Franchises: Universal's Frankenstein Series. Son of Frankenstein (1939)

I have many fond early-to-late childhood memories, as well as some from my early-to-mid teens, that center around most of the Universal Frankenstein movies, but the one exception is Son of Frankenstein. Unlike all the other movies, I didn't see it for the first time until I was 17, when I bought the Universal Legacy DVD set. That said, I, of course, had known about it since I was a very little kid, thanks to all those library books on old horror flicks (the poster you see here was featured in one of them), as well as Universal Horror, where I first saw some clips. I also knew of some of the more significant trivia surrounding it, like how it was Boris Karloff's last outing as the Monster, it featured Bela Lugosi as a memorable character named Ygor, and, thanks to The History of Sci-Fi and Horror with Butch Patrick, it was a very important film in the history of both Universal and Hollywood horror in general, serving as the start of the second wave of the classic cycle, after the first had been ground to a screeching halt in 1936. As for the movie itself, when I did watch it, I found it to be very well-made, well-acted, and enjoyable overall, though not quite on the level of the first two, an opinion I still hold. It is very much a good movie, with higher production values than usual with these flicks, but not one I watch all that often, as it does have some issues. Karloff's final turn as the Monster falls far short of his previous ones, the movie is a tad too long and sometimes comes off as padded out (at 99 minutes, it's among the longest of any of the classic Universal films, second only to Spanish Dracula), and it has yet another ending that feels very rushed and abrupt, despite the longer running time.

Wolf von Frankenstein, the adult son of the late Henry and Elizabeth Frankenstein, moves to his father's old estate with his wife, Elsa, and their young son, Peter. When they arrive, they receive a very hostile reception from the local villagers, who are angry and bitter over the havoc the Monster wreaked, as well as how the Frankenstein name has ruined their village's reputation. Nevertheless, the Burgomaster gives Wolf a box full of papers pertaining to the estate and the key to the place. As the family settles into the old, almost medieval castle, Wolf finds his father's study and opens the larger box to find it full of papers containing the sum total of his knowledge. They're also visited by Inspector Krogh, the one person in the village who's even somewhat sympathetic towards them. He offers to give Wolf any protection he needs, despite his artificial right arm, the result of a painful childhood experience he had with the Monster. He also tells him of other murders committed since the apparent death of the Monster, all involving violent concussions and burst hearts. The next day, while exploring his father's old laboratory on the grounds, Wolf meets Ygor, a broken-necked blacksmith and grave-robber who was banished to the Frankenstein estate after an attempt to hang him failed. Ygor leads him down into a crypt beneath the lab, where Wolf finds the Monster, still alive but lying comatose after being struck down by lightning. Saying the Monster is his friend, Ygor presses Wolf to bring him out of his coma, which Wolf sees as an opportunity to prove his father's theory was right and clear his name. Though the attempt to do so seemingly fails, the Monster eventually regains consciousness and meets and makes friends with little Peter. Wolf intends to continue his work and rid the Monster of the abnormal brain that makes him violent, but Ygor refuses, intending on using him to exact revenge on the remaining members of the jury who had him hanged. Now, with the villagers growing increasingly violent over the murders, which they blame Wolf for, and Krogh beginning to suspect the Monster has returned, Wolf must choose between either finishing what he started or protecting his wife and son.

Just two years after he ousted the Laemmles from control of Universal and ended the horror cycle that Carl Laemmle Jr. had initiated, Charles R. Rogers was removed as head of production in May of 1938. The new regime then took a hint from the Beverly Hill Regina Theater which, on August 5th, held a very successful screening of the original Dracula and Frankenstein (as well as The Son of Kong), which then turned into a longer engagement, with Bela Lugosi himself even making an appearance. Seeing there was, indeed, still an audience for the genre, Universal announced production of Son of Frankenstein later in the month, making further announcements that it would feature both Lugosi and Boris Karloff, and they intended to produce it on a big budget. This decision would pay off considerably for the studio, ensuring that horror films, both there and at other studios, were back and would prove popular all the way to the end of World War II.

By this point, the loss of the creative control he'd enjoyed under the Laemmles had destroyed much of the passion James Whale once had for making movies and he was only a couple of years away from leaving Hollywood altogether. Ergo, he had no interest in returning to the horror genre, let alone in making another sequel to Frankenstein. Universal instead went with Rowland V. Lee to direct Son of Frankenstein. Lee had started off as an actor in the silent era but switched to directing in 1920, making many films throughout the decade, for major studios like Paramount, Warner Bros., and Fox (before it was 20th Century Fox), and directing notable actors like George Bancroft, Gary Cooper, Fay Wray, and Walter Houston. Some of his most notable early sound films include the first sound Fu Manchu film, 1929's The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu (in 1930, he made a sequel, The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu), a very successful 1934 adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo, and the first English-language, sound adaptation of The Three Musketeers in 1935. At the time of Son of Frankenstein, Lee had been put under contract by Universal and directed 1938's Service de Luxe (which featured a young Vincent Price). After the success of Son, he worked with both Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff again on Tower of London (often considered part of the Universal horror canon, though it's really a historical drama), a passion project he and his brother, Robert, had been developing for years, and again with Rathbone in The Sun Never Sets, which also starred Douglas Fairbanks Jr. This period at Universal ended up being very near the end of Lee's career; he made four more films for other studios and independent producers, retiring after directing 1945's Captain Kidd, which starred Charles Laughton and Randolph Scott, although he did write and produce the 1959 film, The Big Fisherman. In the 1970's, after spending much of his time running a ranch he owned in the San Fernando Valley, Lee, again, planned to come out of retirement when he wrote another screenplay, but died of a heart attack in 1975, at the age of 84.

