Before we get start rambling about Bride, some quick detours. First, who’s excited for Curse of the Werewolf on Svengoolie next week? I’m not the biggest Hammer Horror fan, but I’ll never turn down anything with Oliver Reed. I have to imagine any werewolf is tame compared to that guy in a pub. You know he was friends with Keith Moon? Now THAT’S a two headed monster you run out of town with pitchforks.
This isn’t the first time Bride of Frankenstein has appeared on my blog. I did this Halloween series two years ago where I wrote 110+ blog posts about things worthy of watching in October. That was maddening. I wrote something like 120,000 words over the course of three months, didn’t have an editing process down and released the majority of that blob over the course of 31 days. What a mess.
A friend I hadn’t heard from in awhile saw all those posts and applauded me for being so questionably prolific. I missed one of Svengoolie’s screenings of Bride because I went over to his place to drink it up. That night ended on such an interesting note. It’s like 2 am and my friend’s telling me he once camped in South Dakota and almost became a victim of The Wendigo. Remember that legend from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark? I’m thankful to have never encountered the paranormal. I’d be so unnerved I’d be shrieking like Una O’Connor.
Speaking of Una O’Connor, I guess it’s time to discuss Bride of Frankenstein.
It’s safe to say Bride of Frankenstein is probably the greatest Universal Monsters film. What’s the contender? Dracula? Similar to The Marx Brothers’ Animal Crackers, Dracula was adapted from a stage production with brilliant moments, but overall it fucking drags. If I’m being honest, as soon as they leaves Dracula’s castle 20 minutes in, my interest plummets.
While not being much of a Hammer fan, I really enjoy Christopher Lee’s Dracula. I have a much easier time watching Horror of Dracula.
I used to mention The Wolf Man in the same breath as Bride, now I realize that was insane. I like the short runtime, I fucking love that fog shrouded forest set, but I wanna claw my eyes out watching Lon Chaney Jr drooling over Evelyn Ankers. At one point he’s watching her through her bedroom window with a telescope. It’s like a 1980s sex comedy without the violent sexual assault we finally recognize 30 years later.
The contender that I almost forgot is a Universal Monsters film is Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Not only do you have an iconic vaudeville comedy team but you get Lon Chaney Jr as The Wolf Man, Bela Lugosi in his only on screen return as Dracula and Glen Strange as Frankensein’s monster.
Sadly Boris Korloff was too weathered to put on the monster makeup for this one BUT he did put on some monster makeup that was far below Jack Pierce’s standard in a 1962 episode of Route 66 titled “Lizard’s Leg and Owlet’s Wing.” One of 525,600 fun facts I’ve learned via Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast.
You know what’s a dark horse in the discussion of great Universal Monster films? Dracula’s Daughter. It has some great moody lighting and similar to Bride, there’s some strong suggestion at gay love.
That’s something we can get into with Bride. James Whale wasn’t interested in doing a sequel until Universal agreed to give him creative freedom. It’s because of that we have some great homosexual tension between Dr. Frankenstein and Doctor Pretorius. Pretorius re-enters Frankenstein’s life like a vengeful lover furious his old flame is playing it straight.
Bride of Frankenstein might be the most successful instance of a filmmaker or writer having full creative control, it’s usually a disaster. I say that with The Dana Carvey Show in mind because I just watched that documentary, Too Funny To Fail. Highly recommended.
James Whale was gay and it’s safe to say Ernest Thesiger was as well. Here’s another fun fact I heard on Gilbert Gottfried’s podcast. Ernest Thesiger was usually sewing on set and referred to himself as “that stitching bitch.” Another Thesiger fun fact, allegedly an angry actor threatened him with a knife, he responded by slapping it out of the man’s hand with a spoon and saying “it’s rude to point.”
James Whale and Ernest Thesiger had previously worked together on The Old Dark House. This film sadly gets lost in the shuffle because for the longest time it was a lost film that’s never had a great presence on VHS, DVD or Blu-ray. It’s also not a Universal Monster movie and the deviation from a highly recognizable group of Halloween mascots doesn’t help either.
