Son of Frankenstein (Universal Studios, 1939)

40 ” x 60″ Poster

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Production Company: Universal Studios

Producer: Rowland V. Lee

Director: Roland V. Lee

Assistant Director: Fred Frank

Screenplay: Willis Cooper

Cinematographer: George Robinson

Art Direction: Jack Otterson

Associate Art Director: Richard H. Reidel

Musical Director: Charles Previn

Music: Frank Skinner

Musical Arranger: Hans J. Slater

Sound Supervisor: Bernard B. Brown

Sound Technician: William Hedgcock

Set Decoration: R.A. Gausman

Gowns: Vera West

Editor: Ted Kent

Makeup: Jack P. Pierce

Special Effects: John P. Fulton

Running Time: 94 minutes

Copurightnumber: Lp8574, January 24, 1939

Cast:

Basil Rathbone: Baron Wolf von Frankenstein

Boris Karloff: The Monster

Bela Lugosi: Ygor

Josephine Hutchinson: Elsa von Frankenstein

Donnie Dunagan: as Peter von Frankenstein

Emma Dunn: Amelia

Edgar Norton: Benson

Perry Ivins: Fritz

Lawrence Grant: The Burgomaster

Lionel Belmore: Emil Lang

Michael Mark: Ewald Neumüller

Caroline Frances Cooke: Mrs. Neumüller

Gustav von Seyfertitz: Burgher

Lorimer Johnston: Burgher

Tom Ricketts: Burgher

Edward Cassidy: Burgher

Dwight Frye: Villager

Bud Wolfe: Boris Karloff’s stubt double

Ward Bond: Gendarme at Gate

Harry Cording: Bearded Gendarme

Jack Curtis: Actor

Russ Powell: Webber

Clarence Wilson: Dr. Berger

Betty Chay

Jack Harris

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Seattle Daily Times, October 18, 1938

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The Film Daily, October 25, 1938

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Seattle Daily Times, October 28, 1938

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Seattle Daily Times, November 4, 1938

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 Daily Illinois State Journal, November 9, 1938

‘U’ has upped the budget for “Son Of Frankenstein” a half million dollars and added Lionel Atwill to the cast which includes Basil Rathbone, and Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.

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The Film Daily, November 11, 1938

“Son of Frankenstein’s” Budget Doubled by “U”

West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY

Hollywood – Universal is doubling the budget on “The Son of Frankenstein” with Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill and Josephine Hutchinson, under the direction of Rowland V. Lee. This means that more than $500,000 will be spent on this pix.

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Dallas Morning News, November 14, 1938

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 Canton Repository, November 14, 1938

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Dallas Morning News, November 17, 1938

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Oregonian, November 20, 1938

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Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 20, 1938

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Trenton Evening Times, November 28, 1938

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Film Daily, December 9, 1938

The Film Daily, December 9, 1938

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 Dallas Morning News, December 14, 1938

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The Telegraph-Herald, December 15, 1938

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 Heraldo de Brownsville, December 19, 1938

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Trenton Evening Times, December 27, 1938

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Variety,  December 31, 1938

Boris Karloff’s man-made monster is revived in the castle of Frankenstein to provide material for another adventure of the ogre. Basil Rathbone, son of the scientist-creator, returns from America to the family estate, becomes intrigued with the dormant ogre and revives him with idea of changing the brute nature within.

There are secret passages and panels; surprise opening of doors; and well-timed sound effects to further create tense interest.

For offering of its type, picture is well mounted, nicely directed, and includes cast of capable artists. Karloff has his monster in former groove as the big and powerful brute who crushes and smashes victims. Bela Lugosi is the mad cripple who guides the monster on murder forays. Lionel Atwill is prominent as village inspector of police.

