The tale of Frankenstein turns 200 this year and Mary Shelley’s classic tale of horror is still going strong today.
There has been many adaptations of Frankenstein over the years but one of the best is the sequel to James Whale’s 1931 adaptation of Frankenstein, 1935’s The Bride of Frankenstein.
It begins with Mary Shelley (Elsa Lanchester) continuing to tell her tale to Percy Bysshe Shelley (Douglas Walton) and Lord Byron (Gavin Gordon). Here story picks up where the last film left off. The Monster (Boris Karloff) has survived the burning windmill and flees killing a couple of the villagers. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) is believed to be dead and taken back to his home where it’s revealed that he’s still alive. After a slow recovery Frankenstein’s mentor Doctor Septimus Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger) arrives to show Frankenstein that he too has been experimenting with creating life.
Doctor Pretorius has created miniature homunculi. He wants to combine his work with Frankenstein’s and create a mate for the monster. Meanwhile the monster has been terrorizing the countryside and eventually runs into Pretorius who tells him about the mate. The monster naturally is very eager to have a mate.
This is a classic from Universal Studios golden days of horror. Karloff is fantastic as always Ernest Thesiger brings a much more sinister mad scientist to the mix. Here’s my original post.
