The Ghost of Frankenstein | |
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Directed by | Erle C. Kenton |
Screenplay by | W. Scott Darling [1] |
Story by | Eric Taylor [1] |
Produced by | George Waggner [1] |
Starring | |
Cinematography | |
Edited by | Ted Kent [1] |
Music by | Hans J. Salter |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures Company, Inc. |
Release date |
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Running time | 67 minutes [1] |
Country | United States [2] |
Language | English |
The Ghost of Frankenstein is a 1942 American horror film directed by Erle C. Kenton [2] and starring Cedric Hardwicke, Lon Chaney Jr. and Bela Lugosi. It is the fourth film in the Frankenstein series by Universal Pictures, and the follow-up to Son of Frankenstein (1939). The film's plot follows the previous film's: Frankenstein's Monster (Lon Chaney Jr.) and his companion Ygor (Bela Lugosi) are chased out of town. They go to another small town to encourage the younger son of Henry Frankenstein (Cedric Hardwicke) to continue his father's experiments, so that Ygor can have revenge against his enemies and his brain transplanted into the Monster's skull.
The film was the first in the series with Chaney portraying the monster and was cast one day after the film was announced by Universal. It began production in December 1941 and finished in January 1942. On its release it received praise as being as strong as the previous films from The Hollywood Reporter and The Motion Picture Herald while it received negative reviews from New York Daily News and The New York Times .
The residents of Frankenstein's village feel they are under a curse and blame all their troubles on Frankenstein's monster. The Mayor allows them to destroy Frankenstein's castle. Ygor finds the monster released from his sulfuric tomb by the explosions. The exposure to the sulfur weakened yet preserved the monster. After fleeing the castle with Ygor, the monster is struck by a bolt of lightning. Ygor decides to find Ludwig, the second son of Henry Frankenstein, to help the monster regain his strength. Ludwig Frankenstein is a doctor who, along with his assistants Dr. Kettering and Dr. Theodore Bohmer, has a successful practice in Visaria. Bohmer was formerly Ludwig's teacher but is now his envious assistant.
Ygor and the monster arrive in Visaria, where the monster befriends a young girl, Cloestine Hussman. The monster carries her onto a roof to retrieve her ball, killing two villagers who attempt to intervene. After Cloestine asks the monster to bring her back down, the monster returns the girl to her father Herr Hussman and is captured by police. The town prosecutor, Erik Ernst, later asks Ludwig to examine the giant they have captured. Before he can, Ygor visits Ludwig and informs him that the giant is the monster. Ygor implores Ludwig to heal the monster's body and brain. Ludwig refuses, so Ygor blackmails him with the threat of revealing Ludwig's ancestry to the villagers.
At the police station, the monster is restrained with chains as a hearing is conducted to investigate the recent murders. When Ludwig denies recognizing the monster, it breaks free in a fit of rage, and is led away by Ygor.
Elsa, Ludwig's daughter, finds the Frankenstein journals and learns the story of the monster. She sees Ygor and the monster in the window, and after breaking into Ludwig's laboratory, the monster kills Dr. Kettering. The monster grabs Elsa, but Ludwig manages to subdue him with knockout gas. Ludwig is examining the monster when it awakens and tries to kill him. Ludwig tranquilizes the monster and then tries to enlist Bohmer's aid in dissecting him. Bohmer refuses, claiming it would be murder.
While studying his family's journals, Ludwig is visited by the ghost of his father, Henry Frankenstein. The spirit implores him to supply the monster with a good brain. Ludwig calls in Bohmer and Ygor and announces that he plans to put the deceased Dr. Kettering's brain into the monster's skull. Ygor protests that he will lose his friend, and offers his own brain for the experiment. Ludwig refuses, distrustful of Ygor's nature. Elsa begs Ludwig to stop his experiments, to no avail. Ygor tells Bohmer that he should not be subordinate to Ludwig. Ygor promises to help the disgraced doctor if he agrees to put Ygor's brain into the monster.
The police arrive at Ludwig's house, searching for the monster. They find the secret room, but Ygor and the monster have fled. The monster abducts Cloestine from her home and returns with her in his arms to Ludwig's chateau. The monster wants her brain to be placed in his head. Cloestine does not want to lose her brain, and the monster reluctantly gives her to Elsa. Ludwig then performs the surgery, not knowing that Bohmer has removed Ygor's brain, not Kettering's.
