The Bride of Frankenstein

The Bride of Frankenstein Review
By: Ryan Kreps

The movie The Bride of Frankenstein begins as all classics do, blaring instrumentals, dark and stormy night atmosphere, slow fog that rolls across the opening credits, a seemingly normal opening sequence, but upon closer inspection of this typical opening a small hitch can be seen, who is the monsters mate? The film stars such actors as Boris Karloff reprising his role as the great behemoth Frankenstein’s Monster, Colin Clive also returns as the mad Dr.Frankenstein, even Elsa Lanchester appears in the film as Mary Shelley herself, but in the grim, spooky credits we are given only one clue as to the identity of the monsters mate, a vivid white question marked shining against the darkness. Perhaps the role was just too small, the bride is barely on screen for five minutes, or the actor was too unknown for their name to be recognized. On the other hand, after watching the film there is a strange familiarity between the Monster’s mate, and her creator… and I don’t mean Dr.Frankenstein.

The beginning of the film opens on a elegant mansion, once again the creative writing course etiquette shines through as the lighting crashed and the rain drops roll down the window outside, Percy Shelley and Lord Byron criticize Mary Shelley for writing such a ghastly book about a monster’s killing spree in Transylvania, Mary goes on to correct the gentleman and begins to explain how the story continues after the destruction of the mill and the monster. The screen shimmers and the film begins. Sadly in order to investigate the mystery actor playing the Bride you can’t focus on the beginning or even the middle of the film. It’s not till the end as the two doctors, Frankenstein and Pretorius, begin to unravel their newest creation, that you slowly begin to make out a familiar face, the monsters mate is none other than Elsa Lanchester, portraying dual roles as not only the inventor of the Frankenstein monster, but as his bride as well.

A deeper meaning begs to be found, the beginning of the film incorporates the idea of a story being told, it should be Mary Shelley herself who decided the look of the characters, so why would she choose her own image. The answer can be found within the first few lines of the film. Lord Byron looks out the window, at the abysmal storm outside and comments that the thunder is most likely (1) “…Heavens applause for England’s greatest poet.” Mary’s husband Percy absent mindedly question what was just said about his wife, Lord Byron smiles on and says “She’s an angel”, Mary then looks up, smiles and says “You think so?”, and with the intent of proving these fine gentlemen wrong, she begins to unfold a tale of a monster that ravages a town, but only wants to be loved, and ends with the unveiling of a new kind of monster, a fresh abomination to unleash on this world. But as the bandages are slowly pulled away from this creatures covered face we are surprisingly greeted by the eyes of an angel. Mary Shelley and the monster are played by the same actor not because of budget, time, or even a lack of creativity, but because the innocent beauty of Mary Shelley, the beautiful, rich, sophisticated women sitting by the fire is only a façade, a clever outer coating, for a mind capable of creating a monster.

1.) "The Bride of Frankenstein." Internet Movie Database. IMDB. 12 Jan 2009 .