The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Film of the Week!

It's that time of year again.  Fall has finally fallen, the weather's at least a little cooler, it's a dreary, grey Saturday (which I love), fake skeletons are popping up in peoples' yards, and there is a generally spooky vihe in the air.  I have to be honest, it works for me.  Hallowe'en is in a couple of weeks and it's time to dig out the scary movies.  As I wrote last year, unlike a lot of people my age--and certainly unlike those younger than me--I do tend to like the old black and white Universal horror movies that were made from the 1930s through the 1950s.

One thing I've noticed is that I do tend to like to laugh while being scared or just creeped out.  Ghostbusters and Beetlejuice are two classics from my childhood that I still love to watch and, sadly, quote... whether anyone wants me to or not.  My friend Paul and I used to thow out quotes from Ghostbusters whenever we could think of one that was appropriate in that particular circumstance.  I'm still proud of the fact that one time in my life, I was in a position where I could say, "I'm worried--it's getting crowded in there and all of my recent data points to something big on the horizon."  Eh... you kind of had to be there.

And as much as I adore Mel Brooks's 1974 classic Young Frankenstein--and I do--I kind of wish I had seen the original Universal films beforehand.  As funny as Young Frankenstein is, it's even funnier if you've seen what was made 40 years earlier.  When I first watched the original 1931 Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff as the monster, I kept playing out scenes from Young Frankenstein in my head.  At one point, as Henry Frankenstein's assistant Fritz (played by the underappreciated Dwight Frye) slowly rises to watch the burial going on below, I found myself uttering, "Get down, you fool!"  Suddenly I heard Henry (played by Colin Clive) push down on Fritz's shoulder and say, "Get down, you fool!"  This phenomenon occurred even more as I watched the subsequent films.

This is not to say that I didn't enjoy these movies.  Quite the opposite.  Frankenstein--the monster--is one of the most heartbreaking characters in cinema.  And the fact that we still refer to him as a monster tells me that after 95 years (more than 200 if you count Mary Shelley's novel), most people don't seem to get that.  He was just a man who wanted to be loved.  Yes, he was stitched together from various pieces of various dead people, reanimated, and brought back from the dead, but he was still a man who just wanted friendship and companionship.  He didn't think of himself as a monster (in spite of his sometimes murderous tendencies), he just didn't want to be feared and ostracized by everyone.

This week's film is the second film in the storied Frankenstein franchise ("Frankise"?).  If you've only seen Young Frankenstein, it references this film even more than its predecessor.  In this week's film, it would appear that the monster survived the destruction of the windmill at the end of the first film (SPOILER ALERT!).  While he's inadvertently terrorizing the villagers, a doctor/scientist blackmails Dr. Henry Frankenstein into working with him to ultimately create a mate for the monster he created.

Boris Karloff returns for his second of three appearances as Frankenstein's creation.  He would also go on to appear in 1944's House of Frankenstein, but as a wholly different character.  Colin Clive also reprises his role as the mad doctor, this time working under duress.  Dwight Frye also returns, this time as Karl (Fritz was killed in the previous film).  And in a dual role, the great Elsa Lanchester makes one of cinema's great entrances (in one of those roles).  British director James Whale, who helmed the original Frankenstein, as well as 1933's The Invisible Man, ties the whole thing together with a flair for both horror and humour.   So in honour of Una O'Connor's 140th birthday this week, from 1935, please enjoy what I think is one of the greatest sequels ever made, The Bride of Frankenstein.

 

The Album of the Week "sermon" is being delayed for technical reasons.  I hope to have it up within the next day or so. 

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill