The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

The Bride of Frankenstein(1935) proves that you can't keep a good monster down, especially-when it makes money for the studio and Frankenstein had made a lot of money. Universal Studios was already considering making a sequel before the original Frankenstein was released.  The ending of Frankenstein was changed so that Henry Frankenstein would survive the drop from the windmill. In the last scene we see Henry Frankenstein recovering in bed while his father offers a toast to the House of Frankenstein. The actor we see in the bed is not Colin Clive. Colin Clive had been released and was unable to return to shoot the scene when it was decided to change the ending.

After the roaring success of Frankenstein, James Whale was chosen to direct the sequel. Boris Karloff would again reprise his role as the monster. But from the beginning there were problems with the script. There were several treatments and scripts written for the sequel, The New Adventures of Frankenstein - The Monster lives! which was rejected in 1932. Another, The Return of Frankenstein written by Tern Reed was accepted by the Universal however James Whale disliked the script. L.G. Blocnman and Philip MacDonald teamed up but their efforts too were in vain. In 1934 Whale asked John l. Balderston to try and write a squel revolving around the creature demanding a mate. Balderston wrote the script but again Whale was dissatisfied with the results. He then turned to playwright William J. Hurlbut and Edmund Pearson. Finally in November of 1934, using elements from the previous scripts they were able to come up with what Whale and the Universal management felt was-an acceptable script. The final draft of the script would incorporate the novel's plot of Doctor Frankenstein creating a bride for the monster which had been omitted from 1931 film.

Elsa Lanchester played dual roles in The Bride of Frankenstein, one as Mary Shelley and the other as the monster’s bride.

 

The Bride of Frankenstein  (1935) was heavily censored both during production and after its release. The Hays office objected to a scene of the monster running in a graveyard and seeing a figure of Jesus on a cross the monster attempts to rescue it. They also objected to the number of murders in the script. Censors in both England and China found the scene in which the creature gazes upon the still dead body of the bride objectionable, citing that it implied necrophilia. The studio withdrew the film from its Sweden release due to extensive cuts. Trinidad, Palestine and Hungary rejected the film entirely.

  Lanchester’s bride hairdo was achieved by combing her own hair over a bee hive.

  Upon its release The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) was greeted with mixed reviews and unfortunately did not obtain the financial success of its predecessor. However despite its initial lukewarm reception The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) has since become a cult classic and is now considered one of the finest examples of early horror cinema. The film has been moralized, analyzed, studied and debated over the decades. Some film historians have hypothesized that there may be gay undercurrents in the film since Whale lived as an openly gay man during the 1935, however this is highly debatable. As David Lewis, Whale's partner once stated "Jimmy was first and foremost an artist, and his films represent the work of an artist-not a gay artist, but an artist.”