Villain(s)  Reanimated Frankenstein's creature

Actor(s):  Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill

Brief Description  Son of Frankenstein (1939) is an American horror film directed and produced by Rowland V. Lee, serving as the third installment in Universal Pictures' iconic Frankenstein series and the direct sequel to Bride of Frankenstein (1935). The film is highly significant for being the final time Boris Karloff played the Monster in a feature film, and the first to introduce Bela Lugosi as the iconic, broken-necked blacksmith Ygor.

Plot:
The narrative picks up decades after the events of the previous films. Baron Wolf von Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone), the charismatic son of the late Dr. Henry Frankenstein, returns from America to his ancestral Swiss estate with his wife Elsa (Josephine Hutchinson) and young son Peter (Donnie Dunagan). Wolf is determined to clear his late father's legacy and prove that his scientific breakthroughs were misunderstood rather than diabolical.

The local villagers remain deeply hostile and terrified of the family. Upon exploring the ruins of his father's laboratory, Wolf encounters Ygor, a bizarre, crazed blacksmith who survived a botched hanging that left him with a severely twisted neck. Ygor reveals that he has been hiding the Monster (Boris Karloff), who survived the laboratory explosion but currently lies in a comatose state.

Eager to vindicate his family name, Wolf uses his father's equipment to successfully reanimate the Monster. However, the creature is no longer responsive to scientific reason; instead, he responds only to Ygor. Ygor secretly weaponizes the resurrected Monster, sending him out into the village to murder the jurors who originally condemned Ygor to the gallows.

As mysterious deaths plague the town, the local authority, Inspector Krogh (Lionel Atwill), investigates. Krogh harbors a deeply personal vendetta against the creature, as the Monster tore off his real arm when Krogh was a young boy, forcing him to wear a distinct wooden prosthetic. Suspicion builds until Ygor targets Wolf's young son, Peter. In a frantic climax, Wolf shoots Ygor, and the rampaging Monster abducts Peter. Wolf corners the creature over a boiling sulfur pit inside the laboratory, swinging from a rope to kick the Monster into the pit to destroy it. Having saved the town and realized the danger of his father's work, Wolf bequeaths the Frankenstein estate to the villagers and departs with his family.

Cinematic Expressionism: The film stands out for its high-contrast, striking black-and-white cinematography by George Robinson and surrealistic, avant-garde set designs. The cavernous castle interiors feature distorted angles and massive, jagged shadows, borrowing heavily from German Expressionism. Elements of this specific film—most notably Lionel Atwill’s dart-playing wooden arm and Bela Lugosi's gravelly-voiced Ygor—served as the primary inspiration for Mel Brooks’ beloved 1974 parody film, Young Frankenstein.