 |
 Dr. Frankenstein's son goes back to the castle where the events of the previous
two movies took place, 25 years after the "explosive death of the monster." He
meets Ygor (Bela Lugosi), who is described as a "mad shepherd." Ygor has the
body of the monster. Frankenstein's son revives the creature in an attempt to
clear his dad's name. Problems ensue when Ygor uses the creature to kill a
bunch of people, causing the people of the village to panic. They claim that
this movie is a "worthy heir to the landmark original." 1939, 99 minutes, VHS
The second sequel to Frankenstein marks the series' lengthy descent into the mediocrity that would eventually
force the Monster to do battle with the likes of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
(though, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein was a good movie in its own right). Though it isn't readily apparent in this
movie (chiefly because it's camouflaged by a good cast), the seeds of
everything wrong with the series were sown here, that being the reduction of
the Monster from the tormented beast who is only seeking acceptance in an
inhospitable world to a generic movie monster called Frankenstein. Boris
Karloff
once again endures Jack Pierce's famously long make up sessions for another go
as the Monster, and even the make up in this one seems to be a shadow of its
more successful predecessors, looking no where near as complicated or
expressive as in the first two films. It's all about selling Frankenstein
t-shirts and finding idiotic ways to use the increasingly annoying catch-phrase
"it's alive! It's alive!" (It must be genetic, because Frankenstein, Jr. uses
it a few times in this movie, though his dead daddy did all the heavy lifting).
Basil Rathbone portrays the son of the dead scientist who first played God,
then found out it was a more involved job than he first thought. With pops
finally croaking offscreen, Basil's character, Wolf (what do you expect from a
mad scientist who never bothered to call the man and woman he created anything
other than "The Monster" and "The Bride," respectively?) is coming back to
Frankensteinville or where ever to claim the family estate (includes one spooky
castle, blowed up secret lab, hot sulfur pit, comatose monster, and demented
grave robber, Ygor), much to the locals' collective chagrin. See, these townies
apparently
are fairly petty when it comes to holding grudges, because they're still
whining around that the elder Frankenstein created a Monster that went on a
rampage and ruined the local Ocktoberfest. Wolf, thinks that these people
should stop living in the past and let him get on with the business of being
Baron Von Frankenstein (and I think we all know what that means!).  No sooner has Wolf just settled into his new abode then does the local fuzz
roll around to roust him a bit, regarding his family's history with re-animating
corpses. Making his first appearance in a Frankenstein movie (he would have a
role in all the remaining sequels - usually as an Inspector of some type) is
Lionel Atwill. This time the name of the inspector he is playing is Krogh.
Krogh is actually more than just a throw away authority figure to harass
Frankenstein and rouse angry mobs. As a little boy, his arm was ripped off by
the Monster, thus depriving him of the career as a soldier he so dearly wanted.
Now he must be satisfied commanding about six or seven cops in this little
village (though it is a village with a lot of action!). He isn't the
one-dimensional sour jerk you would expect from such a past, instead being
somewhat wary of Frankenstein, but determined to hold up the rule of law in his
community, offering to protect the good doctor, should the townsfolk get too
rowdy and try anything unseemly. Maybe he's only offering to do this to stay
close to Frankenstein (it's obvious that he doesn't trust him entirely, but he
is always a gentleman), but it gives the character more depth than you
probably have a right to expect from such a role. Additionally, because of his
bum arm, you get a lot scenes where he is moving it around with his other arm
in a very stiff manner so that it reminded me of Peter Sellers as Dr.
Strangelove.
Wolf does the whole, "yeah, yeah, I ain't building any monsters, now hit the
bricks so I can check out my dad's secret lab" thing and Krogh disappears. Oh,
yeah, Krogh also drops on Wolfie that there's been some unexplained murders
where some people have had their hearts burst or somehow got offed by who knows
what, but that's probably nothing and don't sweat it. So Wolf, heads off to
his dad's lab, which still has a hole in the roof where the villagers nuked it
the last time they had Monster-related problems and there he encounters the
cuddly little deformed freak called Ygor. Ygor is played by Bela Lugosi and I
can hear all you people groaning already, but really you should give the guy a
break, because this time, he actually does a good job in his role. He's
saddled with an awful wig, beard, and really ugly dentures, not to mention
his twisted neck, but he is convincingly creepy, psychotic, and a fairly clever
little worm. Ygor was hanged for stealing bodies, but even though his neck was
twisted or snapped or something, he survived. Now, mysteriously the people who
condemned him to death are all dying themselves. Ygor is such a piece a work,
he even gleefully notes this to the law enforcement types in town who confront
him about it (Ygor, you don't know anything about this do you? Who me?).
