#35 - Son of Frankenstein (1939)
Years after the original monster was destroyed, young Baron Wolf von Frankenstein returns to his family home to claim his father's legacy. A scientist himself, he initially rejects the stories of the monster as exaggerated and unrealistic, until he discovers the creature itself still alive in the family crypt. You can kind of guess how things play out from there. Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein takes a lot from this movie, both from the plot and the characters, including the police inspector with a wooden arm, and the hunchback Ygor who helps the doctor resume his father's experiments.
This was much better than I was expecting it to be. It's hard to imagine a better cast than Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, and Bela Lugosi, and all three are really great in their roles (Lugosi plays Ygor, and he is delightfully evil). Just like the original Frankenstein, the sets and lighting are heavily influenced by German expressionist films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, with everything tilted at crazy angles with giant looming shadows on the walls. The whole film looks fantastic.
While not quite up to par with the first two Frankenstein films, this one is still really good and a worthy followup. Highly recommended to fans of early Universal horror.
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