Son of Frankenstein (1939)
Director: Rowland V Lee
Starring: Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi
Synopsis:
The son of Dr. Frankenstein comes to claim his father's estate and eventually finds himself continuing his father's work.
Impressions:
Sequelitis strikes Frankenstein. Actually, I rather liked the performances and the character work here. Bela Lugosi as Ygor is great and as the Frankenstein madness grips Wolf, Basil Rathbone turns an initially bland protagonist into someone a good deal more interesting. Lionel Atwill as Inspector Krogh was also quite good. Boris Karloff does what he can with the precious little he's given, where the monster almost seems like an afterthought. You may find Donnie Dunagan a little too cloyingly cutesy, but that's more to do with the style of the time. Anyway, the real let-down here is the plot. It's just not a particularly inspired story and it serves to mitigate the aforementioned strong points. It's a decent enough watch, but I can't quite give it a full recommendation. Take it or leave it.
50/50