Blog Post #2 - The Bride of Frankenstein and Comedy

"The Bride of Frankenstein and Comedy" by Ashley Olafsson
CCS 202 Blog Post #2

James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein branches out of the horror film genre and reaches into the comedic genre. There are multiple time that while watching the movie the audience finds themselves laughing rather than cringing in angst. Whale creates this comedic side to the movie by using lighting, setting, dialogue, and performance. However, despite the comedic side to the movie, Bride of Frankenstein definitely identifies with horror. As Rick Altman states, “Each film is imaged as an example of the overall genre, replicating the generic prototype in all basic characteristics. Thus films are often said to ‘belong to’ or to be ‘members of’ a genre” (Altman 18). Therefore, although splitting off at times into comedy, Whale keeps the horrific roots, having the audience satisfied by the movie’s classification with the horror genre and being a member of that genre group.

One of the first time we see comedy displayed is with a minor character, Minnie. “Minnie is the burgomaster’s most vocal challenger, demanding the satisfaction of seeing the monster’s roasted remains” (Conger and Welsch 247). It is her performance and dialogue in the scene where she sees the monster that the audience cannot help but laugh at her childish screaming. She runs hysterically back to town screaming, “He’s alive! The monster is alive!” Whale’s portrayal of Minnie in this scene is much exaggerated and “she is difficult to take seriously even when she is responding to a genuine threat” (Conger and Welsch 247-248). However, once the laugher in this scene subsides, it is also the same performance that does cause fear; no one in town does take her seriously and therefore, the audience does not know what is going to happen with the monster since no one knows the monster is back. The audience then finds fear as they want the townspeople to take Minnie seriously in order to prepare for the return of the monster.

Another part of the movie that is comedic is when the monster meets the blind man. The monsters childlike portrayal in this scene makes the audience laugh out loud as the blind man attempts at teaching the monster simple words. “Spoken with great effort by the awkward man-monster-child, the words are at once funny and poignant” (Conger and Welsch 248). The monster thoroughly enjoys the music the blind man plays for him and his awkwardness and childlike innocence make us forget we are supposed to fear him. It is not only the performance that brings comedy upon us during this scene, but also the lighting and setting. The lighting is bright and cheerful and the setting friendly, which is not typical during a horror movie. However, after the scene ends, we are once reminded that we are watching a horror movie; two men come and try to attack the monster and as the monster attempts at running away, the blind man’s house goes up in flames and the setting is again dark and fearful. The majority of the movie is “a strange, alienated word through distorting diagonals and shadows” (Conger and Welsh 248) and when we comedy is thrown at us, we forget what else we have seen for a split moment.

Yet another part of the movie that displays area of comedy is when Praetorius shows all his creations to Henry. He unveils his creations one by one, displaying a king, a queen, an archbishop, a ballerina, a mermaid, and a devil. Initially, we see these creations in a playful light as the king tries to escape to be with the queen and we find humor in Praetorius catching him and putting him back in his jar. As the king gnaws on a drumstick and the ballerina dances, we find them charming and amusing. However, we are then reminded of the grotesque side to the creations as Praetorius is rather creepy and Henry accuses him of black magic. Speaking about the creations, “they break laws of proportion, they fuse the realms of human and animal, land and sea, life and death, they link together the natural and the unnatural, and invoke the demonic” (Conger and Welsch 250). Moreover, while they seem cute and little and the audience laughs as the king annoys the queen and tries to get her attention, we see that they too, play a role in the horror side of the film.

Bride of Frankenstein does make the audience laugh at times and by use of distinct elements, Whale displays these comedic traits. However, if we dig deeper into the comedy side of the movie, we see that what is making us laugh has horrific qualities as well. Altman continues to state in his chapter on film genre, “While the inconclusive lists provided at the end of many genre studies show great concern to divide the genre into constitutive subgenres, they almost never reveal any doubt about whether each and every film deserves to be considered as a token of the genre in question” (Altman 9). We can see that even though Bride of Frankenstein splits into comedy at times, it remains to be identified with the horror film for there is even horror in the parts of the movie that make the audience laugh.

Works Cited

Altman, Rick. "What is Generally Understood by the Notion of Film Genre?" Film/Genre. London: British Film Institute, 1999. 13-28. Print.

Conger, Sydney M., and Janice R. Welsch. "The Comic and the Grotesque in James Whale's Frankenstein Films." (1984): 240-54. Print.