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    Son of Frankenstein

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    “Son of Frankenstein” pales in comparison to its predecessors and I have some personal issues with the way the monster is portrayed. Nonetheless, I like it. It features memorable characters, the film is well shot and it’s a delight to see both Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff together. It’s not a great movie, but it’s good.

    I’m not certain if “Son of Frankenstein” is supposed to be a sequel to “Bride of Frankenstein” or simply another movie in the franchise. This film came out in 1939, 4 years after the previous entry and in an age where home video was not even fathomable. As such, the only distinct tie-in with “Bride” is the fact that Frankenstein’s laboratory has been reduced to rubble. Characters like Dr. Pretorious and events like the monster learning how to speak are never mentioned. I’ll consider it a “soft reboot”, an entry in which Frankenstein’s creature is nothing but a brute that frequently goes around killing.

    Set years after the creature was brought to life, Henry Frankenstein’s son Baron Wolf von Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone) moves back to the family castle with his wife Elsa (Josephine Htchinson) and their boy Peter (Donnie Dunagan) They receive a cold welcome, as the “curse” of the Frankenstein family still haunts the town. Meeting a demented hermit named Ygor (Bela Lugosi), Wolf is convinced to pursue his father’s research and restore an injured monster back to health.

    Bela Lugosi as Ygor deserves a podium. When people think of a hunchbacked assistant, they think of this guy… even though they usually spell his name “Igor” and he’s not actually hunchbacked. He’s murderous, vengeful, cruel, and all too willing to help Frankenstein with his experiments. What he really cares about though, is the monster. Ygor is a deformed maniac who wants to use the creation to murder the people who wronged him in the past. Lugosi has the look, the mannerisms and a role that makes him unforgettable. He steals the show.

    Unfortunately the monster is a simple brute that spends most of its time comatose or on a rampage. To make up for this, we have Basil Rathbone as the son of Frankenstein and Lionel Atwill as Inspector Krogh. I loved seeing Baron von Frankenstein arrive in his hometown cheery and hopeful and slowly descend to madness. Rathbone does a terrific job selling you on the fact that in his veins flows a manic obsession to play God. He’s like a drug addict that gets a little taste of his father’s work and quickly spirals out of control.

    You can’t talk about this film without mentioning Inspector Krogh. Like Ygor, he’s got an iconic look. His right arm was torn from its socket when he was a child and he’s now equipped with a prosthetic. Despite this, he’s not a bad guy out to ruin Wolf von Frankenstein’s time; he’s a strict man of the law. Sometimes that works in the favor of our protagonists, sometimes not. Little touches, like the sounds his arm makes when the joints are bent, or the fact that he sticks things up his sleeve or in the arm itself make him a deight.

    This story does not have the sophistication featured in the previous movies. The mad scientist lab feature is good, but not grand. I’ve mentioned Boris Karloff’s talents being squandered on a character whose dialogue is comprised entirely of grunts, but I want to expand on this. There’s no depth to this Monster, it’s just an ogre. Perhaps it’s a sign of the time, but we’re given a quick explanation for this, a reference to the iconic scene from the first film in which the assistant Fritz brought Frankenstein a “criminal” brain instead of the intended “normal” one. I’ve always felt that it was very interesting to see that the criminal brain appears to have no true effect on the experiment (I’d like to believe director James Whale did this intentionally) It kills accidentally, or in self-defense. It’s not going around maliciously. The Monster just wants to be accepted and have a friend. Perhaps the people of the 30’s and 40’s were uncomfortable with the idea that nurture created this monster and censors felt that it was better to have an easy explanation. These are the same people that censored a sequence in which Victor Frankenstein’s ability to create life is compared to that of God’s after all.

    “Son of Frankenstein” does regain points in its atmosphere and terrific set design. A big theme present is that of isolation. The Frankensteins have moved to a strange place where they are despised because of their family lineage. The Monster is also all alone and hated. You’d argue that Ygor keeps both the monster and the doctor company, but he’s just using them in order to fulfill his vendetta. He doesn’t really care. There are several instances where characters contemplate their loneliness and it’s accentuated by the locations they’re in. I was very impressed by the striking design of Frankenstein manor, with its enormous rooms largely barren of any furniture. I’m certain that it’s not intentional, but the black-and-white photography certainly helps reinforce that feeling when you’re looking at a living room whose roof is so tall it never ends and the door is wide enough to fit four or five people at once, but the idea that more than one person would enter the room to greet Frankenstein is preposterous.

    I’m slightly disappointed with some of the decisions that director Rowland V. Lee decided to take with this third film. It’s still enjoyable but it’s not a masterpiece like the first two. The stuff about it that’s good is so good that I am looking forward to seeing it again, but I recognize why this one hasn’t received the Blu-ray treatment from Universal yet. All in all, it’s atmospheric, memorable and well made. I recommend “Son of Frankenstein”. (On DVD, December 1, 2015)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  9.12.2015 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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