Frankie’s Bride–Part 2

So to continue, Dr. Pretorius takes Henry Frankenstein to see his miniature people.  As they leave Henry’s house he tells him, “You will need a coat.”  (The gays and their fashion sense! lol).  They drink a toast to “Gods and monsters”–cheers boys!  The Dr. brings out a little coffin and inside in glass cylinders are:

• a queen
• a king
• an arch bishop
• a ballerina
• a mermaid (my personal favorite)
• a devil/vampire

This is a very interesting sight to see, a great part of the movie and pretty clever filming for the 1930’s.

The Dr. says, “Together we will create his mate!”  Henry, “You mean a … woman?” And he returns with, “Yes, that should be REAL interesting.”  Oh those gays and their silly ideas.

Meanwhile, the monster is roaming the mountainside and as he sees his reflection in the lake, he splashes at the water upon seeing such an ugly face.  The villagers capture him and bind him in a way that is very reminiscent of Jesus on the cross.  (Btw, the movie opened on Good Friday).  There are some religious symbols in the movie that I had never noticed before (the little arch bishop, the cross, etc.).  Minnie the housekeeper says in her crazy voice, “I’ll bind him!”

So many bits and pieces become very obvious in watching it again after being made aware of the gay symbolism: the monster being wrapped in chains in a dungeon verses the very feminine qualities of Henry and the Dr.  The monster breaks free and rips off the door as the Burgomaster is telling the people that he is quite harmless.  Later he comes across a gypsy family sitting around a campfire and the gypsy grandmother is a crispy old woman, smoking a pipe.  He scares them away and again is confronted with fire; the only thing that scares him.

He then comes across the blind hermit in his little shack as he is playing his violin.  The music is soft and sweet and the monster is moved by the music, showing his human qualities that are buried deep inside of him.  They both actually cry and hold hands and the hermit comforts the monster by rubbing his back (again the HAND and gay symbolism).  The hermit is wearing what looks to be a robe similar to monks (religious symbol) and offers the monster bread and wine (as in the last supper).

Watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKdtuwTr-iM

The hermit teaches him language such as bread, drink, friend, good, smoke, alone, bad, and wood.  The hermit lights his cigar which scares the monster, “Fire! No good!”  Some wanderers come into the shack and light a big fire scaring off the monster.  As he is running through the woods, there are several crosses in the graveyard (more religious symbols).

Dr. Pretorius steals a 19 year old female body and says, “I hope her bones are firm.”  The monster wanders in and asks, “You make man like me?”  “Woman.  Friend.  I want. Wife.”

Henry and Elizabeth get married.  The monster and the Dr. seek him out and try to convince Henry to help build a “friend”.  Henry is very nervous, frail, sickly and scared, “Don’t tell me of that!”  “Must do it!”, says the monster.  “Never!”  The monster growls!

Next time we’ll see how things come about…grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!  Here comes the bride?????

 

The Bride of Frankenstein–More Interesting Than You Know

DVD from Amazon Used $2.78

This was the sequel to the first and original Frankenstein and it is one of the best of all the Frankenstein movies (and there are over 75 of them).  This movie was made in 1935 and is part of the subplot of Mary Shelley’s novel.  It was one of the Top Ten movies in 1935 and came out on Good Friday which is interesting because of the religious themes in the movie (later for that).  It was shot in 46 days and cost $400,000.  It was directed by a gay man named James Whale who only agreed to be a part of the project if he could do it his way…and he sure did.  I knew nothing about the gay undertones (or overtones) until I saw a comment on-line and researched it.  When I thought back on the movie, it made total sense.  Where was my gay-dar?? I’m usually pretty good at determining that because I love my gays but…who would think it in a 1935 black and white horror movie?  Such an interesting thought that I couldn’t wait to watch the movie tonight with new eyes looking for various themes including gay sensibilities, religious symbolism and more!  He blended campy humor into a classic horror movie.  It’s a good one!

Here she is!  Isn’t she beautiful?  But let’s begin at the beginning because our beautiful bride doesn’t show up until the end.

The main characters:  Colin Clive as nervous Henry Frankenstein, Boris Karloff as The Monster, Elsa Manchester as Mary Shelley and The Bride, Valerie Hobson as Elizabeth, Una O’Connor as Minnie the funny Housekeeper, and Ernest Thesiger as Dr. Pretorius.

Let’s talk about the gayness!  The director set the tone for the whole movie by including gay subtext.  Some called it “sissified” which was a Hollywood term for homosexuality (ok).  He threw lavish pool parties at his Hollywood home.  Colin Clive was rumored to be gay or bisexual.  He died at the early age of 35 from alcoholism.  Ernest Thesiger was considered an outrageous queen of the 1930 movies.  So here we go, let’s dig in with new insights!

At the end of Frankenstein, the windmill goes up in flames with Henry Frankenstein and the monster inside.  We believe the monster died but Henry did live.  So…I love the beginning!  The scene is a stormy night in a lavish ornate castle with Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and Persy Shelley sitting in the main room discussing the monster story she has written but she tells them that they haven’t heard the whole story.  This is straight out of the actual novel in some respects but here, Lord Byron and Persy are heavily made up and have very feminine hand gestures and ways of speaking thanks to the director (so fun).  Lord Byron begins to say, “We elegant 3…”.  (Many of the gay observations come from Michael McGlasson and just a few myself).  James Whale made the 3 like a little gay family with the 2 gay guys and the female friend (hm….kinda sounds like my life).

Anyway she goes on to tell them the rest of her horror story and they listen with great interest.  The movie then quickly reviews the first movie and leads us to the windmill in flames where we assume the monster is dead.  Some humor occurs with Minnie the Housekeeper throughout the movie.  She has a crazy funny shriek and the Burgomaster flatly tells her to “shut up”.  Now here I need to mention the “hand theme” that runs throughout the movie, over and over.  What shall we make of it?  It occurs in the first movie but more often here.  A woman’s husband has fallen in the mill after everyone leaves.  She reaches to pull him out and the 2 hands have a close up only it’s not her husband’s hand.  You guessed it–it’s the monster and he promptly pulls her into the mill water as he gets out.  Poof!  She’s gone and off he goes.

The villagers bring Henry home to recover and Minnie is screaming again, “wah, hoo, hoo”.  “The monster, it’s ALIVE!”  She’s hysterical.  She is again told to shut up.  “I wash my HANDS of it then.” she announces.  (The hand reference again).  Henry appears dead as he is brought into the house but, wait for it, his HAND drops and Minnie screams, “He’s ALIVE!”

He is sick, in bed when Dr. Pretorius comes to visit with very sinister shadows surrounding him.  Minnie announces him and says, “He’s here for a secret GRAVE matter.  He’s a very QUEER looking gentleman.”  He privately talks to Henry telling him they must work together to create scientifically, and Henry is completely against it.  “NO!”

Check out the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx9AFjNqZgo

So far, so good!  James Whale has made a funny horror classic really interesting.  More next time…