Bride of Frankenstein - Will's review

Oh, Universal Monsters, how I love thee! And this is among the best of the bunch!

Sadly, the version we have now is incomplete; despite testing well, universal cut 15 mins (for time, not censorship reasons) shortly after the film previewed, and those scenes are now lost forever. This studio cut though, was still subject to censorship when it hit our shores.



Obviously, due to the era in which it was made, it is not as explicit or fast paced as we have come to expect; I'd even go as far as to say that there is a 'knack' to watching and appreciating movies from the 30's and 40's, in the same way that one needs to adopt a different frame of mind to watch say, kids films, each decade I think also requires its own frame of mind (think how different even 80's movies are than today's). But I digress.

I love this movie.

It's beautifully lit and shot, the acting is for the most part superb (Karloff, as always, is unfaultable in the role of the monster) and most of the makeup and special effects still stand up today - witness the scene with miniature people in the foreground, while full-sized actors walk around behind them; Today they would probably attempt to CGI the homunculi and it would look awfull.

It's probably (almost certainly) the first horror movie to use a device that would later become associated with postmodernism; The film opens with Mary Shelly talking about how the events of the first film were only the beginning. Shelly is played by Elsa Lanchester, who pulls double duty as The Bride (Credited in the roll simply as "?"). It also has some subtle (too subtle by today's standards - I expect many people miss it) homosexuality references, in the shape of Dr. Pretorius - Dr. Frankenstein's now disgraced former professor (we never learn of the reason for his 'disgrace') and his desire for men to be able to make life together.

The relationship between the Monster and the blind man is superb, and has a great "fairy tale" quality to it (although, in reality, it is from Shelly's original book), and I wish we could have spent more time with them, or have seen more of the hermit once the two parted company.

The creation sequence is a blast, using parts of the original machine, and a few new additions; as was his bent Dwight Frye steels every scene he's in as Karl, the Barons freakish, yet underplayed, assistant.

Finally, the bride herself, who in her (shockingly brief) time on screen is portrait brilliantly  all twitching movements, frightened eyes and animalistic grunts and hisses.

Superb.

Bride of Frankenstein - Lisa's Review

I must be one of the few people who hadn't seen this weeks movie in its entirety before.  I have seen clips and probably so many, there wasn't much of the movie I hadn't seen.

It receives critical acclaim, everyone seems to love it.  What did I think?  Mmmmm meh.....  I didn't dislike it, but I wouldn't go mad about it.  I kinda get like that about movies everyone else seems to love, I just can't be arsed getting all excited about.  Star Wars, Star Trek..... Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

I haven't actually seen the predecessor, but since I know the basic story of Frankenstein and have seen other versions, I don't think I was missing much back story.

What I would say I did like about the movie were the characters of Praetorious, The Monster and The Bride of Frankenstein.  Its interesting how iconic the bride is when she is in the movie for such a short period of time and doesn't even speak beyond a series of grunts and hisses.  I was shocked how little she is actually in it.

I won't go into a big description about what this movie is about as I very much doubt anyone hasn't seen it and I've got the headache from hell.

Basically Henry Frankenstein has realised the error of his ways in creating The Monster in the first movie, but  when he discovers the monster is not in actual fact dead, as everyone believes, he is cajoled into helping his former mentor, the mad Dr Praetorious in creating a woman for him. The movie is about little more than that. Some people are killed by the monster, we are shown he has the potential for love and learning with his short friendship with a blind man and we follow Henrys struggle with his conscious in what he's doing versus his scientific mind.

While the characters and makeup are great, its just not a movie I think I would watch again.  I can understand why so many people love it.  It has an iconic feel about it.  You can watch it and realise straight away what scenes would be the stand-out ones.  Its just not my kind of movie.

If you've reached adulthood without seeing this movie, there's probably a reason.  If you're the kind of person who would love this movie... you'll have seen it already.

Week 90: Bride of Frankenstein

Year: 1935

Reviews / Author Comments due: 9/2/2013

Reason for Inclusion: Cut on release to obtain an X (then the strongest rating available), Also passed A in 1935 and H in 1945 - these 2 releases are listed as uncut, but did have about 15 seconds removed by the distributor.

BBFC Status: Passed uncut rated PG in 1989

More Info: Wikipedia, IMDB

DVD: LINK

---

Feel free to use the comments section of this post to add your own reviews and thoughts about this movie.