The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)

Film: The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
Stars: Lon Chaney, Jr., Cedric Hardwicke, Ralph Bellamy, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, Evelyn Ankers
Director: Eric C. Kenton
Oscar History: No Nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

We continue on our month of classic horror frights with yet another trip to Frankenstein's castle, our fourth this month (in many ways this has more become the month of Frankenstein, as we will definitely be visiting the castle at least once more before Halloween on Wednesday).  This installment is unique compared to our other three visits, though, as we for the first time are going without Boris Karloff.  Karloff, fearing that there was nothing left to say about the creature, decided to quit playing the character, and wouldn't revise the role until the 1960's in an episode of Route 66.  As a result, while we have the return of Bela Lugosi's Igor, we are instead treated to our first visit from Lon Chaney, Jr., another major star of the Universal Horror films, albeit one that I'm less thrilled about than Karloff or Lugosi.  Because while Ghost of Frankenstein has its moments (and arguably the most famous call sheet we've seen on one of these movies), it's by-far the least of the movies in the series thus far and doesn't bode well for House of Frankenstein, our next visit in this series with the monster.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film starts, once again, with a group of angry villagers complaining about Frankenstein's monster (Chaney) cursing their land and causing them hardships.  Despite being, well, dead, they claim that Igor (Lugosi) is still at the castle, and as long as the castle stands, they will continue to endure troubles.  The village elders (several of whom died in the last film, perhaps the picture's most notable continuity error), eventually give in to the mob, and they storm the castle, tearing it apart brick by brick.  Igor is there to fortify it, but once he sees the monster come alive from the rubble, he flees the castle with him in tow, trying to track down Dr. Frankenstein's other son (the one that isn't Basil Rathbone's Wolf, and has conveniently never been mentioned until now), played by Sir Cedric Hardwicke, who is at first reluctant to try to help the monster but haunted by his father's memory, he sets about trying to correct the monster, making him be a decent human being through a brain transplant of one of his recently-deceased colleagues.  Eventually Igor manipulates himself into getting the brain transplant for himself, becoming the monster but then going blind because he isn't the right blood type, eventually burning down the house with Ludwig and the Ygor-Monster inside.  There's also, like most of these films, a subplot involving a beautiful woman (Ludwig's daughter, played by Ankers), and a local lug (Ralph Bellamy once again coming to the rescue), but even by horror movie standards this feels a bit tacked-on and unnecessary.

The Universal horror movies always lived-or-died based off of the charisma of the actors playing the monsters and the cheap thrills that they're able to elicit.  This film is an odd juxtaposition in that regard, since Lugosi's Igor is such a sturdy creation, a more impressive achievement, in my opinion, than his Dracula (it stands out in a stronger way).  The plot lines revolving around Igor are ridiculous-that he's able to continually manipulate everyone around him as if he's simply a normal human being, rather than a scheming man and murderer rubbing his hands together offscreen while mumbling his plan, is beyond absurd, but beneath the makeup you can tell that Lugosi was a strong stage actor as he hams it up wonderfully for the camera.  Honestly-Igor is a more terrifying creation than the monster ever could be, since he walks among us and seems to always be hatching a plan to create more violence and chaos.

But Chaney's creature is an enormous step down from Karloff's monster.  Karloff was an accomplished film star, one who never would have taken off were it not for his work in the Universal horror films, but was an actor with skill who always brought something to his performances.  Lon Chaney, Jr., well, had a very famous father.  Chaney's monster has none of Karloff's soul or tenderness, making him appear a sympathetic-but-complicated figure, and instead has him lumbering like a giant doll the whole film, with his arms outstretched (I believe this is the first time we see this now iconic image of the monster with his arms out-stretched, his wrists limp, marching forward).  Chaney's performance is, well, terrible, not just because it pales in comparison to Karloff's because it's not that good on its own.  Thankfully Universal didn't start with him in this role, because it wouldn't have had such strong franchise films up until this point in the series if they had.  Lugosi's Igor makes this film worth checking out, but it's not very good, and despite real actors in the supporting roles (Hardwicke was a knight, for crying out loud!), Lugosi is the only reason this film should exist.

This Month We Are Seeing As Many Classic Horror Movies from the Pre-1970 Era as Possible.  If you want to check out some of our past reviews, here they are:

Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Dracula, Mad Love, Son of Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Mummy, Freaks