ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

The third film in the famous series is, like the monster itself, a combination of both good and bad elements.

The good part of the film is the cast, the sets, the production values, and the sincerity with which they are all applied by director Rowland V. Lee. Basil Rathbone is perfectly cast as the grown-up son of Victor Frankenstein, returning to his ancestral castle with wife and son.

Rathbone's ability to play a man of minimum emotions and maximum logic earned him the long-running role of Sherlock Holmes. As Wolf Von Frankenstein, Rathbone develops a keen interest in the notorious experiments of his father, despite warnings from the local police inspector (Lionel Atwill), who shows Rathbone the artificial arm he must wear because his real arm was ripped off by the monster.

Rathbone meets an old shepherd named Ygor (Bela Lugosi in one of his best performances), whose neck is deformed by an unsuccessful hanging he survived after being convicted of body-snatching. Lugosi shows Rathbone the hiding place of the monster's unconscious body, in the Frankenstein family crypt beneath the castle. Rathbone revives the monster (Boris Karloff's last appearance in the role), but Lugosi secretly uses the monster to resume his systematic elimination of the jurors who convicted him.

"Son of Frankenstein's" nightmarish photography, surrealistic sets, and odd lighting give it a delightfully gothic look. The plot is rich in the atmospheric mood of the genre.

But on the down side of all this is the way the film demotes the monster to a mere homicidal weapon, wielded by Lugosi. The monster isn't even allowed to speak (as he did in "Bride of Frankenstein"). This change in character was the sad beginning of the monster's subsequent portrayals as little more than a malfunctioning robot.

The superhuman strength to which later films make frequent reference is clearly an exaggeration of the original concept. The essence of the Frankenstein monster was supposed to be his tortured, unpredictable brain.

Fault-finding aside, "Son of Frankenstein" is a powerhouse motion picture, a delight to horror fans and a fascinating chapter in this classic multi-movie saga. It was originally intended as Universal's first Technicolor feature, but color tests revealed that Karloff's makeup didn't photograph well. Dwight Frye appears in the color tests but was not cast in the final film.

Followed by a sequel: "Ghost of Frankenstein" (1942).
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Enjoy this high quality two-minute clip from the horror classic!

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_______________________Son of Frankenstein


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

[Bud Brewster]

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Holy Cow, what a great photo. I couldn't ask for better composition or poses if I wanted to do a drawing or painting for this movie!

Imagine this as a painting in rich colors.



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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The interesting IMDB trivia item below seems to have some contradictions. It refutes the claims we've heard that Son of Frankenstein wasn't shot in color because Karloff's makeup looked too green.

It further states that Karloff's family home movies "shot on the set of the film reveal the Monster's coloration to be grayish with subtle highlights and shadows of blue-green and brick red."

However, Youtube actually has the film in question, and it clear shows the makeup actually was green! So, now we don't know what to believe!

Here's the IMDB item and the Youtube video.
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Plans were discussed to shoot the film in Technicolor, but the decision was made to revert to black and white; both director Lee and co-star Josephine Hutchinson verified in later years that the film was designed for, and shot in monochrome.

Urban myth has it that Karloff's make-up photographed bright green and was a primary reason for shooting in black and white. An urban myth has it that Dwight Frye was in the Technicolor test reel and was subsequently dropped from the cast.

In the late 1980s a reel of Technicolor test footage was discovered in Universal's vaults, but was either stolen from the desk of the executive who was in possession of it (according to one story) or simply boxed back up by bureaucrats and shipped to a New Jersey film vault (according the film archivist who actually found the reel.)

Karloff family home movies shot on the set of the film reveal the Monster's coloration to be grayish with subtle highlights and shadows of blue-green and brick red. The brief clips show Karloff in Monster make-up sticking his tongue out at the camera and pretending to strangle make-up artist Jack P. Pierce can be seen on the CD-ROM The Interactive History of Frankenstein (1995) and 100 Years of Horror (1996), courtesy of Sara Karloff.
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_Son of Frankenstein: Boris Karloff & Jack Pierce Colour Test


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

Well, it definitely is GREEN .

More realistic would be a sickly grey or a mottled white. Green patches of mold etc. could work too.

[alltare]

That photo sure looks colorized to me.

[Bud Brewster]

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Actually it's just the thumbnail from the Youtube video, which is the 1939 color test (or a home movie, depending on who describes it) that Karloff shot on the set.

The picture below is a screen grab from it. So, unless the whole film has been "colorized" and the story of this being in color test is bogus, this is what Karloff looked like in Jack Pierce's makeup.



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[The Spike]

Son Of Frankenstein, directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Basil Rathbone as Baron Frankenstein, Boris Karloff as The Monster (his last turn as the creature), Lionel Atwill as Inspector Krogh and Bela Lugosi as Ygor. That's quite a cast list, add in a sharp script from Willis Cooper and the stunning sets from Russell Gausman, and you got a sequel that's well worth its salt.

Following on from Bride Of Frankenstein (25 years later), the film sees son of Frankenstein Baron Wolf von Frankenstein (Rathbone) return to the family home and scene of his fathers monstrosities. Receiving a less than lukewarm reception on arrival, Wolf is presented with a box containing his fathers papers. After being told in no uncertain terms that continuing his fathers work will not be tolerable, Wolf laughs off the notion. However, the next day he's out wandering in the ruins and comes across Ygor, his dead fathers assistant. Where it's revealed that "The Monster" is still alive but very much comatose. Wolf then becomes obsessed with bringing the monster back to full life, thus to prove his father had the right intention but not the right execution of his ideas.

It's a ripper of a sequel is this, perhaps lacking in the humour that James Whale brought to the first two films, it is however a well constructed feature boasting great performances from Rathbone (the part was originally planned for Peter Lorre), Lionel Atwill (having a riot with his false arm) and Lugosi (possibly a career high in terms of substance). Lee stamps his own marker on the piece and I think the nicest thing one can say is that his film sits well along side Whale's classics. The only let down is actually Karloff's monster, stripped of voice at Karloff's insistence, the monster is now reduced to being a lumbering robot. It's not a fitting farewell to the great work that Karloff did with this quite brilliant creation on page and screen. 8/10
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The quality of mercy is not strnen.

[Bud Brewster]

[Pow]

Universal Studios MONSTERS: A Legacy of Horror by Michael Mallory.

Bela Lugosi took on a part so radically different from Dracula that some moviegoers had a hard time recognizing him.

Basil Rathbone, who was billed above Karloff and Lugosi, was known to loathe horror films, which is perhaps why his performance as Wolf is so shrill and uncharacteristically hammy.

Bela Lugosi, for a change, fared much better, taking what had originally been a small part and turning it into a major presence in the film.

Lugosi's Ygor is as evil and devious as the script demanded, but also surprisingly and perversely funny.

Seeing what the actor was up to early in the filming, the delighted Rowland Lee responded by building up the part of Ygor day-by-day on the set, to the point where Lugosi walks away with the picture.

Ever the purist where his Monster was concerned, Boris Karloff concluded after The Son of Frankenstein that "there was not much left of the character of the monster to be developed.''

Except for an appearance at a Hollywood charity baseball game in 1940, an unused dream sequence cameo in the 1947 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (to which the actor may have agreed simply to give work to the just-laid-off makeup wizard Jack Pierce), and a 1962 episode of television's Route 66, Karloff never wore the Monster makeup again.

What did delight Karloff during the filming of Son of Frankenstein was the birth of his only child, Sara lane, on November 23, 1938, his 51st birthday. Frankenstein may have had a son, but the Monster had a daughter.

[Bud Brewster]

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Joe Dante has interesting things to say about this movie, based on his fond memories of it from his childhood. The YouTube video is short and entertaining.
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________ Joe Dante on SON OF FRANKENSTEIN


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[tmlindsey]

I don't remember where I read it now, but I read a long time ago that green makeup was used in older B&W films for certain "effects" on many actors, and that it was somewhat common, not just in horror films. In Karloff's case it was so his complexion was visibly different from the rest of the cast and was intended to look deathly white on film.

Here's an interesting article about Max Factor's "horrifying" makeups for television.
https://cosmeticsandskin.com/aba/max-and-the-tube.php

And another talking about early film and coloring.
https://cosmeticsandskin.com/cdc/panchromatic.php

Makeup, like clothing and sets, have to be adjusted for B&W, color, whatever. Just like Superman's brown-and-grey costume had to be replaced for color shoots.

I imagine if they had decided to shoot SOF in color, he would not have been green.

I think the 'Frankenstein is green' thing stems from publicity photos revealing the makeup coloring, and because The Munsters constantly refer to the coloring as green.
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"Have you never wondered what it would be like to walk between the ticks and tocks of Time?"

[Bud Brewster]

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Tim, scroll up to the top of this page and read the post I made that has this jpeg.



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[tmlindsey]