WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: The Bride of Frankenstein 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:08.800 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:16.920 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:20.639 And I am Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House Cinema, 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:23.239 in honor of the Halloween season, we are going to 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:27.640 be talking about the nineteen thirty five Universal horror classic 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:33.000 Bride of Frankenstein, directed by James Whale, the first sequel 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:36.800 to the original Universal Frankenstein, also directed by Whale, which 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:41.479 was released four years earlier in nineteen thirty one. So 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:44.360 I know we're going to talk a lot more about 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:47.640 the specifics of our appreciation for this movie as we 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:51.040 go along, but I wanted to just start off by saying, 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:54.840 in my opinion, Bride of Frankenstein is about as good 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:59.840 as it gets. It is. I think shocking how great 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:02.960 this this movie is, how good it looks, how weird 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:07.000 it is, how beautiful and funny and full of genuine feeling, 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:11.360 and how fresh it feels. Something about it is the 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:15.560 exact opposite of a relic from the past. It feels 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:17.840 so exciting and new. 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:22.000 I think the word that I would use for Brida 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:27.559 Frankenstein without even a hint of irony or parody or humor. 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:31.720 Is it is just truly transcendent. It transcends its genre, 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:35.560 it transcends its time period. It is just a masterpiece. 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:38.640 And yeah, I second way you said, if you're the 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:40.319 type of film viewer who's like, I don't know if 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:42.200 I need or want to see a film from the 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:45.000 nineteen thirties, I mean, fair enough, watch what you want 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:48.120 to watch. But films like this, films like Mad Love, 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:51.440 which we previously discussed on the show, these really stand out. 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:54.440 And I love the other universal monster movies, you know. 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:58.080 I love Todd Browning's Dracula. I love Wales First Frank, 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:01.120 I love the Invisible Man creature from the Black Lagoon. 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:05.000 I mean, really enjoy all of those core monster frolics. 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.440 But even though all of those are excellent, there are 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:13.760 individually things in them that kind of drag Dracula, for example, 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:17.720 I love Todd Browning's Dracula, but it gets markedly less 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:21.080 interesting when Bella Legosi has been off screen for too long. 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:24.560 You know, there are some there's some kind of slow 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:29.760 moving talkie segments with the not terribly interesting human characters, which, 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:32.960 to be fair, are trying to be faithful to the 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:35.639 plot of the novel, but in some ways I think 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:37.800 end up kind of holding the movie back from what 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:40.720 it could have been. All of the other Universal Monster 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:44.919 frolics have their their stuffy interludes, but for me, Bride 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:48.200 does not. My opinion is that it is just wall 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:54.760 to wall horror, profound weirdness, hilarity, and powerful emotion. So 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:57.400 I think, not only is Bride of Frankenstein the best 0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:00.359 of all the Universal Monster movies, it's the best buy 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:03.680 a mile, It's the best by an astronomical unit. It 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:07.480 leaves these other great movies in the dust. And I 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:09.760 guess we can as we go on, we can talk 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:11.919 about some of the reasons why I feel that way. 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:14.280 It is kind of funny that in leading up to 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:16.800 this episode, we were talking about maybe doing Son of 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:20.440 Frankenstein or House of Frankenstein, a couple of the later 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:24.880 movies in the Universal Frankenstein cycle, And then we were like, well, 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:27.799 why are we denying ourselves, Like staring at the bar, 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.160 there is the top shelf Frankenstein right there. Let's just 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:31.760 do that one. 