Son of Frankenstein
Short description
Son of Frankenstein follows Wolf von Frankenstein, who returns to his family's ancestral home with his wife and young son some years after the death of his father, Henry. The villagers have not forgotten the experiments that produced the monster, and they receive the new heir with suspicion. Wolf meets Ygor, a shepherd who survived a hanging and who shows him the creature, apparently dead or dormant in the family crypt. Hoping to restore his father's reputation as a scientist, Wolf revives the monster, only to find that Ygor holds a hold over the creature and has his own plans for it.
Rowland V. Lee directed and produced the film, working from a screenplay by Wyllis Cooper. It was one of several Frankenstein films Lee made at Universal Pictures in the late 1930s. Basil Rathbone plays Wolf, with Boris Karloff returning as the monster and Bela Lugosi as Ygor; Lionel Atwill, Josephine Hutchinson and Donnie Dunagan appear among the credited cast of 24. The film runs 99 minutes.
On IMDb it holds 7.1/10 from around 13,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.7/10 from 284 votes, so the two audience scores sit close together. A critics' rating of 7.1/10 from 38 reviews places it about level with the wider IMDb audience.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film didn't have a script as such, and a significant part of the plot was invented on the fly just before filming began. This is how director Rowland V. Lee managed to keep Bela Lugosi in the cast and develop the role of Igor, which didn't exist in Willis Cooper's original screenplay at all. Lugosi remained forever grateful to Lee for creating one of his best roles in the film. Filming began, after numerous delays, on November 9, 1938, and ended on January 5, 1939, just days before the premiere, which was scheduled for January 13.
- Boris Karloff's makeup for the Frankenstein monster took 4 hours to apply.
- The film was supposed to be “Universal’s” first experience with “Technicolor,” but the idea soon had to be abandoned: Karloff’s makeup looked bad in color.
- The town where the action takes place is called "Goldstadt" in the first two films, "Frankenstein" (1931) and "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935). In this film, the town is called "Frankenstein", and in subsequent films it is referred to as "Vasaria".
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