Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

James Whale

Writers:

William Hurlbut (screenplay)
William Hurlbut (adaptation) ...
(more)

Release Date:

22 April 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

WHO will be The Bride of Frakenstein WHO will dare ?

Plot:

Mary Shelley reveals the main characters of her novel survived: Dr. Frankenstein (goaded by an even madder scientist) builds his monster a mate.

Plot Keywords:

Monster | Mad Scientist | Experiment | Monster As Victim | Unlikely Friendship

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win

Cast

Boris Karloff	...	The Monster (as Karloff)
Colin Clive	...	Baron Henry von Frankenstein
Valerie Hobson	...	Elizabeth von Frankenstein
Ernest Thesiger	...	Dr. Pretorius
Elsa Lanchester	...	Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley / The Monster's Bride (as ?)
Gavin Gordon	...	Lord Byron
Douglas Walton	...	Percy Shelley
Una O'Connor	...	Minnie - Housekeeper
E.E. Clive	...	Burgomaster
Lucien Prival	...	Albert - Butler
O.P. Heggie	...	Hermit
Dwight Frye	...	Karl
Reginald Barlow	...	Hans
Mary Gordon	...	Hans' Wife
Anne Darling	...	Shepherdess (as Ann Darling)
Ted Billings	...	Ludwig
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jack Curtis	...	A Hunter
Helen Parrish	...	Communion Girl (scenes deleted)
Robert Adair	...	A Hunter (uncredited)
Norman Ainsley	...	Little Archbishop (uncredited)
Billy Barty	...	Little Baby (uncredited)
Frank Benson	...	Villager (uncredited)
Maurice Black	...	Gypsy (uncredited)
Walter Brennan	...	Neighbor (uncredited)
Mae Bruce	...	Villager (uncredited)
A.S. 'Pop' Byron	...	Henry VIII: Little King (uncredited)
John Carradine	...	Hunter at Hermit's Cottage (uncredited)
D'Arcy Corrigan	...	Procession Leader (uncredited)
Grace Cunard	...	Villager (uncredited)
J. Gunnis Davis	...	Uncle Glutz (uncredited)
Kansas DeForrest	...	Little Ballerina (uncredited)
Elspeth Dudgeon	...	Gypsy's Mother (uncredited)
Helen Jerome Eddy	...	Gypsy's Wife (uncredited)
Neil Fitzgerald	...	Rudy (uncredited)
Brenda Fowler	...	A Mother (uncredited)
John George	...	Villager (uncredited)
Helen Gibson	...	Villager (uncredited)
Marilyn Harris	...	Girl (uncredited)
Rollo Lloyd	...	(uncredited)
Josephine McKim	...	Little Mermaid (uncredited)
Torben Meyer	...	Man Being Strangled by the Monster in Flashback During Prologue (uncredited)
Edward Peil Sr.	...	Villager (uncredited)
Sarah Schwartz	...	Marta (uncredited)
Peter Shaw	...	Little Devil (uncredited)
Mary Stewart	...	Neighbor (uncredited)
Frank Terry	...	A Hunter (uncredited)
Dorothy Vernon	...	Maid (uncredited)
Lucio Villegas	...	Priest (uncredited)
Joan Woodbury	...	Little Queen (uncredited)

Directed by
James Whale

Writing credits
William Hurlbut		(screenplay)
William Hurlbut		(adaptation) and
John L. Balderston		(adaptation) (as John Balderston)
Mary Shelley		(novel "Frankenstein")
Josef Berne		adaptation (uncredited)
Lawrence G. Blochman		adaptation (uncredited)
Morton Covan		adaptation (uncredited)
Robert Florey		story (uncredited)
Philip MacDonald		adaptation (uncredited)
Edmund Pearson		screenplay (uncredited)
Tom Reed		adaptation (uncredited)
R.C. Sherriff		adaptation (uncredited)

Produced by
Carl Laemmle Jr.	....	producer

Original Music by
Franz Waxman

Cinematography by
John J. Mescall

Film Editing by
Ted J. Kent		(as Ted Kent)

Art Direction by
Charles D. Hall

Makeup Department
Otto Lederer	....	makeup associate (uncredited)
Jack P. Pierce	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Fred Frank	....	assistant director (uncredited)
Harry Mancke	....	assistant director (uncredited)
Joseph A. McDonough	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
William Hedgcock	....	sound technician (uncredited)
Gilbert Kurland	....	sound supervisor (uncredited)

Special Effects by
John P. Fulton	....	special photographic effects
David S. Horsley	....	special effects assistant (uncredited)
Ken Strickfaden	....	special electrical properties (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
William Dodds	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
Alan Jones	....	second camera operator (uncredited)

Music Department
C. Bakaleinikoff	....	conductor (as Bakaleinikoff)
Clifford Vaughan	....	orchestrator: musical score (uncredited)
Oliver Wallace	....	musician: organ (uncredited)

Other crew
Carl Laemmle	....	presenter
Flo Brummel	....	script clerk (uncredited)
Buddy Daggett	....	secretary: Carl Laemmle Jr. (uncredited)
Peter Shaw	....	stand-in: Ernest Thesiger (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Universal Pictures

