The Ghost of Frankenstein
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"Your father was Frankenstein, but your mother was the lightnink!" |
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The Ghost of Frankenstein is the fourth installment in Universal's series of Frankenstein films, released in 1942.
Following the Son of Frankenstein, we find out that Ygor (Bela Lugosi) survived being shot and still lives in the Castle Frankenstein. When the angry local villagers blow up the castle to get rid of the so-called "Frankenstein's curse", the Frankenstein's Monster (Lon Chaney Jr.) is accidentally freed from the sulfur pit where it fell in the last film.
Ygor then decides to take the monster to meet Ludwig Frankenstein, previously unmentioned son of the original Dr. Frankenstein, to persuade him to restore the Monster's strength.
The Ghost was the last of the original Frankenstein films and subsequent movies featuring the Monster were Monster Mashes, starting with Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.
- Alliterative Name: Erick Ernst.
- Axe Before Entering
- Back from the Dead: Ygor has survived being shot in the last film.
- Blackmail: Ygor threats Ludwig to reveal Frankenstein's reputation to the citizens of Vasaria if he won't help The Monster.
- Brains and Brawn
- Breaking the Bonds
- Cue the Sun
- Dead Ex Machina: Just when he's about to destroy the sedated Monster, late Dr. Frankenstein's ghost appears to Ludwig and convinces to let the monster live and give it an another set of brains.
- Diary: Ludwig consults his father's diary for help.
- For Science!
- Hoist by His Own Petard: This happens to both the ambitious Doctor Bohmer and Ygor. Ygor gets his brain transplanted into the Monster, only to go blind because he has a different blood type from the original intended transplantee; and a raging Ygor then hurls Bohmer into the machinery, electrocuting him.
- Hollywood Darkness
- Immortality Immorality: Ygor wants to have his brain put into the Monster so he can live forever. He gets his wish and then everything goes sour. First he goes blind, and then he gets burned alive in the laboratory. And it only gets worse if you remember that the Monster never gets a new brain in the series but is reduced in intellect to a lumbering brute. Which means that Ygor was trapped inside an inarticulate monster's body forever.
- Lightning Can Do Anything: This film establishes the lightning as the Monster's power source.
- Lightning Reveal: Monster's shadow is cast on a wall when lightning strikes.
- Man Child: The Monster.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Monster is released from the petrified sulfur pit when the angry villagers destroy the Castle Frankenstein early in the film.
- Ominous Fog
- Screaming Woman
- Secret Path
- Strapped to An Operating Table
- Stuff Blowing Up: Ludwig's lab blows up when the blinded monster starts thrashing around.
- Torches and Pitchforks:
- Überwald
- The Voiceless: The Monster until the brainswitch.
- Voices Are Mental: Even with his brain in the Monster's body, Ygor keeps his voice.
- We Can Rule Together: Ygor uses this to convince Dr. Bohmer to put his brain into the Monster's body.
- The X of Y
- Zombie Gait: The Monster gains his signature gait, due to his blindness.