Basil Rathbone, best known for playing Sherlock Holmes in many films at the time, plays the titular character of Wolf von Frankenstein, first introduced while riding the train to the village, with his wife and young son. He initially doesn't believe the horrific legends about his father's creation, that the hate which has been spewed on his family name over the years is totally unwarranted. He doesn't remember his father, who died when he was quite young, but his mother told her son all about him and his work and he's come to believe that his father was right and that the Monster's savagery was Fritz's fault. When he and his family arrive at the village, he is given two boxes by the Burgomaster, who makes it clear to him that, though he's following his father's instructions, they can offer him no welcome. Wolf then tries to make peace with the villagers, telling them that he believes his father was a good man who felt guilty over the misfortune and horror he unwillingly caused them; he also offers them his and his family's friendship, the gesture of which is flatly rejected. Upon arriving at the castle, Wolf finds that one of the boxes is filled with, among other things, a note personally written to him by his father, telling him, "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 distaste. If so, destroy these records. But if you, like me, burn with the irresistible desire to penetrate the unknown, carry on. Even though the path is cruel and torturous, carry on. Like every seeker after truth, you will be hated, blasphemed, and condemned. But maybe where I have failed, you will succeed. You have inherited the fortune of the Frankensteins; I trust you will not inherit their fate." After reading it, Wolf offers a toast to a portrait of his father over the fireplace.

Wolf then meets Inspector Krogh, who allows him to see the Monster's handiwork firsthand, as he tells him how his right arm was ripped out by him when he was a kid. Though he does feel sympathy for the Inspector, Wolf tells him he's not afraid of the villagers, their hatred for his family, or the "murdering ghost" they believe is behind a spate of recent deaths. He goes as far as to decline his offered assistance, though Krogh is determined to uphold his duty, regardless. The next day, Wolf investigates his father's old laboratory, where he meets Ygor, who, in turn, leads him down to the crypt where his father and grandfather are interred, and to the comatose Monster. Initially shocked when he finds he's still alive, when Ygor tells him what happened, Wolf decides to take up the challenge to make him well, moving him up to the laboratory. Examining him and finding him to be completely superhuman and unearthly in every way, Wolf, now believing that all the stories that have been told about him are very true, comments, "I, as a man, should destroy him. But, as a scientist, I should do everything in my power to bring him back to conscious life, so that the world can study his abnormal functions. That would vindicate my father, and his name would be enshrined among the immortals." However, his initial attempt to revive the Monster appears to fail, and he's very despondent about it... until his son, Peter, mentions having been visited by a "giant" while taking a nap. When Peter describes the giant, Wolf rushes back to the laboratory and finds that the Monster is no longer on the table he was strapped to. He plans to search for him, only to come face-to-face with him while arming himself. Though terrified, the Monster doesn't harm Wolf, and when Ygor shows up, he assures him that he'll do whatever he tells him. Wolf tells Ygor that the Monster still isn't well mentally, but Ygor is satisfied with him the way he is, telling him not to touch him again.

Despite this setback, Wolf plans to continue his experiments, hoping to find a way to make Ygor cooperate with him. Being a dedicated family man who clearly adores his wife and son, Wolf decides to send them away because of the potential danger, as well as when he sees how frightened and paranoid Elsa is becoming the longer they stay there. Unfortunately, the villagers' aggression over new murders lead them to storm the gates and trap everyone in the castle, much to Wolf's fury. He's also unwilling to seek Krogh's help, intending to finish things himself, but his plan to find a way to control the Monster begins to erode when he suspects that Ygor has been using him to kill people, including, possibly, his longtime butler and assistant, Benson, who's suddenly disappeared. During the third act, Wolf is so full of rage over being imprisoned in his own home by the villagers and agitated at Krogh's presence, compounded by his getting drunk, that he begins to act very irrationally and callously, dismissing the murder of a man in the village, saying he figures the villagers will blame him for it, and even loses his patience with and snaps at Elsa at one point. He takes advantage of Krogh being momentarily called back down to the village to get to the laboratory, first to try to kill the Monster, only to be stopped by Ygor, and then going as far as to kill Ygor himself when he admits to having used the Monster to kill off the remaining members of the jury who sentenced him to be hanged. He later admits this to Krogh, who, in turn, reveals that he found Benson's body and believes he was killed by the Monster, whose location he demands Wolf divulge. Wolf, likely due to having one drink too many, as well as his own stubbornness, refuses to tell the inspector anything, inviting him to pass the time by playing darts. He drops all that when hears the Monster has taken his son and, with Krogh's help, comes to the rescue, knocking the Monster into the sulfur pits at the bottom of the laboratory. He and his family then leave the village, with Wolf leaving the estate to the villagers, to do with as they wish.

