Son of Frankenstein **** (1939, Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, Josephine Hutchinson) – Classic Movie Review 2,506

The 1939 horror movie Son of Frankenstein is the third film in Universal’s superb Frankenstein series, the last to star Boris Karloff as the Monster but the first to feature Bela Lugosi as Ygor.

Director Rowland V Lee’s classic 1939 horror movie Son of Frankenstein stars Basil Rathbone as one of Frankenstein’s sons, the Baron Wolf von Frankenstein, who returns to the family castle from the United States with his wife Elsa (Josephine Hutchinson) and young son Peter (Donnie Dunagan).

It is the third film in Universal Studios’ superb Frankenstein series, sadly the last to star Boris Karloff as the Monster but happily the first to feature Bela Lugosi as Ygor. Universal commissioned it after the success of the re-release of Dracula with Lugosi and Frankenstein with Karloff as a double feature in 1938. In turn, its huge success revitalised Universal’s horror series which had been in decline and helped return troubled Universal to profitability.

Wolf’s father’s assistant Ygor (Bela Lugosi) tells him the Monster that his  dead father created is still alive in a coma. He decides to bring the Monster (Boris Karloff) back to life, but his initial attempts to re-animate the creature seem to fail. Then Peter says he saw a giant in the woods and villagers are mysteriously killed.

Jack Otterson and Richard Riedel’s creepy sets add depth and darkness to the third of Universal’s classic trio of Frankenstein films. Added spookiness comes from Bela Lugosi’s sly, demented, deformed blacksmith Ygor, who uses the Monster to take revenge on his enemies, and Lionel Atwill’s morose policeman Inspector Krogh.

Son of Frankenstein may be slightly slower and more restrained – and less well known – than the two previous films but it is almost just as powerful and enjoyable.

The makeup is again by the legendary Jack P Pierce.

Also in the cast are Edgar Norton, Ward Bond, Emma Dunn, Perry Irvins, Dwight Frye, Eddie Parker, Lawrence Grant, Lionel Belmore, Michael Mark, Caroline Cook, Gustav von Seffertitz, Edward Cassidy, Tom Ricketts, Lorimer Johnson and Bud Wolfe.

Karloff resolved never to return to the role of the Monster, feeling that it was becoming a joke. Lon Chaney Jr took over the role of the Monster in The Ghost of Frankenstein in 1942 and Lugosi returned as Ygor. Lugosi played the Monster in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man in 1943.

Karloff played a crazed scientist surrounded by monsters, vampires and werewolves in House of Frankenstein (1944) and eventually played Frankenstein, grandson of the first experimenting Baron, in Frankenstein 1970 (1958).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,506

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