Bride of Frankenstein
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:20:02
in contrast to earlier,
:20:05
when there's a bucolic scene
and it's a very attractive nature forest.

:20:12
She said "Yes, of course it was his idea."
:20:14
Not that he drew the plans for it,
:20:17
but he would give the ideas
and maybe make little sketches

:20:20
and give them to the department heads
and have them develop it.

:20:25
Cinematographer Mescall achieved new
visual heights with Bride of Frankenstein,

:20:29
the result of a seasoned working
relationship with Whale.

:20:32
John Mescall did a total of five pictures
with James Whale.

:20:35
Bride is probably his best remembered.
:20:37
The film itself is probably the high-mark
of Whale's late period at Universal.

:20:44
Mescall used a style of lighting
he referred to as Rembrandt lighting,

:20:48
which was to use a central light
:20:51
and a cross-light about three-quarters
through the scene,

:20:55
to provide illumination of the subject
against a dark background.

:21:00
It's very much like
Rembrandt's painting style,

:21:02
where there is light that is directional
and gives contours and definition.

:21:15
The crowning touch in
Bride of Frankenstein

:21:17
was the inspired musical score
by Franz Waxman.

:21:20
You've got a first-rate cast
in an extremely well-written script

:21:25
with a tremendous musical score.
:21:27
One of the most important Hollywood
scores of the mid-'30s by Franz Waxman.

:21:31
For the opening sequence of Byron and
Shelley on a stormy evening at the villa,

:21:36
Waxman wrote a very charming
period-style minuet,

:21:40
which speaks of the life of ease
and delicacy that we see depicted.

:21:44
As the flashback story is told by Byron...
"A winter setting in the churchyard..."

:21:49
...he evolves into a huge fugue
:21:52
to illustrate the horrors and terrors
of the original story,

:21:56
before returning back to the minuet
:21:59
that sets us pretty much
with period parlour music.


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