:18:00
Now Hollywood's horror specialist,
Balderston would contribute to such films
:18:04
as Mad Love, Dracula's Daughter
and Mark of the Vampire.
:18:08
Raised in the Quaker faith,
John Balderston balanced grim brutality
:18:11
and equally grim
religious moralising in his stories.
:18:15
He worked through June and July 1934
on a workmanlike but unmagical script
:18:20
that supplies a road map but no gas.
:18:23
Rough narrative lines are there,
but no spirit.
:18:26
Elsa Lanchester is indicated as the player
for Mary Shelley and the monster's mate.
:18:31
The soul of the picture arrived
with William Hurlbut in November 1934.
:18:36
Born in Illinois in 1886, Hurlbut had been
a New York playwright for 30 years.
:18:41
He arrived at Universal
as a dialogue writer -
:18:43
on pictures such as The Cat Creeps -
when talkies came in.
:18:46
Trained as an illustrator, background
in theatre, a confirmed bachelor,
:18:50
Hurlbut and Whale
shared much common ground.
:18:52
Whale wanted to treat the film as a hoot,
:18:54
and he found the idea
of a female monster delirious.
:18:57
He preferred the title
"Bride of Frankenstein".
:19:00
With Hurlbut, Whale re-engineered
the story on fanciful, witty lines.
:19:04
Dr Pretorius, his miniature creations,
Minnie, and the burgomaster, were born.
:19:10
Balderston's piety was rather suspect.
:19:12
In his finale, the monster
jealously kills Henry and the mate.
:19:16
In an unbelievably maudlin scene,
a priest, Father Gerard,
:19:20
convinces the monster to accept God -
and indeed, he proves his love
:19:23
by dispatching the hapless brute
with a lightning bolt. Deus ex machina.
:19:27
With Hurlbut, Whale developed
the spiritual subtext
:19:30
into something meaningful and special.
:19:42
To a new world of gods and monsters.
:19:47
The perfect line, the perfect staging:
:19:49
English gin in a chemist's retort,
as drunken science toasts itself.