Bela Lugosi's role as Ygor was originally meant to be a very small one, with the studio only willing to pay him $500 for one week of shooting. However, Rowland V. Lee was appalled by this and so, he kept Lugosi on for the entire eight week shoot, increasing Ygor's role in the story and allowing Lugosi to work on and develop the part himself. The result is one of his best and most memorable performances, right up there with Dracula. Having been hanged for grave-robbery, only to have survived, and now sporting a broken neck, Ygor was forced onto the Frankenstein estate, where he's lived ever since with the Monster, who obeys him implicitly. How he acquired such control over him is left ambiguous, with Wolf suggesting at one point, "It's hypnosis, or something more elemental, perhaps," but regardless, it's gradually revealed that he was using the Monster to kill the men who sentenced him to be hanged. He managed to go through six members of the jury before the Monster became ill after being struck by lightning. Having watched Wolf von Frankenstein and his family from the moment they moved into the estate, Ygor first meets the new Baron in the ruins of the old laboratory: Intrigued at the prospect of his being a scientist like his father, he shows Wolf the comatose Monster, telling him what happened and that he should make him well, hinting that, in a way, the Monster is his brother, since they're both the spawn of Henry Frankenstein (or "Heinrich" Frankenstein, as his father is referred to here). However, Ygor is initially reluctant to let Wolf move the Monster from the crypt up to the laboratory, and is also not keen on Benson helping, as he doesn't want anyone else to know of the Monster's existence. At Wolf's insistence, he allows Benson to help, but threatens, "But if he tells...", and continues to act suspicious and antagonistic towards Benson during their experimenting. Once the Monster is revived, Ygor mentions to Wolf that he and Benson are the only ones who know of him; Wolf assures him that Benson will never tell and Ygor ominously says, "No, he will never tell." Not too long afterward, Benson disappears, and though Ygor insists they didn't do anything to him, he clearly made good on his threat.

While it's obvious from the get-go that Ygor is rather unsavory, as the film goes on, you come to see that he's truly as rotten and conniving a character as you can get. In the scene where he's questioned by the village council over what Wolf is up to, he initially acts like he's an innocent man who's being persecuted unjustly, especially when they talk about hanging him again. But when Lang, one of the remaining jurors, threatens to have him hanged again if he doesn't continue reporting on Wolf's activities, Ygor's demeanor turns sinister, as he says, "You... alone? It took eight men before to say I was to be hanged," and when it's noted that six of those eight men are now dead, he laughs, "They die dead! I die live!" When he's told to leave, Ygor begins coughing harshly and spits in the face of Neumuller, the other remaining juror, effectively marking him for death in his own way. Sure enough, when Wolf manages to revive the Monster, Ygor begins using him to finish his revenge, killing Neumuller and Lang, and plays a sinister tune on his oboe-like horn as his own personal way of enjoying it. At first, he lies to Wolf about it, but when Wolf presses him, Ygor, confident that he can't touch him, admits it, sneering, "Why not? Neumüller kills me. Eight men say Ygor hang. Now eight men dead. All dead!" He also refuses to leave when Wolf orders him to, and the Monster then threatens Wolf. But Ygor's overconfidence gets the better of him, and when the Monster isn't around to protect him, Wolf sneaks back into the laboratory and shoots him when he tries to attack him with a hammer.

Though everyone talks about the Monster's makeup, you don't hear much mention of what Jack Pierce came up with to turn Bela Lugosi into Ygor, and that's a shame. While it may not be as extensive as what Boris Karloff wore, it's still very memorable and iconic in it's own right. Lugosi was still a pretty good-looking guy at this point, but Pierce really managed to make him look ugly and repulsive, with that scruffy beard, ragged crop of hair (both made from yak hair), and nasty-looking teeth. The appliance used for the ugly scar and bulge left from his hanging is, like all of Pierce's work, a simple but effective one, especially when Ygor knocks on it when he first speaks with Wolf and it sounds as though it were made of stone. This was a rare instance where Pierce used rigid rubber rather than his usual materials.

Watching this film, one thing becomes clear: Boris Karloff was done with playing the Frankenstein monster by this point. Though he was never an actor who completely half-assed a performance, regardless of the quality of the movie he was in, he just doesn't play the Monster with the same energy, zeal, and, most important of all, feeling as he did in the first two films. His movements are more lackluster, with much of that possibly due to his increased age and the heavy costume, and his grunts, for the most part, don't have the ferocity they used to. Since the Monster is supposed to be unwell and still recovering from the trauma of being struck by lightning, this lackadaisical performance does kind of work, but he's just not interesting this time around. The main reason, besides Karloff's own seeming lack of enthusiasm, is that he isn't the focus. Wolf von Frankenstein, Ygor, and Inspector Krogh take center stage here, whereas the Monster isn't first seen until about thirty minutes in, doesn't come out of his coma until almost an hour in, and even after that, he's nothing but a tool for Ygor's revenge and an obstacle for Wolf to overcome, with no subplot or character arc all his own. His being unable to speak again really makes it feel like he's taken a major step backwards and, overall, he feels closer to the mindless creature he was originally going to be in the first movie before James Whale took over. As Joe Dante says in the documentary, Boris Karloff: The Gentle Monster, "The character of the Monster is on its way to B-picture status in that picture," which Karloff realized and is one of the reasons why he retired from the role afterward.

