Bride of Frankenstein
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:25:01
It may be part of the divine plan.
:25:04
Henry, don't say those things.
Don't think them.

:25:07
It's blasphemous and wicked.
We are not meant to know those things.

:25:11
The monster is man-made, not God-made,
:25:13
but he goes through a Christ-like orbit of
misunderstanding and ultimate betrayal.

:25:18
The original script had the monster
mistaking the figure on a crucifix

:25:22
for a suffering, persecuted creature
like himself.

:25:25
The censors would have none of that,
so now the Christus is a background prop

:25:31
and he instead - more blasphemously -
topples the statue of a bishop,

:25:35
as though he's assaulting
organised religion.

:25:37
That's a visual cue
that was not in the script

:25:40
and therefore didn't receive objection.
:25:43
When Henry and Dr Pretorius
speak about the possible mad plan

:25:48
to create new female life,
:25:50
the blasphemous Dr Pretorius
invokes religious iconography

:25:55
and says "Follow the lead of nature,
or of God..."

:25:59
It was scripted
"...if you like your fairytales."

:26:02
Well, this is not how one
speaks about organised religion.

:26:05
It's changed to "Bible stories",
which is a statement of fact.

:26:09
Follow the lead of nature,
:26:11
or of God, if you like your Bible stories.
:26:14
The way Ernest Thesiger reads the line,
:26:16
"Bible stories" contains
such invective and disdain

:26:19
that it's more offensive
than if he'd said "fairytales".

:26:23
This is how one got around the letter
of the censor and the spirit of intent.

:26:28
Bride initially had a fairly lengthy subplot
involving the Dwight Frye character.

:26:34
It was probably a misbegotten script idea
:26:37
that was meant to illustrate
the monster as victim.

:26:39
Carl had this uncle and aunt in the film,
:26:45
who he killed,
:26:47
and led everybody to believe
that the monster had killed them.

:26:51
It was probably about a ten-minute
sequence followed by a morgue inquest.

:26:56
It had no bearing on the narrative line
:26:58
and probably stopped the film
dead in its tracks at the midpoint.


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