The Bride of Frankenstein: Difference between revisions

We begin in the home of [[Lord Byron]], entertaining his friends Percy and Mary Shelley as a [[It Was a Dark and Stormy Night|storm rages outside]]. At Byron's urging, Mary continues the story of Frankenstein, picking up about where the original film left off.

Henry Frankenstein just barely survives the collapsing windmill, but so does the [[Not Quite Dead|monster]]. Shortly thereafter, Frankenstein receives a visit from his old mentor, [[Camp Gay|Dr. Pretorius]], who wants to join forces and continue Frankenstein's experiments to create life. In one of the movie's most memorable scenes, Pretorius shows Frankenstein a series of little people in jars, including a [[MerOur MaidMermaids Are Different|mermaid]], a ballerina and a little [[Satan|devil]]. Pretorius can make people, but he can't get them up to normal size. Frankenstein, meanwhile, has created a giant. And so Pretorius proposes a plan: Frankenstein will provide the body, and Pretorius will provide the brain.

Meanwhile, the monster has several encounters with angry villagers and is eventually taken in by a kindly old blind hermit. The hermit teaches the monster to speak, and is the only friend he's ever had. Naturally, the villagers show up and drive the monster away, and he goes to a graveyard to find solitude among the dead. And whom should he happen to meet but [[Contrived Coincidence|Dr. Pretorius gathering parts for the new creature]]. Enticed by the possibility of having a friend, the monster forms an alliance with Pretorius.

Frankenstein, meanwhile, is getting cold feet about creating another monster. In a sequence reminiscent of the original novel, the creature and Pretorius kidnap [[I Am Not Shazam|Frankenstein's young bride, Elizabeth]], and threaten to kill her unless he makes the monster a mate. It all leads up to an explosive conclusion in Frankenstein's laboratory, where the new monster has finally been born.

One thing to note: Although the monster is childlike and [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|rather sympathetic]], he still kills people -- apeople—a ''lot'' of people. Film historians put the original death count at 21, but it was edited down to 10 due to the [[Executive Meddling|censorship of the time]]. At one point the monster seems to break into an elderly couple's house and kill them [[For the Evulz|just because]]. Like [[King Kong]]'s tendency to eat people, the monster's violent nature is often glossed over to facilitate a "[[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters|we are the REAL monsters]]" aesop.

* [[Blind and the Beast]]: Possibly the trope maker.

* [[Have a Gay Old Time]]: Minnie describes Dr. Pretorius as "a queer fellow".

* [[Inadvertent Entrance Cue]]: Elizabeth describes a vision of an evil apparition which will entangle Henry, and says she sees it drawing nearer -- nearer -- andnearer—nearer—and the camera immediately [[Answer Cut|cuts]] to the [[Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate|evil Dr. Pretorius]] knocking at the door.

* [[UberwaldÜberwald]]

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