He's also made out to be even more inhuman than we were originally led to believe. During the sequence where Wolf examines the Monster, he determines that he has more skin and bone tissue in his forehead than normal, a case of "hypopituitarism" that explains his enormous size, and blood pressure and heart rate that are unheard of in humans. Also, when he examines the Monster's innards with an x-ray-like machine, Wolf discovers that his heart's left ventricle, which pumps blood into the aorta, is enlarged. And when

he examines a sample of the Monster's blood, he discovers that the cells have many different forms, as well as an abnormal redness about them, that his white blood cells don't dissolve, and, as he notes, "The cells seem to be battling one another, as if they had a conscious life of their own." Even the moment that first brought the Monster to life is described by Wolf as, "An electrical impulse of terrifying potency." He goes on to say that his father extracted cosmic rays rather than the ultra

violet ray he was originally looking for (that flies in the face of what Henry himself said in the original film, as I'll get into later). Finally, he concludes, "This creature is indeed a monster. There's not one part of his physical being that's like that of human beings. From his warped brain, down to the tiniest argumentative cell of his huge carcass, he's unearthly." For me, that makes the Monster less relatable than when he was originally characterized as an artificially constructed human

with an abnormal brain who was born into a world he didn't understand. This knowledge doesn't hurt the effectiveness of Karloff's performances in the previous two films, and as we'll see, he still has his sympathetic moments here, but knowing that he's not actually human at all does put up a bit of a barrier between him and the audience. The same can also be said of the notion that he ripped Krogh's arm out when he was around the same age as little Peter. Like the random acts of violence he committed after escaping the prison in Bride of Frankenstein, knowing he deliberately did that to a young kid makes it harder to sympathize with him.

Just because the Monster has no arc or storyline of his own doesn't mean Karloff has absolutely nothing to do acting-wise, as there a handful of moments that hearken back to what made him such a great character in the first place. One is actually an expansion on a moment from Bride of Frankenstein, where the Monster, while drinking from a mountain stream, sees his reflection in the water, hates what he sees, and swipes his hand into the water to get rid of it. Here, when he first comes across Wolf, he spends a few seconds inspecting him, seemingly thinking he sees his original creator in him, and then sees himself in a mirror. Once again, he's repulsed and agitated by the sight of his image and swipes at it. However, as he stands there and works with his reflection, he begins to put two and two together when he sees how the image copies his movements, touching its chest and face when he does, and interacting with the same pieces of the environment as him. He then grabs Wolf and holds him beside himself as he looks in the mirror again. That's when he realizes that the hideous creature he sees is himself. He appears to plead with Wolf, as if asking why he looks that way, before simply lurching away, letting out depressed moans, perhaps finally understanding why so many in the past have been afraid of him. 

Another great moment is when the Monster finds Ygor's body after he's been shot to death by Wolf. However they met, it's clear that there is something of a genuine bond between them (perhaps more so on the Monster's side in terms of affection), and when it dawns on him that he's lost his only friend after he spends some time inspecting the body, he sees Ygor's blood on his hand and lets out a very mournful scream. Later, after taking Ygor's body down into the crypt, he goes back up and tears the laboratory apart in a rage. In the midst of his rampage, he finds a storybook that little Peter von Frankenstein gave him and gets the idea to kill him as revenge against Wolf, tearing the book apart while smiling and grunting in a sinister manner. But, after taking Peter from his room and guiding him to the end of the tunnel overlooking the sulfur pits, he apparently has a change of heart when he picks him up over his head to chuck him down into it. Instead, he carries him on up to the platform where the lab equipment is. However, that doesn't stop him from holding the boy hostage when Inspector Krogh ambushes him, but he's totally unprepared for when Wolf swings in and knocks him down into the sulfur pit. 

Makeup-wise, the Monster's look here is sort of a mix between his designs from the first two movies. It has the overall look of the makeup from the original Frankenstein, right down to the sunken right cheek (because the Monster is mute again, Karloff was able to remove the dental bridge he was forced to keep the second time around), but also with the fuller face he had in Bride and the "supposed" rubber headpiece that was created for that film, which makes his forehead look higher and wider than before (though it's never been verified, behind the scenes photos of Jack Pierce applying the makeup seem to indicate that it was rubber). One detail I like is that, for the first time, the "bolts" in his neck are identified as electrodes that sent the electricity into his body. As for his wardrobe, I'm not a big fan of that wool vest, not because it breaks continuity but because, since this is the only movie it appears in, it sticks out like a sore thumb and I wish we could have just had the same wardrobe we always got. That said, it does give this movie a distinctive image of the Monster that differentiates it from its peers.

Lionel Atwill makes his first appearance in a Universal horror film as Inspector Krogh, a memorable character due to his false right arm, which he often has to move with his real one (if you've seen Young Frankenstein, he can be hard to take seriously, given how much he was spoofed in that movie). During his first meeting with Wolf von Frankenstein, Krogh tells him that his arm was ripped out by the Monster when he burst into his family's home during his initial rampage, ruining Krogh's lifelong ambition to join the military. Despite the obvious bitterness, and his initial displeasure at the idea of another member of the Frankenstein family coming to live there, Krogh sort of befriends Wolf, showing up at the castle shortly after the family arrives to tell him that, should there ever be any trouble with the paranoid and hateful villagers, he stands ready to defend him and his loved ones. At the same time, there's always a tension between the two, which grows over the course of the film as evidence mounts that the Monster is still alive. Though he can't account for it, Krogh knows that something sinister is going on even before Wolf and his family move into the castle, given the recent spate of murders that have plagued the area since the Monster's supposed destruction, murders where the victims' hearts have literally burst after severe trauma to the back of the head. And when he learns that Wolf has had electrical and medical equipment installed in his father's old laboratory and he has Ygor helping, he decides to keep tabs on what's happening. First, he has Ygor brought to the village so the council can question him and then, he has one of the villagers work up there as a servant to report back to him. He also often visits the castle, becoming friendly with Elsa and young Peter, and also learning that Wolf is deep into some experiment. That, coupled with his actions and manner, make Krogh all the more suspicious.

