V Movie Reviews

Son of Frankenstein Basil Rathbone comes to Transylvania to inherit his father's estate in this second sequel to Frankenstein. The townspeople are suspicious, but young Frankenstein has no interest in reviving his father's work--until he discovers the monster hidden away in the castle, inert but very much intact and watched over by Ygor (Bela Lugosi), a sinister, snaggletoothed peasant with a broken neck. Convinced to revive the creature and vindicate his father's name, Frankenstein toils away in the lab not realizing that Ygor plans to use the monster to revenge himself on the jury that sentenced him to hang. Boris Karloff makes his final appearance as the Monster, now little more than a mute, lumbering robot under the hypnotic control of Ygor. Rathbone is a dignified, suave scientist and a marvelous match to Lugosi's mad Ygor, a richly malevolent performance that dominates the film. Lionel Atwill makes a marvelous addition to the Frankenstein gallery as the wooden-armed constable, a legacy of the monster's rampage 25 years before. (Mel Brooks's loving lampoon Young Frankenstein, a veritable remake of this film, features the constable and his lumber limb in a major role.) Universal abandoned horror films in 1936, but the success of this sequel single-handedly revived the genre. Though lacking the gothic splendor and macabre humor of James Whale's originals, Rowland V. Lee's handsome production remains an intelligent, well-made classic of the genre and Universal's last great horror film. Lugosi returns as Ygor in The Ghost of Frankenstein.

The Ghost of Frankenstein The monster lives! Again! Picking up where Son of Frankenstein left off, Bela Lugosi's gnarled Ygor survives yet another rampage by angry, torch-carrying villagers and frees the monster (The Wolf Man himself, Lon Chaney Jr., taking over from Boris Karloff) from his sulfur grave. The latest cinematic Frankenstein scion, brain surgeon Ludwig (Cedric Hardwicke), wants to dissect the creature, but the ghost of his father convinces him to save it by giving it a new, "good" brain. Ygor has his own devious plan and enlists Ludwig's shady assistant (Lionel Atwill) in a brain-switching scheme.

Ably directed by the pedestrian Erle C. Kenton, The Ghost of Frankenstein gives up the gothic mood and moral quandaries of the original films for the busy, action-packed plots that defined Universal horror films of the 1940s. The human characters are all rather dull (except for Lugosi's animated, eye-rolling performance), and Chaney has none of Karloff's pathos or subtlety under the make-up, but the film opens with a spectacular bang as the villagers dynamite the castle, and skips from one inspired scene to another. The monster rejuvenates himself during an electrical storm with a jolt of lightning, mutely undergoes a courtroom cross-examination (by a ridiculously intent Ralph Bellamy), and finally goes on a blind rampage in the fiery climax. Frankenstein's monster returns (this time with Lugosi as the creature) in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. --Sean Axmaker

The debut film for director-writer James Toback has developed a cult following over the years but was one of three 1978 films that put a damper on Harvey Keitel's career for more than a decade. In this overheated brew of testosterone and male sensitivity, Keitel plays the son of a fading mob boss; Dad forces him to work as a leg-breaker collecting bad debts while Mom wants him to pursue a career as a classical pianist. Isn't this how Van Cliburn got his start? Keitel rides an emotional roller coaster, torn between parental poles even as he faces the audition that could launch him on the concert circuit. Oh, and for good measure, he starts to suffer doubts about his own manhood, thanks to an encounter with ex-footballer Jim Brown. Strictly for Toback and Keitel aficionados. --Marshall Fine

This sixth volume of I Love Lucy's brilliant first season includes the charming "The Young Fans," in which a teenage girl (Janet Waldo, the future voice of Judy Jetson) develops a crush on nightclub star Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz), prompting the latter's zany spouse Lucy (Lucille Ball) to help the girl's cast-off boyfriend (Richard Crenna) try to win her back. The problem: the moony boy falls for Lucy instead. "New Neighbors" finds Lucy and best pal Ethel Mertze (Vivian Vance) in familiar snoop mode, misinterpreting a dramatic rehearsal and concluding that a plot to murder the Ricardos is underway. "Fred and Ethel Fight" concerns Lucy and Ricky inviting the feuding spouses to dinner, unbeknownst to either of the Mertzes, while "The Moustache" involves Lucy's effort to embarrass Ricky into shaving but inadvertently sealing a false beard to her own face. Not indispensable episodes, but essential for Lucy completists. --Tom Keogh

L.A. Confidential director Curtis Hanson had been knocking around Hollywood for several years helming B-grade fare when he wrote and directed this crisp Hitchcock homage. Steve Guttenberg plays a guy who is fooling around with his boss's wife (Isabelle Huppert). When she witnesses an attempted rape from his apartment, he agrees to be the one to report it. But he didn't see it and his story begins to fall apart; soon the cops begin to look at him as a suspect. His life becomes increasingly complex: Before he knows it, he is on the run for murder, framed for a crime he didn't commit with seemingly no way to prove his innocence. Guttenberg, who has built a career on roles in sub-B films, rose to the occasion (though his subsequent taste in material didn't improve) and Hanson gave the film enough suspenseful twists to keep the audience guessing. --Marshall Fine