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:35.480 Yeah. So I was realizing before we started recording that 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:38.200 one way this movie will fit into the weird house 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:40.640 cinema cannon is that we sort of have a show 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:44.680 tradition of covering sequels without covering the original that they're 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:48.400 following up, and we haven't done an episode on the 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:51.200 original Universal Frankenstein, though I think it has come up 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:54.080 a lot when discussing other movies. I think it might 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:58.240 be fruitful to begin today's episode by thinking about Bride 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:02.200 of Frankenstein as a sequel, and what can we learn 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:06.640 about sequels from a sequel that works this well. I 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:08.960 don't know exactly how the percentages break out, but I'd 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:12.840 say at least maybe eighty percent of the time sequels 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:16.600 are uninteresting derivations of the original, just sort of like 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:19.160 trying to make a quick buck off of the success 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:22.200 of the original. But sometimes, as we all know, there 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.599 are sequels that are not only as good as the original, 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:28.680 not only worthy of it, lots of people consider them 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.799 better than the original. Quick list of commonly cited examples 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:36.320 that I would agree with a Terminator, two Star Trek, 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:39.520 The Wrath of Khan, The Empire Strikes Back, multiple Mad 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:42.640 Max sequels. I'd say, you know, Road Warrior, Fury Road, 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:45.520 and there are plenty of other examples you can think 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:49.960 of too, in even less well known franchises. 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:53.640 Yeah, yeah, like I would. I'll often throw Blade two 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:57.080 in there. Aliens comes to mind, of course, Return of 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:01.000 the Blind Dead to feature like a recent film that 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:04.000 we did a rerun off. I throw Chronicles of Ritick 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:05.800 in there as well. You know, I generally say when 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:08.919 a sequel works, it either is a second attempt with 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:12.360 improved skills and or budget at the concepts of the first, 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:16.640 or is it's a successful expansion of the original concept, 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:19.160 you know, not just a sell them another scoop of 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:23.400 the same ice cream, but give them something that is transformative. 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:26.200 You know, I agree, and I think that's exactly what's 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:30.479 going on with Bride Frankenstein. James Wale's original Frankenstein is 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:34.480 really good. It's a solid adaptation of the novel, one 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:37.719 of the best universal monster movies. But Bride of frank 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:41.800 is absolutely divine, and so I'm wondering what exactly it 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:45.440 does that really has this step up quality going into 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:48.839 the second movie in this series. An interesting thing about 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:53.480 Bride of Frankenstein is that it is both a fulfillment 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:56.839 of the promise of the source material, in this case, 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:01.320 Mary Wilston Craft Shelley's novel Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus, 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:05.679 and it forges a new path. So in the sense 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:09.200 that it's a fulfillment of the source material, Bride of 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:15.159 Frankenstein includes scenes and themes from Shelley's novel that were 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:19.279 left out of the first movie, and also when it 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:23.120 chooses to include totally new things from out of left field, 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:27.040 they are great inclusions. So to start with, like things 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:30.440 that it brings in from the novel, I think they're 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:35.360 typically things that deepen our emotional understanding of the creature. 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:38.760 So one example is that in Bride of frank the 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:41.840 monster can talk. The monster in the novel, of course, 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:45.920 is amazingly articulate. In the first movie, by contrast, it's 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:50.160 a silent performance. And I've seen film critics and historians 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:54.120 make the interesting observation that Frankenstein was one of the 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:57.520 first mega hits of the early sound film era, and 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:00.880 yet its principal performance from Boris Karla was a mostly 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:01.800 silent one. 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:05.200 Yeah. Yeah, In this we do see some interesting growth 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:07.760 in the monster. He's acquiring language, he's learning to express 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:11.480 himself better, and it makes Carlos's performance all the more enthralling. 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:17.000 There's this crackling confused, traumatized, and yet still hopeful energy 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:20.119 in the heart of the creature, just straining to reach 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:23.080 out and touch the world. Sadly, he lacks many of 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:25.680 the tools he needs, and he finds himself continually on 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.760 the other end of human violence and human manipulation. Like 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:31.360 you said, it's not on the same level of the 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:34.120 of the articulate monster we see in the novel who Is. 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.440 I think it can is often interpreted as being almost 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.560 kind of like a fallen angel. You know, that's that's 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:43.960 the kind of energy he brings. So, you know, not 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:46.840 thee quite the same energy, but it moves a little 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:49.720 closer to that concept and does its own thing with it. 