Once the Monster is revived and begins committing murders under Ygor's command, the condition of the bodies, what he finds when he and some other men discreetly enter Wolf's lab, and Peter's tales of a "giant" who comes and visits him in his bedroom, makes Krogh suspect that he has definitely returned. He takes advantage of his having to confine Wolf and his family to the castle in order to protect them from the outraged villagers and searches the property further, finding the secret passageway leading from the laboratory to the inside of the wall of Peter's bedroom, which is where he also finds the body of Benson, Frankenstein's missing servant/assistant. As the tension ratchets up and Elsa grows more frightened about what might happen, Krogh promises to protect her and Peter and get them safely away from the village by morning, but he's also come to believe that Wolf is the one controlling the Monster. Showing him proof of Benson's death, he tells him, "But Ygor didn't do it, nor did you, nor was it done by any ghost. There's a monster afoot and you know it! He's in your control. By heaven, I think you're a worse fiend than your father. Where is this monster?! Where is he?! I'll stay by your side until you confess, and if you don't, I'll feed you to the villagers, like the Romans fed Christians to the lions!" Wolf, drunk and stubbornly determined to handle the matter himself, challenges Krogh to a tense of game darts, during which the inspector memorably sticks the darts into his artificial arm before throwing them. But then, both he and Wolf learn that Peter has disappeared from his room and rush to the lab, with Krogh taking the secret passageway from the boy's bedroom. When he confronts the Monster, he gets his artificial arm torn off again, and fires on him, which does nothing until Wolf comes swinging in and dumps the Monster into the sulfur pit. After that, Wolf and his family leave, apparently now on friendlier terms with the villagers, including Krogh.

Elsa von Frankenstein (Josephine Hutchinson), Wolf's wife, is little more than this film's version of Elizabeth, as she has virtually nothing to do other than worry about her husband's increasingly erratic, paranoid, and potentially violent behavior. She's also clearly uneasy about the village and castle from the moment they arrive, due to the villagers' unfriendliness and how creepy the castle is, and by the time you get to the third act, when murders have been commented and Benson has disappeared, Elsa is totally frightened and admits to her husband that she hates being there. Seeing this, Wolf tries to send her and Peter away to Brussels, but the mob of villagers that gather outside the castle gates puts an end to that idea. As they're forced to stay cooped up in the castle, Elsa watches her husband become all the more angry and paranoid, to the point where he even snaps at her, saying that Inspector Krogh has turned her against him. Speaking of which, Elsa becomes much friendlier with Krogh than Wolf ever does, and he, in turn, promises to get her and Peter to safety. Speaking of Peter (Donnie Dunagan), of all the secondary characters, he's one I absolutely cannot stand. Thankfully, he's not in the film much, but his voice is indescribably annoying. Since Dunagan was born in Texas and raised in Memphis, his pronounced Southern accent really sticks out like a sore thumb and hurts my being able to buy that he's Wolf's son. Plus, he tends to enter a room and loudly say, "Well, hello!", which really makes me want to strangle him. I know I shouldn't be too hard on him, since Dunagan was only four or five at this point and couldn't speak really well anyway, but like little Danny in The Blob, he's just aggravating, and Dunagan himself even said as much as in the book, Universal Horrors. In any case, he befriends both Krogh, who takes a liking to him since he has no children of his own, and the Frankenstein monster, who visits him in his room through a secret passage that leads to the laboratory. Peter's most significant role in the story is how, when the Monster finds Ygor dead, he decides to take revenge on Wolf by abducting his son and throw him into the sulfur pits. But he changes his mind right as he's about to do it and instead holds the kid hostage when Krogh confronts him, with his dad being the one who ultimately saves him.

Benson (Edgar Norton), Wolf's servant, assistant, and old friend, meets him at the castle when he first arrives and, despite Ygor's objections, assists him as he examines the Monster, taking down notes. Though it first seems like they failed, Benson is horrified when Wolf later tells him the Monster is now alive and walking about. He suggests he tell Krogh everything, but Wolf angrily refuses, intending to finish what he started himself. Benson, who was threatened by the Monster during the initial attempt to revive him, disappears soon afterward, with Ygor telling Wolf that he ran off upon seeing the Monster walking around. However, it's ultimately revealed that he was killed offscreen, as Krogh finds his body in the passageway behind the nursery wall..

Interestingly, a couple of actors from the original Frankenstein appear here as the remaining members of the jury who hanged Ygor. Neumuller, whom Ygor coughs and spits on when the council is interrogating him, and is the first one to die when the Monster is revived, is played by Michael Mark, who played Ludwig, little Maria's father (he would pop up in a couple of other entries in the series down the line), while Lang, who threatens to have Ygor hanged again during the interrogation, is played by Lionel Belmore, who was the Burgomaster in the original film. Supposedly, Dwight Frye is also among the villagers but that's debatable, although he's most definitely in The Ghost of Frankenstein and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. And finally, Clarence Wilson, a character actor who appeared in a number of movies (a notable one being as the father of the lead girl, Hilda, in The Son of Kong), appears in one scene as Dr. Berger, the coroner who pronounced Ygor dead when he was hanged and who Krogh has closely examine Neumuller's body to look for the telltale signs of an attack by the Monster.

