The next in the series of the top 25…
by Allan Fish
(USA 1935 75m) DVD1/2
A new world of gods and monsters!
p Carl Laemmle Jnr d James Whale w John L.Balderston, William Hurlblut novel Mary Shelley ph John Mescall ed Ted J.Kent m Franz Waxman art Charles D.Hall, Kenneth Strickfaden (apparatus design) spc John P.Fulton make-up Jack Pierce
Boris Karloff (Monster), Colin Clive (Henry Frankenstein), Ernest Thesiger (Dr Septimus Praetorius), Valerie Hobson (Elizabeth), E.E.Clive (Burgomaster), Una O’Connor (Minnie), O.P.Heggie (Blind Hermit), Elsa Lanchester (Mary Shelley/Monster’s Mate), Gavin Gordon (Lord Byron), Douglas Walton (Percy Shelley), Dwight Frye (Karl), Lucien Prival, Mary Gordon, John Carradine, Walter Brennan, Anne Darling, Billy Barty,
The Bride of Frankenstein is that rarest of beasts, in more ways than one. It’s a masterpiece that improves on an original that was a classic in itself, a feat that can be counted on the digits of one hand. So much more than a horror film, it’s a spoof of the original, a spoof of itself, a religious allegory and a cry out for humanity in a dark, cruel world. “It’s a perfect night for mystery and horror, the air itself is filled with monsters” Mary Shelley tells us before narrating the tale in the prologue, and she’s right.
Opening on a stormy night at the actual historical meeting of Mary and Percy Shelley with Lord Byron, Mary tells the others how her story of Frankenstein actually ended. Taking up where the original left off, the monster is left burning in the windmill and the villagers return home. However, the monster is not dead at all, returns and, hoodwinked by the sinister Dr Pretorius, convinces Frankenstein to make him a mate to help make life bearable for him.
Of course, in actuality, there are a lot of continuity errors, and not just in terms of everyone but Karloff and Clive not returning to reprise their roles. The dead Maria’s father is now called Hans not Ludwig; we are asked to originally believe that Frankenstein is dead, even though we have seen him recovering in bed at the end of the previous film; the old baron conveniently dies; and that’s just for starters. Yet it’s the clarity of Whale’s intention and vision that acts against such pedantic exclamations. Bride has so much more going for it than the original; Waxman’s score, for one, and an even greater cast. Fair enough, Hobson is weak as the actual title character and Frye has only a token reappearance as a different character, but O’Connor is her deliciously cackling self as the maid, E.E.Clive is an inimitably ineffectual burgomaster (though his death scene is now lost, the original 90 minute version having been lost since the thirties) and Lanchester iconic in both her roles. Karloff, meanwhile, if anything improves on his performance in the original, in spite of the fact he was wary of having the monster speak. (As his own daughter said in Brownlow’s documentary Universal Horror, time has proven him wrong.) Yet pièce de resistance has to be Thesiger’s Pretorious, a ghoulish vision in what appears to be the garb of a sinister sideshow magician, devilish in his arrangement of miniature toys in glass bells, paying homage to himself in The Old Dark House (“have some gin, my only weakness“). It’s a camp classic of unabated scene-stealing.
However, what really makes Bride such an impressive film is the near blasphemy of its subtexts. Here we see the monster equated to Christ, going through his own awful Passion, raised up on a wooden plank as if crucified and hypnotised by Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’. After all, Mary Shelley herself warns of the moral of her story about “the punishment that befell a mortal man who dared to imitate God” and Henry himself laments “I have been cursed for delving into the mysteries of life.” Pretorius may blackmail him back into the darkness, but Whale finally allows his Henry to escape to freedom at the monster’s behest. Like Christ, the monster has come to rid the world of Henry’s sins, who is forgiven by the almighty as his creation gladly gives himself up to die. In the end, it’s about good triumphing over evil and this morality is perhaps best summed up by the creature itself; “alone…bad…friend…good.” Who can disagree with that?
The greatest of all the Universal horror films, and Whales’s best film. Thesiger is priceless. Great review.