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:52.720 Yeah, the articulacy of the creature in the novel, I 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:56.080 think is often and this is actually in the novel itself, 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:59.960 is compared to Satan and Milton's Paradise Lost. Yeah, Carl 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:03.600 in Bride is not like that. He's mostly speaking in 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:08.160 like short clipped statements. And apparently Karloff was wary of 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:10.880 the idea of having the monster speak in Bride. He 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:13.120 wasn't sure that was a good idea, but I think 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.000 it was the right move. Even though he's not giving 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:19.920 these these long moving speeches like he does in the book. 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:26.360 He has these heartbreakingly terse memorable lines, you know, like love, dead, 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:27.320 hate living. 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:28.280 Yeah. 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:32.440 Another thing from the novel that's brought in to deepen 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.760 the story here is the scene where the monster makes 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:39.240 friends with a blind man living in a cabin. That is, 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:42.640 it's not exactly the same, but it's based on a 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:46.240 section of the novel where the creature observes people living 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:50.120 in a remote cottage and learns language from them, but 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:53.800 is ultimately driven away when sighted people finally catch a 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:57.360 glimpse of him and react with horror to his appearance. 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:00.800 The scene in the book where he read he is 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:04.400 hated because he is ugly is one of the saddest 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.040 in the book, and they explore those themes very well 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:11.600 in Bride. I think. Another one the creature's desire for 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:15.000 an undead mate. This is also from the book, but 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:17.360 left out of the first movie for the most part. 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:21.840 In the novel, after the creature realizes that living humans 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:25.160 will all hate him and reject him, he thinks his 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:28.559 only hope of finding love and companionship is for his 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:34.439 creator to make another like him, so he threatens Victor Frankenstein. 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.839 He threatens his loved ones to coerce him to make 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.520 the creature an undead bride. But then in the book, 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:46.240 Victor I think, abandons the project before it's completed, and 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:49.200 he has a kind of stroke of conscience and he says, no, 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:51.800 I can't do this, and then in a rage, the 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:54.000 creature punishes him by killing his fiance. 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:59.000 And it's it's in retrospect, looking back on this, it's 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.600 so great that they came back and took this part 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:05.600 of the book and did something with it, because I 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:09.280 remember this being like one of the most impactful sections 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:13.920 of the novel, a novel that's full of fantastic ideas 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:17.079 and scenes. But yeah, this section of the book where 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:21.240 the doctor is forced to go back and do this 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:26.160 mad thing one more time and attempt to create a 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:28.520 mate for this monster just so it will leave him 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:31.560 and his loved ones alone, and then decides that for 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:33.760 the greater good, he cannot go through with it. 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:37.160 I agree exactly. So I think the movie is really 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:41.240 working because it pulls in all of these great resonant 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:44.839 elements from the original source material that you know didn't 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:47.240 fit into the first the plot of the first film, 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:50.520 but On the other hand, there is all kinds of 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:54.280 other stuff that is added purely from the original genius 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:57.160 of the filmmakers, and I think you could you could 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:59.520 bring up a lot of things here. One I wanted 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:03.160 to mention is comedy. I have not read Frankenstein in 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:05.559 a bit, but I don't recall it really having much 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:08.000 humor in it at all. I think it's a very 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:12.880 serious book. And while Bride of Frankenstein deals with serious 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:17.400 themes and has many serious moments, it is also overflowing 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:24.280 with irony and goofiness. Sometimes it's surprisingly goofy Waal understood 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:28.160 horror storytelling according I think to the Grangin Yow tradition 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:32.119 of hot and cold showers, where tales of the macabre 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:36.840 would be alternately play back and forth with comedy performances 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:39.720 and good storytellers in this space, I think understand that 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:43.800 comedy is a wonderful release mechanism for the building tension 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:46.679 of the story. There's something that really works when you 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:53.720 alternate mounting tension and horror with comedy. So and beyond that, 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:58.400 there are also characters in this movie that operate on 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:03.120 the knife edge between horror and comedy at all times. 