Faces of Frankenstein: The Universal Years
By Brian Keiper
Previous ⬅ Faces of Frankenstein | The Innovation and Influence of James Whale’s ‘Frankenstein’
Frankenstein was a massive hit for Universal, raking in 12 million at the domestic box office and ranking number three (after City Lights and The Champ) of the top moneymakers of 1931.* Even before its release, talk of a sequel began when a very positive preview in Santa Barbara on October 29, 1931, led to a reshoot of the ending. Originally, Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) died after being thrown from the windmill by his creation. The reshoot included a comic scene involving his father (Frederick Kerr) having a toast with the servants as Henry convalesces in the background. The road to the eventual sequel was long and winding but eventually led to one of the greatest horror films of all time. Despite the law of diminishing returns which inevitably sets in on long-running series, the franchise to follow is surprisingly strong, which is in many ways a testament to the greatness of the first two films.
The Monster Demands a Mate
If James Whale was reluctant to make Frankenstein, he was dead set against making a sequel. “I squeezed the idea dry on the original picture and never want to work on it again,” he said after the success of the first film. Eager for any opportunity, Robert Florey (the director that Whale replaced on Frankenstein) wrote a seven-page treatment that was quickly dismissed after the failure of his Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932). Florey was dismissed along with it. In 1933, Tom Reed was asked to come up with a sequel and produced a fifty-one-page treatment, “The Return of Frankenstein,” which he revised into a script that was submitted to and approved by the Hays office. Director Kurt Neumann was attached to the project which Universal officially announced in September of 1933. Then James Whale’s The Invisible Man was released to great success and Carl Laemmle, Jr. wanted his crackerjack horror director back on the Frankenstein sequel.
Whale hated the script, saying “it stinks to high Heaven,” and felt similarly about two absurd drafts that followed by L.G. Blochman (which had newlyweds Henry and Elizabeth Frankenstein hiding with a traveling circus) and Philip MacDonald (which saw Henry create a death ray for the League of Nations). Whale asked John L. Balderston, who had played important roles in shaping the scripts for Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Mummy, to write a screenplay. Balderston returned to Mary Shelley’s novel, focusing on Frankenstein’s refusal to create a mate for the Creature. As was the case with the original film, the script was handed off to three more writers: R.C. Sherriff, William Hurlbut, and Edmund Pearson before Whale was satisfied. Even then, it faced more revisions from Joseph I. Breen, the man tasked with finally enforcing the Hays Code, who asked for relatively minor changes in dialogue and the number of murders depicted in the film.
Likely what ultimately enticed Whale to make Bride of Frankenstein was the fact that Universal gave him complete creative control and support. He ultimately created a layered, sophisticated horror/comedy that has become one of the few sequels to surpass the original and one of the most influential horror films ever made in its own right. To many, it remains not only the greatest Universal monster movie but the greatest Frankenstein movie of all time. It is filled with themes of outsiders, loneliness, obsession, rejection of the religious establishment, homosexual identity, and much more. But it is also one hell of a story filled with remarkable performances from the top-billed actors to the tiniest supporting characters.
In Bride, Boris Karloff gives his greatest performance as the Creature, though he objected to the fact that he was given the ability to speak. The portrayal is remarkably nuanced, showing great emotional range throughout the course of the film. Clive’s reprisal of Henry Frankenstein is more tortured than in the original, bringing the homosexual subtext of his character to a new level here. He knows that if drawn back to his lab, he will fall back into a state of obsession, so he resists until the Mephistophelean character of Dr. Pretorius forces his hand.
Whale regular Ernest Thesiger gives the Frankenstein series its first true villain with Pretorius, a conniving, but utterly charming madman who will stop at nothing to achieve his ends. Though a blackmailer, manipulator, and murderous puppet master, he is one of the most likable characters of the series, disarming the audience with his playful perversity and offhand blasphemies. Through this character, Whale was able to sneak quite a bit past the censors in the form of charming, impish wit, much of which may have simply gone over their heads. He also introduces the film’s most subversive themes, particularly involving religion and homosexuality, through the character of Pretorius.
The film also introduces classic horror cinema’s one truly iconic female monster in the Bride, played by Elsa Lanchester in a performance that is sometimes overlooked but is truly a marvel. Basing her jerky head turns on the movements of birds and the final hiss she gives directly to the camera on the hiss of a swan, Lanchester takes full advantage of her few minutes of screen time. Her makeup was once again designed by master monster-maker Jack Pierce who conceived the electro-shocked, lightening streaked hair, the cherry-kissed lips, and the delicate scar along the underside of her jawline which he reportedly applied with great care.
Though there was certainly no love connection between the Monster and his intended mate, Bride of Frankenstein was love at first sight for audiences and has become recognized as the crown jewel of the Universal Monster movies. Of course, much more could be (and has been) said about this masterpiece. It proved to be another great success for Universal, but even that could not save Universal from financial ruin under Carl Laemmle, Jr.
New TERROR Loosed Upon a Startled World
In 1936, American production of horror films essentially ceased for nearly three years. This was due in part to the British Board of Film Censors’ ban on films they had previously labeled with the H (for Horror) certificate. At Universal, the Laemmles lost control of the studio and horror lost its greatest early champion, Carl Laemmle, Jr., who may have helped save the studio for a time with productions like Dracula and Frankenstein but drove it into the ground with his inability to manage the budgets on just about everything else. Horror cinema was revived in 1938 by an enterprising film exhibitor who programmed a triple bill of Dracula, Frankenstein, and King Kong to rousing success, proving that American audiences still craved horror. The new studio brass at Universal caught wind of this and decided “censors be damned,” they would give the people what they want by reviving their horror properties. This revival would be led by the studio’s most famous monster.
Though generally considered a step down from the first two films in the series, Son of Frankenstein (1939) is a worthy successor to them and delivers several distinctive elements to the series. Director Rowland V. Lee retains the Expressionist influence established by Whale in the first two films, and the sets and cinematography are perhaps the most impressive elements of the film. The visual style stands out immediately, but it is the colorful characters that populate Son that make it so enjoyable to watch.
Son of Frankenstein is Karloff’s last time playing the monster on film and some behind the scenes footage offers the only color film taken of Karloff in the Creature’s makeup. The Monster is a supporting character in this film with Basil Rathbone’s Wolf Frankenstein taking the lead and, though third billed after Karloff, Bela Lugosi’s Ygor playing the second most substantial role. The Monster takes on a distinct look in this film by wearing a hair shirt to differentiate from his original look in the first film and his burned and disheveled appearance in the second. Once again, the Creature is mute, as Karloff preferred, but much of the empathy inherent to the creature in the previous two scripts is missing here. The biggest exception to this is the brilliant scene in which the Creature sees himself in a mirror and is frightened by what he sees before realizing that it is his own reflection. It is a heartbreaking moment that soon gives way to him largely serving as Ygor’s puppet for much of the balance of the film.
Lionel Atwill’s character of Inspector Krogh is one of the more memorable supporting characters of the entire series. Having had his arm torn off by the Monster as a child, in an incident never seen or reported in either previous film, he wears a wooden arm. During a friendly game of darts with Wolf Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone), he holds onto his spare projectiles by stabbing them into this false appendage. It is a broad character and Atwill is clearly enjoying himself in the role. Atwill would go on to appear in every succeeding Frankenstein film (with the exception of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein) in the series as a different character in each and holds the record for starring in the most Universal Frankenstein films with five.**
The most important new character in Son of Frankenstein to the series as a whole is the crook-neck criminal Ygor, played by Bela Lugosi in his second most famous role after Count Dracula. After surviving being hanged for body snatching, Ygor finds the Monster in the wreckage of the laboratory and befriends him. He comments to Wolf upon leading the young Dr. Frankenstein to his father’s creation, “…he’s my friend. He…does things for me.” As the film goes on, it becomes clear that Ygor uses the Monster as his blunt instrument of revenge against those who had him hanged. Ygor becomes a bridge to the continuity of the next two films, though much of that connective tissue was ultimately removed from Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.
The King of All Monsters Strikes Again
After Son of Frankenstein, Boris Karloff vowed to never play the Frankenstein Monster again, and with the possible exception of a handful of rumored personal appearances, he never did. Lon Chaney, Jr., son of Universal’s first great horror actor Lon Chaney, rose to fame with The Wolf Man in 1941 and quickly became Universal’s new go-to horror star. With his height and large build, he seemed the logical choice to step into Karloff’s shoes as the Frankenstein Monster. In The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Ygor survived being shot in the previous film and waits beside the hardened sulfur that encases the monster, playing his horn in hopes of awakening him. Villagers then attack and destroy portions of Frankenstein’s castle with dynamite, which frees the monster who escapes with Ygor. A bolt of lightning strikes one of the electrodes on his neck, giving him new life and strength. Ygor takes the monster to a nearby town and seeks out Ludwig (Cedric Hardwicke), the second son of Frankenstein who specializes in diseases of the mind and brain surgery.
Lionel Atwill returns to the series as Dr. Bohmer, Frankenstein’s former teacher who has been disgraced and therefore serves as his assistant but is also something of a rival to his former student. Ygor blackmails Ludwig into taking in the monster and healing him. Instead, Ludwig captures the monster and Ygor, intending to destroy his father’s creation instead. The titular “ghost of Frankenstein” appears to his son and persuades him to place a new, healthy brain in the creature instead. Ygor convinces Bohmer to switch his brain for that of the good, intelligent man Frankenstein intends to give the creature. In the end, Ygor’s voice issues from the Monster’s mouth saying “I, Ygor, will live forever” before angry villagers break into Frankenstein’s house. Before being captured, Ygor complains that he can’t see. Frankenstein realizes what Bohmer did not, that the Monster’s blood type is not the same as Ygor’s and therefore not feeding the optic nerves of his new body. Ygor in the Monster’s body stumbles blindly around the lab, knocking over chemicals that are set alight by electrical equipment, and perishes in the flames.
Though not a bad movie by any means, there is little originality in The Ghost of Frankenstein. Chaney’s performance is rather stiff and lacks the subtlety of Karloff’s. It is closer to the rigid-legged, arms outstretched, brutish caricature that the monster would become in popular culture than the empathetic creature of sadness, depth, and nuance of the first two films. The Whale films do everything they can to make the audience ignore the clunky plot device of the criminal’s brain being placed in the creature’s skull, making an argument that the neglect, mistreatment, and alienation of the monster is what truly causes him to do harm. Here, and in the films to follow (and to some extent in Son of Frankenstein), nature rather than nurture becomes the issue. But despite its limitations, The Ghost of Frankenstein does have some strengths.
In addition to solid performances from Lugosi, Hardwicke, Atwill, Ralphy Bellamy, and Evelyn Ankers, it balances a number of subplots along the way. The most interesting of these is something of a reworking and expansion of the famous scene by the lake from the first film in which the Monster encounters the little girl, Maria. Soon after entering the town, the Monster meets Cloestine Hussman (Janet Ann Gallow) who has her ball kicked onto a roof by a group of bullies. Like Maria, she is curious but unafraid of the Monster and he carries her onto the roof to retrieve her ball. Her father has her ask the Monster to bring her down, assuring that no one will hurt him. He does as requested but is captured by police. Ygor helps the Monster escape and takes him to Frankenstein’s home. Much later in the film, after learning that Frankenstein intends to give him a new brain, the Creature seeks out Cloestine, takes her to Frankenstein, and indicates that he would like to have her brain. Things turn out far less tragic for Cloestine than they did for Maria as the young girl is rescued by Ludwig’s daughter Elsa (Ankers), and eventually returned to her father. This subplot is a small element involving the power of empathy that made previous films so effective in this otherwise straightforward monster movie.
