Film Review: The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Sequels are worse than original films, but there are always exceptions to this rule. Those exception might include even the original films that are considered classics or milestones in cinema history, like Frankenstein, 1931 horror film directed by James Whale. Four years later Whaled directed sequel under title The Bride of Frankenstein, which is often considered the best horror film of 1930s and one of the best horror films ever made.

Like the original film, The Bride of Frankenstein was based on Frankenstein, famous 1818 novel by British author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, with scriptwriters William Hurlbut and John L. Balderstone using some of the motives not used in the previous film. The plot begins exactly when the original film ended with Whale finding an ingenious way to update audience that might not have seen 1931 film. It is short prologue scene set in 1810s featuring Mary Wollstonceraft Shelley (played by Elsa Lanchester) discussing her novel with her husband Percy Shelley (played by Douglas Walton) and friend Lord Byron (played by Gavin Gordon); during it Mary Shelley describes how mad scientist Henry Frankenstein (played by Colin Clive) created monster (played by Boris Karloff) from dead people’s body parts brought together which, once given life, began murderous rampage in the village in Bavarian Alps. Monster apparently perished in mill on fire, surrounded by villagers, but Shelley tells that the “story isn’t over”. First scenes show that Monster actually survived; villagers are again terrorised by the murderous rampage. In the meantime, Henry Frankenstein, who barely survived, is resentful over his playing God and would like nothing more than nightmare to end, especially because it endangers his fiancee Elizabeth (played by Valerie Hobson). He is, however, soon visited by Dr. Septimus Pretorius (played by Ernest Thesiger), former mentor who has his own ideas about creating artificial and wants two of them to work together to create artificial woman. When Frankenstein refuses, Pretorius finds ally in the Monster, who in the meantime learned to speak by living in a hut with kind blind hermit (played by O. P. Heggie). The Monster wants a female friend and Pretorius, in order to force Frankenstein to cooperate, instructs Monster to abduct Elizabeth.

Frankenstein was big hit for Universal Pictures and producer Carl Laemmle Jr. wanted to start working on sequel almost immediately. Whale was much more hesitant and it took years of convincing and promise of creative freedom to agree. The resulting film was worth the wait. Whale had improved his directing skills, while Hollywood made significant technical progress in four years. Bride, while remaining German Expressionist style of production design, covered by cinematography John J. Mestall, looks much more polished. The story, despite turning the finale of the first film into not particularly convincing cliffhanger, is also more interesting and characters are more complex. That includes the cast which does better, and in many ways, physically more demanding job. Most important cast member, Boris Karloff, returns; he delivers another great performance, this time with even more demanding make up necessary for his character to talk. Colin Clive again shines in his role, although in subsequent years he had to struggle with alcoholism and health issues. Health issues of Mae Clarke, actress playing Elizabeth in the original film, forced Whale to cast British Valerie Hobson in that role; she did much better job. Ernest Thesiger, Whale’s old acquaintance from British stage, is great addition and he plays the most monstrous character of them all – ultimate mad scientist, whose desire to create artificial life and play God might be cover for some unspeakable perversions and who, unlike remorseful Frankenstien or the Monster who isn’t guilty for being what it is, doesn’t have redeeming qualities. Thesiger plays such character in a very effective way, allowing audience to enjoy Pretorius’ lunacy. The best acting performance in the film, however, is given by Elsa Lanchester, actress who appears relatively briefly in double role – as Mary Shelley in the beginning and as the Bride near the end. Although her latter performance is brief, it is almost as iconic as Karloff’s character in the series. For Lanchester, who would have many great character roles in her career, Bride represented what could be described as pinnacle of her career.

Whale also used the opportunity to play with his style of direction, which becomes more unusual as film approaches its famous Gothic climax in the castle. Whale employs unusual shooting angles and gives away influence of Soviet montage theory. He also infuses film with plenty of dark humour, especially in scenes with hysterical woman played by Una O’Connor. The scene in which the Monster finds kindred spirit in blind hermit is both funny and poignant. Like in 1931 film, Whale keeps rapid tempo and the running time is relatively short. But audience can find plenty of new things to like – special effects depicting “homunculi” or artificial little people created by Pretorius and extremely effective music score by Franz Waxman (which was later used in Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon film serials). Many film scholars and critics in later years were, on the account of Whale’s homosexuality, trying to find gay subtext in film’s content, which was the view generally rejected by Whale’s friends and acquaintances. Whale had to make his film under the yoke of newly enforced Hays Code and any “spicy” content had to be smuggled on screen in a ways that allowed various interpretations. The Bride of Frankenstein, like the previous film, turned out to be a massive hit. Whale, however, didn’t participate in six more films in series produced by Universal and all of them proved inferior to this work. This guaranteed the status of The Bride of Frankenstein to remain high. The film was in 1975 given homage in Mel Brooks’ classic parody Frankenstein Junior and in 1998 its production was partially reconstructed in Gods and Monsters, biopic dedicated to Whale.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)

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