46 Bride of Frankenstein ( 1935 )

Now  we  come  to  another  famous  screen  queen  of  the  thirties  although  she's  hardly  in  this; it  just  shows  you  don't  need  a  lot  of  screen  time  to  make  an  impact.

This  was  the  direct  sequel  to  Frankenstein  and  director  James  Whale  was  reluctant  to  make  it. He  was  eventually  won  over  by  agreement  that  he  could  direct  an  adaptation  of  John  Galsworthy's  One  More  River   but  the  script  then  went  through  a  number  of  re-writes  before  shooting  began.  Boris  Karloff  and  Colin  Clive  reprised  their  roles  from  the  first  film but  Mae  Clarke  was  too  ill  to  take  part  and  replaced  by  Valerie  Hobson. Dwight  Frye  also  returned  ; having  been  killed  by  the  Monster  in  the  first  film  he  plays  a  different  but  similar  character  who  suffers  the  same  fate.  The   framing  prologue  featuring  Byron  and  the  Shelleys  was  in  one  of  the  submitted  scripts; Whale's  decision  to  have  the  same  actress  portray  both  Mary  Shelley  and  the  Bride  came  later.  He  said  it  was  to  emphasise  how  the  story  sprang  from  the  dark  side  of  the  imagination  but  he  may  also  have  had  in  mind  that the  part  of  the  Bride   alone  with  no  lines  as  such  wouldn't  be  attractive  to  many  actresses.

The  action  starts   where  the  original  left  off  with  the  Monster  apparently  being  destroyed  by  a  burning  windmill. He  somehow  survives  that  and  kills  the  parents  of   young  Maria, the  child  he  accidentally  drowned  in  the  first  film. He  then  runs  amok  around  the  countryside  with   the  villagers   in  pursuit  before  landing  at  the  dwelling  of  a  blind  hermit  who  calms  him  down  and  teaches  him  some  speech.  In  the  meantime  Henry  Frankenstein  is  nursed  back  to  health  and  forswears  his  earlier  experiments  but   his  sinister  mentor  ( not  in  the  first  film )  Dr  Pretorius  ( Ernest  Thesiger )  wants  him  to  continue  and  eventually  finds  the  means  to  persuade  him.

This  is  a  pretty  good  sequel  though  rather  mis-titled  as  the  Bride  only  appears  in  the   last  ten  minutes  of  the  film  and  she's  not  marrying  Frankenstein  either. The  delays  in  making  the  film  also  made  it  subject  to  the  Hays  Production  Code  and  you  can  tell  during  the  Monster's   murderous   rampage  that  cuts  have  been  made. However  Whale  doesn't  properly  account  for  the  demise  of  Baron  Frankenstein, alive  and  well  at  the  end  of  the  first  film  but necessarily  dead  and  buried  while  Henry  convalesces  and  the  Monster  roams  at  large.  

Karloff  didn't  want  the  Monster  to  speak  but  does  pretty  well  in  conveying  the  pathos  of  the  Monster's  situation  anyway  and  Clive's  advancing  alcoholism  actually  enhances  his  performance  as  the  desperate  doctor. The  film  is  awash  with  Christian  symbolism although  Whale  himself  was  not  a  strong  believer.

Valerie  Hobson  ( as  Elisabeth  Frankenstein )

Sex : Elisabeth's  night  gown  is  pretty  see-through  and  low  cut

Death : Survives

Valerie , who  looked  nothing  like  Mae  Clarke,  hasn't  got  much  to  do  except  look  concerned  and  scream   in   a  very  male- dominated  film. She  was   a  British  actress  from  Larne  who  was  only  18  but  had  already  appeared  in  a  dozen  films  before  this  one.  She  gave  up  acting  in  1954  when  she  married  as  her  second  husband, a  certain  John  Profumo. She  stood  by  him  when  his  whoring  became  public  knowledge  and  they  were  still  married  when  she  died  in  1998  aged  81.

Elsa  Lanchester  ( as  Mary  Shelley / the  Bride )

Sex : Her  dress  as  Mary  Shelly  really  emphasises  her  boobs

Death :  The  Bride  perishes  when  the  Monster  causes  Pretorius's  laboratory  to  explode

Elsa  was  also  British  although  somewhat older. After  a  colourful  upbringing  Elsa  became  a star  of  the  London  stage  where  she  met  Charles  Laughton. They  were  married  in  1929  and she  followed  him  over  to  Hollywood. With  the  iconic  "punk"  hairstyle, the  Bride  is  Elsa's most  famous  role  but  she  was  a  very  versatile  actress  and  was  Oscar-nominated  for  her  role in  1957's  Witness  for  the  Prosecution. Her  last  film  was  in  1980. She  died  of bronchopneumonia   in  1986  , three  years  after  being  left  bedridden  by  a  stroke. She  was  84.

Anne  Darling  ( as  Shepherdess )  

Sex : No

Death : Survives

The  Monster  redeems  himself  for  Maria's  death  by  saving  the  Shepherdess, after  she  ( not  very  convincingly )  falls  into  a  pond.  Anne  was  merely  an  extra  who  made  a  number  of  uncredited  appearances  in  films  in  the  mid-thirties. She  died  in  1991  aged  76.