Director: James Whale
Writers: Mary Shelley, William Hurlbut
Stars: Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Colin Clive
Available at Amazon.com
It was a dark and stormy night in the huge castle on the hill. Mary Shelley, Percy Shelly, and Lord Byron, sit and brag to each other. They talk about Mary’s excellent story. As they talk, they recap the first movie. Mary concludes with “but that wasn’t the end of the story…” and continues where the first movie ended.
The apparently dead body of Henry Frankenstein is carried back to the castle, but he’s not really dead. The monster also has survived, and he climbs up out of the wreckage and kills the parents of the little girl who died in the first movie, who hung around a little too long for their own good.
A man, Doctor Pretorius, comes to the door after everyone else has gone. He knows what Henry did, and he wants to work with Henry, but Henry refuses. Pretorius has been experimenting as well, and he too has created life.
They go to Pretorius’ lab. Inside, they drink “to a new world of gods and monsters!” He shows Henry a bunch of tiny little people who live in bottles. He grew them from seeds. He wants to collaborate and create a woman.
Meanwhile, the monster has been spotted in the woods. It’s not long before he’s being chased by another angry mob. They capture and tie him up, then carry him to the town jail. It takes just a few seconds for him the break the chains and the door and go on the offensive. He eventually stays with an old blind man in a cabin, who feeds him and even teaches him to speak a little.
A couple of hunters find him, and things go badly, so he hides out in a crypt. Coincidentally, Dr. Pretorius is there searching for a female corpse. Pretorius hangs out after and eats his dinner and has a drink while laughing to himself in the crypt. The monster is looking for a new friend, and Pretorius is more than willing to play the part. The monster wants him to make a woman for him.
Pretorius convinces the monster to kidnap Henry’s wife for leverage. Henry, of course, agrees to the new experiment. They assemble the pieces and wait for the approaching storm. This body has a completely artificial brain designed by Pretorius. There’s a lot more electricity and sciency-looking equipment than in the previous film. Pretty soon, Henry shouts “She’s Alive!”
She takes one look at the monster and screams. “She hates me—like others!” he roars. He lets Henry leave, but pulls the lever that blows up the lab, the castle, and everyone inside.
Commentary
The monster didn’t really do very much in the first movie, but he gets a lot of screen time in this one. Pretorius is over-the-top evil, and a lot of fun to watch. Karl the assistant (played by Dwight Frye, who also played Fritz in the first movie) is a wide-eyed lunatic, and just the man the find healthy, fresh hearts of young women. There’s also a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from John Carradine as one of the hunters in the woods.
The monster is a lot more violent in this one to everyone except the old blind man. The Bride, on the other hand, doesn’t hurt anyone, and surprisingly is only onscreen for a little over three minutes. Once again, the castle has a self-destruct mechanism for no apparent logical reason.