“He cannot be destroyed”
1942 saw Lon Chaney, Jr. hook up to the bolts as Frankenstein’s Monster in The Ghost of Frankenstein. The film also starred Bela Lugosi as Ygor, Cedric Hardwicke as Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein, Lionel Atwill as Dr. Bohmer, and Evelyn Ankers as Elsa Frankenstein.
The film begins with a good ol’ Universal angry mob burning down Castle Frankenstein and Ygor and the monster escaping to Visaria in the hopes of finding Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein, the second son of Dr. Henry Frankenstein. Ygor has plans to rebuild the monster’s strength and make it whole again.
As soon as the pair arrive in Visaria, however, a series of misunderstandings leads to the creature murdering two villagers while trying to help a young girl, Cloestine (Janet Ann Gallow). The monster is arrested and put on trial, but Ygor tracks down Ludwig and tells him to help the monster. Ludwig refuses at first, but Ygor threatens to reveal Ludwig’s family secret if he doesn’t help the creature.
Ludwig appears before the court and denies that he recognizes the creature. This sends the creature into a fit of rage and it escapes with Ygor. The duo end up at Ludwig’s home and attack his daughter, Elsa, who has just found her father’s secret family records and Ludwig’s assistant, Dr. Kettering (Barton Yarborough). Kettering is murdered, but Elsa is saved by her father. Ludwig is then visited by his father’s ghost and he is convinced that he will replace the monster’s existing brain with Dr. Kettering’s brain. Ygor demands that his brain be used instead, but Ludwig refuses.
When the police arrive to investigate the missing Dr. Kettering’s whereabouts, Ygor and the creature escape from the lower levels of Ludwig’s laboratory. The monster kidnaps Cloestine, brings her back to Ludwig, and demands that he use the little girls brain instead of Kettering’s. Ygor has plans of his own, using Dr. Bohmer’s jealousy of Ludwig to convince him to swap Kettering’s brain with Ygor’s.
Elsa convinces the monster to let Cloestine go and Ludwig and Bohmer replace the monster’s brain with Kettering’s. Bohmer, however, swapped the brain for Ygor’s and whenever the monster awakens, Ludwig is horrified.
A battle ensues and the monster murders Bohmer and sets the laboratory on fire. The monster goes blind due to the fact, according to Ludwig, that its blood type does not match Ygor’s. A mob shows up in order to save Cloestine and the monster gets even angrier. He knocks over equipment and other items, spreading the fire.. Elsa manages to escape with her suitor, Erik (Ralph Bellamy), while the others apparently die in the fire.
I really liked this film. It doesn’t have a very good reputation as a whole and is often considered the first of a series of cheaper, less inspired films. Evelyn Ankers teams up with Lon Chaney, Jr. once again, as did Ralph Bellamy. Both appeared with Chaney in The Wolf Man (1941). Other actors in this film had appeared in other Universal Monster films as well, most notably Lionel Atwill, who portrayed Inspector Krogh in the previous sequel, Son of Frankenstein (1939). Barton Yarborough would go on to appear in the highly popular Dragnet television series until his untimely death at the age of fifty-one.
This definitely is not the best Frankenstein film, but it’s still pretty good. I enjoyed the overall story, the music, and even the less-than-stellar special effects. The cast did a good job and at just over an hour long, it’s a nice little flick to check out when it’s raining outside.
Thanks for reading and I apologize for the late hour. Work completely derailed my plans today. Tomorrow will bring another chapter in my Thirty-One Days O’Horror saga!
Ken's Alternate Universe! 