In discussing its place in the continuity, I've come to believe that Son of Frankenstein is both a direct sequel to the original Frankenstein which ignores Bride of Frankenstein and a soft reboot of the series as a whole. The reason I feel Son isn't connected to Bride is because there are no references to it at all, most notably in how the Monster is, again, unable to speak, and that there's no reason why the Bride shouldn't have been able to survive the explosion that the Monster himself did. That said, the original script, written by Wyllis Cooper, did have references to Bride, such as the discovery of the skeletal remains of both the Bride and Dr. Pretorious, and the Monster retaining his speech, demanding that Wolf create another companion for him, but they were dropped during rewrites. The time and place of Son's story is also much more in line with the vague, indefinable sort of Neverland of the original film, rather than Bride's somewhat more specific period setting. As for why the filmmakers themselves, at some point, seemingly decided not to acknowledge Bride, I think it's because of how much of a sheer fantasy that movie is, as I said in my review, especially with the prologue, which would have made a straight followup nearly impossible. On the reboot side of things, I point to how, in the original movie, Henry Frankenstein conducted his experiments in an old watchtower, not in a lab by his own house. Also, the house itself is now isolated from the rest of the village and looks more like a big castle than simply the large home it was there (it's actually more in line with how it came off in Bride). Speaking of the village, it's now called "Frankenstein" itself, whereas it was Goldstadt before (in House of Frankenstein later on, a completely unrelated village is also called "Frankenstein"). Finally, let's go back to the Monster himself. Again, Wolf concludes that his father imbued the Monster with cosmic rays rather than an ultraviolet ray... but, if you remember back to what Henry Frankenstein told Dr. Waldman in the first film, he mentions that he was able to go far beyond the ultraviolet ray and discover a ray that first brought life into the world. That sounds like the very cosmic rays that Wolf mentions, right down to his noting how they're believed to be the very source of life. Wolf also says that, at the time his father conducted his experiment, he and the scientific world at large didn't know that cosmic rays existed but, again, it's clear that, instead of being ignorant, Frankenstein knew he'd discovered something completely new. This assessment, along with the Monster being described as unearthly, is another element in this film that goes against what was established in the original.

As the start of the second cycle of Universal Horror, I also look at Son of Frankenstein as a bridge from one to the other. While a very big budget film, with a director in Rowland V. Lee who, like some of the directors before him, had a considerable amount of creative control, it would prove to be one of the last such films produced by Universal during this period. Both the following Frankenstein films and horror films, in general, would be produced as B-movies on much smaller 

budgets, with many recycled elements, in particular the music scores. In fact, many of the themes and motifs from this particular score would be reused again and again, making it feel as if those movies actually did spawn from this one. I can't quite put my finger on it but there's also a certain feel to Son that carries over into the films that followed it, a sort of polished, well-made aesthetic that, nevertheless, you can tell wasn't the work of an auteur like Tod Browning or James Whale. Not to say that Lee was a hack and, again, he had more

control over this and Tower of London than some of his peers, but he paved the way for the journeymen, contract directors who would make many of the films in the 40's and 50's. Finally, this is the movie where I feel Universal began phasing out their initial horror stars in order to pave the way for new talent. The fact that Basil Rathbone is top-billed over both Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi is certainly telling in that regard, and while this certainly wouldn't be the last Universal horror movie to feature either of them, they would become much less prominent, especially when the studio made Lon Chaney Jr. their new horror star. It can also be seen as a foretelling of their almost total usurping by actors like Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee in the 50's.

Following in James Whale's considerable footsteps, Rowland V. Lee definitely, brings his own style to the film, giving it a massive, grand feel with his large and impressive sets, just as he would with Tower of London the same year. He also managed to create a great deal of atmosphere and mood about the film, which I'll go into detail about presently. And, as was the case with Whale, everyone, from what I can tell, had a good time making the film and working with Lee who, according to Kenneth Branagh in Universal Horror, is said to have commented that he'd never worked on a set where there was so much laughter. However, the downside of Lee's direction is that his approach to the material is a much more straightforward one than even the first Frankenstein and, as such, the film doesn't quite have the personality of the first two. It's still enjoyable, for the most part, but Lee's more conventional, by-the-numbers approach would, as I said, set the template for the rather standard, assembly-line vibe that the second wave of Universal's classic horror cycle would take. While a lot of the movies made during this period are very entertaining, with some being classics in their own right (The Wolf Man, for example), they don't really have the same feeling of the more director-driven films made when the Laemmles were in charge.

Though he may not have been able to match Whale's quirky genius, Lee more than compensated by making Son of Frankenstein an absolute feast for the eyes. The cinematography by George Robinson, who, by this point, had shot Spanish Dracula, The Invisible Ray, and Dracula's Daughter, and would go on to work with Lee again on Tower of London, is as expressionistic and moody as what was seen in the previous Frankenstein movies, if not more so. There are many great instances of contrasts between light and deep, dark shadows, like when Wolf first enters his father's study upon arriving at the castle, when he and Inspector Krogh are talking by the study's fireplace, when Ygor takes him down into the crypt where the Monster is sleeping, and the scenes set in the secret passageways leading from the house to the laboratory. The Monster's killing of Lang, which you see only in shadow, looks like it's come straight out of a German Expressionist horror film, as do the shots of Ygor sitting in his personal stand at the gates, often playing his somber-sounding horn. The look of the film also gives off a very gloomy vibe, as though it takes place in a world where the sun never shines, with the Frankensteins arriving in a miserable downpour that develops into a major thunderstorm later into the night. There are also constant overcast skies in the daytime exterior scenes, and a really murky feel to the nighttime exteriors, with plenty of fog in the air, all of which fits well with the feeling of misery and fear that grips both the villagers and Wolf's family during their time there.

