Not especially beloved by contemporary audiences, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN has become regarded both as a classic horror movie and a trailblazing, camp black comedy. The whole thing quivers with a sense of the absurd and audacious - outsiders (gay, British, stage-veterans) putting one over on Hollywood.
We know that director James Whale cared little for horror movies at this stage in his career. He had previously made the truly chilling FRANKENSTEIN (1931) and followed it up with the wryly humorous farce THE OLD DARK HOUSE. Next was THE INVISIBLE MAN, not strictly a horror film but with its frightening moments. Whale had entered films as a well-regarded English stage director - he had chosen to direct the first FRANKENSTEIN because the story appealed to him, little sensing that it would become a runaway hit and make Whale's reputation as a horror specialist.He would likely have preferred to continue making adaptations of stage plays with eminent British actors. But Universal, under the Laemmle regime, was becoming known as the horror studio, and Whale was their specialist, so BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN became his.
A number of scripts were commissioned and rejected, and the final script was a sort of franken-script incorporating elements from many writers, but the final product is largely the work of Whale and William Hurlbut. The prologue features Elsa Lanchester as Frankenstein author Mary Godwin (soon to be Mary Shelley) further embroidering her famous FRANKENSTEIN story for an audience of Byron and Shelley. The meat of the film follows, an illustration of the tale she tells. No realism is attempted, the film looks studio-bound at times even by the standards of the day. It may have been an aesthetic choice, it may have been a budgetary necessity - likely it was a little of both - but it serves to place the framed story in a context of non-reality and fable.
The story picks up where the first one ends: the monster (Boris Karloff, billed here as simply Karloff) is trapped in a mill set alight by torch-wielding villagers. The monster escapes, naturally, and resumes his mayhem. The uproar reaches Castle Frankenstein and it becomes apparent that the Frankensteins' marital bliss will be postponed for some time. Later, their wedding chamber is invaded by the mincing, effeminate Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger), who dismisses Elizabeth Frankenstein from the room (apparently she has not yet become the "bride of Frankenstein" considering her husband's severely enervated state - actor Colin Clive specialized in neurosis), and proposes his plan to the doctor that they join together to create life. It's fairly kinky, as you can see, and the film continues to steamroll convention and topple icons (literally, in one case) as it goes along. Dr. Pretorius is a sort of gay proto-hipster figure, unflappable, unshaken in his conviction and quick with a Wilde-style witty rejoinder.
It's a true joy to be in on the joke, even today. But consider the fact that at the time few realized it was a comedy. There are very broad comic performances by Una O'Connor and E.E. Clive in the comic relief tradition of the stage, but most of the humor is played as dry as straight gin, which surely sent much of it over the heads of a large part of the audience. But the film is a great joke, and a great joke must have a great punchline.
Here, the great punchline is the climax of the film, when the monster's mate is created and animated - this sequence, endlessly aped since, is beautifully expressionistic and dynamic. When the monster is unveiled she is played by Elsa Lanchester - the teller of the story has placed herself in this role - Lanchester's performance, for she was a former dancer, is physical perfection. One contemporary commentator wrote that she moves like an electrified bird. Her hair, make-up and facial expressions must have knocked viewers out of their seats. 75 years later, when we might reasonably expect the impact of her appearance to have dulled a bit, it still works. She is the electronic goddess of camp, the product of Pretorius' demi-monde perversion and Frankenstein's industrial age spark. Both characters are components of Whale himself and the Bride is his enduring offspring. (Lars Nilsen)
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