Son of Frankenstein

DAY 288 - 10/15/09 - Movie #288

BEFORE: The third of Universal's Frankenstein movies, and by now I expect the formula would be wearing thin - the novel by Mary Shelley was covered in the first 2 movies, so this one is pure Hollywood. Still, it stars Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone AND Bela Lugosi, so how bad could it be?

THE PLOT: Wolf Frankenstein, son of Henry Frankenstein, returns with his wife to his father's estate to claim his inheritance.

AFTER: Ah-hah, I knew that the Monster couldn't die - at least not while there were more sequels to be made! Henry's son Wolf (Rathbone) returns to the family castle to find that the Monster is (sort of) alive, tended to by the deformed Ygor (Lugosi). This film also introduces the town constable/inspector with a prosthetic arm - another character that was parodied in "Young Frankenstein", as played by Kenneth Mars. In fact, it's hard to take any of these classic Frankenstein films seriously, after Mel Brooks did such a great job of skewering them.

So Wolf heals the Monster, who hasn't been up and about since being struck by lightning a few years back. Ygor has ways of controlling the monster, by playing music and talking nice to him, so when the men who convicted Ygor of grave-robbing turn up dead, it's not too hard to figure out what's going on.

The inspector is a strange character - it's hard to tell if he's working for the town populace, since he also approaches Wolf with an offer of protection from the same people. There are obvious signs that the Monster is back and that Wolf is conducting experiments, but the Inspector is so busy trying to gain Wolf's confidence that it seems like he's not interested in proving that something untoward is happening. And when a small child gets kidnapped by the Monster - do you really think this is a good time to have a drink and play a game of darts?

This was Karloff's last appearance as the Monster - he was played in further sequels by other actors (though he later returned to the franchise to play a mad scientist) Lon Chaney Jr. took over the role in "Ghost of Frankenstein", and Lugosi himself played the Monster in "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf-Man". Those 2 films, plus "House of Frankenstein", wrapped up the Universal franchise movies - but I don't have copies of them, so maybe someday...

RATING: 6 out of 10 hidden doorways

SHOCK-O-METER: 3 out of 10 (the Monster returns to his silent killing ways)