Bela's natural tendency to ham it up actually suits his character. As a shady,
sleazy hermit, hunchback type, you want someone to be a bit over the top,
because that's how those folks are in real life!  So, Ygor is hanging out on the roof of the lab and tries to drop a boulder on
top of Wolf. Wolf is understandably miffed by all this, but Ygor convinces
him, that it was all just a big misunderstanding and he simply mistook him for
a different Wolf Von Frankenstein. Ygor decides to show Wolf the secrets of
the secret lab since Wolf is kind enough not to turn him in for the whole
rock-dropping incident and leads him to the crypt with his father's and
grandfather's tombs. Also there at the end of the crypt (like Wolf didn't
notice this before!) is the Monster laying on a slab, apparently lifeless. The
Monster has updated his attire since this movie takes place when you've got
trains and stuff, but unfortunately he updates it to about 1971, because he's
wearing this furry vest that would have been right at home on Sonny Bono when
he had that awful show with Cher. It didn't work on Sonny and it sure as heck
don't work on Boris! Ygor explains that he and the monster are pals and that
somehow or other the Monster survived the explosion at the end of Bride Of Frankenstein, but that later the Monster got hit by lightning and just hasn't been his
murderous self ever since. Ygor wonders if maybe Wolf could revive the
monster. Wolf, who idolizes his dad a lot more than he should (he should be
idolizing pro athletes or somebody that don't try and create life out of body
parts) and wants to set the world straight about the fact that his dad just
wasn't some crazed mad scientist. Of course the only way to do that is to
recharge the Monster so that everyone can see that he isn't the crazed creature
the townies know and love (oh Krogh, he wasn't trying to rip your arm off, he
was just a little too enthusiastic about shaking your hand, let it go!). Ygor,
obviously infinitely smarter than Wolf, swears Wolf to secrecy and to not let
anyone else know (if you're doing this to clear your dad's name - why keep it
all hush-hush? Let some independent observers and scientists in to watch the
goings on). Wolf agrees and sets about getting the lab ship shape and checking
out the Monster. Wolf treats the Monster as if he were any other patient,
checking his blood pressure (really high - lay off the little girls - they're
high in cholesterol!) heart rate, and even x-rays him. Wolf's diagnosis is that
the Monster needs his batteries charged. So they strap him on a gurney and hook
him up to a bunch of electric gizmos and try and jump start him. That works
about as well as when I try and jump start my 1982 Aries K car on mornings
below 45 degrees.  There doesn't seem to be any success in reviving the creature, but later Wolf's
annoying little son Peter (supposedly this little twerp also provided the voice
for Bambi) starts bragging about how a giant comes to play with him (remember
not to let the giant touch anywhere a swimsuit covers - that constitutes a bad
touch!). Wolf, kind of gets this look on his face, like Peter ripped a good
juicy one and hightails it over to the lab to see what the devil Ygor has
gotten hisself into. Sure enough, the Monster is out of his coma and ready for
action. Still desperately trying to prove to the world that his daddy wasn't a
big piece of crap, Wolfie says that the creature needs to be kept under wraps
for further study. He is healed physically, but even Wolfie knows there's some
psychological problems that need to be addressed (I think those liberal
headshrinkers call it "Intermittent Explosive Disorder" which to you and me
just means the dude is an ass whenever he feels like it). The Monster probably
has some abandonment issues what with his daddy skipping out on him while the
Monster was committing suicide. He also has problems relating to women (see
his brief, but stormy relationship to the Bride). All in all, not the most
stable of creatures. Luckily he has a good, good friend like Ygor to look out
for him. Ygor tells Wolf to get bent, that the Monster is fine and is going to
be hanging out with him from now on and that Wolfie can keep his Basil
Rathbone nose out of it. Wolf's not in the strongest of bargaining position,
since he doesn't want the townspeople to know he's been doing what they assumed
he would be doing anyway, so he leaves. Ygor has big plans for the Monster.
He uses him to hunt down the people that sentenced him to hang and kills them.
At this point, the creature doesn't resemble in the slightest, the Monster we
saw in the first two movies. He is simply a bloodthirsty killer (and for no
good reason - unless you count a dissatisfaction with the world in general).
He hides along the roadway and kills a dude, then makes it look like the guy
was run over with a wagon. Then Ygor marks a house with an "x" that he wants
the creature to go in and kill the occupant of, and the creature does this.
This doesn't sound like a lumbering dope to me, but a calculating and somewhat
cunning killer. Any sympathy you had for the Monster has long since evaporated
at this point, lessening the impact the movie ultimately has and reducing it
simply to a "monster on the loose" film. Eventually enough bodies pile up in Krogh's jurisdiction that he leans on Wolf
pretty hard for the truth. He gets most of his help from little Peter though.
He goes up to Peter's room and Peter shows him the watch that the giant gave
him. He examines it and finds out that it is the watch of Wolf's butler, who
has been missing since the day before. Krogh asks Peter how the giant gets
into his room and Peter points out a wall and Krogh's figures out that this
spooky castle has a secret passageway (how shocking). The end of the movie
involves a confrontation with Ygor and Wolf where Ygor gets his butt shot off
and then the Monster kidnaps Peter and stands on the kid with one of his giant
feet while fending off Krogh and Wolf. Wolf makes like Tarzan though, swinging
through the air on a giant rope and knocks the Monster down into the boiling
sulfur pits below. Yes, the lab was built over sulfur pits. I'm assuming that
when you're building monsters out of dead body parts, that the stench from the
sulfur pits is a minor annoyance at best. Obviously the story in this chapter
of the Frankenstein chapter isn't the best. The Monster himself gets very
little screen time and what screen time he does have is devoted to him being a
tool of Ygor, doing mindless killing for him. There's lots of scenes where
Krogh and Wolf blab about whether he's building a monster or responsible for
the spate of killings, leading this movie to feel like the half hour longer
that is over the first two movies. The performances were decent, with Krogh
being complex enough to be interesting and Bela harnessing his "talents" for
good effect. The set design evoked a feeling of some type of fairy tale with
its high ceilings, giant odd shaped rooms, and twisted staircases. It
certainly holds the viewer's eye. Call it
Mary Shelley by way of Dr. Suess. It's just unfortunate that they wasted all
these fine actors (and Bela) and good set design on such a meagre story. The
whole thing feels strictly minor league after viewing it in succession withFrankenstein and Bride Of Frankenstein. Surely they had to know that the
success of those movies was because of the pathos the Monster exhibited in
them and that the audience identified and empathized with him. How can
anyone expect to empathize with a monster that spends its time knocking off the
enemies of a body snatching hermit? This is the movie where you can see the
transition being made in this series from headlining feature to cheap
programmer, a la Universal's series of The Mummy movies.
Reviews © 2004
MonsterHunter
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