If the cinematography was inspired by German Expressionism, the art direction and sets, courtesy of Jack Otterson, absolutely revel in it, much more so than many previous Universal horror films. In fact, there are a number of pieces of architecture that are reminiscent of the exaggerated sets seen in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, like the elongated rooftops of the small station at the castle gates and the houses in the village; the winding, jagged staircases inside the castle; the way the dining table seems to be set right in the middle of an enormous hallway, in-between the sharp corners of two staircase landings that have a boar's head on them, and a fireplace at their bases; and the way the master bedroom has the beds placed head-to-head, as part of an old superstition, with a long pillar in-between them and a tall window across from them. Even the small interior of the town council has that slightly exaggerated, Expressionistic look to it. However, my personal favorite set is the interior of Henry Frankenstein's study, which not only looks absolutely classic, with that large door that sports an enormous handle, a big bookcase, a globe by the desk, and a fireplace, above which is an old portrait of Frankenstein (I really like that they used Colin Clive's image), but the shots of those tall windows in the back, with the storm raging out in the distance when the Frankensteins first arrive, are pure awesomeness. The laboratory is also very well designed, with its looking like a large, dome-shaped building on the outside, while the inside consists of a large, main platform, which Wolf fills with state-of-the-art equipment, above a bubbling sulfur pit (the first time you see the pit, you can make out the form of the Monster sinking down into it, as they created this set specifically for the movie's ending and simply reused the shot for this early moment), a hidden passage behind a big chunk of wall with a chain that leads down into the Frankenstein crypt, a cave that leads from the pit to within the castle walls (specifically to the wall of the nursery, which not only functions as a secret door but also has a small panel that allows Ygor and the Monster to peek inside), and another passageway that connects to the station at the gates, allowing the Monster to leave the grounds without being spotted. The centerpiece of this set is an enormous, lid-like opening above the crypt, through which Wolf raises the Monster, as he's strapped to an examination table. After he's revived, he's later seen resting on that table. Again, what little you see of the surrounding countryside is shown to be a barren, rocky, fog-enshrouded place that just looks absolutely gloomy and depressing. And all of these sets and locations are given an extra bit of depth and scale by the great special effects work of John P. Fulton, which includes a handful of matte paintings and some great miniatures, such as the train during the opening and the countryside that rushes by the windows outside.

Going back to the subject of atmosphere, I have to really applaud Lee for giving the film a pretty palpable mood of dread, from the frightened and embittered villagers worrying what the arrival of Wolf and his family may portend, to the vibe when the family moves into the old estate. While Wolf himself is excited about the potential, and young Peter isn't afraid of anything, Elsa is obviously unsettled from the moment they enter the place and for good reason. The raging storm outside, the

eerie art direction of the castle, and the gloomy cinematography aren't exactly welcoming. Plus, throughout this scene, we know that they're being watched, as Ygor peers through the window in Henry Frankenstein's study and later watches Peter through the panel in his bedroom wall, unbeknownst to his parents. But the most effective instance of this atmosphere comes much later, when Benson has disappeared and, as they prepare for bed, Elsa confesses to Wolf that she can't stand living there, as she's afraid all the time and feels

that he knows something he isn't telling her (unbeknownst to her, he hid a gun under his pillow for protection). After he talks about sending her and Peter away to Brussels, Elsa goes to fetch Peter from his room, feeling better with him in sight. The film then dissolves to later that night, with Peter sleeping soundly next to Elsa, who's wide awake, her eyes peering around the room in fear. Wolf is awake in his own bed, and when he tries to go to sleep, the eerie silence is broken by the sound of Ygor playing his horn nearby. The sound of it unsettles them all the more, and they're unaware that, in the village, the Monster is murdering Lang in his office.

I also like the notion that, in the years since the original film, the story of Henry Frankenstein and his creation have reached legendary status, with Wolf telling Elsa on the train at the beginning, "His name has become synonymous with horror and monsters." Then, in a nice touch, he adds, "Why, nine out of ten people call that misshapen creature of my father's experiments..." and then, the train conductor's off-camera voice intones, "Frankenstein. Frankenstein," announcing that 

they've arrived at the village. I not only like the acknowledgement of how, even this early, people often called the Monster himself Frankenstein, but also the thought that this also happened in the very reality of the films themselves. This extends into the hatred the villagers have for the very name of Frankenstein, with the village council protesting the arrival of Wolf and his family, and how they meet him at the train station only so the Burgomaster can follow the late Baron's

instructions and deliver the boxes he's bequeathed to his son, as well as to make it clear that Wolf and his family will find no friends there. In fact, the villagers are so paranoid at the possibility that Wolf may create another monster that they hurl stones at a wagon carrying equipment up to the castle, saying it's carrying "devil machines." When Inspector Krogh first visits Wolf and offers him protection, he tells him that the villagers are afraid of more than just him and his family's legacy. Wolf

asks, "What are they afraid of? Ghosts?", and Krogh answers, "Perhaps." Wolf goes on to say, "I'm afraid I don't believe in them. Do you?", and Krogh answers, "When they commit murder, yes." After telling Wolf of his own painful, childhood encounter with the Monster, Krogh then tells him of the six unsolved murders that have occurred since the Monster was supposedly destroyed, adding, "Hence the local superstition of the 'murdering ghost.' And need I add that it is always alluded to alluded to as 'Frankenstein?'" This whole

scene is set in Henry Frankenstein's old study, in front of a fireplace, no less, giving it a spooky, ghost story vibe that I really like. And even though, for much of the first and second acts, nothing happens at the castle that should alarm the villagers, they're disturbed by the quiet, which the Burgomaster describes as ominous. Krogh grows irritated at the panic the village council erupts into when it's mentioned that boxes of equipment have been moved into the old laboratory, saying, "We Frankensteinians are as nervous as cats. We grovel

at the howl of a wolf. If a wind slams a door or shutter, we tremble in our shoes and hide ourselves like frightened rabbits." And soon, they have reasons to be afraid when the Monster is revived and Ygor begins using him to commit murders again.

