 |
 |
 |
 |
She was only seen in the final three minutes of her eponymous film, and she didn’t utter a single word. In spite of these limitations, the Bride of Frankenstein has gone on since her 1935 debut to become a horror film icon and a Universal Monsters favorite. Part of this, of course, is because she’s basically the sole female member of the studio’s supernatural roster (apologies to Dracula’s Daughter, Captive Wild Woman, and the She-Wolf of London). And no doubt part of it comes from her style-setting, lightning-streaked hairdo.
Whatever the reason, the Bride has been a key part of the Frankenstein saga since Mary Shelley’s original 1818 novel. There the Creature coerces Dr. Frankenstein into making him a mate, but the scientist destroys her before bringing it to life. There she would rest until Universal Pictures, eager for a follow-up to their hit 1931 shocker, coerced director James Whale into giving cinematic life to 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein. In the nine decades that followed she and her male counterpart have been depicted on-screen in a variety of ways, sometimes lovers, sometimes enemies. Meanwhile, the role of the Bride (aka the Monster’s Mate) has in recent years been used as a symbol of female empowerment and rebellion. With this weekend’s release of writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s twisted horror/romance/gangster drama The Bride!, it seemed like a good time to look over some of the more notable actresses to play the part:
Elsa Lanchester, Bride of Frankenstein (1935) – The first and, by many accounts, the best. Lanchester, who was listed with a “?” in the opening credits as Boris Karloff had been four years earlier, also played Mary Shelley in the film’s opening segment. Fun Fact: An early script draft had Henry Frankenstein’s wife Elizabeth (Valerie Hobson) being killed, with her body then used for the Bride’s.
Phyllis Diller, Mad Monster Party (1967) – Who better than fright-coiffed comedian Diller to voice the Monster’s Mate in this fondly-remembered stop-motion scare comedy from the Rankin/Bass animators? Her love song to her horrific hubby, “You’re Different,” is a treat.
Susan Denberg, Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) – Okay, Christina (Denberg) is not romantically linked to any of Dr. Frankenstein’s (Peter Cushing) other “experiments.” The once-disfigured barmaid, reanimated by the not-so-good doctor and imbued with the soul of her vengeance-seeking boyfriend, is sort of a “Bride of Frankenstein” in this sexy Hammer Films outing, though, so she deserves a mention.
Jane Seymour, Frankenstein: The True Story (1973) – The same year she enchanted Roger Moore’s James Bond as Solitaire in Live and Let Die, Seymour had a dual role in this made-for-TV adaptation. She plays Agatha, a blind peasant’s granddaughter who is accidentally killed fleeing from Michael Sarrazin’s Creature. Frankenstein and colleague Dr. Polidori attach Agatha’s head to a body and create a new being, dubbed Prima. When she later rebuffs the monster’s advances, he re-decapitates her.
Madeline Kahn, Young Frankenstein (1974) – “Ah! sweet mystery of life, at last I’ve found thee!” Nuff said.
Jennifer Beals, The Bride (1985) – Bold feminist revamp or campy melodrama? The moviegoing jury was split on this glossy thriller loosely–very loosely–based on the ’35 film. Beals, in her first role since Flashdance, plays Eva, the bewitching creation of Sting’s Baron Frankenstein. After the Monster (Clancy Brown), thinking his bride died, runs off, Frankenstein takes Eva to his estate to educate her. In a Pygmalion-like twist, he falls for his progeny. But a bizarre love triangle develops when Brown–now calling himself Viktor–returns to claim Eva for himself.
Helena Bonham Carter, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994) – Okay, remember how Frankenstein’s wife Elizabeth was going to become the Bride in 1935? Well, that’s kind of what happens in director/co-star Kenneth Branagh’s visually striking translation of Shelley’s novel. After Branagh’s Dr. Frankenstein refuses to make a mate for him out of a wrongfully hanged servant’s corpse, Robert De Niro’s Creature kills the doctor’s wife Elizabeth (Carter). Mad with grief, Frankenstein grafts Elizabeth’s head and hands onto the dead girl’s body and reanimates her. The result is a deformed, mindless being who only seeks to end her unwanted second life.
Fran Drescher, Hotel Transylvania (2012) – In some of the best animated casting since Phyllis Diller 45 years earlier, Drescher brought her distinctive voice to the role of Eunice, the fashion- and hair-obsessed spouse of Frankenstein (Kevin James), in Hotel Transylvania and its three theatrical sequels.
Billie Piper, Penny Dreadful (2014) – One of many classic horror characters reimagined in this British/U.S. series set in Victorian London, Piper’s Lily Frankenstein started out as Brónagh Croft, an Irish immigrant and prostitute dying of tuberculosis. Dr. Frankenstein (Henry Treadaway) kills her and then revives her…first to be a mate for his monster (Rory Kinnear), then to be his own lover. The seemingly unaware Lily, however, has plans of her own in store for the men who have abused her.
Jessie Buckley, The Bride! (2026) – Where will Buckley, nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for her turn in last year’s Hamnet, rank alongside the other movie Brides? I certainly can’t say as this is being written before this offbeat new take on the Frankenstein saga hits theaters. From what has been revealed–with Buckley playing a 1930s Chicago gang moll who is possessed by the spirit of Mary Shelley herself, then executed gangland style and revived thanks to the Monster (Christian Bale) and a female mad scientist (Annette Bening)–it promises to be a very intriguing take on a beloved horror movie character. A character who, apparently, still has lots of life in her.