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Movie Reviews, & Film Industry Commentary
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1935 – NR – 75 min.
Director: James Whale
Primary Cast: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Elsa Lanchester, Ernest Thesiger, Dwight Frye, Valerie Hobson, O.P. Heggie, Una O’Connor
Stars ***** (of 5)
Popcorn **** (of 5)
Film Type(s): Horror, Science Fiction, Drama, Monsters
Synopsis: After having been shallenged to do so, 19th Century Novelist Mary Shelley (Lanchester) is challenged on a stormy night by her husband and Lord Byron to continue the story of Frankenstein. Having survived the burning windmill in the original Frankenstein, the Monster (Karloff) meets a series of people during Frankenstein’s (Clive) recovery. Frankenstein himself meets Dr. Pretorious (Thesiger), a Scientist even madder than he is that wants to continue Frankenstein’s experiments and combine them with his own. After a chance encounter, Pretorious and the Monster team up. The Monster now desires a mate of his own to match the one that Frankenstein has just married. Will Frankenstein sacrifice his own sanity and humanity so that his bride can be safe from the Monster?
Review: This film is a marvel in more than one way; not only is it an excellent horror film, it’s an excellent film. The popularity of the first caused the studio to give this sequel to 1931’s Frankenstein the entire goings on of a full scale ‘Studio’ picture. Featuring a William Hurlbut screenplay (which was reportedly nearly completely re-written by Director Whale), this movie has wit and openly mocks itself, much like the great British films of the day (in spite of being shot on Hollywood backlots), though it proves to be more moody than scary. Karloff’s performance adds equal parts sympathy, fear, and pathos for the Monster. Thesiger and Lanchester are wonderful in their roles. Thesiger’s Dr. Pretorious is always more maniacal than Frankenstein himself and can’t help but drink, with the classic graveyard ‘celebration’ scene with the Monster as a highlight, commenting on a range of subjects from Prohibition to Marriage. Lanchester plays Mary Shelley in the opening sequence but becomes legendary when she reappears as the Monster’s Bride (what hair!). Pretorious’ ‘Little people’ experiment and the blind man sequence (featuring Heggie) are classics in a film full of them. Also featured is Franz Waxman’s legendary and haunting score. An excellent companion piece to this film is 1998’s Oscar winning Gods and Monsters about the last days of Director Whale and his recollections of making this film. It casts a subversive light on the movie, with Whale projecting his own feelings of isolation as an open homosexual into the film. In Gods, he suggests that Dr. Pretorious is “something of a queen himself….he’s rather in love with Dr. Frankenstein”.
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