Creating monsters instead of messages in
bottles:
Sting, former singer of The Police, as Charles Frankenstein
Often cited as a remake of Bride of
Frankenstein, The Bride is more of a
sequel to James Whale's 1935 classic. It sets out with Frankenstein and several
assistants creating a female for the Monster, who is eagerly awaiting his new
companion. Just as in Whale's film, the newly born female creature rejects the male creature, who
becomes so enraged that he destroys the lab.
Frankenstein and the Bride survive the explosion, and the Monster, supposedly
killed in the fire, escapes to the woods. From here the film follows two parallel
narratives.
The Monster befriends a circus dwarf,
Rinaldo, who teaches him
compassion and gives him the name Viktor. They set out for Budapest, where they
join a circus. Viktor becomes a stage hand and Rinaldo performs a trapeze act involving a safety line. Meanwhile Frankenstein educates the Bride
Eva to be equal to him in both
independence and intellect. In the meantime, Rinaldo and Viktor run into an
argument with the exploitative circus owner, who refuses to treat and pay them
accordingly. Eventually, the circus owners' assistant Bela cuts Rinaldo's safety line
before his performance and the dwarf plunges to his death. When Viktor overhears
a conversation between the circus owner and Bela he takes revenge for Renaldo and kills his murderer. Sensing a psychic link to Eva, Viktor
sets off for home to find her.
Probably Frankenstein's most beautiful
creation:
Jennifer Beals as Eva
Beast and beauty, finally re-united:
Clancy Brown and Jennifer Beals
While Eva slowly begins to question her origin, she is courted by a soldier, which
incurs the displeasure of Charles Frankenstein. Increasingly jealous, he
confronts the couple and eventually reveals to Eva that he actually created her
from dead body parts. When he tries to rape her, Viktor suddenly bursts into the
castle
and throws Frankenstein from the tower of the castle.
Despite the poor reception by critics at its release, The Bride is one of the most
interesting variations of the Frankenstein story. Although far
removed from Mary Shelley's novel, it manages to maintain the spirit of the novel in
several areas.
Brains and brawns:
Rinaldo the Dwarf (David Rappaport)
and Viktor (Clancy Brown)
The depiction of the Monster sets The Bride apart from most other Frankenstein
films. Here the Monster is not only portrayed as a compassionate being, but
actually made the hero of the film. Although endowed with a simple child-like mind and
barely able to produce proper speech, the Monster is clearly the center of the
narrative. This is one of the rare cases where sympathy for the Monster is
created. Especially the scenes with the dwarf Renaldo show the Monster as a
being capable of emotions such as love and compassion. Forgotten are the
exploitative escapades of the Hammer movies, where the Monster was reduced to a
mere killing machine. In fact, this time the Monster kills only twice - one
time as revenge, when his best friend is taken from him, and the other
time in self-defense, when his love Eva is threatened.
Clancy Brown's
performance is often reminiscent of Boris Karloff's performance in Bride of
Frankenstein, and even
manages to be on par with his immortal performance. The viewer can actually
identify with the Monster, who for the first time is given a name - ironically
that of its creator from the novel. The Monster's name Viktor, meaning "He will
win", sets the path for the narrative and finally establishes the
movie's
unlikely hero - a love-sick, lonely, but good-spirited creature with the mind
of a child and the facial features of a Monster.
The second narrative, the relationship between Charles Frankenstein and Eva, is often reminiscent of
Pygmalion. Frankenstein did not only create Eva physically in his laboratory,
but he is also the creator of her mind when he educates her and
introduces her to the secrets of life. In a conversation with his
friend Clerval he openly voices his intentions, "I might make the new woman. Independent, free, as bold and as proud as
a man. A woman equal to ourselves." And indeed, Eva matures into a
self-confident woman who is any match for Frankenstein both in her
free-thinking and intellectually. Frankenstein has achieved to make her "his equal in
thought an reasoning".
Frankenstein wants to take back what he
has created
Unfortunately, he also wants to
keep her for himself, and completely loses control when Eva falls for
another man. Portrayed by rock singer Sting as an arrogant, cold aristocrat,
Frankenstein sees Eva as his toy and property. In the end he shows his truly
evil side when he attempts to rape her after he has made it clear to her, that
he created her and could as easily destroy her again: "I created your
body just as I created your mind. And I can uncreate it too."
Eva's independence and strength has tempted several critics to call The Bride
a feminist reworking of Whale's Bride of Frankenstein. And indeed, Eva,
played by Jennifer Beals, would never bow to Frankenstein; she would rather
die than let him have her body.
With The Bride director Franc Roddam has created a technical masterpiece.
Unlike other films from the 1980s, The Bride has stood the sands of time and
still looks as beautiful as in 1985, thanks to the excellent cinematography,
lavish period costumes and sets, especially the laboratory with its gigantic
machinery, lightning and special effects. The acting is also fine, in
particular Clancy Brown as the Monster
and David Rappaport as the dwarf. Both rock singer Sting and Jennifer Beals
of Flashdance fame show surprisingly
solid performances.
Despite the strong casting and excellent production values The Bride was a
box office failure, most probably because it disappointed the horror fans,
who awaited a gory splatter fest, but ended up with having to endure a 120 minute
long gothic romance, that dealt more with human emotions and feelings than
with horror.
