Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) narrowly survives his Monster's (Boris Karloff) rampage. However, his monster did as well, continuing his rampage across the countryside while developing a personality and conscience. Dr. Frankenstein's approached by an old colleague, Dr. Praetorius (Ernest Thesiger), who enlists Frankenstein in a new reanimation project. Frankenstein's reluctant until Praetorious befriends his monster, who holds Henry's fiancée Elizabeth (Valerie Hobson) hostage until he creates the Monster's bride (Elsa Lanchester).
Bride of Frankenstein markedly improves upon Frankenstein, from the cast down. Boris Karloff continues his remarkable work, finding humanity in the Monster's every gesture and fumbling attempts at speech. Elsa Lanchester's frazzle-haired, hissing Bride makes an indelible impression with fleeting screen time. Colin Clive reprises his role, but Valerie Hobson and E.E. Clive (as the Burgomeister) replace and best their predecessors. Ernest Thesiger's delightfully demented Praetorius nearly steals the show. Only Una O'Connor's shrill maid queers the pitch.
Whale's original was content being an efficient monster mash with glimmers of pathos. Bride is a far more nervy work, pitting Frankenstein's misguided idealism against Praetorius's wild ambition. He's already created miniature homunculi (achieved through clever visual effects) and dreams of birthing a full-sized master race through science. Spouting eugenicist homilies apropos for Lysenko and Mengele and holding hostages to ensure compliance, he's more unnervingly real than your average mad scientist.
Whale and writer William Hurlbut further amplify the original, developing the Monster from brute to reluctant human. He slowly learns speech but his efforts to connect with humanity prove disastrous; he rescues a woman, only to be shot by a pair of hunters. The most moving scene shows the Monster befriending a blind hermit (O.P. Heggie) who charms Frankenstein with Schubert and cigars. It's a sweet interlude tragically interrupted; the Monster's so desperate for friendship that he submits to Praetorius's whims. Frankenstein wants nothing to do with his creation; the villain offers him a wife.
Bride's direction proves especially effective, with Whale interlacing the original's long takes and crane shots with jolting close-ups and jarring Dutch angles, heightening his characters' madness and desperation. It builds to an explosive climax, when the Monster grants Frankenstein absolution after seeing Praetorius's true face. He's so pathetically happy in death that the finale seems poignant. Not bad for a monosyllabic monster.