Dude, calm down! He just had a hangover from being dead! That's all.
Since we’re coming upon All Hallow’s Eve, I wanted to get to
these movies. I’ve rarely talked about any movies from this era on here, so I
might as well do it with these. Today, I’ll be talking about Universal’s Frankenstein movies. I’m only looking at the main movies that
involved the Monster. The others involving the Wolf Man and others will have to
wait.
I more or less went into my history with the monsters before, but a little refresher on Frankenstein isn’t bad. I first saw
Frankenstein when I was probably in third or fourth grade. I was also able to
see Son of Frankenstein since it was also at Movie Gallery. I didn’t see Ghost
of Frankenstein until sometime later on TV. I did read a book about it earlier. I actually didn’t see Bride of
Frankenstein until last year. It was on Netflix and I hadn’t seen it yet. Since
it’s the season for scary movies, I did a refresher on these four movies.
Frankenstein
Frankenstein was released in 1931. It was one of the first monster
movies from Universal to be released. It’s also loosely based on the Mary
Shelly novel. It actually took a lot of inspiration from stage plays that were
adapted from the book. In the movie, Dr. Henry Frankenstein creates life by
combining different body parts and using the power of technology.
Unfortunately, his creation (the Monster) becomes a big problem for Frankenstein, his family,
and the village they live in. The Monster causes a rampage and it is ultimately
hunted down. It all ends for the Monster in a windmill.
"What it is, pop?"
It was nice seeing this one again after so long. This was
pretty good. It is the now-typical “Science Gone Wrong” story and it’s handled
well for the most part. Frankenstein himself was like a man possessed in some
scenes when creating the Monster. Colin Clive (Frankenstein) played that part
well. The big plus to the movie is Boris Karloff as the Monster. Karloff made
the Monster look and act terrifying. He also added some innocence to the
Monster. The Monster didn’t understand a lot of the actions he took. The scene
with the girl is one big, horrifying example.
The movie is score-less since things were moving from the
silent era to the sound era and that made the movie a little unique. The look of everything was pretty cool.
Frankenstein’s castle and the machinery he used looked nice. The Monster
himself looked awesome. It’s what people think of when Frankenstein is brought
up. Even though it’s some lumbering, pale dude wearing stacks, there’s a bit of
a menacing feel to it. The only negatives I have for the movie is some things
in the story don’t make too much sense. How the Monster able to threaten
Frankenstein’s wife even though he never met her was one thing. Other than
those things, this was a good one.
Bride of Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein was released in 1935. It actually
takes place a few days after the events of the first movie. After we see what
happened right after the windmill burned down, we get thrown into the new
story. While the Monster is being hunted down by the villagers, Dr. Pretorius,
Frankenstein’s teacher, heard about Frankenstein’s experiment. Pretorius forces
Frankenstein into helping him create a female for the Monster. When the Monster
hears about it, he’s a bit happy. Of course, things don’t work out too much and
another castle is destroyed with the Monster, Pretorius, and the Bride being
supposedly dead.
This makes the movie worth it.
This was another good one. In some ways, it’s better than
the first movie. The story for Frankenstein and the Monster is continued in an
interesting way. This has the Monster at his most sympathetic. He’s being
chased and all really wants is a friend and some sense of belonging. He even
talks here which was something Boris Karloff didn’t want to happen. If you
wonder why the Monster isn’t speaking in the next movie, now you know. We also
see how everything that happened in the previous movie has affected Frankenstein himself. It puts the next two movies in a better context.
Dude, I know that look. You're moving too fast!
We have a literal mad scientist who wants to recreate the
experiment Frankenstein did. In that respect, Dr. Pretorius was a good, campy
villain. The movie itself has a bit of a campy feel to it. We got that loud old
maid running around at points and even the Monster gets to act silly at points
too. As for the Bride herself, she looked good. She has a memorable look and
feel to her even though she really does little. The look of the movie is even cooler and more
built up. Some things have been spruced up a bit. The music is also good.
There isn’t a lot to dislike about the film. While I did
enjoy the campy moments, that loud maid did get on my nerves at times. The
actress also shows up in The Invisible Man which had the same tone to
this movie. Continuity is also a bit of a problem here with a couple of story
elements and even some sets. Also, the Bride her self is not in the movie much.
It’s like they made her and didn’t know what to do with her. All she does is
yell, act like a swan (the actress based her movements on a swan), and die. All
of that happens in the last few minutes of the movie. The movie also ends a
little abruptly. Even though it had a couple of issues, this one was pretty
good.
