Bride of Frankenstein (Universal) (1935)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-She's Alive. Creating the Bride Of Frankenstein Audio Commentary-Scott MacQueen Gallery-The Bride Of Frankenstein Archive Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1935
Running Time	71:35
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (56:03)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	James Whale
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Boris Karloff Colin Clive Valerie Hobson Ernest Thesiger Elsa Lanchester Gavin Gordon Douglas Walton Una O'Connor E. E. Clive Lucien Purvial O. P. Heggie Dwight Frye Reginald Barlow
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	$29.95	Music	Franz Waxman

    Many consider Bride of Frankenstein to be superior to Frankenstein. Made four years later, after several attempts at developing a suitable script, and with a reluctant James Whale directing, Bride of Frankenstein was well received by critics and audiences upon its release on Good Friday, 1935. Even today, the movie holds its own as a marvellously enjoyable romp, suffused with more black humour than its predecessor, and blessed with another bravura performance by "Karloff" as The Monster.

    The sequel is told within an inventive framing device – one more credible than today's idiotic attempts at resurrecting dead plotlines and characters. This conceit also acknowledges the genesis of the whole Frankenstein mythology by depicting the famous 1816 meeting between Mary Wollstencraft Shelly (1797-1851, played by Elsa Lanchester), Lord Byron (Gavin Gordon) and Mary's husband, the renowned poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (Douglas Walton), at Villa Diodati on the shores of Lake Geneva. (Two lesser-known attendees, John Polidoris, who later penned the novella The Vampyre, and Claire Clairmont, were not written into the scene, perhaps to de-clutter what was only meant to be a prologue to the movie.) On this stormy night, inspired by the ghost fiction of other writers, the group decided to each write their own ghost story, the most terrifying imaginable. Or as the young Mary Shelley put it: "One which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror – one to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart." At a loss for ideas, Mary finally has the nightmare that inspires her to write her classic novel, which was eventually published in 1818. In Whale's film, the scene dissolves after Lord Byron's amusing recap as she continues to narrate the rest of the story told in Frankenstein. James Whale accomplishes much even before the movie proper kicks off.

    The townsfolk have gathered around the burning ruins of the old mill, where Dr Frankenstein and his creature are assumed to have perished. Amidst the hilarious chirpings of Millie, Frankenstein's dotty housemaid (played by Una O'Connor), the crumpled body of Henry is found and carted away. Poking around the debris near the chamber under the mill, the parents of little Maria, who was drowned in the first film, are dispatched by the Monster; the father Hans (Reginald Barlow) is drowned, no less. His dim wife (Mary Gordon) mistakenly helps the Monster out of the pit, into which the Monster then tosses her like a rag doll. The Monster then lopes up to Millie, who shrieks all away back to the Baron's castle, attempting vainly to spark renewed panic. One wonders how the actors kept a straight face when playing this material!

    New developments include the shadowy figure of Dr Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger), who coaxes the revived Henry Frankenstein back to the laboratory; the Monster learning to speak, albeit haltingly; and of course the creation of the eponymous Bride Monster (Elsa Lanchester again). This idea came directly from Shelley's novel: "She also might turn with disgust from him to the superior beauty of man; she might quit him, and he be again alone, exasperated by the fresh provocation of being deserted by one of his own species." In the book, Frankenstein recognised the madness of his scheme, however, and "tore to pieces" the femme-Monster's cadaver before its resurrection.

    Another element worth mentioning are the vaguely homoerotic undertones between various male characters. First there is the existing bond between Henry Frankenstein and his Monster, which is more father-son or God-man than anything sexual, although it could be said that Henry suffers a degree of maternal envy. Next there is the sequence with the lonely blind man, with whom the Monster puffs cigars, and particularly the scene where he rather lovingly puts the Monster to bed. Consider Dr Pretorius as well, who always struck me as an ageing queen with his innuendo-laden speech and effeminate demeanour, and whom Henry's fiancé Elizabeth (Valerie Hobson) despises. Ex-teacher Pretorius asks Henry to "forgive the intrusion", says "my business with you Baron is private", and "I think you will be interested in what I have to show you". Recall that not only does Pretorius befriend the monster, but he also says, "have a cigar – they are my only weakness" (Whale was fond of cigars, too). Furthermore, you have to wonder who else the bride of Frankenstein could be. Since Henry and Elizabeth are engaged, the title cannot be referring to her. Naturally it means the bride made by Frankenstein for the Monster, but it does invite other interpretations.

