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The Bride of Frankenstein
The plot was derived from an episode in the original novel in which Frankenstein agrees to create a mate for his creature, who has threatened to kill Frankenstein's loved ones if he does not comply. At the last moment Frankenstein kills the female creature, incurring the monster's wrath. Bride fleshed out this episode into an entirely independent story, in which Frankenstein is coerced by not only the monster but also his former mentor Pretorius into creating the creature's mate, and it is the monster who destroys her, as well as Pretorius and himself. Initially relunctant to do a sequel to Frankenstein, for fear he would be relegated to doing horror movies to the exclusion of more serious work, Whale eventually agreed to direct Bride, but only after negotiating a considerable amount of artistic control. More than a few have noted the gay subtexts within the movie. The opening sequence features Mary Shelley with her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley and their friend, the bisexual Lord Byron, with whom many think Mary shared her husband. Pretorius, played by the gay Thesiger, seems motivated not only by a desire to secure Frankenstein's help but also out of jealousy that Elizabeth has Henry Frankenstein and he does not. While the character is generally believed to be based on Renaissance alchemist Paracelsus - (his miniature humanoids are based on the homongulae Paracelsus claimed to have created) - he seems also partly based on Dr. Polidori, a former lover of Byron's who was also staying with the Shelleys when Frankenstein was first written, a fact that may have come to the writers' attention during research for the film. His contempt for heterosexual love and conventional religion are also noteworthy. Finally, the Monster's friendship with the blind hermit is also reminiscent of happy gay relationships disrupted by disapproving society. Bride of Frankenstein was a great commercial success when it was first released and many critics considered it superior to its predecessor. The 1972 two-part televison movie Frankenstein: The True Story used many elements from Bride, including Agnes Moorehead playing Frankenstein's landlady in a manner highly reminiscent of Una O'Connor's character, and James Mason as Dr. Polidori, a flamboyant former mentor of the doctor based on Pretorius and bearing the same name as the Shelley's physician friend. In 1986 the film was remade as The Bride, starring Sting as Dr. Frankenstein and Jennifer Beals as the female creature, with a cameo by Quentin Crisp as the doctor's assistant. While James Whale never considered his horror films to be his best work, he became known in later years almost exclusively for Frankenstein and especially The Bride of Frankenstein. The 1998 film Gods and Monsters, based on the final days of Whales' life, takes its name from a scene in Bride in which Pretorius toasts his new collaboration with Henry Frankenstein, "To a new world of gods and monsters!" Bright Lights Film Journal | The Bride of Frankenstein THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. BY ROGER EBERT.
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