[HorrorScience] Son of Frankenstein (1939)

Reading time: 6 minutes

Qualification

Son of Frankenstein

Year

1939

Duration

99 minutes

Director

Rowland V. Lee

Distribution

Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lionell Atwill, Josephine Hutchinson, Donnie Dunagan, Emma Dunn, Edgar Norton, Perry Ivins, Lawrence Grant, Lionel Belmore, Michael Mark, Caroline Frances Cooke, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Lorimer Johnson, Tom Ricketts, Clarence Wilson,

Script

Wyllis Cooper

We return to the classic Frankenstein saga produced by Universal Pictures, which began with the successful Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

Son of Frankenstein (known in Spanish as Frankenstein's son and also how Frankenstein's shadow) was going to be the film that would close the story, although as we know, that was not the case as it had several continuations.

Despite what many may think, the son referred to in the title is that of the doctor, not the monster (mistakenly known as Frankenstein). If you want to see children of deformed monsters, I advise you to take a look at The h son of godzilla.

In fact, at one point the film makes a joke about the confusion of the name, because at the beginning of the film the doctor's son tells his wife the story about the monster that his father created, which some locals call... and is interrupted by the voice announcing that they are arriving at the town Frankenstein.

Frankenstein's son It also gave us the opportunity to see Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi together, which is always a small pleasure because of the history of rivalry I talked about in this article.

After the death of Dr. Frankenstein, his son Wolf Von Frankenstein travels with his family to Germany to start a new life on his family's lands. Unfortunately The townspeople have not forgotten the experiments that their father did and the misfortunes that it brought, so that the reception is extremely cold.

Within the inheritance that Wolf receives are his father's writings about the experiments he did in life, which increases the heir's devotion to the battered history of his father, whom he considers a misunderstood genius.

After arriving and settling in his father's castle, Wolf receives a visit from a police inspector, who warns him that they have the entire town against him and that perhaps It is not a good idea to stay and live in the town. He also tells him the story that after the destruction of Frankenstein's monster, there have been some strange murders that the locals attribute to the ghost of the monster.

[HorrorScience] Son of Frankenstein (1939) — The police inspector warns the Frankensteins about the animosity that their family arouses among the town's inhabitants.

At the same time we will see a sinister old man stalking the castle, that guy turns out to be Ygor, a former assistant of Dr. Frankenstein, who is feared by the people, since he was sentenced to hanging for his crimes and still managed to survive despite having a broken neck. Apparently the visit of Frankenstein's son is a blessing for the deformed man, who He has hidden the body of Frankenstein's monster, which is in a sorry state after being struck by lightning during a storm.

The mayor and other people in authority in the town suspect that Frankenstein's son is trying to follow in his father's footsteps, especially after seeing that he is transporting some of the luggage to the old laboratory and has the help of Ygor, so they decide to investigate the latter and increase surveillance over the area where Wolf lives with his family.

After analyzing the monster's body, Wolf decides to try to revive it due to his scientific interest and thinking that perhaps he will be able to clear his father's name, an attitude that will make the sinister Ygor happy, which cannot be a good sign.

Normally it is considered to Frankenstein already Bride of Frankenstein as two of the best classic horror films in history, while Frankenstein's son and its consequences are forgotten and underappreciated.

I cannot say that it is an unfair treatment, since it is clear that the quality of the first Universal monster movies has nothing to do with what is seen in the following ones, however I would like to clarify that this movie is not as bad, nor laughable as they can be. Ghost of Frankenstein either house of frankenstein. Son of Frankenstein It has some problems, but You can still see the seriousness that surrounded the previous works, as well as its sinister atmosphere.

The introduction of new characters is quite successful, especially Ygor, who is the true monster of the film and Wolf Frankenstein, who despite having nothing to do with his father, is carried away by the madness that seems to prevail in his family and ends up following in his footsteps, until sanity reappears to force him to do the right thing.

The monster is brutally wasted, theoretically because he is sick, although possibly it is because the inclusion of Ygor as an evil character meant that they did not know what to do with him.

In general, Son of Frankenstein It's not a bad movie, but He's like the middle son who no one pays attention to because he's less serious than the eldest son and less hilarious than the youngest son.. It's actually an okay movie that tries to give the Frankenstein trilogy a fairly acceptable ending (which was of no use because Universal continued making movies with the character).

Curiosities:

Universal Studios had planned to leave aside the classic monsters, but after the highly successful revival of Dracula, Frankenstein and Kong's son in Los Angeles, he decided to make this film, which many more followed.
The role of Wolf Frankenstein was intended for Peter Lorre, but the director decided to cast another actor.
Karloff interpretó por última vez al monstruo en esta película, no quiso repetir papel en las secuelas ya que según él “no quedaba mucho en el personaje del monstruo para ser desarrollado; había alcanzado su límite”
En las películas anteriores, Frankenstein vivía en una mansión, en esta resulta que la mansión se ha transformado en un castillo.
La famosa parodia Young Frankenstein de Mel Brooks se basó en las tres primeras películas de esta saga, pero puso especial atención a Frankenstein's son tal y como demuestra la presencia del policía con el brazo ortopédico.
Esta película tuvo una versión en cómic publicada por Movie Comics.