James Whale’s Revived 1935 Horror Classic Defies Attempts at Categorization

The Museum of the Moving Image is mounting a revival of James Whale’s “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935) for a variety of reasons — some of them timely, one of them debatable. Points of departure for MOMI include Guillermo del Toro’s handsome if largely gratuitous take on Mary Shelley’s novel, “Frankenstein,” and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s upcoming “The Bride,” a venture that looks to be considerably less reverential in tone. Let’s not forget that Valentine’s Day is around the corner: Few things say “romance” like the resuscitation of dead tissue in the service of love. But why is the Whale movie being exhibited under the category “Disreputable Cinema?” As organized by the museum’s associate director of visitor experience, Jesse Berberich, this recurring series aims to highlight “films [that] comprise a subculture of hidden gems and alternative classics that often challenge the norms of art and entertainment.” Polite society has typically looked askance at horror movies, but that didn’t stop “Bride of Frankenstein” from being the third biggest box office draw of 1935. In terms of dollars and cents, that’s pretty mainstream. Few pictures of the time were quite as eccentric, but that didn’t stop it from becoming the standard by which sequels are measured. “Bride” has long been hailed as a classic.A clue to the movie’s presumed outlaw status is in a throwaway aside about a “queer subtext.” A grammatical nitpicker could note that by not capitalizing the adjective, we are left with the original definition of the word as meaning odd or peculiar. How much Whale’s film might be an avowal of, in the words of critic Gary Morris, “the majesty and power of the homosexual creator” can be mooted, as, for that matter, can the not-so-subtextual role of Christian iconography.So, yes, an odd and peculiar thing is “Bride,” a work of art whose compass is welcoming enough to absorb multiple perspectives. In terms of cinematic form, it is more assured than the original movie also directed by Whale, “Frankenstein” (1930), and, in many ways, more iconographic. Elsa Lanchester’s turn as the manufactured mate of Dr. Frankenstein’s monster has proved more durable than the actress’s meager screen time would seem to admit. Five or so minutes can, as it turns out, offer a purchase on posterity.Elsa Lanchester in ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ (1935). Via Wikimedia CommonsLanchester also stars as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in the film’s preamble, appearing alongside “England’s greatest sinner,” Lord Byron (a trilling Gavin Gordon), and Percy Blysse Shelley (Douglas Walton). Screenwriter William Hurlbut has Byron pouring it on thick when he marvels at how Mary Shelley’s “bland and lovely brow conceived of ‘Frankenstein.'” Lanchester trills as well, arguing that her book is a morality tale. Would the gentlemen like to hear how the story continued? “The air itself,” she intones on a proverbial dark and stormy night, “is full of monsters.”After a quick recapitulation of the first film, Whale is off to the hills of a Middle European enclave where the creation of Baron Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) has managed to survive the ire of torch-wielding villagers. Boris Karloff reprises his star-making turn as the monster, and among the first people he bumps into is Minnie or, rather, Una O’Connor, an Irish actress Whale was fond of employing and whose cackling, bug-eyed shtick is an acquired taste. Also on hand is the British stage actor Ernest Thesiger as Doctor Pretorius, a mentor of Dr. Frankenstein who has a deft hand for fabricating homunculi and a deep interest in the experiments of his former student.Whale was skeptical of making a sequel to “Frankenstein,” but when he was given carte blanche by the bosses at Universal Studios, his caution was trumped by opportunity. As a result, he pursued narrative and symbolic fancies that were decidedly off-the-beam, and the result is less a horror film than a fairy tale. If you’re curious from whence Mel Brooks poached key moments for “Young Frankenstein” (1974), the Whale picture will sate your curiosity. For those with a taste for the masterful, the uncategorizable, and (ahem) the disreputable, “Bride of Frankenstein” is a must-see.

James Whale’s Revived 1935 Horror Classic Defies Attempts at Categorization

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