Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

I am officially moved in to my new apartment!  Unfortunately, as of the writing of this update, everything is still in boxes which means that I was not able to watch anything the last couple of days.  I've been so tired it hasn't really mattered to me but it does leave me fresh out of things to post.  I was re-watching Bride of Frankenstein when I had to disassemble all my electronics so I'm going to re-post my review for today.  Now that everything is moved, I'm hoping I can get at least one blu-ray player hooked up today so I have something to watch for tomorrow's post.  A friend from work (shout-out to Jim!) loaned me a drill so I can put up the living room TV but I don't know if I'm going to get to it today.  There's so much that needs to be done before I can even consider drilling into the walls.  I appreciate everyone's patience and I am going to try and get stuff posted on schedule this week.  Originally published 14 Apr 2013    This is the rare sequel that surpasses the original.

Picking up immediately where the previous film left off, the fire is still burning at the old watch tower.  The Creature (Boris Karloff) manages to crawl out of the wreckage and escape into the town.  After being captured and escaping a couple of times, he finally makes it into the woods, where a blind hermit (O.P. Heggie) shelters him and teaches him the finer things, like cigars and drinking.  Oh, also, talking.  Meanwhile, the body of Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) is taken back to the castle.  His fiancée, Elizabeth (now Valerie Hobson, in a little break in continuity), takes care of him and nurses him back to health.  Henry vows to never have anything to do with his experiments again.  This is bad news for creepy visitor Doctor Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger), who really wants Frankenstein to help him create a whole new race of people by building the Creature a mate. 

There is a lot more going on in this movie.  I was pleased there was some character development for the Creature but I would have liked to have seen more from Elsa Lanchester.  I know that's supposed to be the "big reveal" but still.  At least she got an earlier bit where she could play Mary Shelley, narrating this sequel for her husband and Lord Byron.  That part was cute.