Son of Frankenstein (1939)

Peter von Frankenstein: Here we are.
Elsa von Frankenstein: Peter! Peter! Peter! Peter! Open the door!

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Baron Wolf von Frankenstein: It appears that my father thought that he could extract from lightning some super-violet ray of life-giving properties.

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Baron Wolf von Frankenstein: My son, herein lies my faiths, my beliefs and my unfoldments. A complete diary of my experiments, charts and secret formulas. In short, the sum total of my knowledge, such as it is. Perhaps you will regard my work with ridicule or even with a distaste. If so, destroy these records. But if you like me burn with the irresistable desire to penetrate the unknown, carry on. The path is cruel and torturous, carry on. I put secret after truth, you will be hated, blasphemed and condemned. You have inherited the fortune of the Frankensteins, I trust you will not inherit their fate.

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This film marks the final time Boris Karloff would play the "Monster" - at least in a feature film. In August of 1940 he appeared as the Monster in a celebrity baseball game, with Jack P. Pierce in attendance (Pierce was a coach for an amateur baseball team, and played semi-pro when he was younger). In the next Frankenstein film in which Karloff appeared, House of Frankenstein, he played Dr. Gustav Niemann. Originally the Samuel Goldwyn film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was to have had a fantasy sequence in which Mitty (Danny Kaye) confronted the Monster, played again by Karloff (who played the villain in "Mitty.") Goldwyn sought and received authorization from Universal to use the image of the Monster, and Pierce re-created the make-up. Stills exist of the film's director, Karloff, Pierce, and Evelyn Karloff, but it has not been verified that scenes were actually filmed. In the Allied Artists film Frankenstein - 1970 Boris was an elderly Baron Frankenstein - but the twist ending was the revelation that the Baron had recreated the Monster's face Both Claude Rains and Peter Lorre reportedly were considered for the role of Wolf von Frankenstein; Lorre's casting was publicly announced.
Due to the lack of a prepared script, much of the picture was written just moments before the actors were to shoot their scenes. This was how director Rowland V. Lee was able to keep Bela Lugosi working throughout filming, and built up the role of Ygor, which never appeared in the original Willis Cooper screenplay. The actor was forever grateful to Lee for allowing him to create what turned out to be one of his very best characterizations. After many delays, shooting finally started November 9, 1938, finishing January 5, 1939, just days before its prescribed release date of January 13. Boris Karloff's daughter was born on his 51st birthday, November 23, 1938.
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