Son of Frankenstein

Over the last couple of months, I've written posts discussing the first two Frankenstein movies, and how they compare with the versions in the minds of those of us who only had parodies, homages, and pop culture as our reference points. It's crazy how referenced the first two films are. It was like when I saw Citizen Kane or The Godfather for the first time and realized how much of those films had been tweaked in The Simpsons. The third film in the series, Son of Frankenstein, is not referenced as much, but it's still has many important touchstones from the Frankenstein canon.

Son of Frankenstein is the third and final Frankenstein picture starring Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's Monster. Rowland V. Lee steps in as director, replacing James Whale, who made the first two. Also joining in on the fun are a couple of greats: Basil Rathbone as the new Frankenstein and Bela Lugosi as Ygor (finally!)

The story is actually the basis for Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein. Rathbone plays Baron Wolf von Frankenstein, the son of the original Henry von Frankenstein. He lives in the shadow of his father, who lives on in the minds of the people as a madman who unleashed a monster upon them. He foolishly revives the monster to prove the people wrong, and of course it all goes crazy from there.

The most intriguing character is Bela Lugosi's hunchbacked Ygor. I'm happy to finally see Ygor introduced to the Frankenstein mythology. His backstory is very interesting. His hunch is a deformity of birth; it's the result of a broken neck caused by a botched hanging. He was hung for grave robbery.

Karloff kind of gets the shaft in this one. After the depth and pathos he brings the monster in the first movie, and the character growth and ultimate redemption he gets to play in the second one, they just revert him back to the monster the third time through. I can see why he didn't want to return a fourth time.

Karloff's character's devolution is part of what's wrong with Son of Frankenstein. They clearly wrote themselves into a corner with the awesome ending of Bride of Frankenstein and tried to reset things to the way they were. Overall, it's still a pretty entertaining movie, but director Rowland V. Lee doesn't quite have James Whale's visual flare. The three lead actors are what makes the movie worth watching.

And finally, another great pop-cultural touchstone: Lionel Atwill plays the one-armed Inspector, who lost his arm a generation earlier in the monster's original rampage. He has a fake arm that clicks as he moves it with his other hand. I had no idea that this was from an original Frankenstein movie! It was so odd and such a well realized piece of physical comedy in Young Frankenstein, that it never occurred to me that it was from anything but the minds of Mel Brooks and Kenneth Mars. Son of Frankenstein even has a scene with Baron Frankenstein throwing darts. Young Frankenstein makes a lot more sense to me now, having seen these three movies.

So overall, Son of Frankenstein is still a lot of fun, but inferior to the first two. B-

I'm not sure if I'll watch the fourth one. It doesn't have Karloff and it's not on Netflix at the moment.