Rating: B
Dir: Rowland V. Lee
Star: Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill
This is a case where going backwards in time, as we’ve done for this feature, might work against us. Because we end up watching the three entries from the Universal Frankenstein franchise in reverse order. It probably doesn’t matter all that much: the basic concept is entirely familiar. But I’m curious as to how the depiction evolved from the original, through Bride, to Son here. Guess I’m just going to have to Memento that shit out. Universal did too, the studio having quit the horror genre entirely for two years, after Dracula’s Daughter. They only came back, after a re-release of the original Dracula and Frankenstein proved the public’s appetite for darkness had not diminished.
It ended up being a rushed production, because of director Lee’s unhappiness with the initial screenplay. The start of shooting was delayed for over three weeks, with rewrites an ongoing process. Sometimes actors received the updated script pages only minutes before the scene was due to be filmed. Consequently, production finished barely a week before the film received its wide release in January 1939. It was also the last time Karloff played the Monster on screen, saying “I decided the character no longer had any potentialities – the makeup did all the work.” He did bring the monster out of retirement for a charity baseball game the following year. He scored a home-run, in part because the Three Stooges, on the opposing team, fainted while he ran the base-paths.
Son of Frankenstein edged out The Cat and the Canary as our 1941 pick. Both ended up with a 7.1 rating, but having done The Ghost Breakers for our previous entry, I didn’t want to do another slice of comedy-horror so soon. This is certainly a serious entry, and there are some elements particularly worthy of praise. While it does follow on from its predecessors, and refers back to them, you do not require particular knowledge of those. Anything you need to know is covered here. We begin with the arrival of the Frankenstein heir, Baron Wolf von Frankenstein (Rathbone), as he prepares to take over his inheritance of Castle Frankenstein, in the village of… yeah, Frankenstein. Dad clearly had his familial branding on point.
The first thing is how nice Wolf seems. He may not be fully aware of his family’s reputation, but clearly wants to do better. The locals, however, are having none of it, or Wolf’s efforts to paint his father Henry as “the unwilling, unknowing cause of tragedy,” and simply walk off in the middle of his arrival speech. He, his wife Elsa and son Peter, then head up to their ancestral home. And, I must say, it’s got some stunning style, not least a staircase which appears to defy all logic in the route it takes to the upper floors. The whole place seems right out of a German Expressionist playbook, with floor-to-ceiling windows and space at an almost palatial level (below). I don’t know who the old Baron’s architect was, but I’d like to hire him for some projects.
Less impressive is Ygor (Lugosi), a character who – despite the Y – may be the original example of the standard name given to a mad scientist’s crippled henchman. Ok, he doesn’t have a hunchback, but he is broken, courtesy of a botched hanging attempt. He’s not much of a henchman either, to be honest. However, he knows a lot about the Frankenstein secrets, including where the bodies are buried. Or, specifically, the body, with the creature (Karloff) interred in the castle’s vault. Wolf decides he’s going to resurrect the monster to prove his father was not the questionably sane researcher the villagers believe. I do have to say, I’m not sure he has quite thought the ramifications of this through properly.
Life is duly restored. The problem is, the creature will only obey Ygor, who immediately begins using it for a campaign of vengeance against the locals whom he believes have wronged him. It’s quite a lengthy list. Needless to say, when various people start showing up dead through blunt force trauma, suspicions point straight at the Baron. Police activity, in the shape of Inspector Krogh (Atwill) follows, and he has a personal interest, since v1.0 of the creature ripped his arm off. You can probably join the dots thereafter, involving more deaths, a rampage, fire and, possibly relevant, the large pit of molten sulphur conveniently located beneath the castle, in what would appear to be a clear health and safety violation.
I enjoyed this one. Lugosi is particularly impressive. Of course, I’d seen his classic performance as Dracula, but apart from that, not much outside of embarrassing turns in things like Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla, as he spiralled down towards Plan 9 From Outer Space. But his cameo a couple of days ago in The Wolf Man was a nice appetizer for a more meaty role here. It definitely provides a sharp contrast to the urbane Count for which he’s most famous. Ygor is an animal with a grudge, who seizes an opportunity to wield the instrument for his vengeance. Poor, naive Wolf, with his inherent faith in human nature. It’s not going to end well.
Though, of course, it would never be allowed to end too badly, by the rules of the Hays Code, which also prevent anything like the God complex we saw in the Baron for the first movie. Only the guilty truly suffer here – that’s Ygor. At the risk of a spoiler. it basically ends with the von Frankenstein family handing the keys of the castle back to the Bürgermeister, and sloping off back to the city, without any particular price being paid for their hubris. I trust valuable lessons have still been learned by everyone, about not meddling in things outside the scope of what mankind should… um, meddle in. Note to self: don’t start sentences you don’t know how to finish.
This article is part of our October 2025 feature, 31 Days of Vintage Horror.