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Hollywood Reporter, 1939

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Oregonian, January 11, 1939

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Evening Star, January 12, 1939

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Boston Herald, January 12,1939

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 Seattle Daily Times, January 12, 1939

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Seattle Daily Times, January 13, 1939

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Oregonian, January 14, 1939

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Boston Herald, January 14, 1939

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Dallas Morning News, January 14, 1939

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San Diego Union, January 15, 1939

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San Diego Union, January 16, 1939

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Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 16, 1939

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San Diego Union, January 17, 1939

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Oregonian, January 18, 1939

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Canton Repository, January 18, 1939

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Canton Repository, January 19, 1939

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 Boston Herald, January 19, 1939

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Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 21, 1939

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San Francisco Chronicle, January 21, 1939

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The Advertiser, Adelaide, January 21, 1939

HOLLYWOOD PARADE

The Horror Boys Start Work

By VIOLA MACDONALD

BORIS KARLOFF, the Frankenstein monster, will return to the screen shortly under the auspices of Universal Studios. Aiding him in spine-chilling effects will be Bela Lugosi, associated formerly with newly-dug graves and vampires, and Basil Rathbone, sinister villain of many a cinema epic.

Does the public want more of “The” Horror Boys/’ as they are affectionately called? A recent survey showed that audiences, particularly young audiences, arc clamoring for them. Before starting “The Son of Frankenstein,” Universal decided to reissue some of the old thrillers to check up on audience reactions. Neighborhood theatres showed a triple bill that week, “Fran kenstein,” “The Vampire,” and “The Bride of Frankenstein.” to capacity houses. This thoroughly satisfied them that if the public will go crazy over the “Horror Boys” in three different films, they will certainly pay their pennies to the box-office for the colossal spectacle of the boys together in one film. It was Bela Lugosi, Hungarian actor, who gave me a few facts of the filming of the latest hair-raiser. Mr. Lugosi looked properly repulsive going through all his scenes with his head on one side.

“You see,” he said, with a deprecating smile, “I was found dead in an old dark house, hanging by the neck. Being revived by Basil Rathbone and subject to his will, I go through life with my head on one side, due to my in curably broken neck. I am Rathbone’s slave.”

“But where does Boris Karloff come In?” I asked.

“Ah, I discover him,” continued Mr. Lugosi, trying to get the stiffness out of his neck. “In the last Frankenstein picture, the laboratory blew up, killing Frankenstein, but not the monster who was left suspended midway between this life and the next by a mysterious cosmic ray. I find him and Rathbone brings him back to life. Karloff  isn’t working today. The studio tries to give him as much time off as possible, as his part is so wearying on him. Did you know that his make-up takes three hours to apply, and one hour to Temove? Speaking of make-up, let me tell you a story in connection with this picture.

“Our producer got the idea in a dream one night of filming us in technicolor. He was so excited at this thought that had not occurred to anybody else, that he ordered tests to be made immediately of our ghoulish make-up.

“Some days later the tests were ready and the producer and his associates hied themselves to the projection room to look us over. They never saw the tests through, though, for the minute Boris Karloff came on the screen even the hardened producer was ready to drop with fright and disgust. He lost no time in stopping the machine that flashed that evil face dripping with gangrenous hues on to the screen.

“Stop!” he yelled. “It is much too horrible. Stop It!” “The Son of Frankenstein” will not be filmed in color, for although every known device is being used to promote eeriness and horror, the natural medium of color has been pronounced much too realistic and violent in its impact.

Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff are both Englishmen who made their first successes on the London stage. Since we saw him last Boris (who is gentle and mild-mannered off the screen and whose favorite occupation is cricket) has made a picture in England, and also one for Warner Brothers entitled “Devil’s Island.” He seems to play unwholesome parts and to wear pounds of heavy make-up, but he is very philosophical about his reputation as the finest baby-frightener in the world.

Basil Rathbone plays a sympathetic army officer in “Dawn Patrol” just to vary his villainous menu somewhat, but has now re-entered the realm of terror and is quite proud of his reputation as a “Horror Boy.”

Half a million dollars has been set aside as a budget for the “Horror Boys” and the studio hopes to reap many times this amount in box-office returns when “The Son of Frankenstein” is released. 

