Transcript James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein

James Whale’s Bride of
Frankenstein
British Novel to Film
Fu Jen University
Dr. M. Connor
Hotly anticipated sequel


As early as 1932, Universal Studios wanted to
expand its Frankenstein franchise with a sequel. It
took some time for a script to be approved, though,
and originally James Whale said he would not direct,
but in 1934 he changed his mind, and much of the
original cast was reunited.
Shot in 46 days, which was actually 10 days over
schedule, the final cost of the film was $397,023
more than $100,000 over the original budget.
(Tucker)

“The original length of Bride of Frankenstein
was 92 minutes, but it was cut down to 75
minutes. The prologue was edited because
Mary, Percy, and Lord Byron's tales were a
little too bawdy. A court scene was deleted
and an entire sub-plot with Karl having the
monster murder his miserly aunt and uncle
was removed.” (Tucker)
Better than the Original


Although both Whale and Karloff preferred
the first film, Bride is generally considered
one of the few Hollywood sequels better than
the original.
This was partly due to Whale himself. This
was his seventh film after the original
Frankenstein, which had only been his third
film, so technically he was much better at
directing than he had been four years earlier.
German influence


In the intervening years, Whale was also
influenced by the German Expressionism
happening in European cinema, and traces
of it can be seen in his filming here.
This gives the second film a very different
“look” from the first film
One of the greatest horror films of all
time

As one reviewer put it: “The macabre, satirical film is
generally considered one of the greatest horror films
of all time - a spectacular, bizarre, high-camp,
excessive, humorous, farcical and surrealistic film. ...
The film reunited Colin Clive (as Dr. Frankenstein)
with Boris Karloff as the Monster, but brought two
new characters to the forefront: Ernest Thesiger as a
necromancer who has miniaturised and imprisoned
various human beings in glass jars, and Elsa
Lanchester as the Monster's Bride.” (“Bride”
Filmsite.org)
The script


The film also has an excellent script. The opening
credits read "Suggested by the original story written
in 1816 by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and Adapted
by William Hurlbut, John Balderston. Only
Balderston had worked on the first film, but again,
Whale had input as well.
And unlike Frankenstein this film was heavily edited
by censors who had gained considerable control in
the intervening years.
The Monster speaks


The sequel also called for The Monster to
have lines.
Karloff argued that it was a mistake to have
the Monster speak, that it would build up too
much sympathy for The Monster. In a way,
he’s correct that the monster speaking made
it more “human,” hence sympathetic
Changes the makeup


But being able to speak also changed the
look of the Monster.
In order to speak properly, Karloff had to
replace the partial bridge that he had
removed during his work on the first film. In
this film, his face is much fuller.
Sympathy

There are a number of other ways that the
Monster becomes more sympathetic in this
version, and that’s one of the reasons why
critics and fans like it better.
An early movie poster
Teaching with both versions


Even though The Bride of Frankenstein is seen as a
sequel, I often view it as part two of the same film.
The second film includes footage from the first, and
according to the internal chronology, the second is
supposed to follow immediately after the first. Both
films are short--the total running times of the release
versions is only 174 minutes. As a result, I usually
show both films as “a” Frankenstein film.
Actors


Boris Karloff had reservations about reprising
his most famous role.
But he took the role, losing about 10 kilos
during the film’s shooting thanks to the
weight of his costume and the physical
exertion he the role entailed.
Colin Clive



Colin Clive, as Henry
Frankenstein, is supposed to be
in feeble health in the sequel
and is therefore less dynamic
than before, yet his nervous
tension is shattering and
overtones of tragedy hover
around him.
It wasn't all make-believe.
Shortly before the shoot, Clive
broke his leg in a riding
accident, so most of his scenes
are shot sitting down.
But also, Clive was suffering
from acute alcoholism during
the filming. This disease led to
his death at the age of 37, just
two years after filming Bride.
Ernest Thesiger



Ernest Thesiger played Professor Pretorius, and he
delivered a knock-out performance. He’d worked
with Whale before, who brought Thesiger to the US
in to play the acerbic, effeminate Horace Femm in
his The Old Dark House (1932).
Writers for years have claimed that Pretorius was
gay. Some critics have gone so far as to write that
Henry and Pretorius are a gay couple, with the
Monster and the Bride as their children.
Whether Whale envisioned him as such is
debatable, and overall, I really don’t think it matters
much either way. Thesiger’s performance in the film
is genius, and that’s all that really counts.
Ernest Thesiger
From the British Film Institute’s
on-line pages.
http://www.screenonline.org.uk
/people/id/468245/
Thesiger improvised many lines




"I also have created life, as they
say, in God's own image."
"Sometimes I think it would be
better if we were all devils, with
no nonsense about angels and
being good."
"The creation of life is
enthralling, distinctly enthralling,
is it not?"
"Leave the charnel house and
follow the lead of nature or
God, if you like your Bible
stories."



