In all my time reviewing the best horror movies on your favorite streaming sites I've struggled with a major gap in my chronology. I've written about a handful of silent films from the 1920s, then pretty much skipped ahead to the 1960s, because that's what was available.
And here I was about to cancel Shudder as its app for Roku has become unbearable to navigate, pushing the company's in-house productions down your throat, but it turns out they were the site to finally pull it off -- to host a half dozen Universal monster movies from the 1930s and '40s.
Despair not, mortals. The classics are alive.
This week's Thursday Thriller is The Bride of Frankenstein.
This 1935 film was directed by James Whale. Colin Clive and Boris Karloff reprise their roles as Dr. Frankenstein and his Monster, respectively.
The movie opens in the parlor of Lord Byron (Gavin Gordon), who is hosting guests Percy and Mary Shelley (Douglas Walton and Elsa Lancaster). Mary does needlepoint or some such, while Byron and percy heap backhandedly sexist praise about how such a delicate, little flower wrote such a frightening story. The commentary about how dainty and pure Mary is seems a little ironic, considering what a pair of Little Lord Fauntleroys Percy and Byron are in their high pants and fluffy cravats. Then Mary tells them that Frankenstein and his Monster both survived the fire at the windmill.
Then unencumbered by all that backstory from the first movie about Frankenstein's methods, motivations and his family being worried about him, you get to see the monster as he kills a few more people, is hunted by angry villagers, gets captured, escapes, and is further hunted by angry villagers, all amidst a recurring backdrop of religious imagery, the meaning of which I don't have time to try to unpack.
What Karloff does well is express the loneliness and frustration of life as a walking abomination. He didn't ask to be reborn. He didn't ask not to die in that fire at the windmill, but he indeed lived, and his rage against the living has been inflamed. The viewer can easily sympathize with and root for The Monster as he chokes, slaps and stomps his victims because they won't stop screaming and give him a chance to prove he's got a kind heart underneath all that ugly.
What the movie as a whole does well is flesh out some elements of Shelley's novel that were left unexplored in the 1931 film. A blind man teaches The Monster to speak, to break bread, to drink wine and smoke stogies. Most importantly, the blind man teaches The Monster about friendship. It's not long before a pair of hunters show up at the blind man's cabin and ruin the whole affair.
More importantly, and as the title should suggest, Bride explores the idea that The Monster wants a woman, but don't pin your book report on it. There are characters that don't appear in the novel. Una O'Connor plays Minnie, a daffy old woman who works for Dr. Frankenstein and provides comic relief amidst the violence in the film's earlier scenes. Ernest Thesiger plays Dr. Pretorius, a fellow mad scientist who calls on Frankenstein to show off his homemade collection of tiny people in jars and suggest they work together to create a mate for The Monster, the goal being a whole generation of little monsters borne of sexual reproduction. I got the impression he just wants to watch dead people screw.
I've always said you can fairly judge a good Frankenstein movie by its creation sequence and Bride climaxes in a real stunner, drawing heavy influence from Metropolis.
Bride of Frankenstein isn't scary to our jaded, modern sensibilities. It is, however, a damn good movie loaded with thrills, laughs and heartbreak. It's one of those sequels that's better than the original and a true classic. If you haven't seen it, it's time, and if you have, it's time to see it again. Watch it with the kids!
With Halloween at our doorstep, Bride of Frankenstein has arisen on Shudder.
Mention Bride of Frankenstein this weekend and get $2 off admission at The Devil's Attic.
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