Project 39 – Son of Frankenstein

Project 39 continues with the 70th anniversary of the release Rowland V. Lee’s Son of Frankenstein. In this third installment, Dr. Frankenstein’s son returns home to the family castle where the mysterious Ygor reveals that Dr. Frankenstein’s Monster is still very much alive.   Son of Frankenstein is an overlooked film in the Frankenstein franchise and is a surprisingly solid sequel to James Whale’s Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. With set productions by the great Jack Otterson of Dr. Caligari fame, Son is synonymous with cinematic expressionism: the film is all creeping shadows, dark corners, abstract angles and sinister fog and a cast that seems to have been concocted in a Transylvania test tube:  Basil Rathbone as Dr. Frankenstein’s son, Baron von Frankenstein, Bela Lugosi as Ygor, Lionel Atwill as Krogh and, of course, Boris Karloff as The Monster.  It is also a stand-alone sequel that does not require previous viewing to enjoy the plot and has the panache of the best 30s horror flicks.