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Customer Reviews of The Bride of Frankenstein

THIRTIES GEM
This caricature by some very knowing people is a macabre comedy classic....i.e., The Monster (Boris Karloff) is the only sympathetic character! James Whale, who had a good gothic sense of humour, directed, with Elsa Lanchester as Mary Shelley in the prologue, and then as the Bride. For many of us, the scene where she says "Eeeek!" in repulsion when she first sees her intended was so satisfyingly silly that she won our hearts forever! Inimitable Thesiger plays the weird doctor who convinces Frankenstein into making a mate for his monster. One of the silver screen's most fondly regarded horror stories, this excellent sequel to the 1931 FRANKENSTEIN offers an excellent blend of black humour and thrills, with all concerned in top form. Lanchester excels in her playing of the bride; she's also seen in the prologue as author Mary Shelley! The pastoral interlude with the blind hermit and the final, riotous creation scene are among the highlights of this truly classic film of which the lighting, photography, sets and direction could hardly be better.

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Not your average horror film.
This film is considered the apex of Universal's classic horror films. It is memorable for Boris Karloff's role-defining portrayal of Frankenstein's nameless creature, James Whale's unique direction, and the trademark "look" of the high-coiffured bride. In addition, there is the presence of Dr. Praetorius, the epitome of prissy evil. He is obviously one of the "have not" types that live in a garret and plot vengeance on the world that he feels slighted him. Sexually he is ambiguous. Praetorius looks with nose crinkling disapproval on Henry Frankenstein's marriage relationship with Elizabeth. Praetorius anxiously keeps his "king in a bottle" away from the little queen. Yet, he is the one who comes to Frankenstein by night and argues the case they should collaborate to create a mate for the monster. Perhaps this is his revenge on an unsuspecting world of heterosexual couples. Dr. Praetorius utters the classic line "of gods and monsters" as he and Frankenstein ponder their !unholy alliance. This gives the viewer some insight into his visions of power.

James Whale directs a unique film that blends a horror movie with a subtext of dark humor and thought provoking nuances. Religious symbolism, used in peculiar ways, adds to the bizarre humor. Karloff's creature, especially after he learns speech, is both menacing and vulnerable. The scene with his "bride" is comically grotesque, and leads to explosive disaster. The enigmatic bride is one of the most unusual looking creatures in all of Universal's horror classics. Her one-time appearance is all too brief. The mad doctors' lab flashes and crackles with electricity from the dread machines that Dr. Frankenstein uses to harness the lightning that rages around the castle's ramparts. For collectors of classic horror films, or for anyone who would enjoy a twist to the familiar "boy meets girl" plot, this movie is for you. Remember, beware those who do not reckon upon God! Recommended for multiple vie!wing. ;-)

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Universal's definitive Frankenstein motion picture
Rarely is a sequel, particularly a horror sequel, better than its predecessor, but Bride of Frankenstein (1935) easily replaced the 1931 original classic as the definitive Universal Frankenstein movie. Director James Whale did not want to do another Frankenstein movie for the most admirable of reasons, and largely because of his feelings on the matter he brought to a life a sequel that sought perfection in every discernible way and provided a much deeper and more poignant look at the monster of Frankenstein's creation - the comedic exploitation of the monster did not begin on his watch. The addition of a full-scale musical score added depth and its own emotional layers to the drama, Karloff brought amazing pathos and humanity to the creature, and Elsa Lanchester, in a few short minutes, gave the world one of the truly eternal horror images and icons in the form of the Bride of Frankenstein's Monster (which is what the film should have been called).

Most of the principal cast members of the original Frankenstein movie reprise their roles here, including Colin Clive as Frankenstein and the inimitable Boris Karloff as the monster. Mae Clarke, however, was unavailable for health reasons, and a seventeen-year-old Valerie Hobson took on the role of Elizabeth, Frankenstein's fiancée. This is a noticeable change, as Hobson played Elizabeth in a strikingly different manner. As you may have guessed, Frankenstein's monster did not actually die in the big fire that ended the first motion picture. The windmill was built over a cistern (more like a great big underground pond, if you ask me), and the monster escapes the conflagration, not before killing a couple of people and scaring Minnie, this film's version of interminable comic relief, half to death. Dr. Frankenstein, for his part, also survives (although we already knew this thanks to the last-minute concluding scene of the first movie). He regrets his foolish attempts to play God, even though he still speaks with a mad zeal about the dreams he pursued so dangerously. Enter Dr. Praetorius (Ernest Thesiger), a former professor of Frankenstein's and the kind of evil genius our reformed young doctor should have become. Praetorius has been doing his own God-like experiments and now seeks to join his knowledge with that of Frankenstein to make not a man, but a woman. In the film's only borderline ridiculous moments, we see the products of Praetorius' work - the film work and special effects are brilliantly done, but the whole idea is just laughably silly. Still, you can't help liking old Praetorius because he is everything a mad scientist should be. Frankenstein has now become - well, (...) a cowardly man who seems incapable of acting on his own accord. Luckily, Dr. Praetorius knows how to deal with a man such as Frankenstein, and he eventually succeeds in getting the good doctor back in the lab for one final experiment.

As for Frankenstein's monster, we finally get to see the humanity of the character emerge. Seeking friendship, he is met only with fear, screams, and malice. He does manage to find a friend in the countryside, however - the sound of violin music takes him to the home of a blind hermit. In one of the most touching scenes in cinema history, the blind man takes the monster in, thanks God for finally sending him a friend to assuage his loneliness, and shines the full light of humanity, all too briefly, on the lonely creature. Naturally, this time of happiness does not last long, but the monster does develop the ability to speak before he is separated forever from his friend. He ends up crossing paths with Dr. Praetorius, who quickly sells him on the idea of a mate, setting the stage for another pyrotechnic creation scene that gives us the unforgettable Bride of Frankenstein.

The cinematography, musical score, and basically everything else are well-nigh perfect in this film; despite the ridiculous editing demands of the censors, Bride of Frankenstein achieves the pinnacle of monster movie success. Still, it bothers me that these films have defined Frankenstein's monster as a creature much different than the literary monster of Mary Shelley's creation. The first film completely stood Shelley's story on its head, missing the point entirely. How ironic it is for Bride of Frankenstein to feature a prologue featuring the character of Mary Shelley herself, in company with her companion Percy Bysse Shelley and the flamboyant Lord Byron, explaining the meaning of her work and then introducing yet another bastardization of the real Mary Shelley's literary masterpiece. The original monster, as envisioned by Shelley, was not the creature at all; it was Dr. Frankenstein, not so much because he played God but because he abandoned his monstrous creation and left him alone to fend for himself. Bride of Frankenstein rights some of this wrong by showing the depth of humanity in the monster, but it cannot undo the wrongs already done the character. In the context of the cinema, he will forever be a "monster," a shadow of his true literary self, forced to suffer at the hands of man while the true villain of the story fails to even attempt to redeem himself or to suffer the harsh yet noble fate that he so rightfully earned in Shelley's original story.