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 Rockford Morning Star, January 21, 1939

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Rockford Morning Star, January 22, 1939

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Evening Star, January 22, 1939

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 San Diego Union, January 23, 1939

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 San Diego Union, January 24, 1939

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Daily Illinois State Journal, January 24, 1939

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San Francisco Chronicle, January 25, 1939

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Rockford Morning Star, January 25, 1939

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 The Times-Picayune, January 27, 1939

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Omaha World Herald, January 27, 1939

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The Times-Picayune, January 29, 1939

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Springfield Republican, January 29, 1939

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San Francisco Chronicle, January 30, 1939

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Youngstown Vindicator – January 30, 1939

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Unknown Magazine

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The New York Times, January 30, 1939

THE SCREEN

‘Son of Frankenstein,’ With Boris Karloff, Seen at the Rivoli 

No use beating around the razzberry bush: if Universal’s “Son of Frankenstein,” at the Rivoli, isn’t the silliest picture ever made, it’s a sequel to the silliest picture ever made, which is even sillier. But its silliness is deliberate-a very shrewd silliness, perpetrated by a good director in the best traditions of cinematic horror, so that even while you laugh at its nonsense you may be struck with the notion that perhaps that’s as good a way of enjoying oneself at a movie as any. It must have been all the actors themselves could do, in this day and age, to keep straight faces-always excepting poor Boris Karloff, of course, who couldn’t laugh through all that make-up even if he tried. For “Son of Frankenstein” is a chip off the old Doc, the most horrible horror picture you ever saw-at least since “The Bride of Frankenstein” (which was a sequel to “Frankenstein”). Imagine, if you can, a picture so tough that Basil Rathbone plays a sympathetic part in it, so mean you feel sorry for Lionel Atwill, so ghastly that Bela Lugosi is only an assistant bogyman. If you can imagine all this, then it is possible that you may have a pale, partial conception of Frankenstein, fils. It is such a picture that-if Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley had suspected the mere possibility of it-she might have consigned that first mild manuscript to the flames, in sheer diffidence. For our part, we’re rather glad she didin’t. Anybody who’d like a nice, unsunny place to be haunted in couldn’t do worse than rent Castle Frankenstein for the season. Such a paradise of low, brow-bursting beams! Such a number of enchanting secret doors and passageways! Such endless miles of corridors rendered fascinating by skiddy turns, pneumoniac draughts and sudden, breakneck stairways! Such lovely views of the countryside, which combines the picturesque features of the Bad Lands of South Dakota with the rustic charm of the brimstone beds in and around Vesuvius. With a pit of boiling sulphur in the basement and Bela Lugosi living there as a combination monster-nurse and janitor, what could be cozier? Yes, sir, Castle Frankenstein is the showplace of the neighborhood. At dinner in the great hall Josephine Hutchinson seems justified in remarking to Basil that the front-door knocker “gets on her nerves,” inasmuch as each stroke is equivalent to the Independence Day explosion in San Francisco. When the butler fails to show up and Mr. Rathbone (who thinks he has got the monster safely hidden out in the “lab,” as he calls it, of all things) inquires about him, the second man matter-of-factly explains: “He took a tray to the baby in the nursery, sir, and we haven’t seen him since.” No, by George, you couldn’t beat Castle Frankenstein for the purposes you have in mind-as a place to be haunted in, that is-and it certainly ought to be available cheap, considering what happened to the last tenants. It must be quite a problem to heat, though.

SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, from a screen play by Willis Cooper; directed and produced by Rowland V. Lee for release by Universal. At the Rivoli. 
Baron Wolf von Frankenstein . . . . . Basil Rathbone 
The Monster . . . . . Boris Karloff 
Ygor . . . . . Bela Lugosi 
Krogh . . . . . Lionel Atwill 
Elsa von Frankenstein . . . . . Josephine Hutchinson 
Amelia . . . . . Emma Dunn 
Peter von Frankenstein . . . . . Donnie Dunagan 
Benson . . . . . Edgar Norton 

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Unknown Magazine

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Unknown Newspaper

Courtesy of  Vintage Cinema Ads

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The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 30, 1939

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San Francisco Chronicle, February 1, 1939

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Spokane Daily Chronicle, February 3, 1939

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Omaha World Heralds, February 6, 1939

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 Daily Herald, February 6, 1939

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Daily Herald, February 10, 1939

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Augusta Chronicle, February 12, 1939

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Advertisement for the UK trade show on Thursday, February 16, 1939

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Kinematograph Weekly, February 16, 1939

A thriller to end all so-called “horror” films is premiered by General Film Distributors in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, which is being Trade shown this (Thursday)  evening at the Cambridge Theatre. The film, a sequel to the original “Frankenstein,” presents Basil Rathbone in the title role, with Boris Karloff again re-enacting the “Monster.” Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill and Josephine Hutchinson are in featured roles.

