This could be the greatest sequel ever made. Funnier, more outrageous, and just as goth as the 1931 hit, this is a black comedy about mad scientists playing god, about the monstrous craving for a mate, about the ultimate male-order bride, and her indelible response to being married off to a mouldier man.
Initially chastened, Frankenstein (Colin Clive) is reluctant to replay his disastrous experiment, but (a bit like director James Whale) his enthusiasm is rekindled by the idea of creating a woman — along with his even more deranged new partner, Dr. Pretorious (Ernest Thesiger), a scientist who has grown his own tiny test tube royal family from seed. Although Elsa Lanchester doesn’t get a lot of minutes on screen, her performance is genuinely unforgettable.
The best of the Frankenstein movies–a sly, subversive work that smuggled shocking material past the censors by disguising it in the trappings of horror. Some movies age; others ripen. Seen today, Whale’s masterpiece is more surprising than when it was made because today’s audiences are more alert to its buried hints of homosexuality, necrophilia and sacrilege. But you don’t have to deconstruct it to enjoy it; it’s satirical, exciting, funny, and an influential masterpiece of art direction.
Roger Ebert
James Whale
Elsa Lanchester, Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Ernest Thesiger, Una O’Connor
USA
1935
English
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Credits
Producer
Carl Laemmle Jr.
Screenwriter
William Hurlbut
Cinematography
John J. Mescall
Editor
Ted J. Kent
Original Music
Franz Waxman
Art Director
Charles D. Hall
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