| “ | This is place of the dead. We're all dead here. | „ |
| ~ Ygor's most famous line. |
Ygor is the main antagonist in the films, Son of Frankenstein and The Ghost of Frankenstein. He "befriends" Frankenstein's Monster and uses him for his own purposes of revenge. He was originally a shepherd who survived a hanging, which left him deformed with a twisted neck and a rasping voice.
He was portrayed by the late Bela Lugosi, who was best known for playing another Universal Studios horror villain, Dracula.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Not much is known about Ygor's life prior to the films he is featured in. It is known that he was a blacksmith in the village of Frankenstein. He was arrested and convicted by a jury for stealing bodies. It is not by any means certain who he stole the bodies for, but he does mention that he "knew" Henry Frankenstein in Ghost, so it is not outside the realm of possibility that they were collaborators at one point.
Son of Frankenstein[]
The villagers hanged Ygor and the town doctor proclaimed him dead. Not wanting to bury him on consecrated ground, the villagers dumped his body in the ruins of Frankenstein's laboratory. However, Ygor wasn't dead, but his neck was twisted and deformed. He went mad and thirsted for revenge. Sometime after this, Ygor stumbled upon the Monster and gained his trust. Ygor took advantage of this and convinced the monster to kill the men who condemned him. However, the Monster only managed to kill six of the eight members of the jury when he was struck by lightning and rendered comatose. This put Ygor's revenge on hold for a period of several years.
After an unspecified period of years, Henry Frankenstein's son Wolf, also a scientist, returned to his family's ancestral home, having been brought up in England. He was determined to clear his father's name and rectify the mistake made many years before when Henry's assistant Fritz mistakenly stole a criminal brain, which Henry placed inside the Monster. Ygor met Wolf when he went to explore the ruins of his father's laboratory. Realizing that Wolf could revive the Monster given enough time, Ygor showed him where the Monster had been hidden, in the Frankenstein family crypt.
Wolf restored his father's equipment and began experimenting on the Monster, hoping not only to bring him out of his coma but also to fix his brain as well. However, once the Monster regained consciousness, Ygor put him to work completing his plan of revenge. He even has the Monster kill Wolf's butler Benson in order to keep him from anyone about the Monster still living. After Wolf learns what Ygor has done, He goes out to the laboratory to confront him. Ygor attacks Wolf with his hammer, but Wolf riddles him with bullets. In a climactic fight scene, the Monster is hurled into the laboratory's sulfur pit by Wolf.
The Ghost of Frankenstein[]
Ygor was still alive after the events of the previous film. The Monster has also survived and is still under Ygor's influence. Ygor's main goal in this film was to restore the Monster's full strength and mind. To do this, he travels with the weakened Monster to Ludwig Frankenstein, the second son of the original Dr. Frankenstein, hoping Ludwig can cure or empower the Monster.
Ygor cunningly manipulates events, convincing Ludwig to perform a brain transplant on the Monster, because he wants his own brain placed into the Monster's body. That way, he would have the Monster's physical power combined with his own mind. Ludwig initially plans to use the brain of a recently deceased colleague, a good man, to give the Monster a moral conscience. However, Ygor conspires with another doctor, Dr. Bohmer, and convinces him to secretly implant his brain instead.
The operation was succeded, but things go horribly wrong because Ygor's blood type was incompatible with the Monster's body, and he became blind. In his rage, Ygor/the Monster kills Dr. Bohmer and starts destroying the laboratory. Ultimately, Ygor was consumed in a fiery explosion, ending his life.
Gallery[]
External links[]
- discussion of the popular 'Igor' idea
- the writing studio the art of writing and making films original innovation van helsing
- Igor at Grand Comics Database
- Igor at Comic Vine
- The Igor at TV Tropes
- Igor at Public Domain Super Heroes
- Universal Monsters Wiki
- His Humble Hunchback: The Stock Character History of “Igor”
- Guia dos Quadrinhos (Brazilian comic database)
- Ultimate Pop Culture Wiki
- Frankenstein Wiki
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