The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Director: James Whale
Writers: Mary Shelley (suggested by the original story written in 1816) William Hurlbut (adapted by)
Stars: Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Colin Clive
Horror fan confession
time. There is a large gap in my viewing history, a gap in the shape of
Universal’s Classic Horror Monsters. I’ve seen most of Dracula and Frankenstein
over the years, piece by piece, and only recently watched The Creature from the
Black Lagoon. And that’s pretty much it. But now, at long last, I’ve seen The
Bride of Frankenstein (on 35mm no less!). And, well, it was okay. Not quite
what I was expecting for sure. It’s kind of a patchwork of subplots and
directions, with the titular Bride herself only appearing in the final reel.
And at a scant 75 minutes, it feels like the film ends right when it’s getting
started.
We open with Percy and Mary Shelley along with Lord Byron on
a dark and stormy night. They discuss Mary Shelley’s story of Frankenstein, the
proper movie setting off as she decides to tell them what happens next.
Although the scene is quite fun in and of itself, featuring some exuberantly
hammy acting by Gavin Gordon as Lord Byron (never have you heard so many R’s
rolled in a single sentence!), it feels very awkward and out of place. Firstly,
watching any film requires a great deal of suspension of disbelief to buy into
the story and empathize with the fictional character, even more so when the
film features reanimated corpses and dated special effects. Adding the element
of flat out telling you that the movie you’re watching is just a story sort of
pulls the rug out from under it. Why invest us in these characters and struggles
when they’re just figments of Mary Shelley’s imagination? All the scene serves
to do is spell out the theme that man shouldn’t try to play God, which is very
clearly stated elsewhere in the film. And although it sets itself up to bookend
the film, we don’t actually return to the authors at the end of the movie,
which makes the opening stand out all the more (though I’ve read that they did
film such an ending scene, which wound up on the cutting room floor).
Once we’re into the Frankenstein story we pick up right at
the end of the first film. The village mob is having a gay old time around the
burning windmill. We’re quickly introduced to Minnie (Una O’Connor), a busybody
of a maid who adds a dash of humor throughout the rest of the film. The
townsfolk are quite upset at the death of Dr. Frankenstein and cart his body
away to tell his fiancée the sad news. Meanwhile The Monster is, of course,
still quite alive and murders a couple of people poking around the ruins (the
identities of these victims seem quite mean spirited, especially since the film
wants us to start sympathizing with The Monster. But...he is a monster). What
does come as a surprise, perhaps, is that the doctor is also alive too! (well,
I guess that just undercuts the entire drama at the end of the first film!)
Here the story diverts into two subplots. The Monster
wanders around the countryside, looking for food and companionship. He meets a
kindly blind man who doesn’t realize what he is and takes him in, teaching him
to speak. The Monster becomes relatively eloquent, quite quickly really. Karloff
is great in all these scenes, his physical performance has since become iconic,
and his deep voice conveys the desperation and sadness of The Monster.
Off in the world of Dr. Frankenstein we’re introduced to an
old professor of his who has also had some luck in creating life. This scene
really took me by surprise as the fantastically named Dr. Pretorius reveals
tiny miniature humans he’s grown. This bit of science fiction seems to come
from an entirely different world than that of Frankenstein and smells more of
the studio wanting to show off their new special effects than anything. It’s
almost as if a scene from some Flash Gordon-esque serial found its way into the
film print. Anyway, Dr. Pretorius wants to join up with his former student and
create a mate for The Monster (even though there’s no reason either of them
should know he’s still alive at this point).
Ernest Thesiger, who sets the bar for mad scientists with
his portrayal of Dr. Pretorius is absolutely one of the best parts of the film.
He’s grandstanding, humorous, and utterly captivating. When he speaks the
infamous “...gods and monsters” quote, you can’t help but get a shiver.
This is a good point to mention the other interesting aspect
of watching a movie like this for the first time. I’ve seen so many moments of
this film used in other works or parodied, that it’s quite bizarre to see the
source material at times. You can’t watch The Monster meeting the old blind man
without thinking of the scene from Young Frankenstein. And you certainly can’t
hear Dr. Frankenstein exclaim that “She’s Alive” without immediately humming
the opening bars of Weird Science. This isn’t a knock against the film at all.
I love those little Deja vu moments when watching classic films, it really
makes you feel like you’re experiencing film history.
So, the problem with the parallel stories is that they seem
to be saying different things. The mad scientist story sticks with the theme
that man should not play God and any of his creations will turn out to be
abominations. However, The Monster’s story is actually a pretty decent parable
about discrimination, showing that even a monster is just misunderstood at
heart. Both stories and themes are well told and aren’t necessarily exclusive.
The film could have gone very deep in examining what to do with byproducts of man
overstepping his place in nature. But it doesn’t. At the end we’re given the
classic playing-God-is-bad and monsters-should-be-killed morals.
Although the end does play it safe in this way, when we finally get around the creation of The Bride, it’s absolutely thrilling. Every crazy scientific experiment scene in film history owes a little to the climax of The Bride of Frankenstein. The set dressing, cinematography, acting, and music all combine to bring the audience to the edge of their seats, waiting to see the big haired Bride we’ve all come to recognize. And she’s absolutely…fantastic! Really. Elsa Lanchester, pulling double duty as Mary Shelley and The Bride, performs the creation with such frightening robotic movements and animalistic noises that I have to say she outdoes even Karloff himself! Sadly, she’s only on screen for a scant few minutes before the conclusion of the film. Which is incredibly disappointing. After sitting through the disjointed first two thirds of the movie, things were finally starting to come together and get fascinating. The relationships between all the parties, mad scientist, reluctant creator, Monster, and Bride, is full of drama. Yet it’s all squandered as the film almost seems to be racing to throw up the ending title card. It’s not a bad film by any means, it’s just a bit disappointing seeing that it could have been so much more.
- Cameron Harrison
Check out Cameron's YouTube Channel