The Character of Ygor

The only thing I can do is to venture a guess that Universal simply chose not to go after the people who used the Igor character. Actually many have used the Universal monsters, too, and Universal has chosen to remain silent.

Of course, it's more likely that those who have used the Igor character and the monsters obtained permission from Universal.

I'm a short story writer, and have thought about writing a short story about the monster. I know that I could use Mary Shelley's monster because it is now in the public domain. But I wanted to describe the monster most familiar to today's generation--the electrodes-in-the-neck monster. But I've been reluctant because of Universal's trademark.

Of course, I could create my own version, I suppose.

Dear moonstorm4,
Bela Lugosi's character of the evil,broken-necked,bodysnatching Ygor was made important by the film's director-Rowland V.Lee.Originally Lugosi was to have a much more minor role as a police officer,however Lugosi had finally realized that playing a heavily made up monster was beneficial to his career instead of the positions that he had previously taken where he had refused to wear heavy makeup that was to be applied by the makeup Wizard -Jack Pierce.
Mr. Lugosi is so good in Son Of Frankenstein(1939) as Ygor that he's given billing above this film's title.Lugosi's Ygor is a much more memorable assistant to Basil Rathbone's son(Wolf).Also this is (in my opinion)the best teaming of Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein Monster with Bela Lugosi as evil
Ygor...many people consider this Mr.Lugosi's best performance.I believe it is his best performance as well.He and Mr.Karloff seem like they really are best friends in this film which is considered a classic in so many ways!
Also, there have been numerous satirical versions of mad doctors with demented assistants named Igor but most have played using a Peter Lorre like voice,besides Universal can't own the rights to the name Ygor and the variations on the way it can be spelled or the ways a mad doctor's assistant can be played.
This classic film was just so Good that it created alot of firsts for the Universal Classics.
To Better Days,
BRAD

An alternate suggestion is that Igor (pronounced 'eye-gore') also happened to be the name of the monster in 1933's Mystery of the Wax Museum.

MOTWM also made a sly reference to Frankenstein in one bit of dialogue when the reporter says "I don't know what it was, but it made Frankenstein look like a lily!"

It's entirely possible that audience remembered the name and used it generically or perhaps telescoped and transposed names and characters.

"If you don't know the answer -change the question."

[deleted]

Ygor is one baad oboe player. Marshall Allen, who played oboe for Sun Ra, has that same mystery in his playing. The oboe is a spooky woodwind instrument to begin with and Ygor gets his mystic conqueror worm to crawl out of it. He gets that reedy sound to snake charm his way through mantras of minor keyed melodies which he invents maliciously to forebode his malevolent prophecy of wicked events to come, now possible for his crippled body through his musical power over the Leviathan, The Luca Brazzi of the Frankenstein Crime Family, Boris the K (no relation to Murray).

This has happened many times, with movie productions having to alter the Frankenstein moster when Universal didn't give their blessings. One of the later versions of the Frankenstein monster (maybe not really late) was "The Monster Squad". They actually talk about it during one of the featurettes. But it actually worked in their favor since it gave Stan Winston a chance to create his own monster.

So it does sound like Universal does hold onto the copyrights to their creations.

i think that it's because Igor was played by Bela Lugosi pretty much.
are you going to bark all day little doggie,, or are you going to bite

Ok, here's my take on this.

Firstly, the monster make-ups at Universal were very strictly copyrighted, so much so that Hammer Films didn't want to go through the hassle of making direct remakes of Universal films and made very different and unique variations. The characters themselves, as in the monsters and their cast of sub-characters have fallen into the public domain since the 1930s. An interesting note though, as of 1922 Dracula was not in the public domain and thus Bram Stoker's wife fought and won in court the destruction of all prints of the German silent film classic "Nosferatu", which thankfully still survives to this day. Yet since most of these characters are from Victorian Era books they have fallen into public domain and can be used or adapted by anybody. Though Universal did loosen their grip on the monster make-ups in the mid-1960s, which was illustrated by Hammer's retcon film "Evil Of Frankenstein" which features a monster based off the classic monster make-up, and the eventual creation of "The Munsters" as well. Many others did get away with other slight changes, and in the 1960s and 1970s a bald and badly scarred version of a Frankenstein Monster became a substitute norm in low budget films, and that design can be traced back to an episode of "Tales Of Tomorrow" where Lon Chaney JR portrays the Monster in an episode retelling the tale of Frankenstein. Other notable baldies were in "Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter", "Lady Frankenstein", and Hammer's 1970 reboot "Horror Of Frankenstein". Since then the classic features of Universal's Frankenstein has permeated popular culture in such ways that it may very well be punlic domain by now but I am not completely certain of that. At least there are many depictions and crafts that use the pointy hair, stitches, and bolts as well as portraying the classic suit and boots outfit.

Another thing, Ygor was not and never was a hunchback in the Universal films...he was hung, but survived but now has a broken neck. Oddly enough, the portrayal of Ygor in "Van Helsing" was dead on accurate in my opinion. It was nice to know Sommers at least paid attention to that little detail.

The pop cultural stereotypical character called "Igor" for decades is closer in appearance usually to Dr. Henry Frankenstein's assistant Fritz as portrayed by Dwight Frye (by the way, in the film Frankenstein, they switched the first names of the characters of Victor Frankenstein and Henry Clerval). When and where "Igor" was first portrayed in popular culture is an unknown to me, but I have been researching it and trying to figure out how that interpretation came about. I believe it was definitely before 1974's "Young Frankenstein" due to references to a hunchbacked Igor assistant to Dracula from an episode of M*A*S*H* from either 1972 or 1973 (Wayne Rogers as Trapper John was an Igor to Alan Alda's Hawkeye being Dracula and stealing Frank's blood for a patient as he slept in his bunk!). Even earlier references are harder to find as my trails get cold in the early 1960s.

By now "Igor" has become a generic usually hunch-backed mad scientist assistant with very few ties if any to the character portrayed by Bela Lugosi.

As for Universal not taking actions against Igors, well, most likely it was a character that they found no financial gain in, and no interpretation was probably ever close enough to the original to warrant character infringement.

Sincerely,
Exchronos