The Son Of Frankenstein was made by Universal Studios under a new regime in 1939.Gone was Carl Laemmle Jr. who was so responsible for all of the great chillers that are true classics that every filmmaker is in someway inspired by whenever a new fright film is made.
The new heads at Universal had realized that there was money to be made from the ghoulish creations that the Laemmles,James Whale,Tod Browning and the Great make-up wizard Jack Pierce had created.It was a year or so before Son Of Frankenstein was released when a wise theater owner had booked both Universal's Dracula and Frankenstein on a double bill which had audiences clamoring for them...so Universal realized they still had hot properties and so they decided to make another sequel to the famed Frankenstein series. The Great Basil Rathbone now played Baron Henry Frankenstein's son who would journey to his homeland to claim his inheritance.Rathbone is Baron Wolf von Frankenstein and his wife is Baroness Elsa von Frankenstein(Josephine Hutchinson) who have a little boy.Rowland V. Lee is the Director of this film and has made what is considered to be the darkest and most germanic film in the series.The village is now known as Frankenstein and the villagers are hateful even when Rathbone tries to reach out to them by making a passionate speech regretting what has happened to them and his Father having been responsible for the creation of the Monster...but it's to no avail as the Burgomeister says to this Baron von Frankenstein,"we come to meet you, not to greet you." Colin Clive would be seen in the series only in clips now from the first two films he was in because he'd expired in 1937.
Ironically,Basil Rathbone was in real life older than the man who'd played his Father with this Son Of Frankenstein having been born in 1892 and Colin Clive in 1900. The old watchtower is now on the Frankenstein estate where Rathbone's character goes and explores one morning.It is inside this old structure that he meets Bela Lugosi's greatest role of all time:the evil Ygor.A shaggy Lugosi with a moustache,beard, having a broken neck and speaking with a gravelly voice in broken English leads Rathbone to a secret crypt in the old watchtower where Baron Wolf von Frankenstein sees where his Father-Baron Heinrich von Frankenstein(better known as Henry) and his Grandfather are now buried. As Wolf and Ygor walk farther into this crypt he discovers the Frankenstein Monster(Boris Karloff) in a comatose state.In this scene,the Monster flinches as Rathbone's Baron von Frankenstein screams out in shock,"He's Alive!" ...proving he has the same great Frankenstein blood flowing through his veins as that of Colin Clive. This film is this writer's favorite of the Karloff and Lugosi films with Basil Rathbone and Lionel Atwill as Inspector Krogh giving excellent performances as well. The world that these character's live in this film is the most unreal of any in the series.It's always overcast or foggy with enormous dead trees that Karloff's Monster topples over while he goes about doing Ygor's bidding.Josephine Hutchinson had said that she,Rathbone and Lionel Atwill had found the movie hard to take seriously which may explain why Rathbone is delightfully hammy at times.But don't get this writer wrong I LOVE THIS FILM AND CONSIDER IT AN ALL TIME CLASSIC. Lionel Atwill is excellent as Inspector Krogh who had his arm pulled off by the Monster as a child and makes a point with it in numerous scenes throughout this movie. But Karloff and Lugosi work excellently together seeming to be the absolute closest of friends as Monster and the evil Ygor.Boris Karloff left this series on truly a high note . Son Of Frankenstein is one of the greatest movies ever made.
The Great Boris Karloff would return to the Universal series one last time in 1944 in House Of Frankenstein to play the mad scientist Dr.Gustav Niemann...and he makes the most of this evil character too.
The new heads at Universal had realized that there was money to be made from the ghoulish creations that the Laemmles,James Whale,Tod Browning and the Great make-up wizard Jack Pierce had created.It was a year or so before Son Of Frankenstein was released when a wise theater owner had booked both Universal's Dracula and Frankenstein on a double bill which had audiences clamoring for them...so Universal realized they still had hot properties and so they decided to make another sequel to the famed Frankenstein series. The Great Basil Rathbone now played Baron Henry Frankenstein's son who would journey to his homeland to claim his inheritance.Rathbone is Baron Wolf von Frankenstein and his wife is Baroness Elsa von Frankenstein(Josephine Hutchinson) who have a little boy.Rowland V. Lee is the Director of this film and has made what is considered to be the darkest and most germanic film in the series.The village is now known as Frankenstein and the villagers are hateful even when Rathbone tries to reach out to them by making a passionate speech regretting what has happened to them and his Father having been responsible for the creation of the Monster...but it's to no avail as the Burgomeister says to this Baron von Frankenstein,"we come to meet you, not to greet you." Colin Clive would be seen in the series only in clips now from the first two films he was in because he'd expired in 1937.
Ironically,Basil Rathbone was in real life older than the man who'd played his Father with this Son Of Frankenstein having been born in 1892 and Colin Clive in 1900. The old watchtower is now on the Frankenstein estate where Rathbone's character goes and explores one morning.It is inside this old structure that he meets Bela Lugosi's greatest role of all time:the evil Ygor.A shaggy Lugosi with a moustache,beard, having a broken neck and speaking with a gravelly voice in broken English leads Rathbone to a secret crypt in the old watchtower where Baron Wolf von Frankenstein sees where his Father-Baron Heinrich von Frankenstein(better known as Henry) and his Grandfather are now buried. As Wolf and Ygor walk farther into this crypt he discovers the Frankenstein Monster(Boris Karloff) in a comatose state.In this scene,the Monster flinches as Rathbone's Baron von Frankenstein screams out in shock,"He's Alive!" ...proving he has the same great Frankenstein blood flowing through his veins as that of Colin Clive. This film is this writer's favorite of the Karloff and Lugosi films with Basil Rathbone and Lionel Atwill as Inspector Krogh giving excellent performances as well. The world that these character's live in this film is the most unreal of any in the series.It's always overcast or foggy with enormous dead trees that Karloff's Monster topples over while he goes about doing Ygor's bidding.Josephine Hutchinson had said that she,Rathbone and Lionel Atwill had found the movie hard to take seriously which may explain why Rathbone is delightfully hammy at times.But don't get this writer wrong I LOVE THIS FILM AND CONSIDER IT AN ALL TIME CLASSIC. Lionel Atwill is excellent as Inspector Krogh who had his arm pulled off by the Monster as a child and makes a point with it in numerous scenes throughout this movie. But Karloff and Lugosi work excellently together seeming to be the absolute closest of friends as Monster and the evil Ygor.Boris Karloff left this series on truly a high note . Son Of Frankenstein is one of the greatest movies ever made.
The Great Boris Karloff would return to the Universal series one last time in 1944 in House Of Frankenstein to play the mad scientist Dr.Gustav Niemann...and he makes the most of this evil character too.