SON OF FRANKENSTEIN-1939-At Castle
Frankenstein, several years after the events in BRIDE, broken necked
Ygor (Bela Lugosi) hangs around scaring children. Frankenstein's son
Wolf (Basil Rathbone) comes to town to collect his inheritance. He
brings along his wife Elsa (Josephine Hutchinson) and young son
Peter (Donnie Dunagan). They have no idea what they are getting into!
It's great to see Karloff back as the monster (in Jack Pierce's legendary make-up) for the last time even
if he really doesn't do much until the finale. Another highlight is
the clipped banter between Wolf and the memorable Inspector Krogh
(Lionel Atwill) whose wooden arm replaces the one the monster “tore
out by the roots” when he was a child. And of course there's
Lugosi's Ygor, the broken necked body snatcher who was once
pronounced dead (“They die dead. Ygor died live!”) who now uses
the revived monster to carry out his revenge on those who condemned
him (including Lionel Belmore). Ward Bond has a small unbilled role
and some viewers claim Dwight Frye is also in it!
Producer-director
Roland V. Lee keeps things interesting with cavernous sets and
shadowy lighting plus a gigantic sulfur pit. The screenplay was
written by Willis Cooper, creator the the radio show “Lights Out”.
SON, two Mr. Moto entries and providing the story for the serial THE
PHANTOM CREEPS with Lugosi) were about all his film credits. SON kind
of “ushered out” the first wave of horror films in the sound era
and they would never be the same there after...
Thanks for reading!
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