Film Forum

U.S., 1935
Directed by James Whale
With Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester
Approx. 75 min. DCP.

“To new worlds of gods and monsters!” Karloff’s Monster learns from the blind hermit to enjoy a good smoke and speak, Elsa Lanchester alternates doom-laden pronouncements as author/storyteller Mary Shelley, and shrieks as the crazily-coiffed Bride; and Ernest Thesiger’s avatar of camp Dr. Pretorius rhapsodizes over his bottled homunculi, in Whale’s ghoulishly humorous masterpiece.

Reviews

“Strong on atmosphere, Gothic sets, and expressionist camerawork, a delight from start to finish.”
 – Time Out

“Another astonishing chapter in the career of the Monster.”
– Frank S. Nugent, The New York Times

“It’s satirical, exciting, funny, and an influential masterpiece of art direction.”
– Roger Ebert