The Bride of Frankenstein | Dwight Frye, Valerie Hobson Ernest Thesiger

The Bride of Frankenstein | Dwight Frye, Valerie Hobson Ernest Thesiger | best

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The Bride of Frank...

	The Bride of Frankenstein Dwight Frye, Valerie Hobson Ernest Thesiger MCA / Universal, 1991 average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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One of the most talked-about horror classics of all time, and an acclaimed sequel to the original Frankenstein. The legendary Boris Karloff reprises his role as the screen's most misunderstood monster who now longs for a mate of his own. Colin Clives is back as the over ambitious Dr. Frankenstein, who creates the ill-fates bride (Elsa Lanchester). Directed by the original FRANKENSTEIN's James Whale (his last horror film & subject of the bio GODS & MONSTERS) and featuring a haunting musical score, THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN ranks of one of the finest films of the genre.

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James Whale's new world of gods and monsters

From a cultural standpoint the 1931 Universal film version of "Frankenstein" that introduced Boris Karloff as the Monster is an important film because it ended up replacing Mary Shelley's original novel in the popular consciousness. The great sin by the novel's Dr. Frankenstein was not the act of creating life by reanimating dead tissue but rather in abandoning it once it was alive. However, in James Whales' film it is clearly the act of creation that is the act of abomination. So it is quite ironic that the authoress herself appears in the prologue to the 1935 sequel, "The Bride of Frankenstein," given what is being done to her story. What ends up being more important is the fact that this is the far better film.

Mary Shelley (Elsa Lanchester), Percy Shelley (Douglas Walton), and Lord Byron (Gavin Gordon) are sitting around on a dark and stormy night and having apparently narrated the events of the first film, Mary tells her audience that the collapse of the windmill was not the end of the story and that both Dr. Frankenstein and the monster have both survived. The doctor has learned the error of his ways and wants to stop tampering with the forces of life, but his wife, Elizabeth (Valerie Hobson) is kidnapped by Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger), an even madder mad scientist if ever there was one. Alone Frankenstein created a man; together they will create a mate for the monster, a bride (also played by Lanchester in an unforgettable performance that owes much to the traditions of German expressionist film).

The sequel is a better film mainly because the production is much more polished and Colin Clive has come back from the edge in terms of both his character and his performance. However, while the film works perfectly well on its own it has been reinterpreted in light of Whale's homosexuality, which became part of the cultural landscape with the 1998 biopic "Gods and Monsters." Critics like Gary Morris are not alone in now seeing "Bride of Frankenstein" as a bold gay parable, especially given that Thesiger was also openly gay in the Hollywood of the 1930s and that his performance is high camp of the purest order. However, you can enjoy the film perfectly without working out the idea that the monster and his bride have a pair of male parents and pondering the social significance of that from the vantage point of the early 21st century.

Ultimately it is important that you watch both of the Whales "Frankenstein" films and to appreciate the important differences between the two works. To do so you only have to look at a pair of memorable scenes. In the 1931 film this would be the scene where the monster comes across little Maria (Marilyn Harris), throwing daisies in the lake and he accidentally drowns her as they play together. In the 1935 sequel the key scene is when the monster comes upon the hermit (O.P. Heggie) living alone in quiet solitude and finds a friend. Both scenes represent the apotheosis of pathos in their respective films, but they also indicate great irony of how the more human the monster becomes, the wider the gulf that is created between him and humanity.

Even as a master metaphor of current age the saga of the Frankenstein monster remains a very human story as well, and it draws its enormous narrative power from both. The performance by Karloff, who is now able to speak a few words (most notably, "I love dead"), creates a pathos for the monster that is unmatched in all the Frankenstein films made since. Much more than the original and despite the title, "The Bride of Frankenstein" is Boris Karloff's film.

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best

pure goth, totally differant.better than the origanal.
bride of frankenstein will go down in history as the very best of universal horror.
love it.

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