In the village, Herr Hussman rouses his neighbors by surmising his daughter has been captured by the monster and that Ludwig is harboring it. Ludwig shows the monster to Erik, but when the monster rises, Ludwig is shocked to hear that it has Ygor's voice. The villagers storm the chateau and the Ygor-Monster decides to have Bohmer fill the house with gas to kill them. Ludwig tries to stop him, but the Ygor-Monster repels the attack and mortally wounds Ludwig. The Ygor-Monster then goes blind, a complication due to a mismatch in blood type, according to Ludwig. Feeling betrayed, the Ygor-Monster throws Bohmer onto the apparatus, electrocuting him, and inadvertently sets fire to the chateau. The Ygor-Monster becomes trapped in the burning chateau while Erik and Elsa escape, walking out into the sunrise.
The Ghost of Frankenstein was announced from Universal Pictures on November 13, 1941, searching for a new lead to play the title role of the monster. [1] Originally Boris Karloff had been planned to reprise his role as Frankenstein's Monster but had scheduling conflicts with Arsenic and Old Lace . [2] The next day, producer George Waggner was instructed to order the same type of make-up that Karloff wore for the new actor portraying the monster with instructions that changing the appearance may "kill the interest of Frankenstein follower". [1] Lon Chaney, Jr. was chosen for the role of the Monster. [1] The film, which follows the storyline set up in Son of Frankenstein , [2] was the fourth part of Universal's Frankenstein series and was the last film in the series with Frankenstein's Monster as the sole monster. [1]
Early versions of the script were written by Eric Taylor, and included elements not used in the film, such as the return of Basil Rathbone's character from Son of Frankenstein. [3] Parts that existed in Taylor's original script included the Monster's bond with children, villagers storming a castle, a brain transplant sequence, and a fiery demise of the monster. [3] [4] Universal submitted its script to the Production Code Association under the title There's Always Tomorrow. [1] The censors there warned against excessive violence and reminded the studio that scenes set in Frankenstein's operating room and insanity ward would be deleted in England. [1]
The film went into production on December 14, 1941. [2] Chaney suffered a severe allergic reaction to the monster makeup applied by Jack Pierce and missed several days of shooting. [2] Janet Ann Gallow, who played Cloestine Hussman in the film, spoke about working with Chaney in 2005, stating that she spent a lot of time with Chaney, "riding his legs, his knees, sitting on his lap. He was nice, gentle with me and easy to work with - better than anyone else!" [5] She found working with Chaney was like working with a "favourite uncle". [5] When Gallow's mother died in 1946, Chaney offered to adopt her and her brother, which Gallow's father did not consent to. [5] Filming completed production in early January 1942. [2]
The Ghost of Frankenstien was distributed by the Universal Pictures Company on March 13, 1942. [1] [2] The film was banned in Denmark when Universal tried to release it there in 1948. [1]
The Ghost of Frankenstein was released on DVD as part of The Monster Legacy Collection and Frankenstein: The Legacy Collection on April 27, 2004. [6] It was released again as a double feature with Son of Frankenstein on July 24, 2007. [6]
From contemporary reviews, an anonymous reviewer from The Hollywood Reporter found the film can "stand on an imaginative par with all of its interest-gripping, quasi-scientific predecessors" and that Erle C. Kenton's direction "makes magnificent use of every element of suspense". [5] Another anonymous reviewer in The Motion Picture Herald opined that the film "maintains a standard of performance, effectiveness and quality exceeding the average for horror films by a considerable margin". [5] Wanda Hale of The New York Daily News described the film as "horrid, not horrendous and horribly boring even though a lot of good players [...] do the best they can with the dreadful material". [5] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times declared that the thought of Frankenstein's Monster returning in another film following The Ghost of Frankenstein "fills us with mortal terror. That is the most fearful prospect which the picture manages to convey". [5] [7]
From retrospective reviews, the authors of Universal Horrors noted that like The Mummy's Hand , the film showed Universal was "less interested in producing horror films than it was in churning out mere "monster movies" finding that horror films "at their best, offer a wide palette of interesting possibilities (nuance of character, hints of subtext, echoes of the folklore or literature that inspired it)" while "monster movies" removed "subtlety to serve hard-sell horror in the form of grotesque makeup, swooning heroines and/or rip-roaring action" and that The Ghost of Frankenstein offers "monster movie making at its classy best", noting that Son of Frankenstein was "a better film by any standard" and that while Ghost of Frankenstein was not as embraced by fans, "any criticism directed against [Ghost of Frankenstein] is deflected by the fact that it's so much fun to watch". [3] Craig Butler of AllMovie noted that the film was "a significant decline" for the series but "it's still passable entertainment (something that is not necessarily true of some later entries in the series)". [8] Butler specifically noted Chaney as the monster was "not exactly bad (and certainly better than others who have played the part), but he lacks the special magic that Karloff brought to the role; too often, he seems to be doing a Karloff imitation" and that "the rest of the cast is quite good, especially Bela Lugosi, turning in a delightful performance as Ygor, and an enjoyable Lionel Atwill. There's not much that anyone can do, however, with a script that is cobbled together with bits and pieces taken from here and there, or with direction that is efficient but bland". [8]
In 2005, the American Film Institute nominated Hans J. Salter's score for The Ghost of Frankenstein to be on their list of AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores. [9]
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó, known professionally as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian–American actor, best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror film classic Dracula, Ygor in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and his roles in many other horror films from 1931 through 1956.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is a 1948 American horror comedy film directed by Charles Barton. The film features Count Dracula who has become partners with Dr Sandra Mornay, in order to find a brain to reactivate Frankenstein's monster ; the ideal brain they find belonging to Wilbur Grey.
