It’s been a long time since I watched The Bride of Frankenstein but, what a film! The old classics are hard to beat, and The Bride of Frankenstein is a certainly classic. I enjoyed my recent rewatch of this Universal Studios production from 1935. Let’s talk about this amazing work.
The bride is one of the most seen, drawn, talked about, and admired classic characters but, she only has about 5 minutes of screen time in the film. I think this is the oddest part to me. I’ve done at least 3 pieces of art-themed after this movie myself. For someone who is first watching this movie, this must be challenging to grasp. It was for me the first time I watched it. As she is so popular, you expect that she is on screen for 90% or more of the movie, but only the last 5 minutes include this character. Ultimately, this movie is just an extension of the Frankenstein film from 1931.
I complain a lot about filler in movies and this one provoked some thought for me on this idea. This movie too had a lot of filler but, it was entertaining and relevant filler. The characters spent a lot of time in dialog. These dialogs often became extensive but, they were always relevant to the film and helped explain things. This is different from some other filler I have watched. If you watch people ride surfboards for 15 minutes in between 3-minute segments of fighting, for instance, this is irrelevant filler whereas a lengthy conversation between characters is not. One of these dialogs is the opening scene. It takes place between three characters, one of which plays Mary Shelly, implying that the author of the original book Frankenstein is telling this tale about the monster’s bride.
I think the one thing that impresses me most about these classic movies is the set. The Bride of Frankenstein, according to IMDB, was filmed on Universal Studios stages (2022). I take this to mean that everything from the trees to the skyline in the background was created or staged. The forests and the sky do seem surreal in this movie, but they are extremely realistic too. Any scenes filmed to look like the characters indoors gave this impression perfectly. There were even fires burning in the countryside. Now factor in that these sets were created in 1935 – that’s almost a century ago. The ingenuity and creativity required to make this movie and other classic movies are nothing less than impressive.
What is Frankenstein’s monster so famous for? A lighting-induced rebirth with the iconic “It’s alive! It’s alive!” The scene that impressed me most regarding the background and set was the bride’s reanimation. This has the expected classic sci-fi look to it in the construction of the machinery complete with bouncing jolts of electrical current. Lightning bolts flash, kites fly, and electricity sparks down the sides of the metal instruments. All this took place in 1935 black-and-white film. Torch-led forest chases are great but, there’s nothing like the mad doctor’s lab and lightning reanimating a monster’s bride-to-be.
Without being able to time travel, we’ll never know if these movies were scary or not. I imagine that they were as equally terrifying as movies are today, just for their day. The black and white film, the revolutionary special effects for the period, the originality of the age, the place in time, and the sets all come together in these classic films to make them the pieces of art that they are. October isn’t the only month that is great for a rewatch of a classic Universal Studios monster movie. Get on your couch, turn on your streaming app, and go back in time whenever you’re ready. For those of you reading who have never seen The Bride of Frankenstein, change that tonight!
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References
International Movie Database. (2022). The Bride of Frankenstein. IMDB.com. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) – IMDb