As the great experiment begins,
he exults, "Once we should
have been burnt as wizards for
this experiment!"
Leading his entourage into the
watchtower, he tells them to
"Mind the step’s a bit slimy, I
expect. I think it's a charming
house."
To the Monster's line "I love
dead, hate living," he snaps
back, "You're wise in your
generation. We must have a
long talk, and then I have an
important call to make."
Unexplained casting change


Although most of the original cast reprised
their roles, there is one change.
The beautiful blonde fiance, Elizabeth,
played by 21 year old American Mae Clarke
in the original becomes the stunning brunette
wife Elizabeth, played by 19 year old
Northern Irishwoman Valerie Hobson.
Why?



There is never an official reason for the change, and
it seems slightly odd considering that Mae Clarke
(most famous for being hit in the face with a
grapefruit by James Cagney in 1931’s Public
Enemy) was a rising star in the early 30s.
According film critic Leonard Maltin, “Bad luck and
personal problems drove her out of the limelight” in
the early 30s. (“Biography”)
Perhaps Whale or the studio wanted to distance
themselves from Clarke. But why not chose another
blonde actress?
Trouble with the censors


Between the first Frankenstein film and the
second, Hollywood was getting cleaned up
by the self-regulating Hays Code, at that time
headed by Joseph Breen.
When Breen saw the first copy of the script,
which he had to approve before shooting
could begin, he called for a number of cuts.
He felt the film was sacrilegious and too
violent.
Some cuts


The original body count in the script was 21
people killed. In the final version of the film,
it is down to eleven. (Scott)
Then, when Breen saw the finished film, he
had a few scenes cut for being too sexy. In
the opening scenes, especially, he felt there
was far too much of Elsa Lanchester’s
breasts showing.
Fought censorship

Whale was very much against Breen’s
proposed cuts, and while there was little he
could do to fight the cuts in sex and violence,
he retained most of the religious imagery that
had worried Breen.
Religious imagery

Though a scene where the Monster mistakes
a statue of the crucified Christ for a suffering
soulmate and tries to rescue him was cut, the
captured Monster, raised aloft on a pole and
pelted by rocks, obviously symbolizes
crucifixion. Additionally, a crucifix in the
hermit's cabin is heavily emphasized.
Other instances


Instead of the scene of the Monster trying to
help Jesus on the cross, the Monster angrily
topples a statue of a bishop;
Pretorius impiously quotes Biblical phrases
("Male and female created He them. Be
fruitful and multiply.").
Amazing special effects


One of the scenes that made the film stand out at the
time and still has an impact today is Pretorius' seven
miniature “people” in their glass jars: the king (a
replica of England’s Henry VIII), the queen
(supposedly Anne Boleyn), the archbishop, the
ballerina, the mermaid, and the devil (to whom
Pretorius claims a relationship).
These six are introduced by Pretorius, but the
seventh figure, a baby, played by midget Billy Barty,
is not mentioned.
How was it done?


To film this scene, careful measurements were made
of camera elevations, distances and angles, as well
as the sizes of the jars and other props. The actors
were photographed separately in large-scale jars
and matted into the small jars.
The composites are flawless, including a scene in
which the king escapes and Pretorius picks him up
and imprisons him back in his jar. Considering the
year, the special effects were wonderful.
The Opening Scene


Bride of Frankenstein memorably opens with Mary
and Percy Shelley along with Lord Byron sitting out a
thunderstorm in Lake Geneva.
I have found a transcript of the opening scene online at filmsite.org. What I find interesting is Byron’s
introduction of the three elegant people. Folks were
expecting a modern horror story (the 1931 version
was set in contemporary times), not a costume
drama.
From filmsite.org

