I see Sven's got Son of Frankenstein (1939) coming up this weekend. Great film. A classic. Some things to note:

Lionel Atwill's one-armed Inspector Krogh was the direct inspiration for Kenneth Mars's character in Young Frankenstein. Around this time, Atwill's career was severely affected by a sex scandal and the onetime star was relegated to small supporting roles until his death in 1946.

The set design was highly stylized, harking back to the German Expressionist films of the 1920's. No other film in the Frankenstein series had this "look."

In the first two films (Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein), the Monster's creator is named Henry Frankenstein. Yet, in this film, Henry's son is named Wolf von Frankenstein. Guess someone in Universal Pictures' continuity department was asleep at the wheel.

There are rumors that the film was originally to be shot in color. If any test footage was shot, it is lost; however, several seconds of color home movie footage shot between scenes exists and is on YouTube (and probably other places). Boris Karloff (in green makeup) can be seen clowning around with makeup artist Jack Pierce and sticking his tongue out for the camera.

In this film, notice the difference is Boris Karloff's appearance compared to the first two films. Originally, the Monster was very thin, and Karloff removed a dental bridge so he could suck in his right cheek to make his face thinner. By the time Son of Frankenstein was made (Karloff's last time as the Monster), he had put on a bit of weight - and the overall look was not helped any by the addition of a bulky sheepskin coat to the costume. So, he took on a lumbering, well-fed appearance compared with the original film, where he looked more like a reanimated corpse.

Ever wonder why, in the previous film (Bride of Frankenstein), the Monster blows up the laboratory (and himself) yet turns up in this film unburned, unscarred and without a mark on his clothes? This happened a lot in the Frankenstein films - self-regenerating clothing!

Oh, and for the curious: Why was the Frankenstein Monster green? In the early days of film, they wanted a color that would photograph nearly corpse-white onscreen, but pure white could not be used because it would have looked too clown-like. After some experimentation, it was found that a grayish-green greasepaint would work in black & white.

Great line: "No one can mend Ygor's neck. It's all right!" (See the film and you'll see what I'm talking about.)

Loved the film, ever since I was a kid. Wonder what little added tidbits Svengoolie has for us this time?


Signor V.