BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN is one of my favorites. But unlike most film buffs, I don't think it lives up to Whale's original, or even to THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932). In BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN comic relief featuring the usually marvelous Una O'Connor and E.E. Clive is much too broad, and the monster's meeting with the blind hermit is maudlin. Mel Brooks did not have to add too much to get laughs from scenes that were already unintentionally funny.
Also a giant continuity gap opens when Elizabeth, Dr. Frankenstein's actual bride, who was being held captive in a cave, suddenly and with no explanation appears at the door of the laboratory pleading for Dr. Frankenstein to escape with her. In John L. Balderston's original treatment they all die. And a sub plot about murders committed by Dr. Pretorius' assistant Karl played by Dwight Frye (who bears some resemblance to "M" star Peter Lorre) was edited out of the original release along with a scene showing the body of a child being carried away. These were changes the studio demanded because of negative public reaction during previews, and they point to a much darker story.
Whale may not have wanted to make another monster movie, but when he began work he did try to deal seriously with themes he explored in FRANKENSTEIN. Only after Whale's homosexuality became the subject of legend did critics motivated by cultural politics re-interpret the film as a dark comedy of sexual identity.
Having said that, I do think Ernest Thesiger's Doctor Pretorius is deliciously wicked. But his character is not obviously homosexual, and I can only surmise that such a reading is a retrospective interpretation based on Thesiger's openly Gay lifestyle. Pretorius' character seems to have been suggested by the villainous alchemist Oliver Haddo in Somerset Maugham's THE MAGICIAN, a book that was filmed by Rex Ingram in 1926, starring Paul Wegener of THE GOLEM.
Whale may have seen Ingram's film. He may have read the book. The thing that made the best directors of the '20s, '30s, '40s, and '50s better than the best directors of today is they created the art of cinematic storytelling by reading literature, not by viewing film. Details from Maugham's novel - Haddo's celibacy and his obsession with creating homunculi (little people) - are elements of Dr. Pretorius' character that could only have come from the literary source because Ingram never used them in his film.
Negative comments aside, the film is a masterpiece of art direction (Whale's and Charles D. Hall's), cinematography (John J. Mescall's), and music (Franz Waxman's). And there is the brilliantly edited set piece of the bride's creation, and Elsa Lanchester's performance as the bride that bookends the story with the wonderful prologue where she plays FRANKENSTEIN author Mary Shelley.
Also a giant continuity gap opens when Elizabeth, Dr. Frankenstein's actual bride, who was being held captive in a cave, suddenly and with no explanation appears at the door of the laboratory pleading for Dr. Frankenstein to escape with her. In John L. Balderston's original treatment they all die. And a sub plot about murders committed by Dr. Pretorius' assistant Karl played by Dwight Frye (who bears some resemblance to "M" star Peter Lorre) was edited out of the original release along with a scene showing the body of a child being carried away. These were changes the studio demanded because of negative public reaction during previews, and they point to a much darker story.
Whale may not have wanted to make another monster movie, but when he began work he did try to deal seriously with themes he explored in FRANKENSTEIN. Only after Whale's homosexuality became the subject of legend did critics motivated by cultural politics re-interpret the film as a dark comedy of sexual identity.
Having said that, I do think Ernest Thesiger's Doctor Pretorius is deliciously wicked. But his character is not obviously homosexual, and I can only surmise that such a reading is a retrospective interpretation based on Thesiger's openly Gay lifestyle. Pretorius' character seems to have been suggested by the villainous alchemist Oliver Haddo in Somerset Maugham's THE MAGICIAN, a book that was filmed by Rex Ingram in 1926, starring Paul Wegener of THE GOLEM.
Whale may have seen Ingram's film. He may have read the book. The thing that made the best directors of the '20s, '30s, '40s, and '50s better than the best directors of today is they created the art of cinematic storytelling by reading literature, not by viewing film. Details from Maugham's novel - Haddo's celibacy and his obsession with creating homunculi (little people) - are elements of Dr. Pretorius' character that could only have come from the literary source because Ingram never used them in his film.
Negative comments aside, the film is a masterpiece of art direction (Whale's and Charles D. Hall's), cinematography (John J. Mescall's), and music (Franz Waxman's). And there is the brilliantly edited set piece of the bride's creation, and Elsa Lanchester's performance as the bride that bookends the story with the wonderful prologue where she plays FRANKENSTEIN author Mary Shelley.