Bride of Frankenstein

“These days, it's pretty much a given that a hit film will get a follow-up of sorts. In 1931, when James Whale's Frankenstein was breaking all kinds of box office records and establishing Universal Studios as a major force, the rules weren't so clearly laid out. The studio wasn't really too sure how this softly-spoken British director had made such an incredible, ground-breaking horror movie in the first place. And, as he was clearly on a roll following his hit with The Invisible Man and The Old Dark House, the studio pretty much let him get on with the sequel as he saw fit.

Bride of Frankenstein is a wild ride, even today. It flits between the classical and the gutter, the camp and the serious in a manner that's hard to pin down. Boris Karloff is brought back as the monster, this time with dialogue (audiences would have expected no less), and Colin Clive returns as the Doctor, recast by Whale for his inimitable "hysterical quality", despite his worsening alcoholism.

What the audience wouldn't or couldn't have anticipated was Ernest Thesiger's wonderfully fey and flamboyant Dr Septimus Pretorius (the studio wanted – but didn't get – Claude Rains), and his experimental royal family of homunculi, and Elsa Lanchester in her vertical hairdo, complete with bleached lightning bolts. Whale gave audiences what they wanted, even if they didn't know it themselves.” – Phelim O'Neill, The Guardian

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