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As the last four years, it’s time for our annual salute to Scary Season on the pod --- a little film nosh to whet your appetite for the fun of Halloween ahead. Last season we went down one of the paths of the classic Universal Pictures lineup of horror films, with the foundational Dracula. This season, we’re headed down another path of classics from the golden days of Universal, but the third in the series of this particular horror group. Not the film Frankenstein, not Bride Of Frankenstein, but the third and a nice addition (and the last that made sense) in the trail of the monster created by scientist Henry Frankenstein, the story of his human progeny. It’s Son Of Frankenstein! You knew that was coming next!  

 Why start with the third in the series? The first two, directed by James Whale, were great and foundational in their own right. But we do dislike Colin Clive chewing the scenery as Henry Frankenstein in the first two films, as well as a thin set of supporting actors. If we’re going to have an actor chewing the scenery, how about Basil Rathbone? Or Bela Lugosi? Also, many scenes in Son are immediately recognizable, as Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder mined so much of the story and characterizations for their inimitable film Young Frankenstein. Sure, the blind man played by legendary Gene Hackman in Young rose from a story line in Bride --- credit where credit is due. But most of the rest is Son. It’s just fun to watch and mark… Okay, that’s settled…

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