A Death Fight…Between Two Beasts
The two most important behind the scenes figures of the post-Laemmle period of Universal horror are Curt Siodmak and George Waggner. One or both were involved in most of the memorable monster movies produced by the studio between 1940 and 1946 when Universal was once again bought out and horror production ceased for a short time. The success that solidified their place with the studio’s horror unit was The Wolf Man (1941), written by Siodmak and directed by Waggner, with the latter then producing The Ghost of Frankenstein the following year. The huge success of The Wolf Man guaranteed a sequel and, perhaps in hopes of revitalizing the Frankenstein saga, it was decided to team Universal’s two most successful monsters together. In many ways, it is a brilliant concept, the extension of schoolyard ponderings of “who could beat up who.”
In Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), two graverobbers open the tomb of Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) and it is discovered that Larry, the Wolf Man, is in fact immortal despite the apparently fatal blow given by his father with the silver-topped cane in the original film. He seeks out Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya), the Roma woman from The Wolf Man who knows the lore of the werewolf and journeys with him to find Dr. Frankenstein who they believe can help him find peace in death. Upon arriving at the town, they discover that Frankenstein is dead, but his daughter Elsa (now played by Ilona Massey) is very much alive. While near the remains of Frankenstein’s castle (though it was a large manor house rather than a castle that burned down at the end of Ghost), Talbot turns into his wolf form and falls into an underground cave while being pursued by villagers. He awakens in the morning (back in human form) and discovers the Frankenstein Monster preserved in ice and apparently unharmed by the fire that seemed to consume him at the end of the previous film.
Because Ygor’s brain is placed inside the Monster’s skull at the end of The Ghost of Frankenstein, there is a certain amount of logic in the fact that Bela Lugosi finally played the Frankenstein Monster in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. Lugosi’s performance was for many years heavily criticized because he stiffly stumbles around, arms outstretched for most of the film. When the original script and known footage that is now lost are taken into consideration, Lugosi’s choices make much more sense than what appears in the final film. In them, it is made clear that the Monster is blind as established at the end of Ghost. As scripted and shot, he also spoke with Ygor’s voice, but the studio hated it, finding it laughable that Lugosi’s Hungarian accent would issue from the Monster’s mouth, even though they were apparently okay with it at the end of Ghost. All the scenes involving him speaking, along with references to his blindness, were removed. As a result, the Monster becomes the reason why Lugosi backed out of the role in the first place — a lumbering, grunting oaf, a mere caricature of the nuanced creature that Karloff and Whale originally brought to the screen.
Despite all this, the movie does work for the most part, though this is primarily because it is a Wolf Man film much more than a Frankenstein film. Ultimately, the battle between the Monster and the Wolf Man is brief and there is no winner as both are swept away in a torrent when the villagers blow up the dam that stands above the ruins of Frankenstein’s castle. Still, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man is in a way revolutionary, paving the way for monster team-ups that endure to this day including King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), Godzilla vs just about every other kaiju in the Toho universe, Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966), Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter (1966), and the great modern team-up Freddy vs. Jason (2003), not to mention the number of monster mashes that have languished in development hell over the decades. The film also is a return to form (after the less visually impressive The Ghost of Frankenstein) in the cinematic style of Universal monster movies established in the 30s and re-established in The Wolf Man.
Never Before…So Much Horror Under One Roof
The success of Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man led directly to the two final films in the original Frankenstein cycle at Universal, House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945), which ask “if two monsters are good, how great would it be to have five!” These “monster mash” movies are somewhat derided today, but there are some real strengths to both, particularly the former. The primary reason why House of Frankenstein works so well is the return of the series’ biggest star, Boris Karloff.
