Bride of Frankenstein (MRA) (1935)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	Main Menu Audio & Animation Biographies-Crew-James Whale (Director) Gallery-Photo Notes-History Of Frankenstein
Rating
Year Of Production	1935
Running Time	74:30 (Case: 72)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	James Whale
Studio Distributor	MRA Entertainment	Starring	Boris Karloff Colin Clive Valerie Hobson Elsa Lanchester Ernest Thesiger Gavin Gordon Douglas Walton Una O'Connor E.E. Clive Lucien Prival O.P. Heggie Dwight Frye Reginald Barlow
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	?	Music	Franz Waxman

    This is one of the great horror films, though with the passing of almost 70 years the impact has diminished. It is difficult to put oneself in the position of a cinemagoer of 1935 and see this film without remembering all of the more confronting and shocking films made since. Even with the horror and suspense aspects thus removed, this film can be appreciated for the sheer quality of its production, the performance of the cast and the stylish direction of James Whale, not to mention the tongue-in-cheek humour.

    The action takes place immediately after that of Frankenstein, with the burning mill surrounded by villagers. The mill collapses, but unknown to the villagers the monster has fallen through into an underground well enabling his survival. Soon he is on a rampage throughout the countryside, until taken in by Dr Praetorius (Ernest Thesiger). Praetorius soon convinces Baron Frankenstein (Colin Clive) to join him in his experiments to create a mate for the creature.

    While Frankenstein may have created the monster, Boris Karloff, here billed simply as Karloff, brought it to life. His ability to project simple emotions through the tonnes of makeup turns the being from a mere robot into a living creature. Unfortunately for Karloff, he suffered a back injury during the first film which affected him throughout the remainder of his life. In this film he gets to speak some rudimentary dialogue ("We belong dead.") which he was reluctant to do, but I think it works rather well. The monster seems to have put on a bit of weight since the first film, but still looks pretty spooky.

    For an American film, the number of locals involved in the production was quite small. Director Whale and most of the cast were British. Ernest Thesiger gives an eccentric performance as Praetorius, and Colin Clive reprises his role as the Baron. Valerie Hobson was brought to play the title role (technically speaking) and Elsa Lanchester appears as Mary Shelley in the prologue. Irish actress Una O'Connor is the tedious comedy relief, which we could have done without. American actor Dwight Frye, memorable as Renfield in Dracula, plays the hunchbacked assistant Karl. And the blind man is played by the Australian actor O. P. Heggie.

    One of the classic films of the 1930s, this has been given a less than stellar transfer. I believe this film is still under copyright, which makes me wonder why Universal would license it to another company given that it competes with their own DVD releases.

Video

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, not too dissimilar from the original 1.37:1.

    This is a terrible transfer from what appears to be a video source. I would not be surprised if the transfer was made from a VHS tape of the film - in fact, I would be surprised if it was not.

    The source material for the video seems to have been in reasonable condition, with no noticeable film artefacts. However, the transfer(s) of this material have led to it looking like a third-generation VHS tape. The image is not sharp - in fact, it is quite blurry. Details are lost in a haze of video noise. There are constant analogue video tracking errors, and from around the 35 minute mark there are regular thick black lines appearing intermittently across the screen for several minutes.

    Contrast levels are poor, with no blacks or whites to speak of, just different shades of grey. This means that shadow detail is not an issue.

    There is not really much that I can say about video artefacts, as the quality of the image is so blurry that I could not see much at all.

    There are no subtitles on this single layered disc. The film is split into two titles, running 35:06 and 39:24 respectively. There is a brief pause when the player changes titles.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The single audio channel is an English Dolby Digital 2.0 track, which is of course the original mono.

    The audio is not too bad, with dialogue coming across clearly and without any major sound issues. This is not a brilliant audio transfer, but it is acceptable for a film of this vintage.

    The music score is by Franz Waxman and is atmospheric and perfectly suited to the material.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio & Animation

    The main menu has animated text with music from Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

Notes-Biography Of James Whale (Director)

    Several pages of text about the director, with the facts of his life and career detailed at a shallow level. The text mentions the fact that Whale, Thesiger and several other actors were gay, which seems to be of little relevance to this film or indeed to their work in general.

Gallery-Photo

    Nine images in this gallery, with no information as to what they are. They are shown as thumbnails on a menu, and to view each you have to navigate the cursor to the image and click on the select button. When finished, the menu is redisplayed with the first image highlighted again. So you have to navigate to the next one. This could have been better presented, as it is irritating to use.

    The photos include one of James Whale, several of historical images of Frankenstein, one of Byron or Percy Shelley, and one of an actor in the Monster make-up. I think it is Glenn Strange, or maybe Lon Chaney Jr., but the connection to this film is tenuous.

Notes-History Of Frankenstein

    This is more about the films and the makeup than the history of the character, and describing Bela Lugosi as a "Hungarian ham" tells me a lot about the attitude of the author to the material.

    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.

    This film has previously been released by Universal in Regions 1 and 4. This edition has been withdrawn from sale in Region 1, and appears to have been withdrawn in Region 4, although you may still be able to pick up the original release in some shops. It has been reissued in both regions. In Region 1 the same transfer has been re-released in a two disc set with several other Universal Frankenstein films, called the Monster Legacy Collection. In Region 4 it has just been reissued with new artwork at a reduced price.

    There is really no comparison between these two releases. Not only is the picture quality on the Region 1 and the Universal Region 4 better, despite the high level of grain, but there are substantial extras including a feature commentary, making of documentary, production notes, trailer and more. The Region 1 apparently has a framing issue, though I am not sure whether it has been fixed on the latest version. There is no reason to buy this new release, and in fact the video transfer is so poor that you should steer clear of it.

    This DVD should have been called The Horror of the Bride of Frankenstein. Don't bother with this disc - get Universal's release of this film instead.

    The video quality is awful.

    The audio quality is average.

    The extras are minimal.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall