While the film misses the florid direction of the great James Whale who was responsible for the first two installments in the horror trilogy, "Son of Frankenstein", has much to commend it to the viewer. The story is picked up many years after the death of Dr. Frankenstein and the supposed destruction of his murderous creation. We see his son the sophisticated Baron Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone) arrive with his family to finally claim his inheritance and occupy Castle Frankenstein. There he finds he and his family aliented from the fearful townspeople after their experiences with hi sfather and also under extreme suspicion from local Inspector Krogh (wonderfully played by horror veteran Lionel Atwill) who as a child lost an arm in a savage confrontation with the monster and thus holds a grudge against the house of Frankenstein. Coming into contact with the broken necked peasant shepherd Ygor (played by legendary Bela Lugosi in one of his best performances) who lives in the old laboratory, Frankenstein discovers the sleeping body of the monster who was not destroyed after all. Bent on clearing his father's name plus reviving the monster, Frankenstein succeeds too well and not only revives the monster but finds it goes on another killing spree after Ygor uses the monster for his own evil designs in killing off all of the villagers who were responsible for trying to hang him years before. It is true in "Son of Frankenstein", that the monster is very much a background character here as the main focus is placed on Rathbone. This is not necessarily a set back as this tale is a much less up beat one with the monster no longer having alot of the human qualities it possessed in the earlier films that succeeded in drawing sympathy from the audience. Here he has few redeeming qualities and is shown as a cold blooded murderer that rarely creates any sympathy. The one scene where some human element in his character comes through is when after being revived in Frankenstein's laboratory he sees himself in the mirror and recoils in disgust at his pathetic appearance beside that of the debonair Baron frankenstein. The tragic finale of the film which sees the monster flung into a bubbling sulphur pit is one of the great horror movie moments and is a justly memorable conclusion to Karloff's legendary creation.
"Son of Frankenstein", benefits from a much larger budget than the earlier films and indeed some of the creakiness of those efforts is not present here as we see a top rate Universal production for the 1939 year. The look of the film is definately more sinister here, gone are the sunny landscapes of the earlier films. Here the landscape is perpetually storm ridden and darkness prevails in every scene. Even the interiors and architecture have a strange unsettling quality to them and the sets for Castle Frankenstein in particular are positively awesome with their unsettling sloping walls and odd angled staircases lacking any human warmth and creating a feeling of unease and impending doom. They contribute greatly to the darker more fearful atmosphere of this installment in the Frankenstein series.
I personally love all three Karloff outings in this series, "Frankenstein", "Bride of Frankenstein", and "Son of Frankenstein". In this trilogy Boris Karloff created a horror legend that was never equalled and the Frankenstein stories quickly degenerated after these three efforts. Although more of a darker horror outing than the first two films lacking as it does the humour and pathos of Whales creation, "Son of Frankenstein", is a memorable viewing experience and highly recommended to all lovers of classic horror stories.
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While 'Son of Frankenstein' may not be as frightening as the original 'Frankenstein' or as good of an all around movie as 'Bride of Frankenstein' before it, this movie excels in two areas which make it one of the best classic scare-fests ever; production and cast. In terms of production value, this is a very slick and well put together film; in my opinion it is the most visually impressive of the vintage Universal films, with elaborate sets that you can tell involved a lot of detail (and a lot of money!). In terms of the cast, this is easily the best cast of any classic horror film ever made. This is the last of three performances by Boris Karloff as the Monster, and although he is obviously putting on some weight and doesn't seem to be quite as enthusiastic about the whole Monster thing by the time this movie was made, there was still never a better Frankenstein Monster anyhwhere. Ever. Period, end of discussion. Basil Rathbone is a slick, likable actor who does a wonderful job of assuming the 'hero' role as the title character, and puts on a good show as paranoia catches up with him throughout the second half of the film. Bela Lugosi gives what some call his best performance as Ygor the Hunchback; I don't know if I can bring myself to say that Dracula was not his best role, but nonetheless he is wonderfully grimy and creepy and seems to be very much having a blast playing this very out-of-character role. And Lionel Atwill, a stalwart in the great Universal Monsterfests of the 1940s, gives an unforgettable performance as the noble, suspicious, and vaguely odd one-armed police inspector Krogh, loyal policeman who, although willing to protect the doctor with his life from bloodthirsty villagers, always has one eyebrow raised in suspicion as to what exactly the goings-on in the castle are. This is a long movie for it's day and it's genre (about 100 minutes) and it may lack some of the dark, graveyard atmosphere that the original two movies had (and in a campy unrefined way the later ones had a little bit of this too). Still, it is a fun movie to watch that has it's moments and has four genre legends in their relative prime. I know I could watch this one again and again.
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