The Ghost of Frankenstein

The Ghost of Frankenstein is a 1942 film in which Dr. Frankenstein's plans to replace the brain of his monster are hijacked by his scheming and malevolent assistant Ygor.
 * Directed by Erle C. Kenton. Written by Scott Darling.

The King of all Monsters strikes again! No chains can hold him! No tomb can seal him in! (taglines)

Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein

 * I have replaced an evil brain with a good one. I have made amends for the great tragedies my father and my brother unintentionally brought to this community. I have restored the good name of Frankenstein.

Ygor

 * Better death... than a life like this.


 * [after the monster is struck by lightning] The lightning. It is good for you! Your father was Frankenstein, but your mother was the lightning!

Dialogue

 * Villager: There's a curse upon this village, the curse of Frankenstein.
 * Crowd: Aye.
 * Older Villager: Aye, it is true. The whole countryside shuns the village. Our fields are barren, the inn is empty.
 * Village Mother of Hungry Children: My little ones cry in their sleep. They are hungry. There is no bread.
 * Older Villager: It's the curse, the curse of Frankenstein.
 * Burgomaster: This is nonsense, folks. You talk as though these were the Dark Ages. You know as well as I do that the monster died in the sulfur pit under Frankenstein's tower. And that Ygor, his familiar, was riddled with bullets from the gun of Baron Frankenstein himself.
 * Older Villager: But Ygor does not die that easily. They hanged him and broke his neck, but he lives.
 * Villager: Haven't I seen him, sitting beside the hardened sulphur pit, playing his weird horn as if to lure the monster back from death to do his evil bidding?
 * Burgomaster: You talk like frightened children.
 * Villager: Well, if something isn't done, there'll be a new mayor after the fall election.
 * Crowd: Aye.
 * Burgomaster: Well, what do you want me to do?
 * Villager: Destroy the castle! Wipe the last traces of these accursed Frankensteins from our land.
 * Councillor: The people are right, Your Honor.
 * Councillor: I agree, Your Honor.
 * Burgomaster: I don't believe that these dead wretches can affect the prosperity of this village. But do as you will with the castle. It's yours.
 * Villager: We'll blow it up!


 * Ghost of Henry Frankenstein: My son! What are you about to do? Would you destroy that which I, your father, dedicated his life to creating?
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: I must. The monster you created is in itself destruction.
 * Ghost of Henry Frankenstein: Nevertheless, I was near to solving a problem that has baffled man since the beginning of time, the secret of life artificially created.
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: But it has brought death to everything that it's touched.
 * Ghost of Henry Frankenstein: That is because unknowingly I gave it a criminal brain. With your knowledge of science, you can cure that.
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: It's beyond my cure. It's a malignant brain.
 * Ghost of Henry Frankenstein: What if it had another brain?
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: Another brain!


 * Ygor: How does it feel to face a man you thought your brother killed, doctor?
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: What do you want?
 * Ygor: The monster is with me. He's the one in the police station, but he won't be there for long. You will bring him here.
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: The law must take its course.
 * Ygor: Law! What can the law do to him?


 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: Ever since the day my father put life into that creature, it has been a curse. The terrible consequences of his creation killed my father, drove my brother into exile. The monster shall not ruin my life. I'm happy here. I have a lovely daughter, friends. They know nothing of all this.
 * Ygor: You wouldn't like to spoil that, doctor. Would you? You wouldn't want me to tell them that you're the son of the Frankenstein that created him, that your brother made the thing live after it had been dead for years. Do you want me to tell them, Frankenstein?
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: No! No.
 * Ygor: All right. Then you'll make the police to hand him over to you.
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: Yes. I could do that.
 * Ygor: And you will do it, Frankenstein.


 * Ygor: You have agreed? You're going to help him Doctor? You are giving him life?
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: Yes but not for the purposes that you think Ygor. I'm giving him strength so that an operation may be successful.
 * Ygor: An operation?
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: Yes. I'm giving him another brain. You must explain to him when he becomes conscious. *You* must make him understand.
 * Ygor: Whose brain?
 * Doctor Bohmer: Kettering?
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: Yes, Kettering. A man of character and learning. The monster will cease to be an evil influence and become everything that is good.
 * Ygor: No. No, no. You cannot take my friend away from me. He's all that I have. Nothing else. You're going to make him your friend and I'll be alone.
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: It will be as I say or he must be destroyed.
 * Ygor: [laughs] He cannot be destroyed.
 * Doctor Bohmer: There is one way. By dissection.
 * Ygor: No not that. Doctor, Ygor's body is no good. His neck is broken, crippled, and distorted. Lame and sick from the bullets your brother fired into me. You can put my brain in his body.
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: Your brain?
 * Ygor: You can make us one. We'll be together always. My brain and his body. Together.
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: You're a cunning fellow Ygor. Do you think I would put your sly and sinister brain into the body of a giant? That would be a monster indeed. You will do as I tell you or I will not be responsible for the consequences.


 * Chief Constable: [the Monster recognizes Ludwig] He seems to recognize you Doctor.
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: I never saw this... man before in my life. I know nothing about him.


 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: Do you recognize me? Tell me... who am I?
 * The Monster: [Ygor's voice] You are Dr. Frankenstein.
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: And you are...? You are Dr. Kettering.
 * The Monster: [Ygor's voice] I am not Dr. Kettering. I am Ygor.
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: What have I done?
 * The Monster: [Ygor's voice] I am Ygor! I have the strength of a hundred men! I cannot die. I cannot be destroyed! I, Ygor, will live forever!
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: I've created a hundred times the monster that my father made... .Bohmer! This is your work!
 * The Monster: [Ygor's voice] Don't touch him, Frankenstein. He's my friend. I should kill you, Frankenstein. But after all... your father gave me life... and you gave me a brain.


 * The Monster: [with Ygor's voice] Bohmer. Bohmer. I can't see! Bohmer! Where are you?
 * Doctor Bohmer: Here. Here, I am.
 * The Monster: I... can't see you.
 * Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein: Your dream of power is over, Bohmer. You didn't realize his blood is the same type as Kettering's, but not the same as Ygor's. It will not feed the sensory nerves.
 * The Monster: Bohmer! You played me a trick! What good is a brain without eyes to see? What good is a brain without eyes?

Taglines

 * You've waited years for these NEW Terrifying adventures, more Thrilling than ever before!
 * NEW THRILLS as the Monster Stalks Again!

Cast

 * Lon Chaney, Jr. — The Monster
 * Cedric Hardwicke — Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein
 * Ralph Bellamy — Erik Ernst
 * Lionel Atwill — Dr. Theodore Bohmer
 * Bela Lugosi — Ygor
 * Evelyn Ankers — Elsa Frankenstein
 * Barton Yarborough — Dr. Kettering
 * Olaf Hytten — Hussman
 * Doris Lloyd — Martha
 * Leyland Hodgson — The Chief Constable of Visaria
 * Holmes Herbert — The Magistrate of Visaria
 * Lawrence Grant — The Burgomaster of the Frankenstein Village