It's a real pity, then, that this rich cinematic treasure has received such a disappointing transfer to the DVD format. After experiencing the sharply focused, pristine prints presented on Universal's DVD releases of "Frankenstein" and "The Mummy", my expectations for "Bride" were enthusiastically high. What a letdown! The film is grainy, with distractingly poor contrast -- the actors appear to have microcrobes running across their faces, like amoeba that you might observe under a microscope. And there were a couple of pops and jumps inherent in the source material that I don't recall having seen on the VHS tape release of this film.

The extras are the only features that keep this disc from being a complete fiasco. The poster and still archive is remarkable, and the "making of" featurette is informative and enjoyable. The theatrical trailer is the one used for the film's Realart re-release and not the Universal original. I strongly suspect (and hope) there will some day be a "restored" edition of this movie available. Unless you just can't wait to add this title to your DVD collection, I have to regretfully advise that until such an improved version comes along, you spend your hard-earned pennies on an alternate selection.


Excellent package marred by poor transfer   November 7, 1999
 22 out of 24 found this review helpful

As mentioned by many others, the film, commentary, documentary etc are all excellent. No need to repeat. But a major flaw in the film transfer itself is the amount of information removed at the top. The tops of heads are chopped and the glowing crudifix at the climax of the blind hermit scene is cropped so much you cannot tell it is a cross. I have compared the laser and vhs copies of this film to the dvd. The laser and vhs crop information from the bottom, a FAR better choice. I consider the cropping on the dvd so bad as to make the film almost unwatchable. I'll be keeping my laserdisc and videotape.


Domestic dispute: Bride vs. Frankenstein   July 23, 2008
 21 out of 21 found this review helpful

Can a sequel outdo the original? Audiences, critics, and (more importantly) many of my friends seem to think so. And they all have a solid case. The Bride of Frankenstein is a remarkable continuation of the previous masterpiece.

It opens with a haunting murder scene. The visual setup is completely electrifying. Karloff still has his commanding presence. The entire cast does an outstanding job. The script is rich, witty, and has some powerful subtext. There are some underlying jabs at religion and society at large. It points out the violent nature of man and his intolerance of things unfamiliar. How love is blind and cannot be forced. I think the emotional complexity is what truly makes this film special. Plus the scene where the Bride comes to life is very dynamic.

I'll admit though, I wasn't real keen on the humor thrown in with this story. The mini-people in the glass jars seemed out of place, at least for me. I also preferred the idea of the silent monster, it added a level of suspense.

Overall, this is a complete classic horror movie that stands alone. It's indicative of how man interacts and deals with adversity, which has a raw power. This is proof that sequels can be a good thing. But when it comes to comparing...

Frank spanks The Bride, haha


The Greatest Horror Film Ruined by Bad DVD   February 19, 2000
 16 out of 20 found this review helpful

I was waiting with great anticipation the release of The Bride of Frankenstein DVD. I ,like many others, consider this movie to be the greatest horror film of all time. I already own the movie on VHS but I couldn't wait to see the sparkling, crystal clear picture that I know the DVD format can deliver. Unfortunately, Universal decided to dig up the worst print they could find to put on DVD.

The worst thing about it is the horrible grainy look of the film. There are so many tiny little black dots on the picture that it is almost impossible to concentrate on the actors. It is a terrible looking picture. And somehow or other they have managed to mess up the framing of the picture even though it is a 1.33:1 image. You only get to see about 85% of the picture compared to the VHS. Universal....how could you?

The extras on the DVD are quite good but it's the movie that counts! Other titles in the series of classic Universal horror movies are better but none of them so far are what true DVD enthusiasts and real movie fans want to see. I really hope that Universal quickly decides to remaster The Bride of Frankenstein DVD and then allows us poor souls to exchange our current copies for a new one.


An Extraordinary Film; An Excellent DVD Package   September 3, 2003
 15 out of 21 found this review helpful

Interestingly, Whale did not want to make a sequel to his incredibly successful 1931 FRANKENSTEIN, and bowed to studio pressure only when he received assurance of absolute control. The result is perhaps his most personal film--a strange collage of gothic horror, black humor, religious motifs, and sexual innuendo--and one of the great classics of the genre.

The plot elaborates an idea contained in the Mary Shelly novel: Frankenstein is pressured to create a mate for the monster. In Shelly's novel, the doctor eventually balks; in the film, however, he sees the experiment through due to a mix of his own obsession and the manipulations of a new character, Dr. Pretorious, and the two create the only truly iconographical monster in the film pantheon of the 1930s horror film: "The Bride," brilliantly played by Elsa Lanchester.

The cast is excellent throughout, with Colin Clive and Boris Karloff repeating their roles and Frankenstein and the monster, and Valerie Hobson an able replacement for Mae Clarke in the role of Elizabeth; Ernest Thesiger and Una O'Connor also give incredibly memorable performances as the truly strange Pretorius and the constantly hysterical maid Minnie. The art design is remarkable, and the Waxman score is justly famous. But the genius of the film lies not so much in these new and bizarre characters, in the familiar ones, or in the production values: it is in the way in which Whales delicately balances his elements and then subverts them.

FRANKENSTEIN owes much of its power to its directness--it has a raw energy that is difficult to resist, still more difficult to describe. But THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN owes its power to its complexity. Nothing here is quite what it appears to be, and throughout the film we constantly receive mixed messages about the characters and implications of their situations. While Thesiger's Dr. Pretorius is justly celebrated as a covert gay icon of the darkest possible variety, and while many people quickly grasp Whale's often subversive use of Christian imagery, the film has many, many layers that do not reveal themselves upon a single viewing.

The single most startling sequence, at least to my mind, is the famous scene in which the Monster stumbles into the lonely cottage of the blind hermit, a role beautifully played by O.P. Heggie. On the surface, the sequence would seem to be about how cruely we judge people by appearances, and how true kindness can lift the fallen. It was not until I had seen the film several times that it dawned upon me that Whale has essentially endowed the a scene with a host of covertly homosexual overtones--and then tied them to a series of Christian elements for good measure. It is startling, to say the least.

Like most Universal horror DVDs, the package here is superior, and the film is supported with an interesting documentary and a still more interesting audio commentary track. Critics and fans continue to battle of whether FRANKENSTEIN or THE BRIDE is the better film--but I say they are so completely different that the question simply doesn't arise. Whatever the case, if you are a fan of 1930s horror and James Whale in particular, this is a must own DVD.

--GFT (Amazon.com Reviewer)--