Bride of Frankenstein

Everything went right; from the opening,where Lanchester plays Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley with a gleam in her eye, and overly sweet sarcasm, to the beginning of the sequel, where Karloff is thought dead, to Lanchesters Nefertiti hair near the end , her priceless reactions.

Karloff is excellent as a monster wanting a mate. Una O'Connor is a scream as Minnie, the old biddy who is screeching to see the Monster killed, then shrieks when she spots the Monster. She is told to shut up at least five times in the film. Ernest Thesiger as Dr. Pretorius is a great mix of horror and humor; he robs graves, and also swigs gin out of laboratory beakers, has supper on top of a coffin, gets the Monster to have cigars with him.

Franz Waxmans' playful score, the cinematography and set design that are both reminiscent of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1919), Everything works. The perfect mix of horror and humor.

Forget the likes of "The Godfather II" and "The Empire Strikes Back" - "Bride of Frankenstein" is THE greatest example of a sequel completely surpassing the original in terms of sheer brilliance. Coming four years after the original 'Frankenstein' in 1931, director James Whale was originally reluctant to make a sequel but changed his mind after being allowed to make the film more on his own terms. No other director has ever managed to blend horror, comedy and pathos as successfully Whale. The film features some of the most memorable scenes in cinema history, notably the monster's encounter with a lonely hermit and the introduction of 'The Bride'. The film has it all: superb casting, tremendous sets and make up, memorable dialogue ("To a new world of Gods and monsters") and a brilliant score by Franz Waxman. Boris Karloff must surely be one of the greatest actors to ever appear on film. He manages to improve on his initial characterisation of the Monster, due mainly to the addition of dialogue ("Friends, good!"), and, unlike in the first movie, actually makes us feel total empathy for the Monster. Colin Clive returns as the reluctant Doctor F, Una O'Connor makes a wonderful addition as the twittering and hysterical Minnie, but it is Ernest Thesiger who steals the film with his hilarious performance ("Have a cigar. They are my only weakness") as the sinister Dr. Pretorious. Although Elsa Lanchester appears as the Bride for only about 2 minutes at the film's finale, it will be the role for which she is forever associated. The film is regarded as the high point of the Universal horror series and stands as a testament to the genius of James Whale.

Bride of Frankenstein is definitely one of the more memorable sequels of all time. The first Frankenstein film was a truly memorable exploration of horror and was extremely advanced for its time; dealing with issues of modernity when the doctor starts talking of space travel and also pushing censorship to levels it hadn't been pushed to before; having characters exclaim they 'knew what God felt like' and also including images of dead bodies and murder. With Bride of Frankenstein, certain elements of surprise have been lost but the film delves deeper into its characters and explores different things to make it more of an 'entertaining' film.

The film doesn't hang around and cleverly introduces the story through the original author Mary Shelley (Elsa Lanchester) dictating what it is that happens next. For a film in 1935 to use such a technique and manage to include elements of heartbreak when we assume Dr. Frankenstein is dead, horror when The Monster re-emerges AND murder when someone mistakenly crosses him all in the first ten minutes or so, is extremely impressive and is only the result of fantastic direction through great, inventive ideas.

Then, the film uses the character of The Monster as a sort of MacGuffin. It is reduced to a wondering, babbling, hulking thing getting into mischief as it makes its way through the forests nearby but this isn't a bad thing. What we see is the first example of the characters in this, so far, series of two films develop. The Monster starts to develop emotions of pity when it sees someone in the forest in trouble and attempts to rescue them as well as intelligence because it manages to get itself out of trouble when danger threatens it – there is no excuse for this development of ideas and intelligence but it's interesting to see anyway.

What's more, this wondering and random character is a great excuse for it to cause havoc and/or get into adventures of its own and this it does to a basic level. Apart from stumbling across a picnic of some description when everyone assumes its safe since when last they heard, he'd been captured; The Monster gets involved with a seemingly lonely man who lives in a log cabin in the woods. The curse here to me is that I'd seen Kenneth Branagh's 1994 Frankenstein before this so I knew what was up and how things would develop.

As a result, it was predictable to me but to fresh eyes what follows between The Monster and this man is an education and a friendship that truly supports evidence that this film really is all about developing characters such as The Monster further away from the 'dead' tag and closer to the 'human' tag. Not only this but Dr. Frankenstein himself is leaning more and more towards a 'normal' life away from insane experiments; tempted back only by blackmail. About half way through, Frankenstein's creation manages to get himself into a bit of trouble and is caught but escapes so soon afterwards, the sequence passes off without too much suspense or interest which was disappointing; also, the character of Minnie is so obviously an attempt at comic relief that she becomes annoying quite quickly although I suppose they had to include this character to stop the film appearing too dark.