It’s a shame because it’s an incredible horror film that inspired every story involving people trapped in a rainstorm fleeing to a secluded house populated with freaks. You’d think the Rocky Horror crowd would be more respectful of their greatest love’s father.
Bride of Frankenstein balances multiple tones with unduplicated perfection. It’s a horror film when it needs to be, but also dives into comedy whenever Doctor Pretorious appears. What’s with every iconic gay actor mastering the art of camp? At one point he’s having this Gothic feast on top of a coffin with candles and a skull surrounding the food when Frankenstein’s Monster appears. The monster says “friend” and Pretorius simply replies “I’d hope so.” Talk about a guy who should’ve had the type of long, colorful career Vincent Price had.
Bride of Frankenstein also has a type of quality sentimentality you’d recognize in films like It’s A Wonderful Life. The scene with the blind man pulls your heart strings in a film that also has microscopic people trapped in bottles, one of them being an infant Billy Barty. It makes your eyes turn into Niagara Falls the way this blind man is thanking God for bringing him a friend as the monster cries. It’s all the more gut wrenching when two guys pull the blind man away and the monster is looking around in confusion for his friend.
This scene and the film’s overall journey following Frankenstein’s Monster in a futile pursuit to be rid of loneliness is probably why horror fans love this movie. I don’t know any fandom that views itself as ostracized weirdos like horror fans. That was more of a reality in the 70s and 80s when even Paramount felt gross having Friday the 13th be their most profitable franchise, but nowadays horror isn’t exactly this thing we have to hide under our beds. Because of the internet, everybody is able to connect with their tribe. The stigma of horror doesn’t really exist anymore. It helps that this genre has consistently been the safest financial investment Hollywood has ever adapted to their playground. From Frankenstein to the It films, horror has always been the quickest and easiest buck in the film industry.
Before we wrap this up we have talk about the main event of this film, Elsa Lanchester. The Bride of Frankenstein, The Monster’s Mate, whatever its proper title, there hasn’t been a more effective use of an essential creature like her. This character is on screen for five minutes and never seen again. In a place like the American film industry that loves to squeeze everything out of a character, there’s never been an instance like The Bride where this visually stunning character is introduced and immediately disappears. She never appears in any of the Frankenstein films and never pops up in the House of Dracula/Frankenstein films or even Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, three films that crammed as many monsters as they could under one title.
Hammer Horror never contemplated doing their own version of The Monster’s Mate. The most notable instance of someone revisiting this character came decades later with 1985’s The Bride. What happens in that one? Not sure, I don’t have the heart to touch it. Sting plays Dr. Frankenstein. He’s one of those guys who can cum without ejaculating right? Him and Terence Stamp apparently.
I can’t stop talking about Elsa Lanchester yet. The visual design of this character and the way the camera lingers on her head whether it’s in a side profile or her screeching at Frankenstein’s Monster, it’s perfect. It’s an unduplicated case of perfecting something in such little time. That’s what this entire film is, perfecting the art of storytelling with only a 75 minute runtime.
I don’t understand why more films aren’t this short and I really don’t understand why horror films don’t all abide by a 75 minute runtime. The Bride of Frankenstein, arguably the greatest horror movie and the most innovative horror film when you consider how little existed prior to it, is so efficient and is something we still drop before almost 100 years later screaming “WE’RE NOT WORTHY!” If James Whale said “this has no reason to go on past 75 minutes”, what makes you think your startle porn horseshit needs to be stretched out to two hours and fifteen fucking minutes???
It’s time to put a cap on this. Bride of Frankenstein, quite possibly the greatest thing to ever happen to horror movies. You know what else has been a great benefit to horror movies? SVENGOOLIE! Thank you MeTV for turning Chicago’s hometown hero into someone we can all appreciate no matter what state we do the Svengoolie Stomp in.
It's Emilio Amaro's Blog 