More Frankenstein films from the classic Universal era!
The townsfolk of Frankenstein are tired of the economic bad times caused by the bad name of the family, so they decide to level Frankenstein's castle in the hopes that people will no longer associate the town with the monster. Somehow, Ygor (Bela Lugosi) has survived being riddled with bullets by Wolf Frankenstein and is still wandering around the castle. As the locals dynamite the castle, they release the monster who has been encased in sulfur. He comes out okay, though now played by Lon Chaney. Ygor leads the monster to the town where Henry Frankenstein's second son, Ludwig (Cedric Hardwick), is living as a doctor catering to the mentally unwell. It isn't long before he's drawn into reviving the weakened monster with the hope of transplanting a fresh, non-criminal brain into the monster.
The filmmakers bend over backwards to try and keep continuity with the previous films. The awkwardness of the effort is visible on screen. Chaney is fairly expressionless and uninteresting as the monster. Lugosi does the same performance (slightly cheesy) as the previous film. Hardwick is not as compelling as Rathbone or Clive as a scientist driven by ambition. The brain-switching idea is interesting but turns out preposterous when the monster starts talking with the voice of another actor. They only switched brains, not vocal cords! Other bits in the story are also hard to believe, even for a Frankenstein film.
With The Ghost of Frankenstein, the series finally dips down from average into bad. But the franchise didn't die yet...
Karloff switches to the mad scientist role in a sequel combining the Monster, the Wolf-man, Dracula, and a hunchback. Karloff is Doctor Neimann, a mad scientist imprisoned with the hunchback (J. Carol Naish). When lightening strikes and destroys the prison (which looks like a medieval castle, you know, the sort that wouldn't be phased by lightening), they escape. They join a two-man traveling horror show where the main attraction is the actual skeleton of Dracula. It isn't long before Neimann has his lackey off the two carneys and pulls the stake out of the skeleton, restoring Dracula (John Carradine) to life. Neimann makes a deal with Dracula who helps kill off the people who put Neimann in prison. Neimann's other goal is to imitate Doctor Frankenstein's work, so they head to the town of Frankenstein to find the buried notes of the original doctor. Dracula dies along the way but underneath the ruins of Frankenstein's castle Neimann and the hunchback discover the Wolf-man (Lon Chaney, Jr.) and the Monster (Glenn Strange) encased in ice. A little thawing lets out Larry Talbot (aka the Wolf-man). He makes a deal with Neimann--Talbot will recover the lost Frankenstein notes if Neimann will cure his werewolf curse. They return to Neimann's home town where he can finish taking revenge on his persecutors (though, let's be honest, he did deserve to be in jail for what he did) and can combine his own ideas with Frankenstein's to do some brain transplants. He's a bit slow at the job and Talbot kills someone when the full moon rises. That murder brings out the local mob. During the mobs' search for the killer, some of them notice lights flashing at Neimann's lab. Naturally, they go there to burn down the lab, driving the Monster and the Doctor into the quicksand marsh where they sink to their doom.
The movie is uneven. The early part with Dracula seems thrown in just to have Dracula in the picture. His early demise is surprising and a bit disappointing. Carradine gives viewers a fairly average and not very interesting vampire. On the other hand, the travelers pick up a young gypsy woman who is at first interested in the hunchback until she sees he is deformed. She's still willing to be friends with him. Once Talbot joins them, she is a lot more interested in him (Chaney may not be a great actor but he is good looking), causing some strife. That side plot is more interesting than the main plot. The special effects are a bit cheesy. The collapsing prison is hard to believe and Dracula's transformations to and from bat-form are obvious animations. Neimann's lab is good-looking, with the typical mad-scientist equipment and electrical discharges. They do repeat important points (like Dracula will die in sunlight or the werewolf can be killed only with a silver bullet) too many times. The movie has likable and unlikable parts.
Overall, it's not a satisfying movie except for completists. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is a much better combining of the Universal horror monsters than this movie.
The Son of Frankenstein (1939) directed by Rowland V. Lee
Wolf von Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone) returns to the home town of his father, Henry Frankenstein, with his American wife and their young son. The town of Frankenstein is hardly welcoming to another Frankenstein. Their reaction is understandable, given the horrible history and the rumors about the monster (Boris Karloff) still being alive. Wolf is both a scientist and a hothead. The castle comes with his father's notes and formulas, which inspires the younger man to follow in his father's footsteps. At Frankenstein castle, the local ne'er-do-well, Ygor (Bela Lugosi), wanders around. The local police officer (Lionel Atwill) warns Frankenstein not to socialize in town and offers to protect the family from potential angry mobs. Frankenstein reassures the officer that no shenanigans will happen. Then he meets Ygor, who has the monster under his control and has been using him to kill all the locals who condemned Ygor to be hanged. The monster has now lapsed into a coma but the new Frankenstein is inspired by the challenge to bring the monster back to full life.
