Ygor was a great character - Son of Frankenstein (1939) Discussion

[–] raven5677 15 years ago

I completely agree, he was amazing!

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[–] irishtom99 15 years ago

also give lee credit for demanding that ygors role be expanded,and to the writers for the nuanced writing that went into ygors character..ygor was demented and evil,but also a lonely ,frightened man who loved the creature..

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[–] B_Movie_Blues 15 years ago

Irishtom99 is balls on.

Universal cut Lugosi's salary from $1,000 a week to $500 a week, and they wanted director Rowland Lee to film all Lugosi's scenes in a week.

Lee, to his everlasting credit, expanded Lugosi's part and kept him around for all eight weeks of filming, stating:

"Those God0damned sons of bitches. I'll show them. I'm going to keep Bela on this picture from the first day of shooting right up to the last!"*

*Source: Karloff & Lugosi: The Story of a Haunting Collaboration, p.171.

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[–] raven5677 15 years ago

I love reading about that, if only more people like Lee stepped in later in Lugosi's career.

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[–] ddddeadpool 15 years ago

Was he undead or....? He got through a hanging.Was he just tough? I missed something.I loved ygor though.He was funny. "They said" lololol. Man im addicted to these old B&Ws.There is nothing like them. Im trying to find the 1935 Raven.Can it be gotten digitally I wonder?

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[–] raven5677 15 years ago

I guess he was just tough lol The Raven is on youtube at least but the first part has no sound:/ Its a brilliant film though, Lugosi's in his element!

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[–] ddddeadpool 15 years ago

yeah i saw no sound! Yuck! Thanks though

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[–] capnmrvl 15 years ago

No, it was just a freak event. He was hanged. His neck was legitimately broken. He was even officially pronounced dead. But he wasn't, so "legally" they couldn't do anything to him.

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[–] pry_to 14 years ago

"I vas hanged vonce, frangstein. You cannot mend broke neck!"

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[–] RavenFilmsAndReviews 15 years ago

Absolutely...Lee knew that Lugosi would be brillant and gave him more to work with...Definately Lugosi's best performance

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[–] movienerd666 14 years ago

why did universal seem to hate Lugosi so much anyway?! if only they had seen his true potential as an actor, it is a real shame they preferred Karloff so much, :(

Lee is one of the few people that did see his potential

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[–] RavenFilmsAndReviews 14 years ago

It wasn't so much that Universal hated him...One of his problems is he rarely spoke english off the set so he continued to have the Dracula accent. Audiences didn't want to see him in any other role so his star waned enough to put him in the supporting actor quality

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[–] offramp_tavanipupu 14 years ago

One of my favourite lines from the film (at about 1:15:30):

Ygor, shut up!! You've been playing that thing all night!

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[–] www1125 13 years ago

I've always thought there was something undead about Ygor. The guy is hung, pronounced dead, but comes back. And then he's shot, pronounced dead again, and returns yet again. Either this is one tough guy, or an undead being. Anyway, I have complete respect for Lee for doing that for Lugosi. Lugosi deserved that break, and in the bargain he created one of, if not his best character ever, perhaps surpassing Dracula.

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[–] Hey_Sweden 13 years ago

I agree. He was lots of fun as the evil Ygor.

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[–] Drenyelle 12 years ago

Just saw the film for the first time and I agree. In many ways, he was the most entertaining part of the film. The Monster disappoints me in that he's not speaking --again. The plot isn't very good either, but Bela is really onto something great here.

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[–] herbsuperb 12 years ago

Bela and Lionel Atwill are the reasons I watch this movie so much. Plus I'll pretty much watch anything with Basil Rathbone. Fantastic actors in this flick. I agree with some previous posters that this is Bela Lugosi's finest performance. He was marvelous in Dracula, but even better as Ygor.

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[–] FranLovesBetteD 11 years ago

Bela and Lionel Atwill are the reasons I watch this movie so much.

Same here. I think they're both the very best thing about this movie.

Rathbone is an amazing actor when given the right role, but I think his character wasn't particularly well written or developed this time, which, of course, wasn't his fault.

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[–] PreachCaleb 11 years ago

They certainly stole the movie from Basil and even the monster.

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[–] FranLovesBetteD 11 years ago

They certainly stole the movie from Basil and even the monster.

I couldn't agree more.

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[–] marktayloruk (2590) 3 years ago

Remembering Bride - if Ygor had met Pretorius.

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[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7989) 3 years ago

He didn't. The only assistant characters were 2 murderers that Dr. Pretorious aided in escaping. Both of them were killed by the monster in it. Funnily enough one of them was played by Dwight Frye who played Frankenstein's assistant Fritz in the original movie. Like I said in another topic, they really didn't do a good job of keeping much continuity. Fritz who I just mentioned was hanged by the monster in the original movie. I already mentioned the assistants from Bride being killed. Dr. Pretorious was blown up along with the Monster and his bride in the tower they used to create her. Not to mention the creation of the Bride for the Monster is not mentioned in Son of Frankenstein or Ghost of Frankenstein. In fact a scene in Ghost of Frankenstein seems to imply that both Son and Ghost were only supposed to be connected to the events of the first film.

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[–] marktayloruk (2590) 3 years ago

I said if he'd met him!

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[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7989) 3 years ago

Sorry. Thought you were saying he had. I like Ygor and Bela Lugosi's performance but he is a huge retcon to the previous movies.

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