Bride Of Frankenstein
(Horror, James Whale, USA, 1935, b/w)
Frankenstein and his Monster. Who haven't heard of that dynamic duo? Only this time with a twist. See, as the movie starts, Mary Shelley is enjoying the company of two gentlemen. One of these gentlemen, a certain Lord Byron, is overly, nay, theatrically enthustiastic over Shelley's book, Frankenstein. She then lets out the big secret: But it didn't end there.....
Frankenstein is approaced by a raving loony doctor Pretorius who, beside from experimenting himself with the secret of life, also has a love for even more outrageously exaggerated postures and gestures than Lord Byron. He has not created one monster, in fact he hasn't created any monster at all. What he
has created, made me laugh and giggle for 10 minutes. Seriously, you folks need to see his Creatures and their behaviour to believe this. Not only is doctor Pretentious raving mad, but he is also looking for ways to make an extremly hesitant, and only slightly less exaggerating actor/Frankie, talk. In short, Pretentious wants Frankie's secrets and partnership. Meanwhile, the Monster, which isn't even half-dead, only ex-dead, is running his own little riot around the countryside and is continuously chased by the pitchforkwielding villagers, but is soon turned into a staggering alcoholic by Pretentious and used against Frankie. Pretentious' goal? To create, with the aid of Frankie, a
female monster, a bride for The Monster.
Ok, enough of ruining the film for you guys. Let's move on with the other stuff. Once again Boris Karloff is The Monster and he
is the Monster in my book and he always will be. Trouble is, in this flick, which at points leans slightly towards pure comedy and farce, he is (like every other character) so extremly dramatic it becomes rather amusingly silly. Another problem is that the makers of this film obviously wanted the poor Monster to become even more heartbreaking than in the first Frankenstein movie. He even learns a few phrases for pete's sake, grunted/roared out in a childish-cute way so we can not help feeling his clumsy, throatseeking hands are instead reaching for and melting our hearts, Truth is, sometimes it did work pretty well, but too many times did his cute factor turn the movie towards kitch comedy. Look out for the scene with the sheppardess and her lamb and if you're not guffawing over this incredible and bold change of mood, then you must surely be made of reanimated flesh and rotten brains.
Another thing that cannot be avoided mentioned, is the many similarities to the comedy "Young Frankenstein" by Mel Brooks, which isn't strange at all concidering Brooks made a comedy based on both Frankenstein
and this movie. You'll find the blind hermit is here and even a Frau Blücher is somewhat here, even the Lady With The Hairdo is here. Mind you, BoF is not a comedy, but with Brooks' faithful and accurate remakes of scene after scene in mind, I couldn't help giggle uncontrollably over and over again.
One thing that struck me pretty soon was how good (really, I mean it, some of them are really good) the special effects are. The Creatures and how they interacted with Pretorius actually made me quite impressed. On the other hand, the superimposed images of people on the tower near the end were so bad I had to stop the movie and rewind to make sure they really were that bad. And they were. It is also obvious they never set foot outside the studio when filming this. No matter how many trees, or waterfalls, or rock-ish formations, they could just as well have showed us the exit sign on the wall behind the scenery. Is this a bad thing? Not at all, and I'm not being sarcastic or ironic. It does work pretty damn well, as long as you remember you're dealing with a movie from 1935.
Personal opinion: Ok, all fun and comparisons to Young Frankenstein aside. This is a pretty damn good movie. One thing is Karloff, I don't care if The Monster wears a face cream mask and ballet shoes, if it's Karloff, then it's the Monster. Period.
Another thing is the twist. If the movie was made today, I would have cut it to shreds and burnt the director, but I will accept the twist because they made it before the clichès became the standard and because they never make a looong and unpleasantly unsurprising point out of this being the bride of the Monster (yes, the title is slightly misleading here, something Mrs Frankenstein surely would be the first to appreciate). Actually, the Bride and the Monster meeting took the movie around a new, unexpected corner. I can only say I liked the ending of this one. I won't tell you any more of what happens, just watch it. Recommended!