Some people simply refuse to learn. One would think that after the disasters that the Frankenstein family patriarch had, his sons would have stopped. One would think that if one of the Frankenstein sons had similarly failed when it came to the Monster. Alas, the Frankenstein family keeps to the definition of insanity. The Ghost of Frankenstein has yet another Frankenstein family member trying to correct what came before. Like before, the results are disastrous. However, The Ghost of Frankenstein is still an entertaining film.
Baron Wolf von Frankenstein's crazed henchman Ygor (Bela Lugosi) lives. He survived the destruction of Castle Frankenstein by the enraged villagers. Surprisingly, so did the Monster (Lon Chaney, Jr.). Ygor is now set to bring back the Monster to full power. For that, he goes to see another Frankenstein.
That would be Ludwig (Sir Cedric Hardwicke). Ludwig is Henry Frankenstein's second son. He also has followed in his father and brother's footsteps into the medical field. Ludwig has successfully managed brain transplants. He is aided by Dr. Theodore Bohmer (Lionel Atwill). Bohmer is deeply resentful that he was once the teacher but now is the student.
Ludwig is a good man who has disowned his father's work. His daughter Elsa (Evelyn Ankers) is engaged to town prosecutor Erik Ernst (Ralph Bellamy). Ernst and his fellow Visaria citizens are horrified at reports of a rampaging giant in town. The Monster shows a bit of a dual personality here. On one hand, he tenderly protects a small girl and helps to get her ball off a roof. On the other, he tosses two men who tried to get in his way. Now captured, the Monster is enraged at the name "Frankenstein". Ygor is not.
Ygor pushes Ludwig to restore the Monster in body and mind. Ludwig is at first reluctant. However, he thinks that he can correct his father and brother's mistakes. Ludwig opts to give the Monster the brain of his former assistant, whom the Monster has killed. With both a brilliant mind and a moral nature, the Monster can become what Frankenstein pere always dreamt of.
Ludwig, however, is unaware that Ygor has decided to take the Monster's place. Ygor now pushes Bohmer to transfer Ygor's brain into the Monster. This ultimately has disastrous results for all concerned. Ygor ends up blind and consumed by the flames. Will anyone survive being haunted by The Ghost of Frankenstein?
In another interesting bit, Sir Cedric Hardwicke played both Ludwig and his father Henry in a brief scene.
Hardwicke does an excellent job in The Ghost of Frankenstein. He plays the role seriously, making Ludwig into a decent and moral man motivated by good intentions. Hardwicke shows tenderness and affection when he is with Elsa. If he does go a bit over-the-top, I would say that happens at the end. Hearing Ygor's voice come out of the Monster, Ludwig realizes that he has been duped. As always, the Frankenstein men learn too late of the dangers of trying to correct what has gone on before.
As a side note, I do not know if the curious pattern of those Frankenstein men repeatedly trying something that has led to ruin is some kind of theme through these films.
The Ghost of Frankenstein is the first Frankenstein film not to have Boris Karloff in the role. Lon Chaney, Jr. was best known as the Wolf Man, another of Universal Films' Monsters. Here, I think Chaney did a good job as the Monster. He showed a good rapport with Cloestine Hoffman (Janet Ann Gallow), the child that he first protects and then is manipulated to abduct. He is menacing when confronting his jailers and later, Ludwig.
The curious thing here is that in a sense, two actors are playing Frankenstein's Monster. Lon Chaney, Jr. is the physical representation until Ygor's brain is transplanted into the Monster's body. At the end, the Monster ends up blind due to the blood types not integrating. As such, Chaney has to start stumbling about. In the future, the idea of Frankenstein's Monster being a stumbling, shuffling character with outstretched arms would take hold. While I would say that it did not come from The Ghost of Frankenstein, in a sense this was the genesis of that image.
Lionel Atwill makes a return appearance in a Frankenstein film. Here, his Dr. Bohmer is appropriately imperious and bitter. Atwill, curiously, would be the actor to be in more Frankenstein-related films than either Boris Karloff or Lugosi. He would be in five Frankenstein films starting from Son of Frankenstein to House of Dracula (which technically is a Frankenstein film). Each time, he would play a different character. In The Ghost of Frankenstein, Atwill manages to hold his own against both Hardwicke and Lugosi. That both of them gave strong to standout performances, such a thing is no small accomplishment.
Atwill, for good or ill, however, was veering at times towards camp. He was not deliberately playing things as camp. Everyone in The Ghost of Frankenstein was playing things straight. That being said, Atwill did come across as slightly silly. Some of that, to be fair, can be put down to his dialogue. "You weave a pretty fairy tale, crooked neck", Bohmer tells Ygor. The line itself is amusing. Atwill's almost staccato delivery of such a line makes it oddly albeit unintentionally hilarious.
Truth be told, I did not think much of Evelyn Ankers and Ralph Bellamy as Elsa Frankenstein and Erik Ernest. Their love story was pretty much nonexistent. They just seemed to be there.
The Ghost of Frankenstein seems an apt title. This would be the final Universal Frankenstein film where our man-made monster would be the sole monster. Future films would involve team-ups with various other ghouls. As it stands, The Ghost of Frankenstein keeps to this franchise's efforts to make good, entertaining films with this monster.
FRANKENSTEIN UNIVERSAL FILMS
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
House of Frankenstein
House of Dracula
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