Of all the Universal monsters, The Bride has the least amount of screen time, and yet she is one of the most memorable thanks to excellent Jack Pierce make up and a wonderful performance by Elsa Lanchester. Dressed in a long white shroud, with her hair pointing straight up at the ceiling, she is eerily beautiful, but she doesn't think the same about her mate, The Monster. The site of him sends her into a panic, and its no wonder that he decides to end it all by blowing up the laboratory. (A note to mad scientists - easily accessible self-destruct levers are a bad idea.)
SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939) is the last movie in which Boris Karloff played the Monster. It seems to take place some years after THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, as Henry Frankenstein is now dead and his son, Wolf (of course), is a full grown man, and soon to be full-fledged mad scientist. The film was not directed by the great James Whale, who helmed the first two films, but by Rowland V. Lee, who specialized in costumes dramas such as THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (1934) and THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1935). He doesn't have the flair of Whale, but there is sufficient fun in the strange, shadowy angular sets and the cast of bizarre characters.
Lionel Atwill plays Inspector Krogh, the constable with an artificial arm (which serves as a handy place for holding your darts while playing a friendly game with Wolf Frankenstein.) As he explains to Wolf, he lost his arm after a tussle with the Monster years ago, and adds with dramatic understatement "One doesn't easily forget an arm torn out by its roots."
Bela Lugosi creates his most memorable character since Count Dracula in Ygor, the crazy, broken-necked body snatcher who is nursing the Monster back to health. Lugosi had a bad habit of either chewing up the scenery or sleepwalking through his films, but when he was handed a good part, which wasn't often enough, he proved himself to be in the same league as Karloff at instilling creepy characters with personality and dignity.
Karloff is given little to do as the Monster, as for at least half of the film he is in a coma. His hair has grown back and is a little too neatly trimmed and dyed a touch too dark, and he is now sporting a horrible sheepskin poncho. The new look does not suit him well, and this, plus the long delay in the movie before he is up and about and doing things, makes this a rather lesser film than its illustrious predecessors. Karloff does have some magnificent moments, such as when he sees himself in the mirror and is depressed at how ugly he is compared to the handsome Wolf. Later, his agonized, gut wrenching scream when he finds Ygor dead is one of the series' most heartbreaking scenes.
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