Controlled By Vengeance
Hoping to restore his father’s good name, Baron Wolf von Frankenstein moves his family from the good o’l U.S. of A. to the confines of Castle Frankenstein in 1939’s Son of Frankenstein. The film features Boris Karloff in his final run as Frankenstein’s monster for Universal. It’s also the first film to feature Bela Lugosi as Ygor. It proved to be a very popular film and is often cited as the rebirth of the monster movie at Universal.
Wolf (Basil Rathbone) has high hopes that he will succeed in patching up the damage that his father caused, but he is met with immediate hostility by the local villagers at the train station. Once he and his family settle in their home, Inspector Krogh (Lionel Atwill) arrives to offer protection from the locals. Soon enough, Wolf meets the bizarre graverobber called Ygor (Bela Lugosi). Ygor leads Wolf to the monster (Boris Karloff), laying in a comatose state in the Frankenstein family crypt. Little does Wolf know that Ygor has big plans for the creature.
Convinced that reviving the creature and showing that it is really human will win over the villagers, Wolf decides to wake the creature from its comatose state. His plans are kept secret from almost everyone, including his own family.
After the monster awakes, a strange series of murders begin happening in the village. One by one, members of the jury that sentenced Ygor to a hanging death (which he obviously survived) begin to die. Inspector Krogh suspects that the monster is back but can’t find solid evidence to prove his beliefs, so he begins questioning everyone in the Frankenstein home, including Wolf’s young son, Peter (Donnie Dunagan), who claims to have befriended a large man.
It is soon discovered that Ygor is controlling the monster, making him murder the jury members that sentenced Ygor to death. Wolf discovers the truth and shoots Ygor. Enraged, the monster kidnaps Peter and plans to toss him into the boiling brimstone beneath Frankenstein’s laboratory. A fight breaks out between the monster, Krogh, and Wolf. Who lives? Who dies? Watch Son of Frankenstein in order to find out!
This film features an amazingly solid cast. Rathbone is perhaps best known for portraying Sherlock Holmes in fourteen films, but his performance as Wolf von Frankenstein is a bright spot in this movie. He won a Tony Award, was nominated for Academy Awards on two occasions, and also achieved the rank of captain in the British Army and received the Military Cross for his work as a scout in World War One. Jospehine Hutchinson’s Elsa von Frankenstein had an unusually small role when compared to other female leads in Universal Monster films, but nonetheless she did an excellent job. Atwill was fun to watch as the relentless Inspector Krogh. I believe that I enjoyed his performance most of all.
A special note should be made about Donnie Dunagan. About five years old at the time, Dunagan’s performance was excellent. He drew laughs from me every time that he appeared on screen. He would go on to provide the voice of Bambi in the legendary 1942 Walt Disney animated feature of the same name. Eventually he would serve three tours in Vietnam with the Marine Corps. He became the youngest drill instructor in the Marines, received a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts, and achieved the rank of major. I highly recommend looking up this amazing gentleman on the web and learning more about him.
This film, despite being a direct sequel to Bride of Frankenstein, makes no mention of the bride or of Dr. Pretorius, who supposedly died at the end of Bride. No explanation is given as to how the creature survived that film’s ending either. Also, the monster developed a decent vocabulary in Bride, but thanks to a lightning strike mentioned in Son, he’s lost the ability to speak.
Karloff and Lugosi give fine performances. Outside of his star-making role in Dracula, this is Lugosi’s best performance in my opinion. Karloff had to use grunts, moans, and cries along with body language to show emotion. He did a great job.
Son of Frankenstein slowly won me over. While there are better Universal Monster films out there, it’s definitely one of the best in the bunch. Check it out if you get a chance and, as always, thank you for reading my post.
Ken's Alternate Universe! 