:27:01
Whale, probably wisely, removed this,
:27:04
and that narrative bridge
was filled by a retake,
:27:07
where the monster is discovered
in the woods,
:27:09
quite benignly trying to get food
from some Gypsies,
:27:13
who of course react in abject terror.
:27:15
This leads us on to the monster
and the hermit sequence.
:27:18
Every time I watch that scene
with the hermit, the blind man,
:27:22
I'm struck by how sincerely moving it is.
:27:26
There is no overtone there
of condescension or ridicule
:27:31
or making fun of either of those
two characters in that scene,
:27:35
or of their relationship,
of their need for each other,
:27:38
and their relief at finding a friend.
:27:41
It wasn't just "I'm going to
play games with odd humour."
:27:45
It was sensitivity,
:27:47
and that sensibility of the warmth
and mutual need that those people find,
:27:56
that he indulged himself with too.
:27:58
That wasn't in the first film either.
:28:01
Those kinds of feelings - both extremes -
weren't in the first film.
:28:07
Humour has never been so artfully
blended into a horror film as in the Bride.
:28:12
Very bizarre, this little chap.
:28:14
There's a certain resemblance to me,
don't you think?
:28:17
Or do I flatter myself?
:28:19
Hindsight tells us that Whale's
sense of humour is sort of camp.
:28:25
I'm not sure that that's really
quite how it was at the time.
:28:29
I think the camp and kitschy
elements of his humour
:28:33
may be something...
a gloss we're putting on it,
:28:36
some 60 years... 65 years
after the picture was made.
:28:40
The humour in Bride of Frankenstein
permeates much of the story line.
:28:46
It isn't in comedy-relief segments,
:28:50
but it is part and parcel
with the characters
:28:54
and what they do in the main story line.
:28:57
Pretorius is a comic figure because
of the way he stands outside of life,