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:06.960 I think the prime example being probably my favorite character 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:11.320 from this movie, doctor Septimus Pretorius, a character who is 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:14.760 not in the novel, invented purely for Bride of Frankenstein. 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:18.000 And that brings us to the other thing I'd mentioned 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:22.119 about this movie, a sort of original genius zany characters. 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.720 I love the novel Frankenstein, but it does not have 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:31.120 an ensemble of memorable characters with interesting quirks and personalities. 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:33.960 I think the genius of the novel is in its 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:37.920 scenario and themes, and in the development of the main 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:42.000 character of the creature. Bride of frank on the other hand, 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:46.680 invents this whole ensemble of delightfully jagged weirdos to give 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.960 the story flavor. There's a kind of Cohen Brothers quality 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:53.600 to all of the secondary players here, and I think 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:56.400 the greatest example of this is the villain of the movie, 0:12:56.760 --> 0:13:03.119 doctor Septimus Pretorius, played by Ernest Thesiger, a flambuoyantly bizarre professor, 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:07.600 a scientist matter than any mad scientist you've ever seen before. 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:11.800 I think basically every single moment Thesiger is on screen 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:14.600 is just gold. He has turned up to eleven from 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.800 his very first line, and he does not he does 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:18.480 not stop. 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:21.000 I agree, that's true. Is just amazing in this. 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:24.360 And while doctor Pretorius is the greatest, there's room for 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:27.600 all kinds of just you know, goobers and creeps and 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:31.120 buffoons and weird personalities to weave in and out of 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:31.840 the story here. 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.480 Yeah. Yeah, And I think the other amazing thing about 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:37.360 this is Okay, so the idea of horror in comedy 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:41.520 working together that that's nothing new, But everything just works 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:45.199 so smoothly in this film it can almost feel like 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:49.720 a surreal experience, especially given how jarring, sometimes intentionally the 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:53.040 transaction transition in and out of horror in comedy may 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:56.840 be in other works. There's just just in general, there's 0:13:56.840 --> 0:14:01.400 absolutely nothing rough around the edges with this movie. You know, 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:04.720 there's much to be said again, how frash and exciting 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:07.439 this nineteen thirty five film feels in terms of its 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:11.720 themes and performances, But even its effects are just staggeringly effective. 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:16.160 The monster's basic makeup design is, of course iconic, and 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:18.960 you might expect that since it's iconic and you've seen 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:23.200 it replicated often poorly, you know, on various other forms 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:25.600 so many times, that it would lose some of its punch, 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:28.440 but it really doesn't. It just looks incredible in every shot. 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.640 I totally agree. Yeah, I know exactly what you're saying, Like, 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:34.960 you know what the Carlos Frankenstein makeup looks like. You've 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:37.600 seen it a million times, so how could it still 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:40.880 be scary and shocking? But in my opinion, when you 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:43.960 watch the movie, it is like seeing it actually come 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:49.040 to life in motion, situated within the context of the plot. 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:51.920 It doesn't matter how many times you've seen this pulled 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:54.760 out of context on posters and stills and all that, 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:59.400 it's still super creepy. It looks amazing, yeah, at every shot. 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:01.920 On top of that, everything every shot is perfectly composed, 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:07.040 The dialogue is all tight and interesting, and other effects 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:08.960 are amazing as well. There's a scene late in the 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:13.160 movie in which a model mountain tower collapses in on itself, 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:17.200 and we've seen similar effects that rained from terrible to 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:20.560 great but clearly an effect in so many pictures, But 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:23.480 this one just looks and feels real in a way 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:26.960 that's truly admirable. Oh yeah, So, Joe, what's your elevator 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:28.520 pitch for Bride of Frankenstein. 