October 17, 2009

Son of Frankenstein, 70th Anniversary Year



Ygor cowers in the grip of the immense, fur-clad Frankenstein Monster. Horror icons Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi are reunited in this publicity still from Son of Frankenstein (1939).

It’s barely a week now since I announced that I would be hosting a Boris Karloff Blogathon in November, and the response has been fantastic. It’s going to be huge. We already have well over 40 bloggers signed up, with more to come, and there is much diversity. Not only do we have the expected horror and film blogs, we have actors and filmmakers, writers and artists participating. We have bloggers from all over the world who will be posting in several languages.

A Blogathon is a great way to discover new blogs, but you don’t have to wait until November 23 to start exploring. Just click around the list of Scheduled Participants on the sidebar. I’ll be updating the list as new blogs come aboard.

If you have a blog and you want to join the Karloff celebrations, check the Blogathon post for info and send me an email. Simple as that.


4 comments:

Paxton said...

I watched this for the first time like 2 days ago. It is EPIC. I may like it more than Bride. Basil Rathbone is fantastic. Baron Wolf von Frankenstein is the greatest name EVER. WOLF!!!

Oh, and his kid in the movie is off the charts irritating.

rob! said...

When is Universal going to give Son the deluxe DVD treatment they gave the original and Bride? It deserves it!

Anonymous said...

You may know that Willis Cooper, the scriptwriter for "Son of Frankenstein", was also an important radio writer. He created "Lights Out!", which he turned over to Arch Oboler when he left for Hollywood in the 30s. Cooper later scripted a wonderful series called "Quiet Please" (he had now changed the spelling of his first name to Wyllis). At least two episodes of this series deal with Frankenstein. "Rain on New Year's Eve" is loosely based on his experience writing "Son of Frankenstein", while "Is this Murder?" deals with some of the ethical aspects of creating a Creature, and wanting to kill it. Both of these episodes survive--you can find them at http://www.quietplease.org/index.php?section=listepisodes.

Incidentally, Cooper collaborated with Karloff again in 1947, albeit indirectly, when a brief summer revival series of "Lights Out" starring Karloff used scripts of Cooper's. One episode from this series, "Death Robbery", survives -- you can find it at http://www.archive.org/details/HorrorCollection. It's well worth a listen to! (Come to think of it, it draws on the Frankenstein mythos as well, as it deals with the reanimation of a corpse.)

Dr. OTR

Pierre Fournier said...

Thanks for the info, Dr. OTR.