Reception
Bride of Frankenstein was profitable for Universal, with a 1943 report showing that the film had by then earned approximately $2 million ($26.9 million as of 2012) for the studio, a profit of about $950,000 ($12.8 million as of 2012). The film was critically praised upon its release, although some reviewers did qualify their opinions based on the film's being in the horror genre. The New York World-Telegram called the film "good entertainment of its kind". The New York Post described it as "a grotesque, gruesome tale which, of its kind, is swell". The Hollywood Reporter similarly called the film "a joy for those who can appreciate it".
Variety did not so qualify its review. " one of those rare instances where none can review it, or talk about it, without mentioning the cameraman, art director, and score composer in the same breath as the actors and director." Variety also praised the cast, writing that "Karloff manages to invest the character with some subtleties of emotion that are surprisingly real and touching ... Thesiger as Dr Pretorious a diabolic characterization if ever there was one ... Lanchester handles two assignments, being first in a preamble as author Mary Shelley and then the created woman. In latter assignment she impresses quite highly."
In another unqualified review, Time wrote that the film had "a vitality that makes their efforts fully the equal of the original picture ... Screenwriters Hurlbut & Balderston and Director James Whale have given it the macabre intensity proper to all good horror pieces, but have substituted a queer kind of mechanistic pathos for the sheer evil that was Frankenstein." The Oakland Tribune concurred it was "a fantasy produced on a rather magnificent scale, with excellent stagecraft and fine photographic effects". While the Winnipeg Free Press thought that the electrical equipment might have been better suited to Buck Rogers, nonetheless the reviewer praised the film as "exciting and sometimes morbidly gruesome", declaring that "All who enjoyed Frankenstein will welcome his Bride as a worthy successor." The New York Times called Karloff "so splendid in the role that all one can say is 'he is the Monster.'" The Times praised the entire principal cast and Whale's direction in concluding that Bride is "a first-rate horror film", and presciently suggested that "The Monster should become an institution, like Charlie Chan." Bride was nominated for one Academy Award, for Best Sound Recording (Gilbert Kurland).
The film's reputation has persisted and grown since its release. In 1998, the film was added to the United States National Film Registry, having been deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". Frequently identified as James Whale's masterpiece, the film is lauded as "the finest of all gothic horror movies". Time rated Bride of Frankenstein in its "ALL-TIME 100 Movies", in which critics Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel overruled the magazine's original review to declare the film "one of those rare sequels that is infinitely superior to its source". In 2008, Bride was selected by Empire magazine as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. Also in 2008, the Boston Herald named it the second greatest horror film after Nosferatu. Entertainment Weekly considers the film superior to Frankenstein.
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