This is the last of my Universal Monster movie marathon, but I have heard that I may have saved the best for last. I really loved Frankenstein, so fingers crossed that this is good too.
We start off with Percy Bysshe Shelly, Lord Byron, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley talking. Lord Byron is a treat. Mary is fucking stunningly gorgeous.They talk about how somebody so beautiful as Mary could write something as dark as a book about a monster. They kinda do a flashback of the first film. This is so well done. Mary feels like telling the rest of her story as it’s not finished.
The town folk are pumped that the mill is down. This lady, Minnie, is giving the Burgomaster some shit. Damn lady. Hans, Maria’s father, is hellbent on making sure that the monster is dead. Well, he inspects it and falls down, and under the mill is water, and the monster. Get him monster!!! Wait, who should I be cheering for? I like the Monster. Hans’ wife is trying to help Hans up, but it’s really the monster. For her help, he hucks her down in the hole. The monster then scares off Minnie.
The men bring Henry back to Elizabeth, and she’s worried that he may be dead. Minnie comes running to warn them about the monster, but nobody gives a damn what she has to say. Henry’s arm moves, and Minnie is screaming. Geez, where did she come from? Dr. Pretorious shows up to speak with Henry. Henry allows him to come in. He was a doctor of philosophy but was kicked out of the university. Dr. Pretorious has something to show Henry. Henry is interested, and off they go to Pretorious’ lab.
Pretorious shows off that he has a miniature living queen, king (who is quite unruly), archbishop, a devil, a ballerina, and a mermaid. This is pretty neat. So Pretorious wants to create a female mate for his monster. Well there, we got to the point of this.
The Monster is out in the forest near a little waterfall, and he is not a fan of his reflection. He sees a girl shepherding her goats, and she keeps screaming and falls. He saves her, and he is trying to get her to stop screaming. 2 guys are nearby, one guy shoots the Monster in the arm, and the other gets the Burgomaster. Burgomaster says to round up the men and lock the women indoors. I like his style. They are hunting down the Monster. He hides upon a rock, pushes a boulder down on 2 guys, but he is soon overrun by the crowd. They tie him to a long tree log, and transport him back and are going to put him in chains in the dungeon. They really restrain him, damn. He’s strong as hell, breaks the chains, and he is loose. He breaks down the door and takes out the guards, and now he is out in town. Minnie just runs her mouth. This is silly and great.
At night, the monster ends up near a family of gypsies, burns his hand, gets yelled at by everyone and is hit by the dad. The monster leaves and finds this old hermit playing the violin. The old man hears something, goes out and asks who is there, but the Monster hides, but really enjoys the music. The Monster opens the door, grunts, and the hermit tells him that he is welcome, and it’s revealed that the hermit is blind. The hermit recognizes that the Monster is hurt, and he is trying to talk to the Monster. He realizes that this person can’t talk, so he gets the Monster some food, and wants to be friends with the Monster. This guy has been very lonely, so he’s happy to have some company. This is pretty much only the second person who has been nice to him, the other being Maria. So the next day, he spends time teaching him some words like bread, wine, and friend. He lights up a cigar, and the Monster likes to smoke. Oh man, this is great! He learns that his pal loves music.
2 guys come in and say that they are lost and need direction. They recognize the monster and try to shoot the monster. During the ensuing mess, the hermit’s place goes up in flames. The monster misses his friend. Poor hermit.
The Monster is homeless again and wandering. He his in the graveyard. He goes down to the crypt and is trying to just not be bothered. Well, Pretorious and the 2 guys help go down to rob a grave. They find a 19-year-old chick, that’s perfect for their mission. His assistants leave, but Pretorious is going to stay and have himself a meal. The Monster shows himself to Pretorious, and he asks for a cigar. The Monster helps himself to some food and wine. The monster likes the idea of having a friend like him. He says that he liked dead, hate living, and he knows who Dr. Frankenstein is.
Pretorious shows up to talk to Henry. Elizabeth tells Pretorious that his visit is most unwelcome. Pretorious says that he is all ready to work with him, but Henry won’t. So Pretorious shows him his friend that he brought and obviously is afraid. The Monster is on Pretorious’ side obviously. The Monster is quite insistent that Henry does it. Pretorious has the Monster leave and gives him the word to go to Elizabeth’s room. He abducts Beth and Minnie is flipping the F out. Time to form some search parties. Pretorious is like, she’s safe, if you do as I ask. What a dick move. I like him, but like the Monster more.
Henry decides to give in to Pretorious’ request. So Henry is working on getting a heart working and beating. It isn’t working, he needs a young female’s heart who died suddenly. Pretorious sends an assistant to get the heart. Henry appears excited but exhausted. The Monster is waking up Henry and telling him to get to work. Pretorious distracts the Monster with a drink, that he spikes with something to knock him out for a bit.
It appears that it is go time. Get the heart in place. We have ourselves a lovely electrical storm. The kits are in the air. Time to raise the body. If you think about it, this is borderline brilliant in it’s own weird way. The Monster is awake and attacking the assistants. He beats one down and tosses him off the roof. Sucks to be him. The body is being lowered, time to see the results. She’s moving and groaning, she’s alive….alive! This is the same chick that played Mary Shelley in the opening. Pretorious anoints her the Bride of Frankenstein. The Monster comes down, checks out this new cutie. He wants to be friends, and she screams at the Monster. She is just a little overwhelmed, and The Monster is like, nope, I’m going to be all over her. He then realizes that she hates him. The Monster has his hand on the lever that will kill everyone. The Monster lets Henry and Beth leave, he tells Henry that he deserves to live, but the Bride deserves death. Fair point. He pulls the level and the place crumbles to the ground and Henry holds Beth.
End Film.
I really liked this one, and it’s funnier than the original, but the ambiance isn’t quite there. They are great together, I liked the pacing. Pritorious was great to have, and I loved the beginning. It’s tough to find many flaws with this on. I loved the mini people. That was a great sight to see.
Final rating: 7.3
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Universal Pictures (A James Whale Production)
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