1935 Directed by James Whale
Bride of Frankenstein begins where James Whale's Frankenstein from 1931 ended. Dr. Frankenstein has not been killed as previously portrayed and now he wants to get away from the mad experiments. Yet when his wife is kidnapped by his creation, Frankenstein agrees to help him create a new monster, this time a woman.
Boris Karloff Elsa Lanchester Colin Clive Valerie Hobson Ernest Thesiger Gavin Gordon Douglas Walton Una O'Connor E.E. Clive Lucien Prival O.P. Heggie Dwight Frye Reginald Barlow Mary Gordon Anne Darling Walter Brennan John Carradine Ted Billings Norman Ainsley Peter Shaw Kansas DeForrest Josephine McKim Michael Mark Billy Barty Robert Adair Frank Benson Maurice Black Mae Bruce A.S. Byron Show All…
I've seen this movie countless times over the whole course of my life, and still it continues to astound me. On every viewing, I can peel back another handful of its infinite mysteries; another smattering of truth reveals itself. Bride may be a monster movie and a sly queer allegory and a wellspring of cartoon parody, but it's not just those things. No, it's also a tight bundle of emotions, ideas, and images that plays around in a genre sandbox while mordantly commenting on nearly every aspect of human existence. Birth, death, sex, marriage, loneliness: nothing is absent from this story. Frankly, rewatching it makes me shocked that it ever got made—not only in the 1930s, but ever. Perhaps the…
Thrumming with an eerie, vibrant electricity, life itself is perverse, unnecessary, excessive, born from needs themselves born from depths unfathomed, from want, from desire, without division or judgement rendered. To be full of these needs inexpressible, damned to endure them alone, is to live wracked with horrors unspoken, in self-hurt or a prideful withdrawal from the ways of the living, viewing them as if from afar, going about their days and their nights, their sleep and their wakefulness, never knowing how it could be thus, out of determined order, yet existing just the same, betwixt life under the reign of the sun and the coolness and permanency of the grave, belonging to neither, longing for both. To eat, to drink,…
Count your blessings the child I once was isn't reviewing James Whale's film for it would have had a whole different outcome! Back then when I hadn't a clue as to what made a film great I was distraught over the fact they had blasphemously turned this behemoth of a monster into an all too relatable and loveable character! A giant with a big heart if you will! One that could squeeze a tear from even the most jaded cinephile! I'd have been whining at the screen "that's NOT a monster movie" instead of the more appropriate vernacular "WTF" that I would have used today!
I would have pointed out the big deal that they had made over Frankenstein receiving…
God I love these movies.
"Bride of Frankenstein" is just about everything you'd expect a sequel to one of Universal's most highly regarded pictures to be.
Everything that made the original work is still here and further expanded on, with more of a focus on showing how the monsters are more human than their actual creators.
Set quite literally seconds after the ending of the original, Frankenstein's monster is still alive and kicking and now wonders into the woods looking to escape those who want to hurt him even more. But little does the creature know that his creator is still alive, and has a new partner with a new set of toys to play with to make another creature…
“It’s a perfect night for mystery and horror. The air itself is filled with monsters.”
Bride of Frankenstein has REALLY clicked with me over the past few years... I’ve always loved it and knew it was a better made film compared to its (brilliant) predecessor, but I’ve fallen in love with just how morbid some of the humor is, with Dr. Pretorius whimsically joking about the validity of both life and death, the incredible set design, great camera work, etc. There’s some fucked up morality at play here as well:
“Do you know who Henry Frankenstein is? And who you are?”
“Yes I know. Made me from dead. I love Dead... hate living”
Yeah I can relate to that.
I…
It’s insane how iconic the Bride of Frankenstein became with only about 4 minutes of screen time.
Love the humor of this movie. Una O’Conner is so good. She plays the same batty old lady in The Invisible Man and she kills it there too.
This movie is even better than the first. The Bride of Frankenstein is a breathtaking thriller that explores the character of Frankenstein's monster even deeper. Boris Karloff masterfully portrays the monster with such realism, he births a character that we as an audience can both pity and fear. He allows us to see both sides, and sparks life into the character Mary Shelley had written in her original novel.
The lighting and the camera angles throughout the film clearly convey good and evil to the audience, and are just absolutely gorgeous.
Also, actors really worked for their money back then. They really acted. By today's standards we say, "oh that's so over-exaggerated and unrealistic", but I'm tempted to ask: "isn't…
My all time favorite Universal horror film. If you can only choose one to watch, choose this one. It’s faster paced and has more action than the first Frankenstein film.
Kurzkrititk:
Ich seh schon, warum der so beliebt, teils beliebter als das meisterhafte Original ist. Eine geniale, zugegebene bessere Kameraarbeit, mehr und aufwendigere Sets, ein noch immer genialer Karloff, dazu noch eine ebenso gute Schauspielerleistung von Ernest Thesiger als Antagonist Dr. Prätorius und eine ordentliche Portion Humor, der größtenteils funktioniert und mit den Horror-Tropes friedlich einhergeht, philosophisch bleibt das größtenteils auch noch interessant. Mein Herz muss auch nicht erst von Dr. Frankenstein re-animiert werden, um für dieses Sequel zu schlagen, allein wegen all der Kreativität und der Meta-Ebene, durch die der Film eingeleitet wird, ohne die Stärke des perfekten Ende seines Vorgängers zu beschmutzten, nicht, doch schafft er es auch lange nicht, die Sequenzen mit dem netten blinden Herrn mal abgesehen, mich so emotional zu involvieren, wie es im Original der Fall war und ist für mich so schon eine kleine Ecke schlechter, aber immer noch auf extrem hohem Niveau, James Whale weiß wohl einfach, was er tut.
An important footnote in upping campy humour within horror, though today it's not quite as impactful as its predecessor, with pretty much all of the film building towards the creation of the bride more than using her as a character herself and consequently tends to wander.
“This is no life for murderers.”
The Bride of Frankenstein is waay funnier and wacky than I remember. It’s gloriously silly in the way only a schlocky universal monster movie can be.
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