    Off-the-wall thematic musings aside, Bride of Frankenstein is an exemplar of early horror cinema. Since Frankenstein all but exhausted the terror potential of the scenario, the sequel has more fun with the dialogue and characters. It even takes a few stabs at religious iconography, while also presenting a tight narrative that offers other subtextural readings. All of this is delivered with the artistry and production values that James Whale was celebrated for. Superb ghoulish entertainment.

Video

    Presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, the transfer used for this Bride of Frankenstein DVD is not the one intended by Universal, according to Tim Lucas in Video Watchdog #55:

"Unlike their sonically restored and renewed Frankenstein, Bride...appears to have made use of a digitally remastered archive print, rather than the much-publicized, reportedly stunning, restored 35mm print now available for theatrical engagements."

    While I have been unable to confirm this claim or view the 35mm print mentioned, the DVD transfer does look grainier than Frankenstein, even distractingly so, with variable levels of sharpness and shadow detail, although some scenes fare worse than others. Given the soft nature of the transfer and the age of the source print, edge enhancement problems are not apparent. Black levels are good, meaning there is no need to adjust display settings in order to yield more details from the black and white imagery, and blacks are solid when they are not corrupted by grain/noise. Our PAL DVD appears to have the exact same transfer as the Region 1 US DVD, which I also own and used for comparison.

    Apart from the incessant drizzle of grain (digitally exaggerated or otherwise), actual film artefacts are infrequent. A noticeable strobing effect runs through a handful of scenes, for example when the blind hermit first takes the Monster into his cabin. The awkward framing criticised by Tim Lucas in Video Watchdog, who said the transfer was positioned too high to the extent that the glowing crucifix was "cropped off below the crossbeam" during the fade to black after the bedside moment between the hermit and the Monster, is slightly more intact on our transfer, at least to the point where half of the crossbeam is visible. If your display device overscans too much on the upper edge, it may still be covered up. Another example occurs at 51:19 on the US DVD and 49:15 on ours. Dr Pretorius' forehead intersects the upper edge of my Loewe TV viewable area on the NTSC disc, whereas his entire head is visible on our PAL disc. Universal may have made this single adjustment when it ported the original transfer to PAL, otherwise the transfers look identical.

    There are no other apparent film-to-video or film artefacts beyond the occasional scratch, indicating that effort has been invested on this transfer at some point in history. Again, the generally poor condition of the source materials would make any compression gaffes difficult to spot. The layer change happens at 56:03 on a shot of Dr Pretorius in between lines of dialogue. It is not as disruptive as the switch on the US DVD. The bit rate averages about 8.9.

    Overall, this transfer communicates the meticulous cinematography of John J. Mescall with enough fidelity for anyone to appreciate. Its shortcomings can be attributed to the difficulties involved with breathing new life into a film this old for home video distribution and scrutiny. But it would be a grave disappointment if Universal had indeed utilised the wrong print for the US DVD, a problem that if true, was not corrected for the film's later debut on DVD in Europe and Australasia. Also note that the documentary uses the same transfer when showing clips from the film.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Bride of Frankenstein comes with two audio tracks: an English 2.0 monaural Dolby Digital track compressed at 192 kb/s, and an erudite audio commentary by film historian Scott MacQueen with the same technical specs.

    Dialogue is clear, despite being imaged from the left and right channels only. The centre speaker remains mute throughout the feature. Audio sync is okay, and sibilants do not distort.

    Franz Waxman's terrific score, which supersedes the one created for Frankenstein, does its best to make itself heard after the passage of 67 years. Although improvements could be made with the full restoration of the original audio stem(s), the music is neither too brassy nor too timid. When impact is required, enough separation from the dialogue and effects is available to make it apparent.

