Son of Frankenstein (1939)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Rowland V. Lee

Writers:

Mary Shelley (suggested by the story written in 1816)
Wyllis Cooper (screenplay)

Release Date:

13 January 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Horror | Drama

Tagline:

The black shadows of the past bred this half-man . . . half-demon ! . . . creating a new and terrible juggernaut of destruction !

Plot:

Wolf Frankenstein, son of Henry Frankenstein, returns with his wife, to his fathers estate to claim his inheritance...

Plot Keywords:

Inspector | Laboratory | Broken Neck | Gunfire | Police

Cast

Basil Rathbone	...	Baron Wolf von Frankenstein
Boris Karloff	...	The Monster
Bela Lugosi	...	Ygor
Lionel Atwill	...	Krogh
Josephine Hutchinson	...	Elsa von Frankenstein
Donnie Dunagan	...	Peter von Frankenstein
Emma Dunn	...	Amelia
Edgar Norton	...	Benson
Perry Ivins	...	Fritz
Lawrence Grant	...	Burgomaster
Lionel Belmore	...	Lang
Michael Mark	...	Ewald Neumüller
Caroline Frances Cooke	...	Mrs. Neumüller (as Caroline Cooke)
Gustav von Seyffertitz	...	Burgher
Lorimer Johnston	...	Burgher (as Lorimer Johnson)

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-15 (2004) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Finland:(Banned) (1955) | Spain:13 | South Korea:12 | Norway:16 (1955) | Norway:16 (cut) | Finland:(Banned) (1939) | USA:Approved (PCA #4987) | Sweden:7

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

The character of Ygor (played by Bela Lugosi in the final film version) does not appear in Wyllis Cooper's October 20, 1938, draft of the screenplay titled "The Son Of Frankenstein". Director Rowland V. Lee was annoyed at Universal's low-balling of Bela Lugosi (who was being paid only $500 per week because he desperately needed a job and Universal knew it), and he kept rewriting the script to make Lugosi's character more central, and to make sure that Lugosi ended up with a decent salary. The "Ygor" character died in the film, but returned in the sequel, The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942); for unknown reasons, the spelling of the name was altered to "Igor" in the credits (yet the script for the even later _Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)_ reverted to the original spelling "Ygor."

Goofs:

Continuity: When Inspector Krogh first warns Wolf Frankenstein to use the alarm bell to summon him he has no monocle. He has it in the camera angle with the two of them together but not in the close-up of the inspector.

Quotes:

Baron Wolf von Frankenstein: My son, herein lies my faiths, my beliefs and my unfoldments. A complete diary of my experiments, charts and secret formulas. In short, the sum total of my knowledge, such as it is. Perhaps you will regard my work with ridicule or even with a distaste...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Married with Children: Dud Bowl II (#10.10)" (1995)

Soundtrack:

Sailing, Sailing, Over the Bounding Main

"...he does things for me"

"Son of Frankenstein" is the third installment of Universal's long running Frankenstein series. It is also the longest running at 92 minutes and was given the biggest budget of all the Frankenstein films. Apparently Universal wanted this film to be their showpiece for 1939 and actually planned to film it in color. Unfortunately, the monster's makeup photographed a pale green and they went back to the old reliable black and white. With all the hoopla and first rate cast, this film comes up short of the first two in the series.

The story picks up some years after the first two. Baron Wolf von Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone), the son of Henry, his wife Elsa (Josephine Hutchinson) and young son Peter (Donnie Dunagon) return to the family castle. The village resents him having not forgotten the carnage created by his father's creation. Lurking about the castle is the mysterious Ygor (Bela Lugosi) who harbors a deadly secret.

Frankenstein confronts Ygor who shows him that the monster (Boris Karloff) created by his father did not perish. Ygor explains that "He is my friend...he does things for me". We then learn that several prominent villagers have been mysteriously murdered and that the killer remains at large. Frankenstein gets his creative juices flowing and agrees to restore the monster to his full potential.

Unknown to Frankenstein, the monster has been in contact with his son and has been moving about. A suspicious police inspector (Lionel Atwill) begins to watch Frankenstein's movements. Realizing that Ygor is in control of the monster the Baron confronts him and.....

Director Rowland V. Lee takes over from James Whale as director and seems to favor dark shadowy geometric designs for his set pieces. Gone are the classic gothic creepy settings of the first two films. What we have are a sparsely furnished barn of a castle and only remnants of the glorious laboratories of the earlier films.

This was the final appearance for Karloff as the monster. Here, he is given little to do except to be Ygor's henchman. He no longer talks and invokes no pathos whatsoever. Rathbone is way over the top as usual, as the Baron. Lugosi, in his best part in years, steals the film. He is the real villain of the piece. Given the time of the film, Lionel Atwill's character seems to be a lampoon of a German officer. And poor old Dwight Frye, wasted again, appears in the crowd as a villager.

After this film the series would degenerate into "B" status with running times of just over an hour.