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Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 26, 1939

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Seattle Daily Times, March 12, 1939

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The Film Weekly, March 16, 1939

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Picture Show, March 18th, 1939

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Bellingham Herald, March 19, 1939

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 Idaho Statesman, March 29, 1939

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Idaho Statesman, March 31, 1939

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Greensboro Record, April 18, 1939

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 Macon Telegraph, May 7, 1939

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Columbus Daily Enquirer, June 3, 1939

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The Age, June 19, 1939

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Advertisements for the Max Linder Cinema in Paris

Courtesy of  http://frankensteinia.blogspot.jp

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Japanese Cinema Programme Advertisement

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Daily Herald, December 4, 1940

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Dallas Morning News, January 15, 1945

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The Canton Repository, June 4, 1948

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The Spokesman-Review, October 1, 1948

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The Spokesman-Review, December 19, 1951

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Posters

One Sheet

Half Sheet (Style A)

Half Sheet (Style B)

Six Sheet

Insert

Three Sheet

French Grande 47″ x 63″（Style B）

South American Spanish Language Poster

Spanish Poster  (The Shadow of Frankenstein)

1940s Turkish Poster 27.5″ x 39.5″

The Turkish release title was Frankenstein’s Revenge. Thanks to Poyraz Baklan for the translation.

Japanese Poster (Resurection of Frankenstein)

c1947 Belgian Re-Release Poster (14 “×21″）

c1947 Belgian Re-Release Poster (14 “×21″）

1947 Double-Bill Re-Release One Sheet

1947 Double-Bill Re-Release One Sheet

1949 Double-Bill Re-Release Three Sheet

1950s UK Re-Release Quad

1950s UK Re-Release Quad

Courtesy of http://www.doctormacro.com

1953 Re-Release One Sheet

1953 Re-Release 30 “×40”

1953 Re-Release Half Sheet

1960s Italian Re-Release Folio

Italian Poster

Courtesy of  www.benitomovieposter.com

Italian Poster

Courtesy of  www.benitomovieposter.com

Italian Poster

Courtesy of http://www.benitomovieposter.com

Italian Poster

1960s French Re-Release Grande

Swedish Poster

1950s Yugoslavian Re-Release Poster

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Window Cards

Regular Window Card

Midget Window Card

Jumbo Window Card

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Lobby Cards

First Release Lobby Cards

1947 Double-Bill Re-Release Lobby Cards

1953 Re-Release Lobby Cards

Italian Lobby Card

Courtesy of  www.benitomovieposter.com

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Stills

Courtesy of http://www.doctormacro.com

Courtesy of http://www.doctormacro.com

Courtesy of http://www.doctormacro.com

Re-Release Double-Bill

 Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen meet Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi on the set.

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Pressbooks and Heralds

Original Herald

Spanish Heralds

Courtesy of www.benitomovieposter.com

Original Press Book

British Re-Release Press Book

1947 Double-Bill Re-Relese Press Book

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Glass Slides

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Pre-production Set Design Art

The laboratory

The grand stairway

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Stills

Bela Lugosi

Bela Lugosi

Bela Lugosi

Bela Lugosi

Bela Lugosi

Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone

Basil Rathbone and Bela Lugosi

Bela Lugosi and Basil Rathbone

Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone

Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone and Bela Lugosi

Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone and Edgar Norton

Bela Lugosi

Bela Lugosi and Basil Rathbone

Basil Rathbome, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi

Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff

Jack Pierce applying Bela Lugosi’s make-up

Jack Pierce applying Bela Lugosi’s make-up

Jack Pierce applying Bela Lugosi’s make-up

Bela Lugosi, Bela Lugosi, Jr, and Lillian Lugosi on the set

Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Jack Pierce and Rowland V. Lee clowning on the set

Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi celebrating Karloff’s 51st birthday during the production

Basil Rathbone, Roland V. Lee,  Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and an unknown person celebrating Karloff’s 51st birthday during the production

Basil Rathbone, Roland V. Lee,  Bela Lugosi, unknown person and Boris Karloff celebrating Karloff’s 51st birthday during the production

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Follow the link below to read the Movie Comics adaptation of Son of Frankenstein.

Movie Comics 1939 Adaptations of Son of Frankenstein and The Phantom Creeps