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:31.960 You know it's difficult, so maybe it'd be something like 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:35.000 after Frankenstein, you thought you knew what it meant for 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:38.080 death to reign over life and for science to go mad, 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:40.640 But we have such sites to show you yet. 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:44.440 Yeah, I think that sums it up well. And of course, 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:46.840 to steal a line from the movie itself, I have 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:50.560 to quote doctor Pretorious about a new world of gods 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:52.920 and monsters. I mean, that's just one of the great 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:55.280 lines of the film and kind of sums up the 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:57.160 spirit and energy of the sequel. 0:15:57.200 --> 0:15:59.880 Here in the scene, that line is offered as a toast, 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:02.880 and it is. It's so good. But it's especially good 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:05.520 knowing the line which comes right before it, which is 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:09.800 where doctor Pretorius claims that jin is his only weakness, 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:13.480 and he is clearly not correct in saying that. 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.040 There's another point in the film where he says something 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:20.360 else is his only weakness. Yeah, you're just so many 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:23.040 wonderful little quirks that that they're able to fit into 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:25.360 the dialogue here. All right, Well, let's go ahead and 0:16:25.400 --> 0:17:26.640 listen to some trailer audio. Oh yeah, all right, Well, 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:30.600 if you rightfully wish to go and watch Bride of 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:35.040 Frankenstein on your own before you continue with this episode, well, 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:38.560 you're in luck because this is a Universal Monsters movie. 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:41.639 I mean, this is the shining gem of the Universal 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:46.240 Monsters franchise. So this one is widely available in all formats, 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:51.400 and I think it's streaming on Peacock right now if 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:53.840 that is available to you. But any way you do it, 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:56.439 do see this movie in the best quality you can grab. 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:58.720 Yes, I would say the same thing. This is one 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:02.320 where it really pays off the highest definition, best visual 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:05.280 quality you can because this is a great looking movie 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:07.240 and you want to get at every bit of it. 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:18.240 All right, now, getting into the connections here the people 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:21.680 that made this movie, we want to stress here that again, 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:24.560 this was a big sequel. This was a sequel to 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:28.200 a highly successful movie in which director James Waale got 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:33.600 to assemble a massively talented cast and crew. So we 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:35.600 are not going to be able to do justice to 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.760 everyone that was involved in bringing this film to life. 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:41.119 Yeah, there are a ton of people involved in this 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:45.640 movie that each have fascinating biographies, but because there are 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:47.600 so many of them, I think we're going to have 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:50.199 to give fairly short statements on most of them. Just 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:51.879 know that there's a lot of people here that we 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:55.840 will get to kind of briefly, but they're each worth 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:56.400 looking up. 0:18:56.960 --> 0:18:59.080 Yeah, yeah, And we may come back to many of 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:01.560 these people in the future. Like we were saying, a 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:04.480 lot of these folks are individuals who if they came 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:07.359 up in a smaller picture or a lesser picture, we 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:10.000 might spend a lot of time talking about who they 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:13.480 were and what their careers consisted of. All right, Well, 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:16.200 starting at the top, of course, with the director, it's 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:19.440 James Whale, who lived eighteen eighty nine through nineteen fifty seven, 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:22.919 English director of film and the British stage, as well 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:26.119 as an occasional actor himself. He primarily came over to 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:29.919 the Hollywood system because with the transition to talkies they 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:32.600 wanted to invest in directors who were great with dialogue, 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:36.280 and he had that reputation already. He's best remembered for 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:40.359 his horror projects, namely the two Frankenstein films. Nineteen thirty 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:43.000 three is The Invisible Man in nineteen thirty two's The 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:47.520 Old Dark House. His first film, nineteen thirties Journey's End, 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:51.120 was a war drama starring Colin Clive, and even after 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:54.760 Frankenstein he continued to make non horror dramas such as 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:58.760 nineteen thirty threes by Candlelight, and even musicals like nineteen 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:01.840 thirty six's Showboat and late in his career the nineteen 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:06.480 forty adventure film Green Hell, which does have a terrific cast. 