Starring: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson, Ernest Thesiger, Elsa Lanchester, Gavin Gordon.
Director: James Whale.
This has always been my favorite of the Universal films. I've always loved Bride of Frankenstein for a very, very long time. I hope it holds up. As a side note, I recommend checking out the excellent Gods and Monsters, which tells the tragic story of director James Whale. Ian Mcellan and Brendan Fraser give great performances. It's a beautiful film. But, let's talk about Bride.
I've always loved the story of the night where Lord Byron, Doctor Polidori, and Percy and Mary Shelley gathered together on a dark and stormy night where Mary conceived Frankenstein. It was also the inspiration for a rather entertaining if bizarre Ken Russel film called Gothic. The beginning of this film conveys it in a somewhat comedic way, along with some flashbacks to the original film as a recap. It's certainly not a bad device to utilize. The original story probably was in need of a recap for the audiences of '35. It also sets up the continuation, as Mary decides to tell her companions of the rest of the story, bringing us back to the hillside where the townspeople believe they have destroyed The Monster.
The sequel is certainly more aggressive as The Monster slaughters the over acting townspeople, which works well enough. I remembered this as being a bit more serious minded, but perhaps I'm mostly thinking of the later acts. For now, things have had a decidedly comedic tone. Slapstick, pratfalls, and exaggerated facial expression are the name of the game thus far. Well, other than that aggression I mentioned. Hopefully that shrill Woman is done for the day? Nope. Guess not.
Dr.Preatorius! I always liked him, as a brand new mad scientist who convinces Frankenstein to come back to the mad scientist realm. Elizabeth is freaking out about a bunch of stuff, and her horrible premonition from the original film of being torn from Henry. This is certainly a weirder movie than I remembered it being: I had forgotten about the tiny people in jars and stuff. Weird stuff. The effects work isn't bad, though...
Preatorius and his weird science gets Frankenstein to decide to create a lady monster, and we cut back to The Monster wandering through the wilderness. The makeup isn't as fantastic as it was in the original, but Karloff's superb performance and physicality keeps things interesting. The Monster lashes out at his own reflection, and accidentally frightens a Woman into falling off a waterfall...it's a sad moment, as The Monster tries to get her to calm down, and he is shot by hunters. Wounded and frightened, he runs off into some rather gorgeous sets (the cloudy sunset backdrop is once again present) with trees and rocks providing a strange labyrinth for both the Monster and his pursuers to run through. It's such a frantic sequence, with the Monster being reduced to little more than a hunted animal who is then strung up and pelted with rocks by his assailants.
It's amazing to watch Karloff run around and tear apart sets. There's just so much energy to the performance, filled with aggression. It's somewhat difficult to enjoy scenes such as The Monster hanging out with the blind man after you see Young Frankenstein. It's really a heartwarming and beautiful scene about unlikely friendship and innocence but...I mean, after watching Gene Hackman dump boiling soup into Peter Boyle's lap it's hard to fully love the sequence. It really is lovely, though, in all seriousness. It's very sweet to see a child-like monster learn to speak and enjoy his friend. Of course, it would have to end in tragedy as everything else does in his unfortunate existence.
Another amazing set piece: the crypt that The Monster enters. It's another giant space, filled with dust and cobwebs and beautiful statuary and rusted iron bars. Adding to that the sadness of The Monster attempting to speak to a corpse, seeking others like himself...well, it's another strong scene.
The Monster making demands of his creator, and once again attacking poor Elizabeth (she can't really catch a break), is a pretty justified turn of events. Given everything the Monster goes through up until that point, it makes perfect sense that Pretorius's offers of creating him a companion, to make him not alone any longer...well, desperation can make villains of anyone. It's an interesting turn, though, considering that the Monster is usually a gentle and well-meaning creature. Of course, an argument can be made that he would ensure that Elizabeth would not be harmed.
The ending of the film is really what's worth getting to. As the Bride is created, her hairstyle inhuman and her face confused and distressed...well, she's a shocking and provocative image in her own right. The emotionally damaging tragedy that occurs-even though she has a Monster herself, she still rejects her intended mate as readily as anyone else has, out of her own childlike fear of the unknown, and her own confusion about her sudden and unasked for existence(it seems like the most important element of the Frankenstein story, really: did any of us ASK to be born?)-is devastating. So, it stands to reason then that, in the end, The Monster understands his own existence as being something that must end...but more importantly, that Henry and Elizabeth must live. Their normal, potentially happy lives must be protected in the end, no matter what The Monster might feel for his careless creator.
"You stay. We belong dead." The Monster drones, making sure that both he and his Bride are destroyed in the fire that destroys Praetorius' laboratory. It's a sad but somewhat inspiring and certainly poignant finale.
Final Thoughts: It's still an incredibly beautiful film, even if it IS a lot sillier and rougher than I remember it being years ago. It's still an all time favorite of mine, because parts of it are so beautiful that I might make an argument that they are, to some degree, unrivaled in horror cinema.
Final Rating: Four Stars.
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