The Ghost of Frankenstein
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| The Ghost of Frankenstein | |
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 The Ghost of Frankenstein movie poster |
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| Directed by | Erle C. Kenton |
| Produced by | George Waggner |
| Written by | Scott Darling Eric Taylor |
| Starring | Cedric Hardwicke Lon Chaney Jr. Ralph Bellamy Lionel Atwill Bela Lugosi Evelyn Ankers |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | March 13, 1942 |
| Running time | 67 min |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Son of Frankenstein (1939) |
| Followed by | Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Ghost of Frankenstein (often referred to without the article "The" in the title), was an American horror film released in 1942. It was the fourth of in a series of films produced by Universal Studios based upon characters in Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. It starred Lon Chaney Jr. as the Monster, taking over from Boris Karloff, who played the role in the first three films of the series, and Bela Lugosi as the demented Ygor, his second appearance as the character.
[edit] Plot summary
Picking up after the events of Son of Frankenstein, Ghost sees the Monster brought back to life with some help from the insane Ygor (again played by Lugosi). Ygor is forced to turn to a second son of Dr. Henry Frankenstein, Ludwig (Cedric Hardwicke), in order to keep the Monster alive. When the doctor determines to replace the Monster's original criminal brain with that of a benevolent, murdered colleague, Ygor conspires to have his own brain implanted into the Monster instead; however, although the Monster is resurrected with Ygor's mind and can even speak with his voice, a complication in the procedure renders the creature blind, and he is unable in the film's finale to find his way out of the burning Frankenstein mansion. (The footage of the Monster scrambling to escape the fire was later reused at the end of House of Dracula even though another actor plays the Monster in that film.)
Ghost of Frankenstein marked the final appearance of the Monster in a solo capacity. Beginning with the next film, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (in which Lugosi plays the Monster with Chaney switching to his Wolf Man character), and continuing for the rest of the Universal Monsters series, Frankenstein's Monster would be part of an ensemble cast of creatures.
The blinding of the Monster resulted in a lasting stereotype of the creature walking with arms outstretched, even though this is the only film in which it is explicitly indicated that he is blind, such references being cut by the studio from Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, sabotaging Lugosi's performance in the process, since the audience is left to wonder why the Monster is behaving so peculiarly. When Glenn Strange took over the role a few years later, the Monster's sight was restored without explanation. The Monster's ability to speak (now in Ygor's voice) would be dropped after this film (Lugosi's dialogue being filmed but ultimately deleted from Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man), though Strange utters a couple of lines in the later Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Also not addressed in later films is that the removal of the original brain from the Monster in this film results in the end of the Creature as originated by Karloff, and that it presumably carries on with Ygor's brain.
The film contains a few continuity lapses from Son of Frankenstein, which rather than being careless are calculated to extend the series. Despite having been killed at the end of Son of Frankenstein, Ygor is alive again, and the previous film also gave no indication of there being a second son of the original Dr. Frankenstein, yet one appears in Ghost of Frankenstein. The most obvious change, however, is the replacement of Karloff with the less emotive Chaney.
Ghost of Frankenstein also marked the changeover of the Frankenstein (and Universal Monsters) series from "A-movie" to "B-movie" status, with noticeably reduced budgets and the reuse of actors from previous films. As noted above, footage from this film would even be recycled in a later Frankenstein feature.
The title of the film refers to the fact that Dr. Henry Frankenstein, creator of The Monster in the first Universal Frankenstein film, appears (played by Hardwicke) as a ghostly apparition to advise Ludwig.
