grave robbing, somehow he survived/returned from the dead. It's never explained how or why this happened, or whether it was down to supernatural means or just sheer luck. Either way there's definitely something of the grave about Ygor...

Boris Karloff returns for the final time in the role that made him a star - the Frankenstein Monster.

There's nothing really to say that hasn't been said before - Karloff simply IS the Frankenstein Monster in a way that no actor has ever been before or since.

The only downside to his performance here is that the script ignores all the character development he got in the previous movie - The Bride Of Frankenstein. In that movie the Monster had learned to talk and had become more human in his habits, here he's back to being an unspeaking, lumbering brute again. Karloff still gives him a lot of pathos but it does seem a bit of a backwards step for the character.

I'm guessing Karloff probably sensed this as he didn't return to play the Monster in the next film in the series - Ghost Of Frankenstein. In that movie Lon Chaney Jnr played the Monster and had very little to do. In successive sequels (where he was played by multiple actors) the Monster got increasingly sidelined until he almost seemed like a supporting guest star in his own movies. At least Karloff had the good sense to get the hell out of there while the going was still good.

SFX - Jack Pierce's classic monster makeup returns in it's full glory. Nuff said.

Ygor's broken neck is great as well, especially the gruesome sound it makes when he taps it with his knuckles.

VIOLENCE - During the course of the movie the Monster (at Ygor's behest) murders the men that where responsible for Ygor being hung. This being 1939 the murders are all fairly tame. One man is killed by the Monster chopping his neck with his hand (presumably breaking it), another man is strangled (we see the dastardly deed in silhouette only).

Seeing as the Monster strangled him from behind it looks more like he's giving him a soothing shoulder massage after a hard day at the office as opposed to actually murdering him.

Ygor gets shot several times at close range (bloodlessly) and appears to die (he doesn't, he returns, up to his old tricks, in Ghost Of Frankenstein).

The Monster gets knocked off a platform into a boiling pool of lava and also appears to die (again like Ygor he doesn't).

RATING - The original Universal Frankenstein trilogy scores a hat trick. This is another classic in much the same way that Frankenstein and Bride Of Frankenstein where.

A thing I want to mention quickly that really sets the bar high here is the set design. It's absolutely BEAUTIFUL ! Completely one hundred percent stone cold atmospheric overload. Just look at it...

This is Frankenstein's shattered lab. It's just so "classical horror" in every sense of the word. It encapsulates everything that is perfect about gothic terror.

The interior sets of Castle Frankenstein are awesome as well. Clearly they owe more than a little to German Expressionist cinema. Those twisted designs and looming shadows. They're just so immersive that every time I watch this film I spend ages just staring into the background and imagining what it would be like to actually live there.

I just love all the little nooks and crannies. It's like Doctor Who's TARDIS crossed with an ancient creepy castle decked out for Halloween. I think it's safe to say that Castle Frankenstein is probably my dream home.

Even more awesome is when there's a thunderstorm happening...

It's just the perfect marriage of set design, lighting, sound and atmosphere. The whole film is a visual feast from start to finish. I honestly don't think the Universal horror movies ever looked this good again.

On top of the glorious look and feel of the thing we have the great performances and the witty and darkly comic script to contend with too. The whole film just oozes quality.

5 hanged hunchbacks out of 5. Watch it on a dark and stormy night and let the atmosphere wash over you and immerse you in the story and it's world. The Universal monster movies that followed (good as they where) would never hit this level of quality again.

ART -