“In the film's prologue, the camera pans toward a
light shining in the window of Lord Byron's estate on
a stormy dark night as thunder crackles. Inside the
elegant drawing room of the Villa Diodati on Lake
Geneva in Switzerland, in the early 1800s, three
characters are lounging and talking together in an
historical reconstruction: Lord Byron (Gavin Gordon),
poet Percy Shelley (Douglas Walton) and his 19year-old bride Mary Shelley (Elsa Lanchester). The
memorable scene recreates a discussion the trio
may have had. Before a roaring fire, Mary expresses
her unusual fear of thunder and the dark”.
From the introduction

Mary defends her Frankenstein novel to her admirer,
arguing that it was more than a story about a mad
scientist and a monster. It was a philosophical
consideration of a man who defied God's natural
laws and sovereignty by daring to create life:
–
Mary: The publishers did not see that my purpose was to
write a moral lesson. The punishment that befell a mortal
man who dared to emulate God.
Lord Byron: Well, whatever your purpose may have been,
my dear, I take great relish in savoring each separate horror.
I roll them over on my tongue.
Mary: Don't, Lord Byron. Don't remind me of it tonight.
The beginning scenes


The film dissolves and flashes back to
moments from the first film, in order to
summarize what happened, and includes a
few additional shots created for the
flashback.
In several respects, however, Bride of
Frankenstein contradicts the ending of
Frankenstein.
Byron provides backstory

“What a setting in that churchyard to begin with. The sobbing
women, the first plod of earth on the coffin. That was a pretty
chill. Frankenstein and the dwarf stealing the body out of its
new-made grave, cutting the hanged man down from the
gallows where he swung creaking in the wind. The cunning of
Frankenstein in his mountain laboratory, picking dead men
apart and building up a human Monster, so fearful - so horrible
that only a half-crazed brain could have devised. And then the
murder! The little child drowned. Henry Frankenstein himself
thrown from the top of the burning mill by the very Monster he
had created. And it was these fragile white fingers that penned
the nightmare.” From Bride of Frankenstein
How Whale tied it together


Mary pricks herself while sewing, drawing blood and becoming
squeamish at the sight. Percy questions why Mary ended her
story prematurely: "I do think it a shame, Mary, to end your
story quite so suddenly." Mary contends that she has told only
part of her story, and then explains that Frankenstein's Monster
(Boris Karloff) did not perish, but actually survived the fire that
destroyed the blazing old windmill in the first film:
Mary weaves her new tale of horror, providing a lead-in to the
visualization of the film's story. The camera pulls back from the
trio and dissolves into the sequel: "Well then, imagine
yourselves standing by the wreckage of the mill. The fire is
dying down. Soon, the bare skeleton of the building will be
dissolved. The gaunt rafters against the sky."
Remade in 1985




In a move that probably seemed good at the time,
but which proved failure, The Bride of Frankenstein
was remade in 1985.
The new film, The Bride, starred the
musician/sometime actor Sting as Baron Charles
Frankenstein, who creates a bride, “Eva,” (Jennifer
Beals) for his monster, Viktor.
Most critics panned the film, but it does have a bit of
a cult following, and it’s still available on DVD and
video today.
It might make an interesting “compare and contrast”
project for an interested student.
The Bride herself


Of course, the most important addition to the
film is The Bride, something that never
appears in the novel, not alive at least.
She was played by Elsa Lanchester, at the
time a 33 year old actress well known on
stage and film.
Makeup


http://www.movieforum.com/people/actresses
/elsalanchester/bride.shtml
Jack Pierce again created
the make-up, but for the
Bride, he did what was
almost a glamour make-up
with just a pale scar under
her chin.
The iconic hair style is
Lanchester’s own hair
combed over a wire cage
with the added white
streaks.
The happy couple!
Source:
http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/english016/franken/bride.jpg
Sources:






“Biography of Mae Clarke” Internet Movie Data Base 16 Mar
2005 http://imdb.com/name/nm0164883/bio
“Bride of Frankenstein” Filmsite.org” 16 Mar 2005
http://www.filmsite.org/bride.html
“Bride of Frankenstein” Internet Movie Data Base 16 Mar 2005
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026138/
Scott, Cavan and Steve O'Brien. “The Bride Of Frankenstein
Explored!” The Graveyard Shift ©2005 16 Mar 2005
http://www.graveyardshift.co.uk/bride2.htm
Tucker, Jake. “Universal Terror: Part Five” Classic Horror:
Reviewing the History of Terror.
Originally Published 07/2001. 16 Mar 2005.
http://classic-horror.com/articles/universalterror5.shtml