Son of Frankenstein
Son of Frankenstein was released in 1939. It takes place
years after Bride of Frankenstein but it doesn’t say how long. I’ll guess it’s
between 30-40 years later. While we have Boris Karloff coming back as the
Monster for the final time, it also stars Basil Rathbone as Wolf von
Frankenstein and Bela Lugosi as Ygor, the hunchback. In the movie, Wolf and his
family move to the village where the Frankenstein estate is located. He wants
to rebuild the reputation of the family since his father messed that up. The
villagers themselves don’t help much. Things go for a turn when he finds out
that the Monster is still alive after all those years and is hold up in his
father’s old laboratory with Ygor, a hunchback. Wolf nurses the Monster back to
health and tries to restore honor to the Frankenstein name, but Ygor has his
own plans of using the Monster for evil.
We got Sherlock Holmes, The Frankenstein Monster, and Dracula in one movie. I doubt I could get a Benedict Cumberbatch reference out of this.
I think it’s safe to say that this is pretty good as well.
This one goes down a different road from the previous movie. We get a son who’s
a lot like his father, a hunchback bent on revenge, and a cute little boy who
makes me chuckle. Wolf’s son was hilarious. Anyway, I liked a lot of the
characters. Basil Rathbone as Wolf Frankenstein was pretty cool, Bela Lugosi’s
Ygor was funny and pretty creepy at the same time, and Inspector Krough was
actually pretty cool and memorable with that wooden arm of his. The Monster
isn’t featured as much here but that’s okay. This is when he started to become
less sympathetic and more of a pawn for the villain of the piece.
Castle Frankenstein and the laboratory got a major upgrade
in the movie. The house especially looks cool and pretty creepy at times. The
Monster’s look was different but cool. The music did sound like it came from
another monster movie (probably one of the Mummy movies) but it was nice too.
There isn’t much bad to say about the film. Some things don’t get
brought over well into this movie but I can forgive a little bit. It’s a
problem with these sequels. Other than that and a couple of small things, this
was really good.
Ghost of Frankenstein
Ghost of Frankenstein was released in 1942. It takes place
some time after Son of Frankenstein. In place of Boris Karloff, we have Lon
Chaney Jr. as the Monster this time. Bela Lugosi also returns as Ygor. The
villagers decide to destroy Castle (and I mean Castle) Frankenstein to more or
less remove its curse. This wakes up the Monster who was trapped in the
laboratory’s Sulphur pits. Ygor takes the Monster to another village where
Ludwig von Frankenstein, another son of Henry Frankenstein, resides with his
daughter. When he’s able to subdue the Monster, Ludwig takes it upon himself to
use the Monster to right the wrongs his family’s done and give the Monster a
new, better brain. Unfortunately, Ygor has other plans and get his brain put
in. the movie ends in an explosion with Ludwig and the Monster supposedly
dying.
"He was about this tall and did what I'm doing now!"
Out of all of the four Frankenstein movies, this is probably
my least favorite. That doesn’t mean
that it isn’t enjoyable though. Even though Ygor came back with no explanation, it was cool
to see him again. Lon Chaney Jr. also put in a nice performance as the Monster.
With his size, he seemed like a better fit physically for the role than Karloff
did. I also like that the idea of replacing the Monster’s brain was a plot point.
Even though it’s really out there, it was at least something new for the
Frankenstein movies. The guy who played Ludwig Frankenstein was okay at best. When
compared to Wolf and Henry, he was pretty tame.
As for the cons, this movie felt like a carbon copy of the
previous movie. A lot of the familiar beats are there. The look of the movie
also felt a bit cheaper too. Continuity is also an issue here. Not only is Ygor
somehow back from the dead, but two other characters who were killed in the previous
movie are somehow back for no reason. That and the fact that Frankenstein Castle changes again was pretty weird. The music was
pretty much music re-used from The Wolf Man. It wasn’t bad but it did feel
out of place. Overall, it’s the least of these four, but I would watch it over
some of the other Universal movies.
..................................................................
In the end, I feel like the Frankenstein movies held together
better than most of the other movies. There’s really only one subpar movie in
the bunch. At least that one is better than most of the later Mummy movies. If
I had to pick a favorite, it’ll probably either be Bride of Frankenstein or Son
of Frankenstein. That’s all I got for
now. I’ll try to get the Wolf Man movies and the team-up movies soon. Until
then, Peace, God Bless, and make sure to have backup plans for your weird
creations. Show business could work. If you need proof, look at most reality
shows.
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