Wolf: Do you honestly know of one criminal act that this poor creature committed? Did you ever even see him?
Krogh: The most vivid recollection of my life.
[Solemn instrumental music]
Krogh: I was but a child at the time, about the age of your own son. The monster had escaped and was ravaging the countryside... killing, maiming, terrorizing. One night, he burst into our house. My father took a gun and fired at him... but the savage brute sent him crashing to a corner. Then he grabbed me by the arm.
[Thud] Inspector Krogh slams his fake arm against the wall, a vacant look on his face.
[Tense instrumental music]
Krogh: One doesn't easily forget, Herr Baron, an arm torn out by the roots.
[Pause] Wolf is stunned, humbled.
Wolf: No, I...
Krogh: My lifelong ambition was to have been a soldier. But for this...
Atwill's bits of business as he remembers — he pushes his monocle between the wooden fingers of his prosthetic arm and casually polishes it with a handkerchief — make this scene a show-stopper. The sudden thump as he slams down his useless arm in disgust against the wall caps a memorable moment of pathos. Even with this life-altering trauma, Krogh has a sense of gallows humor — during a heated game of darts with the Baron, he uses his fake arm as a convenient dart holder by sticking them point first into it. Anyone who has seen Young Frankenstein or Dr. Strangelove will understand how influential Atwill's Inspector Krogh performance has been.
With the torches lighted and the sulfur pit boiling at fever pitch, it's time for the showdown. The dart game is interrupted by the disappearance of Peter. Inspector Krogh finds the secret passage — another spook show staple — that leads from Peter's room to the laboratory, and Wolf heads there by other means. When Ygor is gunned down, Karloff has one last moment of glory for the monster legacy he created. Realizing his only friend is dead (until the next movie, that is), the monster screams out his sorrow as he holds Ygor's lifeless body. With Peter now under foot — the monster's left one, as I recall — Inspector Krogh has his wooden arm torn off before Wolf grabs onto a chain and swings into the monster, sending him falling into the boiling pit of sulfur. All's right with the world now the undying monster is dead again (until the next movie), and Wolf deeds over his castle and estate to the now happy villagers (until the next movie).
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