The movie is a big step down from the first two, making it fairly average. The effects are still good, though the sets are less lavish and it takes a surprisingly long time to get to the monster. The other problem with the film is that Mel Brooks used lots of elements in his delightful parody Young Frankenstein. The policeman has a false arm that was ripped off by the monster and he slaps it around much like Brooks's character. The cop and Frankenstein even play darts, with the inspector using his false arm to hold the darts. It's really hard to take parts of the movie seriously thanks to Brooks's film.
The movie is entertaining enough but disappointing in comparison to the previous films. I can see how the monster might have survived the explosion of the lab at the end of the last film, but he fell into a molten sulfur pit. It's hard to imagine him surviving, maybe that's why the next film was called...
The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) directed by Erle C. Kenton
The townsfolk of Frankenstein are tired of the economic bad times caused by the bad name of the family, so they decide to level Frankenstein's castle in the hopes that people will no longer associate the town with the monster. Somehow, Ygor (Bela Lugosi) has survived being riddled with bullets by Wolf Frankenstein and is still wandering around the castle. As the locals dynamite the castle, they release the monster who has been encased in sulfur. He comes out okay, though now played by Lon Chaney. Ygor leads the monster to the town where Henry Frankenstein's second son, Ludwig (Cedric Hardwick), is living as a doctor catering to the mentally unwell. It isn't long before he's drawn into reviving the weakened monster with the hope of transplanting a fresh, non-criminal brain into the monster.
The filmmakers bend over backwards to try and keep continuity with the previous films. The awkwardness of the effort is visible on screen. Chaney is fairly expressionless and uninteresting as the monster. Lugosi does the same performance (slightly cheesy) as the previous film. Hardwick is not as compelling as Rathbone or Clive as a scientist driven by ambition. The brain-switching idea is interesting but turns out preposterous when the monster starts talking with the voice of another actor. They only switched brains, not vocal cords! Other bits in the story are also hard to believe, even for a Frankenstein film.
With The Ghost of Frankenstein, the series finally dips down from average into bad. But the franchise didn't die yet...
The House of Frankenstein (1944) directed by Erle C. Kenton
Karloff switches to the mad scientist role in a sequel combining the Monster, the Wolf-man, Dracula, and a hunchback. Karloff is Doctor Neimann, a mad scientist imprisoned with the hunchback (J. Carol Naish). When lightening strikes and destroys the prison (which looks like a medieval castle, you know, the sort that wouldn't be phased by lightening), they escape. They join a two-man traveling horror show where the main attraction is the actual skeleton of Dracula. It isn't long before Neimann has his lackey off the two carneys and pulls the stake out of the skeleton, restoring Dracula (John Carradine) to life. Neimann makes a deal with Dracula who helps kill off the people who put Neimann in prison. Neimann's other goal is to imitate Doctor Frankenstein's work, so they head to the town of Frankenstein to find the buried notes of the original doctor. Dracula dies along the way but underneath the ruins of Frankenstein's castle Neimann and the hunchback discover the Wolf-man (Lon Chaney, Jr.) and the Monster (Glenn Strange) encased in ice. A little thawing lets out Larry Talbot (aka the Wolf-man). He makes a deal with Neimann--Talbot will recover the lost Frankenstein notes if Neimann will cure his werewolf curse. They return to Neimann's home town where he can finish taking revenge on his persecutors (though, let's be honest, he did deserve to be in jail for what he did) and can combine his own ideas with Frankenstein's to do some brain transplants. He's a bit slow at the job and Talbot kills someone when the full moon rises. That murder brings out the local mob. During the mobs' search for the killer, some of them notice lights flashing at Neimann's lab. Naturally, they go there to burn down the lab, driving the Monster and the Doctor into the quicksand marsh where they sink to their doom.
The movie is uneven. The early part with Dracula seems thrown in just to have Dracula in the picture. His early demise is surprising and a bit disappointing. Carradine gives viewers a fairly average and not very interesting vampire. On the other hand, the travelers pick up a young gypsy woman who is at first interested in the hunchback until she sees he is deformed. She's still willing to be friends with him. Once Talbot joins them, she is a lot more interested in him (Chaney may not be a great actor but he is good looking), causing some strife. That side plot is more interesting than the main plot. The special effects are a bit cheesy. The collapsing prison is hard to believe and Dracula's transformations to and from bat-form are obvious animations. Neimann's lab is good-looking, with the typical mad-scientist equipment and electrical discharges. They do repeat important points (like Dracula will die in sunlight or the werewolf can be killed only with a silver bullet) too many times. The movie has likable and unlikable parts.
Overall, it's not a satisfying movie except for completists. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is a much better combining of the Universal horror monsters than this movie.
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