Bride of Frankenstein (1935) is not only one of the greatest sequels ever it's probably my favorite monster movie of all time. Sequel to the also great Frankenstein (1931), James Whale returns as director (something I would say completely saved the movie) and also the two main leads return: Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein and of course Boris Karloff returns as The Monster.
This film is a true sequel but starts interestingly taking a step out of the story with it's author, Mary Shelly telling her beloved Percy Shelly and friend Lord Byron that the story didn't actually end when everyone thought it did and the story then picks up minutes after the end of the first film. And the story continues to plus the original in every way. The first film was a simple story about being an outsider and this continues that line of thought to the basic need of companionship as a love or otherwise, something outsiders and people who are different probably crave more than "normal" people. And as an added bonus the film sneaks in a lot of subtle and interesting overtones and themes of religion and possibly being a foreigner or a homosexual. The best part is, it does all this with out being overly complicated!
This film also has great use of character. Most of the returning characters are expanded upon we see a different side of Frankenstein in this one, after everything going wrong in the previous film, Frankenstein is ready to hang up his coat and put all of his mistakes behind him. The Monster learns to talk, something that could have been very bad but is done well enough and adds a lot of humor and unexpected emotion to the character.
The couple of new characters are interesting too: I love the way The Bride is handled (but I won't talk about that for the sake of spoilers,) and Dr. Pretorious, Henry Frankenstein's mentor and colleague which wasn't ever mentioned in the first film, but comes into the picture because he has heard of Henry's recent "success" and also has dreams of creating a man-made human. It would have been easy for the writers to make him have the same methods as Henry but instead they had the intelligence to do otherwise and give him a somewhat silly method of "growing" humans, something that isn't delved into too much in the story but must me somewhat akin to cloning or growing artificial organs (seeing how he "creates" a brain for the new monster). These are subjects that many people find very horrible and ungodly today still, so I find it amazing that the film had the foresight to throw something like that into the mix way back in 1935.
Over all there's a couple things here that haven't aged well, but it's nowhere close to as bad as Dracula (1931) I would say that most of the effects still hold up. Supposedly they had a 70 foot tall laboratory set built for this film, which I would say was money well spent. The "It's alive!" scene in this film still looks amazing to this day.
And some scenes seemed unnecessary or end awkwardly so much that they just look weird today but because of the humor of the film you can actually just read it as funny and laugh it off. Sweet!
The thing I love about this film most is it's sense of humor. I really believe Whale created the movie as a comedy. There's enough evidence alone with the reoccurring scenes with the Frankensteins' housekeeper Minnie, who gets a surprising amount of screentime and some VERY silly parts. But it's even just packed with little tidbits like Dr. Pretorius having a picnic in a crypt, or The Monster's new found love for drinking that are just awesome. The humor is very consistently and skillfully placed throughout the entire movie. This film in my mind is the PERFECT blend of comedy and horror.
there's an interesting and very memorable line in Gods and Monsters (1998) (in which Whale is a character), and he says that he had to make the film interesting for himself, making a "comedy about death" and follows up saying, "The trick is not to spoil it for anyone who's not in on the joke." Well I saw this film screened last week in a theater in Beverly Hills and I'm happy to report that Mr. Whale must be smiling somewhere, as the film was met with generous laughter throughout.
I really can't say enough good things about this film, it's got great acting, a good story and a nice mix of really funny and emotional parts. It's the type of film you can just lose yourself in pretty quickly. I highly recommend it. 5/5 stars.
ALSO I'm happy to report a bonus: Turner Classic Movies is hosting a double feature of the original Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein at the end of this month in many Regal Cinema theaters across the US, on Wednesday October 24th. Do yourself a favor and see these movies on a big screen and with a crowd of people. I honestly don't think you will regret it. You can find out if it's playing at a local theater near you and buy tickets here.
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