Your Mother is Lightning!

THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

So when the eerie, foreboding and leisurely-paced "Son of Frankenstein" ended, Baron Wolf von Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone) left the village and the eponymous castle after the Monster (Karloff, last time he played the role) was left for dead in a molten sulfur pit. The deformed blacksmith, Ygor (Bela Lugosi) was also left for dead, or was he? Of course not because both Monster and Ygor are back in the chilling, disturbing and quietly absorbing "The Ghost of Frankenstein." It is not a great sequel, not like "Son of Frankenstein" or the greatest of all Universal Horror sequels, "The Bride of Frankenstein," but it has a lot up its sleeve in a running time that just barely passes the one-hour mark.

The villagers are certain that Ygor survived the shots fired by Inspector Krogh (Lionel Atwill) and want the Frankenstein castle destroyed. The villagers manage to do so, with Ygor and the Monster (instantly revitalized) surviving while walking that distant landscape to another village (they of course walk across a fog-filled cemetery as their getaway - how many acres are those cemeteries anyway?) Apparently, another son of Frankenstein, Ludwig Frankenstein (Sir Cedric Hardwicke, extremely effective), a noted brain surgeon and mental health expert, can help Ygor to strengthen the Monster by "harnessing electricity" to its body. Ludwig has no interest in making the Monster more powerful - he wants to take it apart and destroy it. When another doctor is killed on the premises, Ludwig suggests using the slain doctor's brain to replace the criminal one in the Monster. It is a stunning medical procedure the good doctor has perfected except Ygor wants his brain inside the Monster so he can walk without a broken neck and possibly rule the world and men's minds! Never mind the fact that the Monster has green skin and a bolted neck and the fact that nobody would take such a being seriously, especially if he read from "Mein Kampf." Dr. Frankenstein has no interest in helping the deformed Ygor but it doesn't mean Ygor can't persuade Dr. Bohmer (played by Lionel Atwill, just to confuse the rest of you), a jealous assistant who was once Ludwig's teacher.

"Ghost of Frankenstein" establishes that Dr. Henry Frankenstein, the creator of the Monster, sired not one but two sons. In fact, Sir Cedric Hardwicke plays the father as a ghostly apparition that tries to convince Ludwig not to switch the Monster's brains. The timeline is not clear either but it never has been clear in the entire Frankenstein series. Is it the turn of the century meaning early 1900's or later? Everyone rides in a carriage or on horseback. There are no phones here so one may presume Bell technology has not found its way into the fictional Eastern European village of Vasaria.

Lon Chaney, Jr. is underwhelming at best as the Monster but it is hardly the worst performance one will find - there is some measure of emotional heft from Chaney that Glenn Strange in later sequels never quite mustered but both are no match for Boris Karloff. Bela Lugosi is a scary, witless creature once again and when we hear the climactic moment of the Monster speaking with Lugosi's accent, it chills the bone. Also worth mentioning is Evelyn Ankers, as Ludwig Frankenstein's curious daughter, and Ralph Bellamy as a town prosecutor and both also played a couple a year earlier in "The Wolf Man" (which also featured Chaney). The stunning last shot of two of them observing the Frankenstein mansion in a fiery explosion as they walk away to an uncertain future is more poetic than any other Frankenstein sequel.

At 1 hour and 7 minutes, "Ghost of Frankenstein" packs in the crude thrills, carriage chases, the brief touches of humanity, and haunting moments with the classic spooky black-and-white cinematography of foggy landscapes to add luster to it all. It is not quite on par with the first three "Frankenstein" pictures but who cares? For a Saturday evening of pure Universal Horror bliss, it is solid entertainment.