Speaking of which, the two murders are memorable but more for the visuals than for the Monster's methods. He kills Neumuller by hanging down from a tree branch and grabbing him off his wagon as he rides by. The actual murder takes place offscreen but Neumuller's screaming and the Monster's angry grunting are effective enough. Once Neumuller is dead, the Monster puts his body in-between the horses and the carriage, then makes the horses run forward so that the carriage rolls

over him, making it look as though it were an accident. Ygor begins playing his horn upon seeing this, the only bit of music in the entire sequence. Later that night, he sends the Monster out to kill Lang, marking the outside of his office and home with a piece of chalk. As Ygor plays his horn again, we see the Monster pull down the shade inside the door and then kill Lang in shadow. Though Lang's body is not found until later the next day, when the film cuts to the next morning, the village is in an uproar and we get a very classic

image of the inhabitants storming through the misty streets, armed with farm implements and other makeshift weapons. Inspector Krogh arrives at the castle to warn Wolf that the villagers are out for his blood because Neumuller was found to have died by yet another case of a burst heart. They then start clamoring outside the castle gates, desperate to get at him, as Krogh's men do everything they can to hold them at bay. But, unfortunately, this is where I feel the movie starts to overstay its welcome.

Aside from Boris Karloff's final turn as Frankenstein's monster being rather lackluster, my only other major qualm with Son of Frankenstein is that it's a little too long and sometimes comes off as padded out. While it's nice to see the filmmakers taking their time in telling the story and giving all the major actors plenty of room to develop their characters and have their moments, there are sections that feel as though they go on much longer than they should, like Wolf's examination of the

Monster and his looking for him upon first realizing he's been revived. But, most ironically, it's after the Monster is revived that the movie's pace starts to feel sluggish to me. Again, the third act, with the many instances of Inspector Krogh hanging around the castle, agitating Wolf, and keeping him under house arrest when the villagers start rioting over the murders, feels like it goes on and on, and the Monster's role as little more than Ygor's pawn doesn't help matters. And when it

seems like the film is building to a major confrontation when the Monster abducts Peter and takes him back to the lab, what we get instead is yet another finale that's rather anticlimactic and rushed: Wolf and Krogh are told what's happened, both of them run to the lab, Wolf taking the outside trail while Krogh uses the secret passageway he discovered, Krogh has a small skirmish with the Monster that involves his fake arm being ripped off and his firing his gun at him, and Wolf comes swinging in on a chain, knocking the Monster into

the sulfur pits below. While definitely a memorable exit for Karloff as the Monster, as they mentioned in Universal Horror, it feels like it kind of fizzled out, especially since you're probably expecting this big fight between the Monster and Krogh, given their history and how Krogh has been suspecting for a long time that the murders are his doing. And then, just as we're processing what happened, we see Wolf and his family leave on the train, telling the now more friendly villagers to do whatever they want with the castle.

The music score by Frank Skinner, although a very memorable one, loses a lot of its impact after you've watched a number of these Universal horror films, as it was recycled many times, not only in later films of this series but in others the studio produced during the 40's, particularly the Mummy movies. The main title music, in particular, would be heard in many other films but, that said, it is very good music on its own and it never again sounded as good as it does here. It starts out big, powerful, and crashing, then transitions into a much more somber-sounding bit (similar to the tune Ygor plays on his horn), before becoming creeping and slowly building up to a crescendo. I also like the theme given to the Monster, based somewhat on the latter part of the opening title music, which very much fits his brute-like character. Speaking of the Monster, the sequence where Wolf examines him is scored in an ethereal manner that would also be recycled in many other Universal films, horror or otherwise (for instance, it was used several times in Tower of London, as was the first half of the opening title music). One piece of music that I don't think I've ever heard recycled is this downbeat, melancholic one that plays when Wolf reads his father's message to him. Fittingly, when Ygor looks through the window right after he reads, "You have inherited the fortune of the Frankensteins; I trust you will not inherit their fate," the music turns momentarily sinister, then goes back to sad when Wolf offers a toast to his father's portrait. Similarly, Krogh's recollection of how the Monster ripped out his arm is scored with a poignant fiddle, while the moment where he emphasizes his wooden arm is punctuated with a loud bit of horn. As he goes on to talk about his ruined childhood dream of joining the military, you can hear a definite march in the score. However, the one part of it I'm not a fan of is the music that plays in the lead-up to the climax, when the Monster is taking Peter with him to the lab, as it sounds way too light and cartoonish, considering what's going on. 

In the end, Son of Frankenstein is an enjoyable film and a highlight of the Universal Horror canon. It's well acted, with special mentions going to Basil Rathbone, Bela Lugosi, and Lionel Atwill; it has very high production values; it's beautifully-designed and photographed in a manner that leaves it dripping with German Expressionist touches; it has great mood and uses the legacy of Frankenstein very well in its story; and it has a music score that is certainly classic, if hard to take seriously when you hear it time and time again in other movies. However, it suffers from Boris Karloff's swansong performance as the Frankenstein monster not being as effective as it was before, despite several emotive moments, being a bit too long and overdrawn, an ending that isn't that spectacular and feels rushed, and the absence of James Whale's quirky genius. Regardless, it's a very well-crafted film on the whole and definitely worth checking out.