One of my favorites, one that doesn’t diminish an iota over time. So many unforgettable scenes, and I agree the Pretorius character is tops.
Again I have to side with the general perception that this is the best of the Universal horrors, although “The Invisible Man,” “Frankenstein” and “The Mummy” are also great.
Very nice review.
Thanks, Peter. And The Old Dark House and The Black Cat belong up there, too.
Hi! Allen Fish,
I have not had the opportunity to watch Mary Shelley’s 1935 film “The Bride of Frankenstein” yet, but I may try to watch it before the month of “fright” has ended…btw, a very nice and detailed review of a film that I hope to add to my {film} collection.
dcd 😉
Certainly it’s the most “fun” of them, and it contains the most engaging performances.
DCD:
Didn’t get today’s mail yet, but I’ll be keeping you abreast! I love your new Humphrey Bogart icon there!! BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN is indeed a fright month special, and at least one viewing of it in October would seem ‘essential.’ I’m sure Allan will have something to add to this.
I see our friend Tony has a good-looking review of WHITE HEAT up at FilmNoir.net……I will be reading it later and commenting!!!
Hello DCD, you really need to see Bride of Frankenstein as of yesterday really. There are countries where not seeing it is punishable by death by firing squad.
I like the Bogie icon, too, DCD, but then does this mean that you are now Dark City Detective, not Dame? Take Jane Greer, the ultimate femme fatale…
Allen Fish said, “I like the Bogie icon, too, DCD, but then does this mean that you are now Dark City Detective, not Dame? ” Laughter!…ha! ha!…Oh! no!…I am still dcd {darkcitydame}
“Take Jane Greer, the ultimate femme fatale…”I agree with you, Allen…She was the ultimate
femme fatale in the 1947 film Out of the Past with actors Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas. But,
I don’t consider myself, a femme fatale…at least I hope not!…
Sam said, “Didn’t get today’s mail yet, but I’ll be keeping you abreast…” Ok! Sam, Thanks!
dcd 😉
Nothing wrong with being a femme fatale…
Allen said, “Nothing wrong with being a femme fatale…” Laughter!…ha!…too funny!
I would agree with you if I were Barbara Stanwyck, (In the 1944 film “Double Indemnity”)
Jane Greer, (In the 1947 film “Out of the Past”) Ava Gardner (In the 1946 film “The Killers”) and Marie Windsor in the 1956 film (The Killing.)
The definition of a femme fatale:
a woman who is considered to be highly attractive and to have a “destructive effect” on those who succumb to her “charms.”
Sorry! Allen, but I am more the Leslie Caron, Audrey Hepburn,…Independent thinking Katherine Hepburn type!….and because of a very careful upbringing, I try to be very caring and generous, but most importantly, I think I was gifted with a “wonderful sense of humour” …You know the ability to laugh at myself with others and never laugh at others! (I think some femme fatale look dour!)…Oh! well!…I also live by the “golden rules” too!…”You know do until other…. I think femme fatale…live by their “own” rules!
help no other, but themselves!
dcd 😉
DCD:
I have a feeling Allan will be quite pleased to know you are in that Leslie Caron-Audrey Hepburn-Katherine Hepburn mold! (OK Allan is not abig Audrey fan! LOL)
And I agree with you on your statement of those three women…….eeeee…….those do stand at the forefront in their craftiness!!!
Sorry but I know you can’t be a femme fatale, DVD, you are too good-hearted, charming and vivacious…….now Allan, better find a suitable character for you as soon as he reads this!!!!
LOL!!!!
Ahh! …Thank-you! Sam, for the “new” moniker!
DVD {darkvivaciousdame} ha!…Just kidding with you Sam,… I know it was just a honest mistake!… because on the keyboard the letter “C” is ” by the “V”….of course!
Tks,
dcd 😉
It’s probably my favorite Frankenstein movie. There are scenes of Thesiger in the crypt that remind me of a Charles Dickens story but I can’t remember which one. Possibly the unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood, but I’m not sure. I agree with Sam about Thesiger.
Yup, Edwin Drood would be the one, Bill, digging for Drood’s grave.