Son of Frankenstein (1939)

Country of Origin: USA
Year of Production: 1939
Running Times: 99m
Length: black and white 35mm
Format: 35mm
Colour Format: black and white
Ratio: 1.37:1
Sound: mono

DIRECTION

Directed by: Rowland V. Lee

PRODUCTION
Copyright: MCMXXXIX [1939] by Universal Pictures Company, Inc.
Production Company: A Universal picture  Universal presents  A Rowland V. Lee production

SCRIPT
Original Screen Play: Willis Cooper
Suggested by the story written in 1816 by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

DIRECTION
Assistant Director: Fred Frank

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: George Robinson

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Film Editor: Ted Kent

MUSIC
Musical Score: Frank Skinner
Musical Director: Charles Previn
Music Arranged by: Hans J. Salter [uncredited]

SOUND
Sound Supervisor: Bernard B. Brown
[Sound] Technician: William Hedgcock
Western Electric Mirrorphonic Recording

COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP
Gowns: Vera West

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Jack Otterson
Associate [Art Director]: Richard H. Riedel
Set Decorations: R.A. Gausman

STUNTS
Stunts: Bud Wolfe [uncredited]

CAST

Basil Rathbone (Baron Wolf von Frankenstein)
Boris Karloff (The Monster)
Bela Lugosi (Ygor)

with
Lionel Atwill (Inspector Krogh)
Josephine Hutchinson (Elsa von Frankenstein)
Donnie Dunagan (Peter von Frankenstein)

Emma Dunn (Amelia)
Edgar Norton (Thomas Benson)
Perry Ivins (Fritz)
Lawrence Grant (burgomaster)

UNCREDITED CAST

Lionel Belmore (Emil Lang)
Michael Mark (Ewald Neumuller)
Caroline Frances Cooke (Mrs Neumuller)
Gustav von Seyffertitz, Lorimer Johnston, Tom Ricketts (burghers)
Harry Cording (gendarme)
Clarence Wilson (Dr Berger)
Ward Bond (gendarme at gate)
Dwight Frye (scene deleted)

Wolf von Frankenstein, the son of the late Henry Frankenstein and his wife return to the family estate to a hostile reception from the locals. He finds the hunchbacked shepherd Ygor hiding in the castle and he shows Wolf where the monster is, lying comatose in the lab. Wolf tries to revive the monster and at first thinks he has failed - but who, or what, is killing the members of the jury that sent Ygor to the gallows, a failed hanging that led to his disfigurement?

Karloff's final appearance as the monster is something of a triumph, a good-looking and well-plotted movie that went some way to resurrecting the increasingly moribund Universal horrors. The stately pace may seem date now, but the power of some of the individual scenes, particularly the excellent finale, cannot be denied.

AVAILABILITY

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Universal Pictures; Realart Pictures Inc; Film Classics Inc
Video Distributor: MCA

Finland
Rating: banned in 1939

USA
Rating: approved
MPAA: 4987

1939
January
13: USA - theatrical release

1996
September
21: UK - television broadcast (on BBC1)

Il figlio di Frankenstein - Italian title
Frankensteins Sohn - German title

SEQUEL TO
Frankenstein (1931)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

SEQUELS
The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
House of Frankenstein (1944)
House of Dracula (1945)

SEE ALSO
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Bride of the Monster (1956)
Frankenstein (1910)
Frankenstein (1973)
Frankenstein (1984)
Frankenstein (1992)
Frankenstein (1994)
Frankenstein 90 (1984)
Frankenstein The True Story (1973)
Frankenstein Unbound (1990)
Life Without Soul (1915)
Il mostro di Frankenstein (1920)
Young Frankenstein (1974)

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
100 Years of Horror (1996)
The American Nightmare (2000)
Coming Soon (1982)
The Horror Hall of Fame (1990)
Universal Horror (1998)

BOOKS

Aurum Encyclopedia of Film: Horror (2nd edition) pp.70-71
credits, illustrated review

Universal Horrors
credits, article (by Michael Brunas, John Brunas and Tom Weaver)

disfigurement, frankenstein monster, revenge, scientists, shepherds

Last Updated: 6 January, 2010