Briefly a Bride

I saw that The Criterion Channel was showing 1935's Bride of Frankenstein and was seduced into watching it again by Elsa Lanchester's face on the home page. It's such an unsatisfying movie, though, because she doesn't show up as the monster's bride until near the very end and she only sticks around a few minutes. Then there's abrupt destruction, really leaving you with the feeling the film was originally meant to be longer.

Lanchester shines more in the film's prologue segment as Mary Shelley in a gorgeous gown.

She's perfect casting not as the real Mary Shelley but as a woman to stimulate the audience imagination as the creator of horror. She's pretty but also somehow perverse with her prominent teeth, hard jaw, and dark, ghoulish eyes.

In some ways, the film is more faithful to the original novel than James Whale's first Frankenstein film. The monster, played by Boris Karloff, learns some English and starts getting contemplative, though he's not the angsty philosopher of the book. I do get the impression that Lanchester's Mary Shelley might be slightly in love with the monster, more than the Bride is.

That makes more sense for the novel than for the movie. Oh, if only this film were bigger. It's a shame Lanchester never returned to the role, or James Whale to the property. The visuals in this movie remain handsomely gothic.