:16:11
His entrance here is yet another one
of Whale's bravura stage entrances.
:16:17
Several pages of dialogue,
eliminated here,
:16:19
made it clear that this
is an old acquaintance.
:16:22
Pretorius had been
Henry's teacher at school,
:16:24
passing on his forbidden
Promethean knowledge.
:16:27
Henry's indiscretions in monstermaking
had been traced to the doctor,
:16:31
causing Pretorius to be sacked.
:16:33
Pretorius also made it clear that
the monster is most likely immortal.
:16:46
The invisible man merely dreamt
of walking into the holy of holies.
:16:50
Dr Pretorius has done it,
and stolen God's fire.
:16:54
Like all worthy devils,
Pretorius is magnetic.
:16:57
He fascinates us with wit,
intelligence, self-assurance.
:17:00
He tempts us by giving voice
to our worst impulses.
:17:04
He controls destiny, irresponsibly
and without consequence.
:17:08
Disdainful of women,
contemptuous of mankind and God,
:17:12
utterly self-absorbed,
ingenuous about vice,
:17:15
Pretorius is literally one hell of a guy.
:17:18
He is the climax of a noble line
of cinematic Mephistos
:17:21
that include Mr Scratch
in All That Money Can Buy
:17:23
and Emil Jannings' primordial
Mephistopheles in FW Murnau's Faust.
:17:30
The return of Frankenstein malingered
while Whale shot One More River
:17:33
and developed A Trip To Mars,
which was ultimately abandoned.
:17:37
He asked RC Sherriff to work
on the sequel of Frankenstein,
:17:40
but Sherriff refused, as he said,
"to spend his summer writing pulp".
:17:45
Whale conceived a prologue
with Mary Shelley as a frame,
:17:49
and Edmund Pearson
wrote the earliest treatment.
:17:53
Whale hired John Balderston, coauthor
of the Dracula and Frankenstein plays,
:17:57
and coauthor of the film The Mummy.