:08:02
Joseph Breen, the omnipotent censor
of the Production Code Administration,
:08:06
wrote the studio "We counted
ten separate scenes
:08:09
in which the monster either strangles
or tramples people to death -
:08:13
this in addition to murders
by secondary characters."
:08:16
"Such a great amount
of slaughter is unwise,
:08:18
and we recommend earnestly that you
do something about toning this down."
:08:23
Whale balked: "Kill them all.
Let Breen sort them out."
:08:26
Whale's first cut contained no less than
21 deaths either committed or alluded to.
:08:31
After Breen's sorting,
:08:33
the casualty rate plummeted
to a mere ten confirmed decedents.
:08:37
Franz Waxman's famous five-note motif
for the monster, usually played by brass,
:08:41
provides the backbone of the score,
:08:43
and will recur in various
guises and developments,
:08:46
including flutter tonguing for danger
and harmon mutes for comic effect.
:08:51
As developed, it comments
both on the creature
:08:53
and other characters' reactions to him.
:08:56
Poor Mary Gordon is Hans' wife.
Her Mrs Hudson suffered for years
:09:01
the eccentricities of Basil Rathbone
in the Sherlock Holmes films.
:09:04
The Scottish-born actress is tossed
into the cistern here by Boris Karloff,
:09:08
and would be throttled by Lon Chaney
in The Mummy's Tomb.
:09:12
She survived a rematch with Karloff
in The Body Snatcher,
:09:14
only to see Boris bludgeon her wee
doggie and steal her son's corpse.
:09:18
That's Hollywood for you.
:09:20
Jack Pierce brilliantly extrapolated
Karloff's make-up in Bride,
:09:24
creating several stages of distress and
regeneration, all in narrative continuity.
:09:29
The wounded monster
healed progressively.
:09:31
Karloff seems fleshier because
he is more padded than in the first film.
:09:35
The need to speak means that he does
not remove his dental plate this time,
:09:40
forfeiting the cadaverous sunken cheek.
:09:42
Nor did Pierce paint him
with as many hollows.
:09:45
The hollow in the monster's cheek
became an annoying grace note
:09:48
until, in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man,
it looked like Bela Lugosi's monster
:09:52
and llona Massey's heroine
both sported duelling beauty marks.
:09:58
Elizabeth, the true bride of Frankenstein,
played by a 17-year-old Valerie Hobson -