One of the many impressive things about the SCRIPTS FOR THE CRYPT: THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN book is that it contains a reproduction of an entire early script for the film, written by Eric Taylor. (Taylor is credited on THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN for the original story.) This script is significantly different from what ended up in the film.
I usually don't get into the whole "early script drafts/unmade films" sub-genre.....I would rather spend time discussing what WAS actually made instead of something that never got produced. But the SCRIPTS FROM THE CRYPT: THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN volume gives us a glimpse into how the famed Universal Monster movie series could have gone down a divergent path.
The major thing about Eric Taylor's script is that it focuses on Wolf Frankenstein, the character played by Basil Rathbone in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN. While Taylor brings back Wolf, he does not bring back Wolf's wife Elsa from the proceeding film, played by Josephine Hutchinson. Taylor's script explains that Elsa committed suicide due to her husband's involvement with the Monster! Wolf is now married to another woman named Elayne, and his young son from the last Frankenstein film, played by Donnie Dunagan, is not even mentioned. Wolf was a jittery, high-strung fellow in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, and he's not all that warm and friendly in Taylor's GHOST script either. At one point the script has Wolf looking at his second wife in a way that makes the reader wonder if he's contemplating putting her brain inside the monster's body.
The Taylor script starts out very much like how the actual version of THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN begins--with the villagers complaining about how the Monster has cursed them, and their destruction of the Frankenstein castle. Ygor and the Monster scurry away, but in this script they are looking for Wolf Frankenstein, not his brother Ludwig. Wolf runs a sanitarium just like Ludwig does in GHOST, hoping that his groundbreaking work in dealing with mental illnesses will wipe away the shame he and his family carry over the creation of the Monster. (Wolf doesn't want anyone to know about his or his family's past, but he still goes by the name of Frankenstein.) Wolf is assisted in his work by his second wife and his sister-in-law Martha Bohmer (a surname which will wind up being used for Lionel Atwill's character in the final version of GHOST).
Wolf is also assisted by a hunchback named Theodor. This fellow also wanted to be a great doctor, but his appearance has not allowed him to reach his dream. Theodor and Ygor hit it off after the latter brings the Monster to Wolf's sanitarium, and the two misshapen creatures concoct a plan. Ygor will have his brain transplanted into the Monster, while Theodor will gather all the poor disfigured and crippled folk around the countryside and turn them into an army that will take over and institute a new order.
Wolf wants nothing to do with Ygor and the Monster, but a conversation with the spirit of his father (as in the final version of GHOST) changes his mind. While the Monster befriends a little girl named Cloestine (as also in the final film), the army of cripples attacks the village, while Theodor tricks Wolf into putting Ygor's brain into the Monster. When Wolf finds out what he has done, he blows up his own laboratory, destroying himself and (supposedly) the Monster, while Elayne and little Cloestine escape.
One element that jumps out about the Taylor script is the sub-plot concerning the "army of cripples" that Theodor and Ygor gather to get their revenge on the world. I'm sure that even in 1942 the idea that a bunch of physically afflicted people could be led to become a disaffected and vengeful mob would have been considered unseemly, especially with a World War going on, and innocent people being maimed and crippled because of it. The Taylor script has a very dark tone to it--nearly every character in it has some sort of chip on his or her shoulder. There's no generic romantic couple as such, unless one counts Wolf and his second wife (and their relationship seems tenuous at best).
The character of Theodor is noteworthy--one assumes that he morphed into what became Dr. Bohmer in the final film. The fact that Theodor was supposed to be a hunchback makes one wonder if even a Universal monster film could have had enough room for two quirky scientist's assistants. If Theodor had been in the final film, the character would have taken a lot of the spotlight away from Bela Lugosi's Ygor. One has to wonder...who would have played Theodor? Dwight Frye immediately comes to mind, but at this point Universal didn't appear to want to use him in anything more than a bit part. Would Universal have cast future Frankenstein hunchback J. Carrol Naish?
The idea of having Wolf Frankenstein return--without the family he had in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN--is worthy of discussion. It has to be asked why Universal did not have Wolf in the final film. Was Basil Rathbone unavailable? Or...did Rathbone read the script, and have misgivings about it? (Wolf doesn't come off very well in the Taylor script.) Another factor has to be considered.....Universal was starting up their Sherlock Holmes series with Rathbone as the master sleuth, and perhaps the studio wanted the actor to focus on that.
You may have noticed that I haven't really talked about how the Monster itself comes off in the Taylor script. That's mainly due to the fact that the Monster doesn't have much of anything to do in the Taylor version. Just like in the actual GHOST, the Monster is a lumbering, menacing presence who doesn't have much of an impact until Ygor's brain gets put into its head. You can look down on Lon Chaney Jr's stoic portrayal of the Monster in GHOST, but after reading the Taylor script it's obvious that Universal now saw the creature as generic threat rather than a fully realized character.
I personally feel that THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN we know is far better than the story put forth by Eric Taylor's script. If the Taylor script had been filmed, we wouldn't have gotten the great Lionel Atwill as Dr. Bohmer, and we wouldn't have gotten Evelyn Ankers (although she might have been cast as Wolf Frankenstein's second wife). We also probably wouldn't have gotten to see all the familiar character actors that were cast in GHOST. I believe that Universal made the right decision in not filming the Taylor script as written.
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