Director: Rowland V. Lee
Year: 1939
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Returning to his family's ancestral castle, the Baron's youngest son finds that his father's hunchback assistant has been keeping his father's creation alive and attempts to resurrect it only to learn the creature is seeking out revenge on the town and tries to stop it.
Review:
This one here was quite the fun if overlong effort. What really short-changes this one is the extremely long running time that slows this one considerably as the build-up to getting the creature to live again really feels way too drawn out. Though settling the issue of what's going on and getting many of the storylines set up, the fact that it goes into overdrive with the detail of the villagers' distrust of him and their coldness towards the family as well as settling into the castle and preparing to reanimate the creature as there's quite a long time here before anything happens and altogether drags this one out far longer than it really should've been. Even more overlong scenes here come from the rather overblown manner of this one going for the endless scenes of the Baron being questioned and threatened at the end while he's stuck at the house, as the repetitious nature of these scenes quickly wears on the viewer.
These here are the film's few flaws, as even though it might not be a classic like the original entries, this one is a lot of fun. Most of that comes from when the discovery of the creature is made, this one really kicks up a little bit with some relatively solid action scenes. The initial resurrection is quite spectacular, as it's a little unknown if the experiment will bring it back to life as the various methods used, from the scientific explanations about the creature to the medical work done to fix the damage done and the final blow comes in the moment where the electricity comes into play, makes this scene is all the more watchable. When it gets to the monster's first moving appearance as it emerges as a silhouette behind an unsuspecting character and slowly lumbers over to them, it makes for a great visual to open with.
That the creature also manages a slight rampage at the end of the film, including the one highlight where it stalks the victim through a mountain pass and the really spectacular part where it goes berserk in the laboratory making for some exciting scenes. The final fate of the creature is quite exhilarating, making it a little on the sad end of the spectrum, it does have a sense of lifting the film out of its action doldrums and putting some life into the proceedings. As well, the rebuilding of the creature looks quite good and just as great as ever. The last plus here is that the house itself does have some great designs to it that gives it a distinct look, featuring a rather impressive Gothic atmosphere with the overall layout and design of the house that's especially true with the huge open spaces in the kitchen and the laboratory as well as the distinct appearance of the stairway in the main room, and then there's the traditional fog-lined set-up that gives this a chilling overall feel. Overall, this was a really fun entry in the series.
Overview: ****/5
Not that bad at all if just a bit below the classic status of the earlier sequels, that this one still managed to provide quite a lot to like about it makes this a quality sequel. Those who are fans of this particular style from other Universal franchise entries, are fans of this Classic-Era brand of genre fare, or are just curious about it will have a lot to like here while only those that aren't fans of this style will want to heed caution.
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