Ghost of Frankenstein
1942, US, Directed by Erle C Kenton
Black & White, Running Time: 65 minutes
DVD, Region 2, Universal, Video: 1.33:1, Audio: Mono
After watching this film you can almost imagine somebody at Universal coming up with a great title and then trying to figure out how it could be justified in the screenplay, hence the suspiciously token appearance at one point of Henry’s apparition giving out some post-mortem advice to Ludwig, his son (the other one; Basil Rathbone is nowhere to be seen here). Looking at the running time it might be easy to begin worrying - while the third film was one of Universal’s longest of the period the first couple of films are hardly epics, but now at a meagre sixty five minutes had the monster run out of steam? While Son of… carefully constructs a build up over a thirty minute period to the monster’s reawakening, this film barely wastes a few minutes as the now obligatory mob of angry villagers (don’t these people ever move on?) take it on themselves to blow up the castle where the monster’s remains lie buried in solidified sulphur, while a surviving Ygor still roams the vicinity. Of course the very actions that are intended to destroy actually result in the release of the thing they detest - Ygor manages to get the stumbling creature out as the castle is razed. The odd couple make their way to another town where their exploits are less likely to be known but it’s hard to maintain stealth when one is accompanied by a seven foot green man with a flat head (not to mention being a hunchback with a broken neck oneself), so upon attempting to rescue the toy of a young girl the creature is rapidly apprehended and imprisoned. Brought to court the monster is angered by the appearance of someone it thinks it recognises: Ludwig, the brother of the son of the man (the family ties are starting to get a little longwinded here…) who gave him life in the first place. The monster breaks free of its chains into the hands of the ever-present Ygor. Deciding to make amends for the chaos caused by the inadvertent implantation of an abnormal brain into the monster Ludwig reasons that a normal brain will make the monster rational. But the sharper-than-you’d-expect Ygor decides that it’s his brain that should go in the monster thus bringing them together forever, and so formulates a plan to execute his idea.
Again the continuity is nice though not always accurate - Ludwig claims that the monster drove his brother into exile but Wolf looked happy enough at the end of the last film and the monster had been trapped in sulphur since then. Ygor just isn’t going to die any time soon either, having apparently been wiped out in the previous film he’s back (though that neck hasn’t healed up yet) and still carrying that bloody horn. Boris Karloff is gone forever, wisely avoiding continuation with the series - in his place staggers Universal’s latest star of fright, Lon Chaney Junior. Problem is, just as with Son of Dracula, Chaney just doesn’t seem to be very good in this role, blundering around like an imbecile with little of the talent that Karloff managed to display in the same role. Of course it doesn’t really help that the direction and script are of little worth - you can’t polish manure and I suppose even Karloff contributing couldn’t have made this film much better. It was reported that Chaney repeatedly complained about the prosthetic on his forehead to the point of eventually losing his temper with it and ripping it off (along with a large slice of skin). Pretty ironic considering the torment his father used to put himself through for the sake of authentic characterisation. Perhaps hinting at the real nature of the monster, as with a couple of the other films there’s the prominent presence of a child - she almost brings a little hope when it looks like she may be able to communicate with the creature at the courtroom, and later it kidnaps her once realising that it’s going to be on the receiving end of a new brain, the intention being to have hers (her facial expression here is priceless - see JPEG above). If the film has anything at all going for it, it occurs with the realisation that Ludwig has not implanted the brain he thought but that of Ygor, i.e. the monster finally speaks but with Ygor’s voice - it’s almost a chilling moment. The fact that Ygor realises he’s now blind also helps to set up elements of next chapter. Other than that this film is completely pedestrian and can safely be considered the nadir of the whole series.
It was once, years ago, a known DVD irony that the worst films often fare the best and that’s the case here, at least as far as the transfer’s concerned. The image is better than any of the previous films, exhibiting a near perfect contrast balance and large amounts of detail. Ghost of Frankenstein is a pure cash-in if ever there was one but does contain one functional narrative idea that works well and is of some relevance to the series (the insertion of Ygor’s brain into the monster), but it’s not enough to rescue a bad film. Thankfully there was much better to come as the monster’s ultimate conflict loomed just around the corner…