By the 1940's the Universal Horror films were starting their slow decline from the A List to the B List. In case you missed the previous one, the Frankenstein family had left the scenic mountain village that bore their name, giving the castle and it's lands to the people after the Monster had plunged into a bubbling sulfur pit.
The villagers, however, are not happy. Feeling the land is still cursed they gather into the usual sized mob and storm the castle with torches. Ygor (Bela Lugosi), still living despite taking a decent amount of bullets from the police in the last film, is a bit put out by this unplanned bit of urban renewal. He tries holding down the fort, but loose stones are little match for dynamite.
Escaping the main blast, he heads to the lower levels where he finds the Monster (Lon Chaney, Jr.) still encased in sulfur. As the mob finishes blowing up the castle the pair head for the village of Visaria, where another member of the Frankenstein clan lives.
Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) is a practicing psychiatric doctor, running a small clinic in town. Despite the hatred his name has in the surrounding area he has made no effort to change it. When Ygor and the Monster arrive, the Monster ends up murdering two villagers by accident, which gets the poor creature locked in irons.
When the local district attorney Erik Ernest (Ralph Bellamy) takes over, he quickly brings in Dr. Frankenstein, although he mostly does it as a way to butter up his future father-in-law, as Ludwig's daughter Elsa (Evelyn Ankers) is quite keen on marrying the rising lawyer.
Ygor, however, has other plans. Cornering the good doctor, the hunchback makes it clear that unless he gets the Monster released to him Ygor is going to do some chatting with the local townspeople about the doctor's family history.
Ludwig manages to get the monster sedated and locked up at his home, but he intends to kill it once and for all. His assistant, Dr. Theodore Bohmer (Lionel Atwill) is against it, arguing that the monster is a living thinking creature. Bohmer is also a bit jealous of Ludwig, as at one point he was the teacher and Ludwig the student until a poorly timed medical accident. Ludwig, however, gets some inspiration from the ghost of his father (or someone who clearly not Colin Clive) and tries to give the monster a new brain. After all, it was Fritz's giving him an abnormal brain that caused this mess in the first place, right?
Except that Ygor feels that if any brain should go into the monster's head, it should be his, what with them being so close and all. Bohmer also has no problems making the switch and poor Ludwig quickly finds himself with a monster even worse than what his father created...
Not bad, although Universal was in dire straights by this point and the budgets were clearly being cut. Chaney does a fair job as the Monster, although he does come across as more lumbering than anything else. Lugosi carries the show here, as his Ygor manages to be both pitiful and creepy in equal measure.
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