    Fidelity in general is reasonable at normal listening volumes, apart from random analogue pops and crackles. But nudge the listening level up and your ears will be treated to shrill overtones that are hard to take for any length of time. When the soundtrack is supposed to be silent, an ever-present hiss can be heard. Put your ear to the speaker and you'll always hear it. As expected there is no bottom end, causing the more spectacular moments in the film – doors bashed in, castles exploding, peals of thunder – to have a thin, weightless effect on the viewer. Modern soundtracks really have spoiled us!

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus

    The animated home menu is not 16x9 enhanced, but has an underscore in 2.0 audio. Submenus are static and mute. The menu design follows its US cousin, although ours substitutes boring fonts for the more appropriate calligraphy typeface used on the US DVD. This may have been done to make the menu headings easier to read for non-English speaking R2 consumers.

Documentary - She's Alive! Creating the Bride of Frankenstein (38:53)

    Written, produced and directed by David J. Skal in 1999 and hosted by Joe Dante, this documentary covers most of the pertinent aspects of the production, including the lead-up to making the sequel and James Whale's insistence on total creative control, the talking Monster innovation, make-up details and set design, James Mescall's cinematography, musical score discussion, censorship problems, missing scene information, the homosexual angle, and the legacy of Bride of Frankenstein. People interviewed: author Christopher Bram, film historians Scott MacQueen (who repeats information from his commentary track), Bob Madison, Paul M. Jensen and Gregory W. Mank, writer and director Clive Barker, make up wizard Rick Baker, and the director of Gods and Monsters, Bill Condon, who also wrote the script for Chicago.

    This is an excellent piece of work that covers a lot of ground and does not outstay its welcome. Clips from the movie are kept to a handful of scenes that illustrate only the most relevant discussion points. The glossy presentation is full frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

Commentary by Scott MacQueen

    Scott MacQueen provides a well spoken, learned commentary filled with great trivia and observations. He points out extras who are either friends or relatives of the cast and crew, comments on Waxman's famous score, and explains the myriad censorship cuts made to the script and the finished work, among other details. Fantastic.

The Bride of Frankenstein Archive (13:11)

    This supplement contains a montage of 15 colour poster reproductions and 146 black and white still photographs. Included are about 10 shots from scenes deleted from the picture.

Theatrical Trailer (1:29)

    Black and white with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. Looking and sounding weathered, this trailer is cropped at times on the left hand side. None of the missing scenes are shown. A reference to a two-hour running time is intriguing, though.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    Two different versions of Bride of Frankenstein have been released in Region 4 – this Universal release and an MRA release.

    The Bride of Frankenstein DVD released by MRA is pretty woeful in comparison to this one. Although the tape master seems to be based on a cleaner source print, the black levels are too bright, there are constant horizontal noise lines, the image is softer, lousy compression causes juddery pans in many shots, there are no subtitle tracks, and the feature is stored in two separate title chunks. The MRA release boasts a similar, if not the same, 2.0 mono soundtrack to the Universal release.

    Further region comparisons will be based on the superior Universal Region 4 release.

    The Region 4 DVD misses out on:

• 12 pages of Production Notes.
• Frankenstein theatrical trailer (1:44).
• Cast biographies for Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson, Elsa Lancaster, Una O'Connor, Ernest Thesiger, Dwight Frye, Australian actor/director O. P. Heggie (the blind hermit), and James Whale, who is mistakenly listed as dying in 1959. In fact he drowned himself on the 29th of May, 1957.
• Universal Weblinks.

    The Region 1 DVD misses out on:

• More foreign language subtitles.
• The correct framing of the feature...no cropping at the top of the image.
• An anamorphic Universal logo intro with 5.1 Dolby Digital sound.
• The ability to swap between audio tracks.

    Although the US DVD has additional production notes and an extra trailer, which would be available on the Frankenstein DVD anyway, the Australian DVD wins because of its more correct framing.

    Bride of Frankenstein was intentionally played for laughs. The performances, the script, and the baroque set design all demonstrate the hallmarks of James Whale in top gear behind the camera, with tongue in cheek and a knowing smirk.

    While the video and audio transfers could be better, this DVD package presents Bride of Frankenstein in its best incarnation on home video to date.

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