La Fiancée de Frankenstein

When Ernest Thesiger points and says, "The bride of Frankenstein," rolling his r's, he creates one of the greatest scenes in cinematic history. I do consider the second film superior to the first (though I love them both) because of the complexity of the characters and, more specifically, the monster. In Shelley's book the monster is lonely but articulate. He seeks out a bride. Frankenstein creates one but then destroys her, making his creature furious and vengeful. This monster actually has a kind part to him. For him to be blunt force thug can only go so far. It works in the first film but how much more growling and stomping could there be? The scenes of him wandering in the countryside, meeting the lonely old blind man in the house in the woods, and being shown kindness by him is very touching. The monster is allowed some humanity; some privacy. We know this can't last because his creator has doomed him. We often see Victor as some kind of hero, but, in reality, he has committed an incredible sin against another being. He wants a companion, but she turns on him and destroys his hope.

The setup, with Elsa Lanchester as Mary Shelley, talking with the foremost romantic poets of the time, Percy Shelley and Lord Byron (who also rolls his r's), is a great lead in as she brags about writing a story that will make your skin crawl. She must have been something in that male dominated society. Of course, her mother was one of the first to demand rights for women. When she reappears as the Bride, it is awesome. And who came up with the hair. It is one of those things like the monster's neck bolts, that has become such an icon for our culture.

These early Universal films deserve to be judged as major movies. Just because the subject is horror, doesn't mean they should be dismissed. James Whale was a great director with an amazing vision.

Everything went right; from the opening,where Lanchester plays Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley with a gleam in her eye, and overly sweet sarcasm, to the beginning of the sequel, where Karloff is thought dead, to Lanchesters Nefertiti hair near the end , her priceless reactions.

Karloff is excellent as a monster wanting a mate. Una O'Connor is a scream as Minnie, the old biddy who is screeching to see the Monster killed, then shrieks when she spots the Monster. She is told to shut up at least five times in the film. Ernest Thesiger as Dr. Pretorius is a great mix of horror and humor; he robs graves, and also swigs gin out of laboratory beakers, has supper on top of a coffin, gets the Monster to have cigars with him.

Franz Waxmans' playful score, the cinematography and set design that are both reminiscent of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1919), Everything works. The perfect mix of horror and humor.

I love the first Frankenstein, it was shocking and enthralling despite the complaints of it being dated and slow. Maybe so but I still love it. The Bride of Frankenstein is a wonderful sequel to an already wonderful film, and surpasses it technically I feel. Even if the acting is a little forced in the beginning scene, with the exception of Elsa Lanchester, that is such a minor flaw compared to how good and enjoyable this film was. If you ask me Bride of Frankenstein is one of the greatest achievements in the history of horrordom.

First of all, it is extravagantly produced. The sets are really imaginative, the cinematography is beautiful and the costumes are extravagant. Along the way I noticed two improvements compared to the first film. One is that Bride of Frankenstein is faster in pace, and two the music score is more haunting and melancholic here, Franz Waxman was the perfect choice for composer. Bride of Frankenstein also has some really effective scenes, the ending was very well done as was the unveiling of the bride to the sound of wedding bells and the miniature people in the bell jars, but I found the scene between the monster and the blind hermit especially touching. James Whale's direction is innovative just like in the first film, and the script is also very good and adds to the atmosphere. The acting is excellent, Colin Clive is very good once again as the eccentric Henry Frankenstein, and Ernest Thesiger gives a genius turn as Doctor Pretorious. Valerie Hobson is alluring and sympathetic as Elizabeth, occasionally overdoing it with the hysteria but she was fine overall, while Elsa Lanchester is good as Mary Shelley but electrifyingly beautiful as the bride. Once again though, Boris Karloff gives the finest performance, his towering presence and frightening look ensures for some scares, but he is very poignant as well, as his monster only wants to fit in and is rejected by everybody.

Overall, a wonderful sequel, and not to be missed! 10/10 Bethany Cox

The sequel to the iconic horror classic Frankenstein is an oddball one. That's part of its charm. The Bride of Frankenstein sounds like a piece of parody rather than a sincere followup, and in a way it's awareness of its sometimes satirical nature makes it stronger than its straighter predecessor. However, its finest facets are its ahead-of-its-time technical aspects. The stark cinematography is astonishing and the precision of its sharp editing is unprecedented, let alone the reliably impressive production design. It's a much more entertaining and enduring experience than other films of the 30s. James Whale got much better conviction out of his actors this time around and it deals with the moral consequences of their actions rather than leaving it to loud anguish. While the film is a bit of retread of the first film as Frankenstein's monster is chased from place to place, it adds development and essential sensitivity to his character leading its tragic end to be much more meaningful in its destruction. This was a very pleasant surprise, ominously horrific and slyly comic, without the two clashing.

8/10

Bride of Frankenstein is definitely one of the more memorable sequels of all time. The first Frankenstein film was a truly memorable exploration of horror and was extremely advanced for its time; dealing with issues of modernity when the doctor starts talking of space travel and also pushing censorship to levels it hadn't been pushed to before; having characters exclaim they 'knew what God felt like' and also including images of dead bodies and murder. With Bride of Frankenstein, certain elements of surprise have been lost but the film delves deeper into its characters and explores different things to make it more of an 'entertaining' film.

The film doesn't hang around and cleverly introduces the story through the original author Mary Shelley (Elsa Lanchester) dictating what it is that happens next. For a film in 1935 to use such a technique and manage to include elements of heartbreak when we assume Dr. Frankenstein is dead, horror when The Monster re-emerges AND murder when someone mistakenly crosses him all in the first ten minutes or so, is extremely impressive and is only the result of fantastic direction through great, inventive ideas.

Then, the film uses the character of The Monster as a sort of MacGuffin. It is reduced to a wondering, babbling, hulking thing getting into mischief as it makes its way through the forests nearby but this isn't a bad thing. What we see is the first example of the characters in this, so far, series of two films develop. The Monster starts to develop emotions of pity when it sees someone in the forest in trouble and attempts to rescue them as well as intelligence because it manages to get itself out of trouble when danger threatens it – there is no excuse for this development of ideas and intelligence but it's interesting to see anyway.

What's more, this wondering and random character is a great excuse for it to cause havoc and/or get into adventures of its own and this it does to a basic level. Apart from stumbling across a picnic of some description when everyone assumes its safe since when last they heard, he'd been captured; The Monster gets involved with a seemingly lonely man who lives in a log cabin in the woods. The curse here to me is that I'd seen Kenneth Branagh's 1994 Frankenstein before this so I knew what was up and how things would develop.

As a result, it was predictable to me but to fresh eyes what follows between The Monster and this man is an education and a friendship that truly supports evidence that this film really is all about developing characters such as The Monster further away from the 'dead' tag and closer to the 'human' tag. Not only this but Dr. Frankenstein himself is leaning more and more towards a 'normal' life away from insane experiments; tempted back only by blackmail. About half way through, Frankenstein's creation manages to get himself into a bit of trouble and is caught but escapes so soon afterwards, the sequence passes off without too much suspense or interest which was disappointing; also, the character of Minnie is so obviously an attempt at comic relief that she becomes annoying quite quickly although I suppose they had to include this character to stop the film appearing too dark.

If Frankenstein from 1931 was an out and out horror shock–fest for the time, Bride of Frankenstein remains a character piece full of 'what would happen if.....' a mindless, homicidal lab creation was loose in rural Europe. Some of the later scenes still made me squirm a little when the 'mate' is being created and if you can look past the rushed ending; you'll see a sequel to a film miles ahead of its time, ahead of its time.