Bride of Frankenstein Premiers April 19, 1935, in San Francisco

“To a new world of gods and monsters!” Dr. Pretorius Bride of Frankenstein

Frankenstein
From the Classic Movie Monsters series
Issued by the US post office September 30, 1997
Artist: Thomas Blackshear II
Art director: Derry Noyes

The Bride was a sequel to Universal Picture’s successful 1931 film Frankenstein. Boris Karloff as the Monster and Colin Clive as Dr. Frankenstein reprising their original roles, were joined by Elsa Lanchester who portrayed both the bride and Mary Shelly (the author of the original classic novel).

Budgeted for $293,750 (US), the film ran 10 days over the originally planned 36-day shoot. It was plagued with problems from the beginning, including Boris Karloff breaking a hip on the first day of shooting, Colin Clive broke a leg late in the shooting schedule. At one point the director shut down filming for 10 days when he found his original pick, O. P. Heggie, became available for the role of the Hermit. This led to the film schedule running overtime and pushing the final budget to $397,023 (US). 

The Bride of Frankenstein was subjected to censorship criticism, resulting in numerous script changes and cuts to the film. Even when the film passed the censor board, it was met with more complaints and challenges from a broad range of places from Ohio to China. 

The film premiered April 19, 1935, in San Francisco, California, at the Orpheum Theater. It was released to the general public the following day. By 1943, the film had pulled in $2 million, would be roughly 35 million in today’s market. It received positive reviews at the time and in 1998 was added to the US National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” important.

It was also included in The National Society of Film Critics 100 Essential Films.