Colorized

October 20, 2022

Mary Shelley published Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus in 1818, and, in 1910, Edison made the first film adaptation. This was followed by the 1931 Universal Studios film, Frankenstein, one of the first talkies. Four years later, Bride of Frankenstein was released.

Source: (Pinterest/colorized).

In the original ending of the 1931 Frankenstein, Henry Frankenstein died, but Universal decided to make the ending happier, allowing him to survive. With Henry still alive, Universal set out to make a sequel, asking James Whale, the director of Frankenstein to direct it. Whale initially refused, but he used the situation to his advantage, convincing them to allow him to make One More River before the sequel. Because Whale didn’t think that the sequel would be successful, he decided to make it a “hoot.”

It Took A While To Get A Script

Several early treatments were created. Robert Florey wrote The New Adventures of Frankenstein—The Monster Lives which was rejected without comment in 1932. A second treatment, The Return of Frankenstein, was being filmed when Whale rejected it, saying, “it stinks to heaven.” Whale rejected the next version as well, and then, in 1934, John L. Balderston began working on another version that focused on an incident in the novel when the Monster demands a bride. Whale rejected his work, but the incident remained the focus of the final script. Finally, Whale hired William J. Hurlbut and Edmund Pearson, who combined elements from the other scripts to create what would become the film.

The Monster and Elizabeth. Source: (IMDb/colorized)

Casting

For Bride of Frankenstein, Boris Karloff reprised his role as the Monster, while Colin Clive reprised his role as Henry Frankenstein. Valerie Hobson replaced Mae Clarke as Elizabeth, Henry’s fiancée because of Clarke’s health issues. Before Whale cast Elsa Lanchester as the Bride, he had decided that the same actress should also play Mary Shelley to convey the theme that story, in particular horror, arises from the darker side of the imagination. In a nod to Frankenstein, Lanchester was only credited for playing the role of Mary Shelley, while the role of the Bride was credited to “?” just as the Monster was credited in the original.

The Plot

The film begins with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron praising Mary Shelley for her novel. Shelley reminds them of her intention to convey a lesson about the dangers of trying to play God. The film then returns to the end of Frankenstein, when the Monster is presumed to have died in a burning windmill, and Henry Frankenstein is being nursed back to life by Elizabeth. Meanwhile, the Monster roams the countryside, where he stumbles across a blind man, who teaches him some words and shares a meal with him. Eventually, the Monster encounters Dr. Pretorius, Henry Frankenstein’s mentor. Pretorious, played by Ernest Thesiger, tried to replicate Frankenstein’s work, but when he was unable to, he started to “grow” miniature humans (homunculi). He proposes a “new world of gods and monsters” and befriends the Monster. Pretorious plans to create an artificially grown brain to be used in the body to be animated by Frankenstein. Together, Pretorious and the Monster convince Frankenstein to make the Monster’s mate. However, the outcome is not what the Monster is expecting, as the Bride rejects him. With that rejection, he sends Frankenstein and his now-wife Elizabeth away but says to the Bride “You stay. We belong dead.”

Source: (IMDb/colorized).

Creating Monsters

In the original, the Monster does not speak. If you’ve read Shelley’s book, you know that he becomes quite articulate. In Bride of Frankenstein, he does learn some language. To choose the words that he could learn, Whale and the studio psychiatrist examined test papers of ten-year-olds who worked at the studio. From these, they selected 44 simple words. Karloff was not happy with this decision though, saying that “if the monster had any impact or charm, it was because he was inarticulate.” Because the Monster had to speak, Karloff was unable to remove his dental plate, so his appearance in Bride of Frankenstein was different from the original. He differed in other ways as well, as Jack Pierce, the makeup artist, created the makeup to show the effects of the mill fire from Frankenstein. Throughout the film, the makeup was modified so that it appeared his injuries were healing. The Bride, on the other hand, never speaks, instead hissing, a sound she modeled on the hissing of swans. To create the Bride’s iconic hairstyle, which was based on Nefertiti, Lanchester’s hair was given a Marcel wave over a wire frame. Her costume made it an ordeal to go to the bathroom, so she drank very little; her dresser had to accompany her to deal with all of the bandages.

Early Special Effects

As for the laboratory equipment, some of it, such as the “Cosmic Ray Diffuser” and the “Nebularium” was recycled from the original film. To create the homunculi in the film, actors were filmed in full-sized jars set against black velvet. They were then aligned with on-set jars to change the perspective.

The Effects Of Censorship

The original cut was 90 minutes, but because of censorship, by the time it hit the screen, the run-time was 75 minutes. The Hays office objected to lines that compared Henry Frankenstein’s work to that of God, as well as other religious references. There were also objections to the number of murders, and to some of the shots of Lanchester as Shelley, because too much of her cleavage was visible.

It Is Now Considered One Of The Best

When it was released, it was successful both commercially and critically. It has since been considered James Whale’s masterpiece, and in 1998, it was added to the United States Film Registry. Not bad for a film he didn’t want to make.