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:09.040 Like many of the directors we talk about who were 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:13.919 making great horror films in the early days of sound cinema, 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:15.600 I don't know if it would be right to say 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:18.320 that like horror was a passion of James Whale. I 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:22.200 think he probably wanted to focus more on dramas and such, 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:25.280 But you know, he did the work that he got 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:27.760 and he made great, great horror movies. 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:31.960 Yeah. Yeah, it's time and time again. It's the case 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:35.320 with these directors, like they wanted to go up the 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:41.359 ladder towards bigger A list type pictures, prestige pictures that 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:44.560 had the cast but also didn't deal with these lesser 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:47.560 genres of horror and sci fi. And that was just 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:50.560 part of the cinema world of the time, that was 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:53.920 the industry. And it's just kind of ironic that nowadays 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:57.719 so many of these individuals are best remembered, if not remembered, 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:00.480 exclusively for their genre entries. 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:04.000 This seems to be a situation where the original Frankenstein 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:07.920 was a huge hit. It made incredible money for Universal, 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:12.719 and that earned James Whale the right to make the 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:16.119 sequel on his own terms, essentially however he wanted, with 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:19.960 very minimal studio interference. So Bride of Frankenstein is the 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:23.680 result of Whale getting more or less total creative freedom 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:27.080 and almost all the resources and support he needed. 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:29.760 That's right im to understand. He had a lot of 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:32.639 say over the script, presented a lot of ideas for 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:35.080 the script. So yes, this is a film that more 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:39.359 accurately gives us James Whale's vision of Frankenstein. Now, I 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:42.680 should also note that James Whale was an openly gay 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:45.399 man during a time during which this was rare, So 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:47.919 his personal life has long been an area of interest 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:52.320 to both biographers and also just film theorists and people 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:56.320 analyzing his films and discussing the themes explored in them, 0:21:56.640 --> 0:21:58.359 and it's especially the case with Bride. 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:03.920 Yeah, I've read differing takes over the extent to which 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:08.080 Bride of Frankenstein should be interpreted as intentionally having gay 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:11.919 themes in it. Some film historians read a lot of 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:15.320 gay themes and to Bride others have said, I think 0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:18.199 based on some comments about people who from people who 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:21.240 knew James Whale said that they didn't think he was 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:24.520 intending to put anything like that into the film. But 0:22:24.760 --> 0:22:26.800 based on the sources available to us, I guess it's 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:29.359 impossible to know for sure, but whether it should be 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:33.320 interpreted as part of Wales's intention or not. Definitely, this 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:36.960 film has been a rich subject for a lot of 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:38.240 gay film historians. 0:22:38.800 --> 0:22:43.680 Absolutely now. The source material, of course, is Mary Shelley's novel. 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:46.760 Mary Shelley lived seventeen ninety seven through eighteen fifty one 0:22:47.240 --> 0:22:50.400 English writer responsible for a good seven novels and multiple 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:54.119 short stories, but her first novel, eighteen eighteen's Frankenstein or 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:57.480 the Modern Prometheus, was the one that made her a legend. 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:00.159 To this day, it stands as a powerful, entertainer and 0:23:00.240 --> 0:23:05.159 richly rewarding novel, highly influential over science fiction. She was 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:08.320 the wife of English poet Percy Shelley, with whom she 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:12.479 also worked. They, along with a friend and poet Lord Byron, 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:14.159 are depicted in this movie. 0:23:14.880 --> 0:23:19.000 I was watching a making of documentary and people were 0:23:19.040 --> 0:23:23.360 talking about how apparently Whale insisted on having this framing 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:26.359 narrative in the film, because the movie doesn't start in 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:29.760 the narrative itself. It starts with us seeing Lord Byron 0:23:30.200 --> 0:23:34.399 Percy and Mary Wilstoncraft Shelley sitting around a roaring fire 0:23:34.800 --> 0:23:40.600 and talking about the idea of the novel. Frankenstein Apparently 0:23:40.640 --> 0:23:43.840 Whale thought that this framing was crucial and he insisted 0:23:44.280 --> 0:23:46.399 did it be in? And I think it does some 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:48.320 interesting things. Maybe we can talk about that when we 0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:49.679 get to the plot section. 0:23:50.560 --> 0:23:53.639 Yeah, yeah, I do think it's essential. It's hard to 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:55.840 imagine this movie without it. But more about that when 0:23:55.840 --> 0:23:58.880 we get into the plot. All right. In terms of 0:23:59.080 --> 0:24:03.320 the the people involved with writing the screenplay and developing 0:24:03.320 --> 0:24:08.280 the story, they're a number of uncredited writing credits that 0:24:08.320 --> 0:24:10.760 pop up for this film on the Internet movie database. 0:24:11.000 --> 0:24:12.359 We can't go through all of them, so I'm just 0:24:12.359 --> 0:24:14.840