Son Of Frankenstein

Ygor To Be Of Service

After the success of both Frankenstein (1931) and Bride Of Frankenstein (1935), it was only logical that the next in the series was Son of Frankenstein (1938).

You have to remember, of course, that Frankenstein is the obsessive surgeon, not the chap with the flat-top and the queasy complexion. The Son the title referred to was the son of Colin Clive's tortured genius from the first two movies and his wife (who had been threatened by Karloff's creature in the original movie). The eponymous Son was Wolf Frankenstein, played with customary steel by Universal's soon-to-be resident Sherlock Holmes, British actor Basil Rathbone.

Boris Karloff returned as the Monster, mute again after his experiences in Bride. After the picture, at 51 years of age, he would hang up his asphalt-spreader's boots for good and only play mad scientists and blood relatives of the Frankenstein clan rather than old Herman himself. The Monster had survived the climactic explosion in Bride by falling into a sulphur pit under the floor of the old watch-tower, and was in the process of being nursed back to health by Ygor, a villainous old shepherd played by original Dracula Bela Lugosi.

Fans of Mel Brooks are well-advised to seek out this picture, as alongside Frankenstein and Bride, this picture provides many of the elements spoofed in Young Frankenstein - particularly the wooden-armed police chief Inspector Krogh, played in this movie by Lionel Attwill and sent up so magnificently by Kenneth Mars in Young Frankenstein.

Wolf Frankenstein returns to his homeland from England to inherit his title and lands as Baron Von Frankenstein. He is made as welcome as the proverbial fart-in-a-spacesuit by the villagers who bear the Frankenstein clan a long-standing grudge. His return displaces the castle's squatter, a sinister old shepherd called Ygor who once escaped the hangman's noose with nothing more than a broken neck. Wolf soon finds himself being pestered by the villainous old shepherd who wants him to fix his best friend - the Monster. Unable to deny his Frankenstein DNA, Wolf revives the Monster…

Control of Universal Pictures had been wrested from the Laemmle family and the new management at the company was eager to cash in on the success of the Frankenstein movies. They threw a big budget at Son, which was intended to be shot in Technicolor until it was decided that the Monster's makeup looked much more effective in monochrome.

All of the titles in the Universal Cinema Classics Horror movies have been previously available, most notably in the wonderful Monster Legacy boxset which included three polystone busts of the key Monsters - Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster and the Wolf-Man - sculpted by Weta studios.

These new releases are, of course, all on individual discs - DVD5s - which very likely means better bit rates than the box sets as the discs will have to have been remastered for individual release.

Video
The movie is presented in its original 4:3 and monochrome. The picture is in excellent quality for a title of this era and considering the sorry state of so many Universal movies of this era (including the Sherlock Holmes movies). There is some dirt and debris, and the movie has not likely been mastered from key assets but dupes, but it is in very good condition and I could not complain.

Audio
A Dolby 2.0 reproduction of the original mono soundtrack. This movie comes from an era when movie sound was in its infancy and reproduction was quite far from high fidelity. Nevertheless, although it won't test your audio setup to any great extent, it is a fun movie.

Extras
Subtitles

Overall
Great fun from the Golden Age of Universal Monsters. The dialogue might be a little creaky and there's absolutely no cheap shocks or blood, but what more do you want? You've got Basil Rathbone in his pre-Holmes days, sporting the most dubious pencil moustache, you've got Boris Karloff as the Monster - and there was a time when he was the Frankenstein Monster like Sean Connery was 007 - and you've got Bela Lugosi with the worst case of whiplash ever. Brilliant.