It’s rare that a horror franchise spawns two iconic figures, but James Whale’s two Frankenstein movies did just that. 1931 gave us Boris Karloff as the definitive Frankenstein’s monster – shuffling gait, boxy skull and neck bolts – stitched together from various cadavers. He was box office gold, and 1935 saw him get a mate in ‘Bride of Frankenstein’, which achieved the rare feat of outdoing its predecessor.

Following directly from the first film, Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) turns his back on the his research into reanimating the dead, seeking solace in his wife-to-be Elizabeth. The Monster, thought dead, still lives. He wanders the countryside, feared and loathed – then captured and chained like a beast. Also, Dr Pretorious (Ernest Thesiger), Henry’s sinister mentor, arrives on the scene to tempt Henry back into his clandestine experiments. The pair return to that great cathedral of levers and Tesla coils, to create a new creature – the Bride (Elsa Lanchester).

This is a playfully scabrous, joyously blasphemous masterpiece of Hollywood Gothic…

The Bride is horror’s first, most enduring female icon. She’s monstrously beautiful, hisses like a swan, and has odd, bird-like movements. Effects pioneer Jack Pearce marries a gnarled throat scar, and the much imitated Egyptian headdress frightwig to a striking glamour makeup.

This is a playfully scabrous, joyously blasphemous masterpiece of Hollywood Gothic, mixing German Expressionism with camp, and moments of genuine tenderness in Karloff’s tragic, child-like Monster. BRIDE gleefully lampoons Christian iconography, posing the Monster as a crucified Christ at one point. And there is, of course, the central theme of Man daring to play God (or of two men creating life in defiance of Nature and of Society’s norms). Much has already been written about Whale’s homosexuality, and BRIDE is rich in imagery and themes that touch upon it.

It’s classed as a horror film, but it doesn’t really horrify. It is, however, thick with atmosphere, wit and style, and feels incredibly modern. The visual effects, particularly the Homunculi created by Dr Pretorius, are plainly antique, but never detract from the experience.

Universal produced a further 3 Frankenstein sequels, losing Karloff after the third film. None would best this one.

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN screens at Cambridge Film Festival on the 25th at 6pm.
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