When Universal's Frankenstein monster became a true monster.
The Frankenstein monster as portrayed by Boris Karloff in three films, went through a major change when Universal studios announced the production of their next sequel, The Ghost of Frankenstein....and he would never be the same again.
While there was speculation that Boris Karloff would again helm the role for this latest entry, it's likely no more than a pipedream as he was starring on Broadway in the smash-hit stage comedy Arsenic and Old Lace, playing the murderous Jonathan Brewster (a character famously noted as looking like Boris Karloff).
Enter Lon Chaney.*
Fresh off his success as the doomed lycanthrope Larry Talbot, Universal's Master Character Creator was chosen to step into the asphalt spreaders boots, attach the electrodes to his neck, adorn the flat topped headpiece, and allow the necessary greasepaint to be applied, in order to become the Frankenstein monster.
Audiences expecting the pathos of the Karloff portrayl were in for a surprise.
This Frankenstein monster is "the unmanageable brute" that Dracula speaks of in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
While the watchtower explosion rendered him mute, the wounds inflicted due to the boiling sulphur pit, and the years of being entombed, has taken a major toll on his psyche, here he exhibits "a will of his own." Though he remains loyal to a degree to Ygor, he's often independent. He shrugs off Ygor's warning during the electrical storm, swatting his familiar aside like a pesky fly, as he reaches for his Mother's lightning. After dispatching Dr. Kettering, he hesitates to leave the scene of the crime from Ygor's urging, but then follows his lead reluctantly....only then to encounter Elsa Frankenstein, dragging her along in his grasp until he decides to drop her like a rock onto the floor. He's made up his mind to acquire the brain of little Cloestine, and no loyalty oath from Ygor ("Tonight Ygor will die for you!") will sway him. He's become so single minded that he crushes "his friend" Ygor between a huge door and the wall.
This is only the start.
Thanks to Dr. Bohmer, we now have "the sly and sinister brain into the body of a giant." I give you the "Ygorstein monster"....and he is a monster indeed, hell bent on power and control, willing to do what it takes to obtain and keep that power. "Bohmer, turn on the gas. Fill the house with it. We'll kill all of them!" Note the wry smile on his face as he watches through a window as the gas does its dirty work on the unsuspecting villagers.
This is a far cry from the sympathetic character in the Whale films, who simply sought acceptace in a world that rejected him at every turn....nor the obedient instrument of revenge for Ygor in Son of Frankenstein.
This "being" is truly worthy of the title Monster.
* I'm fully aware that I'm speaking of Lon Chaney Jr. but Universal studios dropped the Jr from his stage name upon release of '41 The Wolf Man, and from that point forward, in all of his films that were to follow, he is billed as Lon Chaney, and I prefer to note him in that manner.
While there was speculation that Boris Karloff would again helm the role for this latest entry, it's likely no more than a pipedream as he was starring on Broadway in the smash-hit stage comedy Arsenic and Old Lace, playing the murderous Jonathan Brewster (a character famously noted as looking like Boris Karloff).
Enter Lon Chaney.*
Fresh off his success as the doomed lycanthrope Larry Talbot, Universal's Master Character Creator was chosen to step into the asphalt spreaders boots, attach the electrodes to his neck, adorn the flat topped headpiece, and allow the necessary greasepaint to be applied, in order to become the Frankenstein monster.
Audiences expecting the pathos of the Karloff portrayl were in for a surprise.
This Frankenstein monster is "the unmanageable brute" that Dracula speaks of in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
While the watchtower explosion rendered him mute, the wounds inflicted due to the boiling sulphur pit, and the years of being entombed, has taken a major toll on his psyche, here he exhibits "a will of his own." Though he remains loyal to a degree to Ygor, he's often independent. He shrugs off Ygor's warning during the electrical storm, swatting his familiar aside like a pesky fly, as he reaches for his Mother's lightning. After dispatching Dr. Kettering, he hesitates to leave the scene of the crime from Ygor's urging, but then follows his lead reluctantly....only then to encounter Elsa Frankenstein, dragging her along in his grasp until he decides to drop her like a rock onto the floor. He's made up his mind to acquire the brain of little Cloestine, and no loyalty oath from Ygor ("Tonight Ygor will die for you!") will sway him. He's become so single minded that he crushes "his friend" Ygor between a huge door and the wall.
This is only the start.
Thanks to Dr. Bohmer, we now have "the sly and sinister brain into the body of a giant." I give you the "Ygorstein monster"....and he is a monster indeed, hell bent on power and control, willing to do what it takes to obtain and keep that power. "Bohmer, turn on the gas. Fill the house with it. We'll kill all of them!" Note the wry smile on his face as he watches through a window as the gas does its dirty work on the unsuspecting villagers.
This is a far cry from the sympathetic character in the Whale films, who simply sought acceptace in a world that rejected him at every turn....nor the obedient instrument of revenge for Ygor in Son of Frankenstein.
This "being" is truly worthy of the title Monster.
* I'm fully aware that I'm speaking of Lon Chaney Jr. but Universal studios dropped the Jr from his stage name upon release of '41 The Wolf Man, and from that point forward, in all of his films that were to follow, he is billed as Lon Chaney, and I prefer to note him in that manner.
