ghost of frankenstein

Your father was Frankenstein, but your mother was the lightning! She has come to you again.

I was wondered how Ygor knew about Ludwig Frankenstein, son of Henry, a specialist in "diseases of the mind". Human brain, removed from a skull, repaired through surgery, and replaced. A successful operation by Ludwig, known well, reputed as able to cure the ills of a sick mind. This all sets up the possibility that Frankenstein's Monster could have a proper brain "installed", the crippled, criminal brain removed for good.

But...I made a slight miscalculation.

Cedric Hardwicke's Ludwig is rather coldly essayed to us, but he's a humane man, rationally taking what has been considered a curse to everyone and hopes (thanks to the convincing of his father's ghost, a rather odd--but fascinating--touch, played not by Colin Clive, who was deceased, but by Hardwicke...) that his own contribution to his father's work can restore his family's legacy. But because of his surgical companion, Dr. Bohmer (played by Lionel Atwill, in one of his best Universal Studios' performances), who was still stewing from losing a patient during surgery which, despite the tragedy that resulted, paved the way to Ludwig's success, sees power thanks to Ygor's devious convincing (wanting to have the body of the Monster to use for his own evil purposes) and the chance to overtake Frankenstein in the surgical field. Because of his blind ambition, though, Bohmer fails to realize that Ygor's brain and the Monster might not collesce as a unit, resulting in tragedy for practically everyone involved.

While he lives...no one is safe.

A film about Frankenstein's Monster never ends well with anyone associated with the scientist who brought it to life. At the very beginning, the village which used to be home to Baron Frankenstein and his son, Henry, now considers their name a curse, the root cause of their current suffering. As long as the Monster is allowed to remain intact, body parts still stitched as a whole being, the Frankenstein name will remain synonymous with terror, destruction, and death. Ghost of Frankenstein is no different. Ludwig had moved far away, thought his life and daughter's could be free from the foul stinch that permeates from the name of his ancesters, and his work had been a benefit to mankind, not a detriment. No matter how far you run, it seems, no matter how far you flee, if you are a Frankenstein, trouble often more than not follows.

What if it had....another brain?

"You could put my brain in his Body." Ygor
"Your brain?" Ludwig
"You can make us one. We'll be together always, my brain and his body...together." Ygor
"You're a cunning fellow, Ygor. Do you think that I'd put your sly and sinister brain into the body of a giant? Huh, that would be a monster indeed!" Ludwig.





I was always curious as to why Ygor speaks often in third person. I was amused by it, for sure. I think the film works best when Ygor and Ludwig are in the same room, very different personalities, wholly different agendas.

There's a moment where Ludwig ponders whether or not his dead lab assistant, Kettering, would appreciate finding his brain in the body of the Monster...I like his description of the Monster, a "human junk heap".

I have restored the good name of Frankenstein

There's a scene where Hardwicke fully exhibits the acknowledgment of failure, admitting to himself and Bellamy that thanks to factors contributed by Bohmer and Ygor, he has, through his genius, made the Monster 100 times worse than it ever was. Ygor and Bohmer both pay for their sins, but so does Ludwig. There's a stunning scene where the Vasaria castle of Ludwig Frankenstein is an inferno, flames rising throughout its walls, as Bellamy and Ackers climb up a hill as it burns away from a distance, soon forwarding towards a beautiful sunrise; this is probably director Earl C Kenton's finest touch, given the Universal Studios cheapest budgets with throwaway characters now creatively lacking the same panache once endowed.

Lon Chaney Jr. as the Monster, not one of his better performances. He portrays the Monster as just a hulking behemoth that damages and harms, in essence, completely ruining all of the pathos and humanity incorporated into the character by Karloff. Glenn Strange never even got the chance to put a stamp on the Monster, but Chaney Jr had plenty of on screen time to add dimension to the character, setting the tone for how the creature would diminish in quality for the rest of the Universal films featuring it.