Again with the Bride of Frankenstein

Out of all the Universal monsters I'd say Dr. Frankenstein's Monster was always my least-favorite. There's just something about the big, slow, dim-witted hulking strogman motiff that has simply never appealed to me.

But then-- and this has happened many times over in the last what, three years or so-- you sit down to watch either of James Whale's Frankensteins, the first one or the Bride sequel, and man there's Karloff stumbling, wobbling, the big lummox, under all that makeup you'd swear it was a sickly green past the b&w... you stand corrected.

I mean sure, Bela Lugosi kicks major ass as Dracula-- that ethereal European accent from god-knows-where is just to die for, and just the way he walks about the set with that cape-- not even Batman does that to a cape. But then you're watching the Bride of Frankestein and the Bride hisses at the Monster, casts him aside, and he turns to Pretorius and says, We belong dead!--- Wanna see Bela Lugosi do it. No Dracula, no Wolfman, no Mummy, no Invisible Man, no Phantom of the Opera, no Creature of the Black Lagoon (a runner-up favorite, by the way, and overly under-rated).

The Bride of Frankenstein just has got to be one of my favorite movies ever: From that madcap first scene with Lord Byron you surely don't see coming to Elsa Lanchester's being onscreen as the Bride for what? Five minutes tops? But that makes an impression to last an eternity With all her goddamned chilling hissing-- Terrific movie, terrific movie.