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(1935)



The Bride of Frankenstein was released in 1935 as the sequel to 1931’s Frankenstein, and still retains components from the Mary Shelley novel. This movie begins in a dark, stormy house with Mary and Percy Shelly and Lord Byron discussing Mary’s recent dark horror novel Frankenstein. Byron remarks that he wonders how such a terrible story could come from someone so beautiful and innocent. Mary tells the men that the story does not end where they thought, and the movie commences.

The apparently dead body of Henry Frankenstein is brought into his home to Elizabeth, his fiancée, by a group of villagers. It was their wedding day that day. All is not lost, however, if it were, there would be no story. Henry wakes up, and there is much rejoicing. He expresses his regret at creating such a monstrous thing. Meanwhile, at the old burned ruins of the windmill tower in which the monster was killed, a peasant couple examines the damages. The man falls in the mill, and lo, he finds the monster alive, if a bit toasted. He kills the man and the woman, and frightens the Frankensteins’ eccentric servant, Minnie, who runs back to the home to tell them. The monster is once again loose and wandering the countryside.

Some time soon, a very strange man appears at Frankenstein’s door and asks for him. Both Minnie and Elizabeth are disturbed by him, but he gets his visit nonetheless. We later find that this is Dr. Septimus Praetorious, an old acquaintance of Henry’s. They travel to Praetorious’ home, and he shows Henry the creatures that he has made... tiny little people in glass jars.


He then proposes that together the two of them make a new creature, one with the size of Frankenstein’s, but the perfectly grown brain of Praetorious’. At first, Frankenstein violently refuses, but Praetorious gradually persuades him to do it, and the two get to work.

The monster has been busy at work in the meanwhile. He meets with an old blind hermit, whom he befriends, but is chased away by two hunters in an infamous scene. He soon stumbles upon Praetorious in a catacomb, and the doctor wilily teaches him to speak well and uses the monster to intimidate the reluctant Frankenstein into continuing his work. When this does not work, he kidnaps Elizabeth and holds her hostage until the deed is done.

When the girl is complete, Elizabeth is released. She is brought to life using the same thunderous mechanism as the original monster. When she sees her new husband, however, she is rather displeased. She screams and runs from him, to the Henry’s arms. The monster is enraged and begins thrashing about. Elizabeth and Frankenstein escape the laboratory just in time, as the monster uses an electrical switch to destroy Praetorious, his bride and himself, declaring, “We belong dead.” The end.






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