Distributors

• Universal Pictures (1935) (USA) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures (1935) (Austria) (theatrical)
• Film Classics (1948) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Realart Pictures (1953) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Screen Gems (1958) (USA) (TV) (syndication)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Net5 (2004) (Netherlands) (TV)
• Universal Home Entertainment (2004) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Universal Orchestra  orchestra
• Universal Scoring Stage  orchestra

Also Known As:

Frankenstein Lives Again! (USA) (working title)
The Bride of Frankenstein (USA) (poster title)
The Return of Frankenstein (USA) (working title)
A Noiva de Frankenstein (Portugal) [pt]
Frankenstayn'in nisanlisi (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Frankensteinin morsian (Finland) [fi]
Frankensteins Braut (Germany) [de]
Frankensteins Rückkehr (Austria) [de]
Frankensteins brud (Sweden) [sv]
I mnisti tou Frankenstein (Greece) [el]
La fiancée de Frankenstein (France) [fr]
La moglie di Frankenstein (Italy) [it]
La novia de Frankenstein (Spain) [es]
Narzeczona Frankensteina (Poland) [pl]

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Iceland:L | UK:A (original rating) | UK:H (re-rating: 1943) | UK:PG (video rating: 1989) | UK:X (re-rating: 1956) | Spain:13 | South Korea:12 | Norway:16 (1986) | Australia:PG | Canada:G (Quebec) | Finland:K-16 (1976) | Germany:12 (video rating: 2000) | USA:Approved (PCA #768)

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Editing after previews resulted in the loss of a subplot in which Karl imitates the Monster's murderous modus operandi to eliminate his miserly aunt and uncle and direct the blame away from himself.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When the monster is being chased by the mob, (before they can catch him), he rolls a heavy boulder off a cliff, on them. The boulder is bumped by one of the villagers, and moves easily, showing it to be probably nothing more than a large ball of papier-mâché.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Lord Byron: Prologue
[looking out the window at a thunderstorm]
Lord Byron: How beautifully dramatic! The cruelest savage exhibition of nature at her worst without.
[turns to face Mary and Percy Shelley, both seated]
Lord Byron: And we three. We elegant three within. I should like to think that an irate Jehovah was pointing those arrows of lightning directly at my head. The unbowed head of George Gordon, Lord Byron. England's greatest sinner. But I cannot flatter myself to that extent. Possibly those thunders are for our dear Shelley. Heavens applause for England's greatest poet.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Enterprise: Horizon (#2.20)" (2003)

One of the Great Classics of the Genre

Interestingly, Whale did not want to make a sequel to his incredibly successful 1931 FRANKENSTEIN, and bowed to studio pressure only when he received assurance of absolute control. The result is perhaps his most personal film--a strange collage of Gothic horror, black humor, religious motifs, and sexual innuendo--and one of the great classics of the genre.

The plot elaborates an idea contained in the Mary Shelly novel: Frankenstein is pressured to create a mate for the monster. In Shelly's novel, the doctor eventually balks; in the film, however, he sees the experiment through due to a mix of his own obsession and the manipulations of a new character, Dr. Pretorious, and the two create the only truly iconographic female monster in the film pantheon of the 1930s horror film: "The Bride," brilliantly played by Elsa Lanchester.

The cast is excellent throughout, with Colin Clive and Boris Karloff repeating their roles and Frankenstein and the monster, and Valerie Hobson an able replacement for Mae Clarke in the role of Elizabeth; Ernest Thesiger and Una O'Connor also give incredibly memorable performances as the truly strange Pretorius and the constantly hysterical maid Minnie. The art design is remarkable, and the Waxman score is justly famous. But the genius of the film lies not so much in these new and bizarre characters, in the familiar ones, or in the production values: it is in the way in which Whales delicately balances his elements and then subverts them.

FRANKENSTEIN owes much of its power to its directness--it has a raw energy that is difficult to resist, still more difficult to describe. But THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN owes its power to its complexity. Nothing here is quite what it appears to be, and throughout the film we constantly receive mixed messages about the characters and implications of their situations. While Thesiger's Dr. Pretorius is justly celebrated as a covert gay icon of the darkest possible variety, and while many people quickly grasp Whale's often subversive use of Christian imagery, the film has many, many layers that do not reveal themselves upon a single viewing.

The single most startling sequence, at least to my mind, is the famous scene in which the Monster stumbles into the lonely cottage of the blind hermit, a role beautifully played by O.P. Heggie. On the surface, the sequence would seem to be about how cruelly we judge people by appearances, and how true kindness can lift the fallen. It was not until I had seen the film several times that it dawned upon me that Whale has essentially endowed the a scene with a host of covertly homosexual overtones--and then tied them to a series of Christian elements for good measure. It is startling, to say the least.

The current Universal DVD release is exceptional, and the film is supported with an interesting documentary and a still more interesting audio commentary track. Critics and fans continue to battle of whether FRANKENSTEIN or THE BRIDE is the better film--but I say they are so completely different that the question simply doesn't arise. Whatever the case, if you are a fan of 1930s horror and James Whale in particular, this is a must own see, must own.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer