CAST:
Boris Karloff (The Monster),
Colin Clive (Henry Frankenstein),
Valerie Hobson (Elizabeth),
Ernest Thesiger (Doctor Pretorius),
Elsa Lanchester (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley / The Monster's Mate),
Gavin Gordon (Lord Byron),
Douglas Walton (Percy Bysshe Shelley),
Una O'Connor (Minnie),
E.E. Clive (Burgomaster),
Lucien Prival (Butler),
O.P. Heggie (Hermit),
Dwight Frye (Karl),
Reginald Barlow (Hans),
Mary Gordon (Hans' Wife),
Anne Darling (Shepherdess),
Ted Billings (Ludwig)

SCRIPT:
William Hurlbut

PHOTOGRAPHY:
John J. Mescall

MUSIC:
Franz Waxman

EDITING:
Ted J. Kent

COSTUMES:
Vera West

Synopsis:

Encouraged by the extraordinary popularity of her novel Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus, the young English writer Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, with the suggestion of her husband Percy Bisshe Shelley and the famous poet George Gordon Byron, decided to write its sequel for the strong thunderstorms of 1816.

In her version of the new story of Dr. Henry Frankenstein's monster, which is re-enacted in 19th-century Germany, the creature's fate is significantly different, as it survives being burned in a mill. When the monster is discovered by the eccentric philosopher and scientist Dr. Septimus Pretorius, he takes him in and starts caring for him. Moreover, the somewhat demented Pretorius will try to persuade his colleague Dr. Frankenstein to make the sad and lonely creature a partner, but it will all be in vain.

Henry considers his creation haunted and no longer wants to have anything to do with it, and nothing seems to sway him. In the meantime, he was hit by depression and decided to stop all his experiments, and the only thing he wishes for is a peaceful life with his caring wife Elizabeth. However, he might give in and change his mind when Pretorius blackmails him by first threatening to reveal the truth to the townspeople about how his monster killed some villagers, and then that Henry's terrifying creation could kidnap his beloved Elizabeth.

In 1936, nominated for an Oscar in the category of best recorded sound, the sequel to the big hit Frankenstein from 1931, again under the masterful direction of James Whale, is one of the most successful horror films of all time and considered by many to be Universal's best monster movie ever. Those who consider it superior to the original film as arguments highlight the effective humorous approach to the characters and the story with a lot of wit, the emphasized humanistic profiling of a formal "monster" that is not really it, an excellent cinematography or visual approach close to German expressionism, impressive stylizations for which it is significant and great in many ways creation of a gothic atmosphere, and an extremely moody acting interpretation.

Of course, also the very elegant and safe direction of James Whale, who agreed to sit in the director's chair only after the Universal studio guaranteed him complete author's freedom, which he used to enrich the whole with a shifted sense of humor and effective bizarre details. According to some interpretations, Whale used his creative freedom to insert allusions to his own same-sex sexual orientation into the film, and accordingly, the work can be interpreted as a parable about his homosexuality. But such theses are too bold and unfounded, because while in the first film Whale completely subordinated himself to the story, the result of which is to a certain extent a cold, measured and distant achievement in the design of which his background as a theater director was also evident, in directing the sequel he also showed his other artistic side, the more playful, witty and slightly eccentric one.

Bride of Frankenstein is certainly one of the most unusual films about the legendary monster (that is, the 'monster'), it is less a horror and more a comedy, and such direction is clear practically from the very beginning, when Dr. Pretorius in an excellent and appropriately moved performance by Ernest Thesiger ( also Whale's Awful Dark House, Henry Koster's Tunic) upon first meeting the 'monster' offers him a cigar, claiming that they are his only weakness.

Compared to the original, the director demonstrates a better sense of mise-en-scène in this film, his portrayal of the 'monster' is an unusual combination of pathos and humor, and the masterful Boris Karloff enriches that character with simple but strong emotions. Elsa Lanchester in the double role of Mary Shelley and Elizabeth, i.e. the bride, is also excellent, although in her interpretation sometimes the excessive expressiveness of acting from a silent film comes to the fore, but this also fits quite harmoniously into the humorous and moving whole.

The film occasionally seems like a kind of satirical version of the story of Frankenstein's monster, its realization was long delayed, and the final result is an intelligently conceived and extremely entertaining production that conquers the genre with atypical emotionality and emotional honesty. Whale masterfully juggles numerous details, from melodramatic plots to black humor and necromancy to some anti-clerical details and hints of political commentary, and the fascinating music of double Oscar winner Franz Waxman (Hitchcock's Suspicion, Wilder's Twilight Boulevard) should certainly be singled out.

The production of the film was not entirely without problems, so Whale initially refused the offer to direct, considering that the story of Frankenstein's monster was completely used and that nothing new could be said, and Kurt Neumann (She Devil, Muha, cycle of films about Tarzan with Johnny Weissmuller). But when he gave up, producer Carl Leammle Jr. even on the wave of the success of The Invisible Man as a director, he still managed to hire Whale, which he used to secure the filming of the crime drama One More River. Certain problems during the work on the film were also caused by the fact that the cinematographer John J. Mescall was allegedly constantly drunk, and that the screenwriter John L. Balderston was dissatisfied, in his opinion, with the excessive share of horror details in the story, and almost completely withdrew from the project. which is why in the end the screenplay is the work of as many as nine authors, who are only partially listed in the credits.

Text author: Josip Grozdanić

b/w, 75'