Frankenstein is a 1931 American pre-Code science fiction horror film directed by James Whale, produced by Carl Laemmle Jr., and adapted from a 1927 play by Peggy Webling, which in turn was based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The Webling play was adapted by John L. Balderston and the screenplay written by Francis Edward Faragoh and Garrett Fort, with uncredited contributions from Robert Florey and John Russell.
Creighton Tull Chaney, known by his stage name Lon Chaney Jr., was an American actor known for playing Larry Talbot in the film The Wolf Man (1941) and its various crossovers, Count Alucard in Son of Dracula, Frankenstein's monster in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), the Mummy in three pictures, and various other roles in many Universal horror films, including six films in their 1940s Inner Sanctum series, making him a horror icon. He also portrayed Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men (1939) and supporting parts in dozens of mainstream movies, including High Noon (1952), The Defiant Ones (1958), and numerous Westerns, musicals, comedies and dramas.
Frankenstein's monster, also referred to as Frankenstein, is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus as its main antagonist. Shelley's title compares the monster's creator, Victor Frankenstein, to the mythological character Prometheus, who fashioned humans out of clay and gave them fire.
The Wolf Man is a 1941 American gothic horror film written by Curt Siodmak and produced and directed by George Waggner. The film stars Lon Chaney Jr. in the title role. Claude Rains, Warren William, Ralph Bellamy, Patric Knowles, Bela Lugosi, Evelyn Ankers, and Maria Ouspenskaya star in supporting roles. The title character has had a great deal of influence on Hollywood's depictions of the legend of the werewolf. The film is the second Universal Pictures werewolf film, preceded six years earlier by the less commercially successful Werewolf of London (1935). This film is part of the Universal Monsters movies and is of great cinematic acclaim for its production.
Jack Pierce was a Hollywood make-up artist best remembered for creating the iconic makeup worn by Boris Karloff in Frankenstein (1931), along with various other classic monster make-ups for Universal Studios.
Igor, or sometimes Ygor, is a stock character, a sometimes hunch-backed laboratory assistant to many types of Gothic villains or as a fiendish character who assists only himself, the latter most prominently portrayed by Bela Lugosi in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942). He is familiar from many horror films and horror film parodies. He is traditionally associated with mad scientists, particularly Victor Frankenstein, although Frankenstein has neither a lab assistant nor any association with a character named Igor in the original Mary Shelley novel. The Igor of popular parlance is a composite character, based on characters created for the Universal Studios film franchise. In the first Frankenstein film (1931), Fritz served the role; in subsequent sequels, a different physically deformed character, Ygor, is featured, though Ygor is not an assistant in those films.
Ludwig Frankenstein is a fictional character who appears in the 1942 Universal horror film The Ghost of Frankenstein. He is played by Sir Cedric Hardwicke.
Son of Frankenstein is a 1939 American horror film directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. The film is the third in Universal Pictures' Frankenstein series and is the follow-up to the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein. Son of Frankenstein stars Rathbone as Baron Wolf von Frankenstein who, with his wife Elsa and son Peter, returns to his late father's estate. Near the castle lives Ygor, a crazed blacksmith whose neck was broken in an unsuccessful hanging attempt. Among the castle's remains, Frankenstein discovers the remains of the Monster and decides to try to save his family name by resurrecting the creature to prove his father was correct. He finds, however, the Monster only responds to Ygor's commands.
Black Friday is a 1940 American science fiction horror film starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.
