Hallo-Watch: The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Watched:  10/31/2026

Format:  4K disc

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  James Whale

Well, we managed to get in a viewing.  It wasn't easy, but we did it. 

Still top-tier for me, not as a sequel, but as a movie on its own.  

I've been watching this movie for Halloween every year since at least 2015.   Maybe earlier.  I've lost track, and in ye olden days, this blog wasn't exactly a film-watching journal.  So.  I don't know beyond 2015.  I do suspect I've seen this movie at least 20 times.  More likely, something like 25-30 times.  I don't believe I saw it until 2003 when Universal put out a crate of horror movies, so it's been a lot of catch-up.

As we discussed whilst discussing this year's viewing of Frankenstein, it felt like that movie left a lot of gaps in the conversation.  Bride of Frankenstein picks up saying directly to the audience "oh, we weren't done.  That's only half the story," and starts addressing those questions artfully and with pathos and a huge helping of humor.

An oddly quotable movie, somehow the quotes never made it into the mainstream.  But have made good meme-fodder for those in the know.  I always think today's kids would really like Dr. Praetorius, in particular, but somehow he's not an icon except in classic monster circles.

There isn't a sequence I dislike in the movie - I think Una O'Connor is a stitch, but I know other people don't find her brand of humor to their taste.  But holy cats, is the birth sequence for the Bride one of the best things ever.  It just fills me with joy.  We need more Cosmic Diffusers, electric sparks and labs built into old towers in the world.  

The movie tries to pick up the threads of the book, essentially filling in the fact that the creature didn't understand life or death, good or evil in the first movie, and here he learns those ideas.  And so he chooses to set Henry Frankenstein free at the film's end, knowing he coerced Henry into doing it all over again, and participating in making someone else as miserable as he.  

My only regret is that Elsa was not signed up to make another one of these.  All of us would like to think that if the creature could survive, so could our girl.  And there's been a few books about this - as well as Gunn's take in Creature Commandos.  Most recently, we got the alternate take tanks to Maggie Gyllenhaal, and while it wasn't my jam, I know others love it. 

The only down side to talking about this movie on the 31st (or posting on the 1st) is that it's always crunch time, and I don't spend as much time on it as I should.  So.  Maybe I'll do something in six months with a TLDR, which you people all hate.

Happy Halloween, amigos!