Son of Frankenstein (1939)
In Rowland V. Lee's well-made, atmospheric, eerie
monster film - the second sequel to the original Frankenstein
(1931) film, and the follow-up film to Bride
of Frankenstein (1935) :
- in the ancestral Frankenstein castle, the creepy
character of demented blacksmith Ygor (Bela Lugosi), a shepherd
with a crooked broken neck (after surviving a hanging for graverobbing)
- Ygor's encouragement of Baron Wolf von Frankenstein
(Basil Rathbone), son of the Monster's creator Dr. Henry Frankenstein
25 years later, to revive the comatose Monster (Boris Karloff for
the third and final time)
- the scene of the Baron examining an X-ray of the chest
of the Monster and declaring: ("Left ventricular preponderance.
And look here Benson, look at this. Do you know what those are?...Bullets.
Crude bullets in his heart, but he still lives!")
- the laboratory scene of the revival of the Monster
- the great mirror scene in which the Monster was fascinated
by his own reflection - his staring at his face, groaning in despair,
and then the touching of his hideous features and attempting to rub
them away - comparing himself to the normal facial features of Baron
Wolf von Frankenstein
- the sequence of Ygor vengefully turning the Monster
loose to cause havoc in the countryside, to seek justice against
the jurors who had ruled in his graverobbing criminal case
- the ending conclusion when the Baron, to save his
young son Peter (Donnie Dunagan), pushed the Monster into a molten
sulphur pit under his laboratory