The Invisible Ray is a 1936 American science-fiction horror film directed by Lambert Hillyer. It stars Boris Karloff as Dr. Janos Rukh, a scientist who comes in contact with a meteorite composed of an element known as "Radium X". After exposure to its rays begins to make him glow in the dark, his touch becomes deadly, and he begins to be slowly driven mad. Alongside Karloff, the film's cast includes Bela Lugosi, Frances Drake, Frank Lawton, Walter Kingsford, Beulah Bondi, Violet Kemble Cooper, and Nydia Westman.
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man is a 1943 American horror film directed by Roy William Neill and starring Lon Chaney Jr. as Larry Talbot and Bela Lugosi as Frankenstein's monster. The script, written by Curt Siodmak, follows The Ghost of Frankenstein and The Wolf Man, though with a number of retcons. Most significantly, Talbot only transforms into werewolf form during a full moon, which became a standard part of werewolf lore. The film involves Larry Talbot, who is brought back to life when his tomb is disturbed. His search for a way to end his seeming immortality leads to his befriending Frankenstein's monster.
House of Frankenstein is a 1944 American horror film starring Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr. and John Carradine. It was directed by Erle C. Kenton and produced by Universal Pictures. Based on Curt Siodmak's story "The Devil's Brood", the film is about Dr. Gustav Niemann, who escapes from prison and promises to create a new body for his assistant Daniel. Over the course of the film, they encounter Count Dracula, the Wolf Man and Frankenstein's monster. The film is a sequel to Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943).
House of Dracula is a 1945 American horror film released and distributed by Universal Pictures. Directed by Erle C. Kenton, the film features several Universal Horror properties meeting as they had done in the 1944 film House of Frankenstein. The film is set at the castle home of Dr. Franz Edelmann, who is visited first by Count Dracula and later by Larry Talbot, the Wolf Man, who are trying to cure their vampirism and lycanthropy, respectively. Talbot is eventually cured, which leads him to discover the body of Frankenstein's monster in a cave below the base of the castle. Edelemann takes the monster's body back to his laboratory but finds Count Dracula has awakened and by attacking his assistants, he captures Edelmann and forces a reverse blood transfusion, which gives Edelmann a split personality and makes him a killer.
The Mummy's Tomb is a 1942 American horror film directed by Harold Young and starring Lon Chaney Jr. as Kharis the mummy. Taking place 30 years after the events of The Mummy's Hand, where Andoheb has survived and plans revenge on Stephen Banning and his entire family in Mapleton, Massachusetts. With the help of the high priest Mehemet Bey, Andoheb and the mummy Kharis Bey takes up a job as a caretaker of a graveyard. At the first full moon, the mummy is fed tanna leaves which allow him to break into the Banning residence and kill the now elderly Stephen. Banning's son then seeks assistance from Babe Hanson, one of the members of the original Banning expedition to Egypt to stop Andoheb and Kharis.
Murders in the Rue Morgue is a 1932 American horror film directed by Robert Florey, based on Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". The plot is about Doctor Mirakle, a carnival sideshow entertainer and scientist who kidnaps Parisian women to mix their blood with that of his gorilla, Erik. As his experiments fail because of the quality of his victims' blood, Mirakle meets with Camille L'Espanye, and has her kidnapped and her mother murdered, leading to suspicion falling on Camille's fiance, Pierre Dupin, a medical student who has already become interested in the earlier murders.
Man-Made Monster is a 1941 American science-fiction horror film directed by George Waggner and produced by Jack Bernhard for Universal Pictures. Filmed in black-and-white, it stars Lon Chaney Jr. and Lionel Atwill. Man-Made Monster was re-released under various titles including Electric Man and The Mysterious Dr. R. Realart Pictures re-released the film in 1953 under the title The Atomic Monster as a double feature with The Flying Saucer (1950). On the film's original main title, there is no hyphen; it's simply Man Made Monster.
Frankenstein is a film series of horror films from Universal Pictures based on the play version by Peggy Webling and the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley. The series follow the story of a monster created by Henry Frankenstein who is made from body parts of corpses and brought back to life. The rest of the series generally follows the monster continuously being revived and eventually focuses on a series of cross overs with other Universal horror film characters such as The Wolf Man. The series consists of the following films: Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Son of Frankenstein (1939), The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), House of Frankenstein (1944), House of Dracula (1945) and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).
Dracula is a film series of horror films from Universal Pictures based on the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker and its 1927 play adaptation. Film historians had various interpretations of what constitutes being in the film series, with Ken Hanke finding that only Dracula (1931), Dracula's Daughter (1936), and Son of Dracula (1943) could be considered a part of any series while Gary D. Rhodes included House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945), stating these films would require an audience to be familiar with Count Dracula portrayed by Bela Lugosi and the various character traits the actor established in the original 1931 film.