Director: Rowland V. Lee
Writers: Willis Cooper
Stars: Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, Bela Lugosi
Buy now from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2X0Omv5
Villagers walk past Castle Frankenstein, but they’re afraid of crazy old Ygor with a broken neck. The old baron has died, and the son is coming to take over. The villagers suspect this guy is going to be just as bad.
Baron Wolf Von Frankenstein and his wife, Elsa, and child, Peter, arrive on the train. They’re looking forward to staying in a creepy old medieval castle. They say it’s haunted because of the things his father created. Wolf says his father was right, and blamed his assistant for making the mistake that caused all the trouble. The crowd waiting at the train station is not friendly.
They arrive at the castle, now fully stocked with servants. Wolf feels that he belongs there right away, but his wife, Elsa, not so much. None of the locals would work there, so they hired foreigners to be servants.
Wolf opens a box left to him from his father, and inside are all the records of his experiments; everything he needs to repeat the experiment. Inspector Klogh arrives, with his wooden arm. He wants to tell the Baron that he may be in danger from the locals. The inspector says that he is not completely certain that the monster was killed. Wolf thinks the stories about the monster are greatly exaggerated. Klogh tells the story about how the monster tore his arm off from the roots. He tells of half a dozen recent murders in the village, and the villagers blame a ghost. Still, Klogh pledges his support if Frankenstein needs it. Meanwhile, Ygor opens a secret panel and looks at little Peter while he sleeps.
The next morning, Wolf goes over to the ruins of his father’s lab. He notices a boiling sulfur pit, which he carefully avoids. Ygor nearly kills him by knocking a boulder off the roof. Frankenstein threatens to call Krogh, and Ygor explains how Krogh and the others broke his neck by hanging him. Ygor stole dead bodies for Doctor Frankenstein, so they convicted him of grave robbing. Ygor shows Wolf a secret door that leads to the crypts. He sees his father and grandfather’s tombs.
The monster is there as well. He’s sick and in a deep sleep. He was hunting and was struck by lightning. He’s been in a coma since. Ygor suggests that Henry Frankenstein created both the monster and Wolf, so he and the monster are essentially brothers. Ygor wants his friend fixed.
Wolf starts rebuilding the lab. They secretly move the monster in, and Wolf gets to work examining him. The townspeople want Ygor questioned. Ygor describes the boxes the doctor has received; big machines, but he hasn’t done anything wrong. The townsmen threaten to hang him again if he doesn’t keep an eye on Frankenstein. There are two townsmen left who were involved with Ygor’s hanging, and the other six are dead.
Frankenstein finally has it all figured out, and they turn on the generators. They hook up the jumper cables and start cooking! The monster doesn’t wake up, and Wolf declares it a failure.
Elsa tells Inspector Krogh that her husband spends all his time in the laboratory, which Krogh doesn’t like. Peter comes in and says he was napping until a nice giant woke him up. Krogh looks aghast. Wolf excuses himself in a hurry, as he’s got to check on something… Not surprisingly, the monster is gone!
The monster sneaks up on him, and they spend a lot of time admiring each other in a mirror. Ygor comes in and calms his friend. Later, Ygor gets the monster to kill a man in the countryside. The monster strangles a man then throws him under the wagon to cover up the crime; he’s not stupid!
The butler, Benson, disappears. Ygor claims Benson saw the monster and ran off into the woods. Wolf tells Elsa and Peter that they have to leave town tomorrow for their own safety. That night, Ygor gets the monster to kill the local druggist, who was one of the eight men involved with hanging Ygor. Now there’s a mob at the castle gates.
Inspector Krogh talks to Peter about the giant, and Peter points out the secret door. Peter shows him a watch the giant gave him. It’s Benson the butler’s. Ygor admits that he was behind the eight deaths in town. The Inspector arrests Wolf for the murder of Benson. Ygor is not a suspect, as he was under surveillance during all the murders.
Wolf goes to the lab with a gun. Ygor is ready for him. Wolf shoots Ygor several times. The inspector finds a secret door that leads to Benson’s dead body. The monster discovers Ygor’s body. Krogh confronts Wolf, and they play darts. The monster sneaks into Peter’s bedroom and kidnaps the boy, which gets everyone’s attention. The monster takes Peter to the sulfur pit. Wolf swings in on a rope, kicking the monster into the sulfur pit.
Wolf and his family donate the castle to the villagers and leave town.
Commentary
Clearly, Young Frankenstein stole most of its plot from this film. Everything from Ygor to the Inspector to the dartboard came through to the newer film.
There’s a lot going on in this one. The monster isn’t exactly as innocent as in his previous appearances, yet he’s really just Ygor’s pawn. Still, the monster does a few things to cover up the murders, so he’s clearly not a mindless monster, even though he has somehow forgotten how to speak since the last film.
Odd superstition mentioned: “If the house is full of dread, put the headboards head to head”