MovieChat Forums > Son of Frankenstein (1939) Discussion > A Talky, Overlong BORE!

A Talky, Overlong BORE!

posted 17 years ago by gbennett5
4 replies | jump to latest

I caught this last night on TV here in L.A. and couldn't believe how
AWFUL this film is. First, it has no business being 99 (!!) minutes,
compared to the first two classics, which are nearly 20 minutes shorter.
Second, nothing HAPPENS until the last 20 minutes! It's just talk, talk,
talk, talk. As for the idiot with the wooden arm, all he did was create
bad laughs ("Young Frankenstein" doesn't help here, does it?). As for
Frankie, I feel he kept lying there because Karloff kept falling asleep!
As for Bela's "Igor", the less said the better (the teeth and hair look
like they came from the 99 cents store). And the bratty kid? I guess
his mother was so bored sitting around all day in that dingy castle, she
amused herself by dressing him up as Shirley Temple!

To be avoided unless one is battling insomnia.

[–] wallacesawyer 17 years ago

I watched it the first time last night on the Legacy Collection. I think it was decent for old B&W Universal Monster movies, it was a little boring at first, gets better once the monster's awake. The movie is decent, but a huge step down from Bride of Frankenstein.

[–] bromstaker 17 years ago

Movies back in those days relied on plot and characters rather than action sequences. SoF is not as strong as the two Whale films - but it is superior to all the subsequent sequels.

The film belongs to Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill. Lugosi's Ygor and Atwill's Kreogh steal the film from Basil Rathbone (despite his at times hammy acting) and Karloff. (In fairness to Boris, the monster's part was underwritten. Even at that Karloff still manages to invest the monster with much more character than did the actors who followed him in the role.) But the writing was on the wall for the character of the monster quickly becoming little more than a lumbering prop in the remaining sequels.

The climax of SoF is exciting, only surpassed by that of Hammer's Horror of Dracula.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Mithrandir-Olorin2 15 years ago

The biggest weakness of older movies is how on average schroter they are

Today I reuse to pay admission fee for anymore noticeably less then 2 full hours.

I love Dialogue, I'm sick of idiots who think Dialogue is boring.

Son of Frankenstein has always been my personal favorite of the Classic Universal monster films, 2nd would be Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman.

"It's not about money

It's about sending a Message

Everything Burns!"