Between making a string of films for Columbia in the early forties and signing on with RKO to make a series of films for the great Val Lewton horror unit, Boris Karloff agreed to return to the Universal Frankenstein series to play, not the role that made him a star, but a mad doctor intent on revitalizing Frankenstein’s creation. From the first appearance of Dr. Gustav Niemann, we see that he is a far cry from either Colin Clive’s complex Henry Frankenstein or Karloff’s own sympathetic performance as his creation. Niemann falls much more into the category of the traditional “mad scientist” not unlike Frankenstein’s filmic predecessors Dr. Caligari and Rotwang from Metropolis. Some accuse him of phoning in his performance for the film, but even if this is the case, Karloff is absolutely magnetic on screen, an intense and frightening presence that makes House of Frankenstein compulsively watchable.
Taking over the role of Frankenstein’s monster is Glenn Strange, who would play the part three times on film as well as many more times on television and for public appearances. It is interesting to note that, despite Karloff being in the picture and apparently tutoring Strange on playing the monster, Strange’s performance is much more akin to Bela Lugosi’s portrayal than Karloff’s. The famous stiff-legged gait with outstretched arms that would become every child’s imitation of the Monster for decades is born here and continued in Strange’s performances in House of Dracula and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). For a time, Strange was so associated with the monster, that his portrayal became even more well-known than Karloff’s. So much so that, according to Gregory William Mank’s book Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff: The Expanded Story of a Haunting Collaboration, a photo of Strange as the monster mistakenly appeared in the New York Times obituary for Boris Karloff upon his death in 1969.
House of Dracula is, as the title suggests, barely a Frankenstein film at all with the scientist Dr. Franz Edelmann (Onslow Stevens), John Carradine as Count Dracula, and Lon Chaney, Jr. as Larry Talbot once again, taking the lead. This film completes the arc of the Wolf Man with Edelmann curing him of his lycanthropy (though it would return without explanation for Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein) and gives Carradine a meatier turn as Dracula than House of Frankenstein where the monster is given little more than a destructive walk around the lab toward the film’s climax. Though a fun and diverting film, there is little of great note, and it would be near the final gasp for classic monster movies at Universal.
Through the many ups and downs of the series, the Frankenstein films at Universal remain at their best thought-provoking and revolutionary and at their very least entertaining escapism. Frankenstein’s Monster, along with his ghoulish brethren, kept the lights on at the studio in the deepest depths of the Great Depression, through the darkest days of World War II, and into the post-war years. The legacy of Frankenstein lives on at Universal. Even today, visitors to Universal Studios may be greeted by the Monster and the Bride, park in the Frankenstein lot, or buy t-shirts and other various memorabilia adorned with the famous image created by Jack Pierce (as I write this, I am wearing such a t-shirt). Of course, I have only briefly mentioned the final film of the Universal Frankenstein cycle, but rest assured it will be discussed at greater length in a later installment of this series. After that film, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, the monster lay quietly for nearly a decade — though it would occasionally be dug up in various low-budget and often forgotten films — when a studio halfway across the world would resurrect Frankenstein and charge new life into the story once again. 🩸
Footnotes
*Proving that horror was hot, Dracula came in at #6 and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at #10, per ultimatemovierankings.com.
**Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Dwight Frye each appear in four and John Carradine in three including his uncredited appearance in Bride.
Sources
Classic Monsters Unmade: The Lost Films of Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and Other Monsters Vol. 1 1899–1955 by John LeMay
James Whale: A New World of Gods and Monsters by James Curtis
Karloff: The Life of Boris Karloff by Peter Underwood
Universal Horrors: The Studio’s Classic Films, 1931–1946 by Tom Weaver, Michael Brunas, and John Brunas
About
Brian Keiper is a featured writer for Manor Vellum. Brian’s also written for Bloody Disgusting, Dread Central, F This Movie!, Ghastly Grinning, and others. Follow him on Instagram @brianwaves42.
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