If Frankenstein from 1931 was an out and out horror shock–fest for the time, Bride of Frankenstein remains a character piece full of 'what would happen if.....' a mindless, homicidal lab creation was loose in rural Europe. Some of the later scenes still made me squirm a little when the 'mate' is being created and if you can look past the rushed ending; you'll see a sequel to a film miles ahead of its time, ahead of its time.

James Whale's 'Frankenstein' was a landmark movie (released in 1931, a year of two other landmark movies, Todd Browning's 'Dracula' and Fritz Lang's 'M'), and one of the most important and influential movies ever made. 'Bride Of Frankenstein' is a very rare beast, a sequel which not only equals, but surpasses the original! In my mind it is the greatest sequel in the history of motion pictures, and a strong contender for the greatest horror movie of all time. It's certainly one of the most original, stylish and entertaining ones, that's for sure. Horror legend Boris Karloff reprises his role as The Monster and manages to top his brilliant original performance, and give his character even more depth and emotion. Colin Clive reappears as Dr. Frankenstein, and legendary character actor Dwight Frye (Fritz in the first movie and Renfield in 'Dracula') plays another memorable supporting role as Karl. The beautiful Valerie Hobson replaces Mae Clarke as Elizabeth (a smart move!), and the eagle eyed with spot future stars John Carradine and Walter Brennan in bit parts, but the best thing about the movie apart from Karloff, is the addition of Elsa Lanchester as The Monster's "bride", and the wonderfully eccentric Ernest Thesiger as the nutty and sinister Dr. Pretorious. Karloff, Thesiger and Lanchester between them are responsible for some of the most memorable scenes in cinema history, particularly the "I...love....dead....Hate....living" exchange, the sequence with the blind hermit (absolutely heartbreaking!), and of course, the totally unforgettable meeting between The Monster and his mate! This is still an astonishing movie experience almost seventy years after it was made. Every single time I watch it I marvel at it. 'Bride Of Frankenstein' is one of the best movies I have ever seen, horror or otherwise. This movie comes with my highest possible recommendation!

This review also refers to FRANKENSTEIN (1931).

The epitome of the Universal horror classics made by one the greatest practitioners of the genre, James Whale. He always wanted to be an A-list director and used to have mixed feelings about his horror work. Reluctant to make a sequel, he managed to assure himself of complete creative control over the project, putting together a unique blend of horror, suspense and tongue-in-cheek comedy that was quite unlike anything made before and has rarely been equaled ever since.

It has been noted, but the original 1931 FRANKENSTEIN should be seen first, as this one picks up the storyline where FRANKENSTEIN left off. Considering the combined running time of about 140 min, both films can easily be watched back to back.

The story sets off with a clever prologue between Mary Shelly (a short but great performance by Elsa Lanchester who also plays The Bride) and Lord Byron, who asks her to continue the tale of Dr. Frankenstein. Still recovering in his castle after the escape of the Monster, he is visited by the even more insane Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesinger). He is also experimenting with creating life (the miniature humans) and tries to persuade Frankenstein to join forces in order to create a female companion for the Monster (Boris Karloff), that is still at large wreaking havoc in the surrounding countryside.

Although both films are justly hailed as classics, in my opinion BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN holds up much better to modern audiences than the original. Basically two things stand out: a great music score is added, which make everything seem much more alive and fast moving than in the original film. Secondly, the black humor and it's sense of self-parody, spoofing the genre and even underpinning Whale's earlier films greatly adds to the fun, compared to the much more basic and primitive FRANKENSTEIN. Admittedly, this is partly due to a larger budget, but combined with the fabulous production values, splendid sets, stunning photography and absolutely striking special effects, that still look pretty amazing, even by today's standards. I was stunned by the scene in which Dr. Pretorius shows off his miniature people, that he keeps in the glass jars. Even modern-day special effects specialists couldn't figure out how they did it. I don't know anything that comes even close until computer-generated effects took over.

The eccentric Ernest Thesinger plays the role of his life and almost walks away with the film with his wonderful portrayal of the menacing Dr. Pretorius, who delivers one classic line after another. But the rest of the cast is just as good with particularly outstanding roles for - off course - Boris Karloff as the Monster, Elsa Lanchester in a dual role as The Bride (billed as "?") and Mary Shelley, and Una O'Connor as Minnie, Frankenstein's servant. I think it's one the very few films that can be enjoyed at almost any level, equally fun for (older) children and lovers of classic horror. This film proves that horror can be funny and intelligent and can be combined with splendid cinematic virtues. Not just Whale's best, this is one of the all-time great films.

Camera Obscura --- 10/10