#589. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Directed By: James Whale

Starring: Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Colin Clive




Tag line: "Warning! The Monster Demands a Mate!"

Trivia:  Boris Karloff sweated off 20 lbs. in his heavy costume and make-up while shooting this film

Using the events of his 1931 classic Frankenstein as a starting point, director James Whale let his imagination run wild with its 1935 follow-up, The Bride of Frankenstein, taking what could have been a simple sequel and transforming it into something much more significant.

Having barely escaped with his life after his run-in with the monster (Boris Karloff), Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) is visited one evening by the strange Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger), a former philosophy professor who is undertaking his own re-animation experiment, and is in need of assistance. 

When Frankenstein refuses, Pretorius has the monster, who survived the fire at the windmill, kidnap Frankenstein's new bride, Elizabeth (Valerie Hobson). Left with no alternative, a nervous Frankenstein helps Pretorius construct a mate for the monster.

But will this new creation result in the shedding of even more innocent blood?

In its opening scene, The Bride of Frankenstein travels back to 1816, when Mary Godwin (Elsa Lanchester), the author of the original Frankenstein novel, informs her two companions, Percy Shelley (Douglas Walton) and Lord Byron (Gavin Gordon), that her story did not end with the monster's death at the old windmill. It's a clever, unique introduction, cluing us in on just how different this film will be from its predecessor. 

Those differences continue with the character of the crazed Dr. Pretorius. With Henry Frankenstein realizing the error of his ways, The Bride of Frankenstein needed a mad scientist, and Dr. Pretorius filled that role nicely. Flamboyantly portrayed by Ernest Thesinger, Pretorius is actually madder than Frankenstein ever was. “Let us probe the mysteries of life and death, to reach a goal undreamed of”, he says to Frankenstein upon their first meeting, and while Henry Frankenstein may have lost his desire to play God, Pretorius seems only too eager to do so. 

Even Karloff's Monster evolves beyond the silent brute he was in the original. After escaping from an angry mob, the creature flees into the woods, and is drawn to a small cottage by the sound of beautiful music. Here he meets a blind hermit (O.P Heggie), who invites the creature inside. Over time, the Hermit will even teach his mute guest how to talk. Karloff shows excellent range in this sequence, bringing a humanity to his Monster that's sorely lacking in many of his so-called “human” adversaries. 

Then, of course, there's the Bride herself (Elsa Lanchester appearing for a second time), a character every bit as iconic as Karloff's. From the moment she opens her eyes, the Bride is more than a mindless being, and her initial reaction to her new “mate” kicks off the film's heartbreaking conclusion. 

Over the years, I've had my issues with The Bride of Frankenstein. Actress Una O'Connor, who I found annoying in Whale's The Invisible Man, is downright unbearable here as the servant, Minnie. Her over-the-top responses to every little situation used to get on my nerves in a big way. Also distracting was the scene where Pretorius shows Frankenstein the results of his initial "experiments”: a collection of miniature-sized people he keeps hidden away in glass jars. Dressed to resemble a King, a Queen, a ballerina, and so on, their inclusion was obviously intended to be humorous (the King, smitten with the Queen, tries to climb out of his jar to get into hers), and while I love this sequence now, there was a time the silliness of it all took me right out of the movie. 

But I always admired Whale's decision to include this scene, and many others besides. The fact that he brought so much originality - so much imagination - to the follow-up of a successful film was a gutsy move, and a gamble that definitely paid off. The Bride of Frankenstein stands as one of the greatest horror films of the 1930s, and one of the greatest horror sequels of all-time.