Silver Screen Queer Camp at Benaroya’s Frankenstein Feature

The hall goes dark, and the orchestra swells. As the music crescendos, the title card appears: Karloff in The Bride of Frankenstein!

For an extra special (and extra spooky) Halloween treat, Benaroya Hall hosted a unique double feature presentation of the classic Bride of Frankenstein and Mel Brooks’s parody of the franchise, Young Frankenstein.

The hook? Orchestral accompaniment for the Bride! The Seattle Symphony performed Franz Waxman’s iconic gothic score under the guidance of conductor Nicholas Buc, who also conducted the world premieres of the live performances of several of John Williams’s movie scores, so he is no stranger to Hollywood orchestral maneuvers.

Bride of Frankenstein is the 1935 sequel to Universal’s hit film Frankenstein, which notably had no score whatsoever. Starring Boris Karloff as the titular monster (forever confusing people who read the book) and Elsa Lanchester as his unenthusiastic bride, Bride of Frankenstein has only grown in popularity since its release nearly a century ago. It is considered a masterpiece of cinematic gothic horror and is often cited as being one of the only sequels to outshine its predecessor not only in popularity but also in quality.

Noted for both its high degrees of quality and camp, it is also a very queer film. Both director James Whale and actor Ernest Thesiger, who portrayed the extremely queer-coded Doctor Septimus Pretorius, were both out gay men. Pretorius in particular is shown as a classic gay villain, luring the moldable Henry Frankenstein from his bed on his wedding night to perform a most sinful act: creating life without sex.

As a lifelong horror and camp enthusiast, I am overly acquainted with all of Universal’s monster movies. The medium in which we experience art, however, can always heighten our appreciation of it. Frankenstein’s musical void is infamous, and while I knew the choice to include music in the sequel was a big deal (particularly from Waxman, who produced scores for other classics like Sunset Boulevard), I couldn’t fully appreciate why until I was sitting in front of an orchestra, hearing it in all its glory. The drama, the horror, the anticipation—all elevated.

It was a good reminder for a jaded horror veteran that the intention of older films is often lost in our modern interpretations. Yes, we appreciate the camp of The Bride, but do we also appreciate her sincerity and sorrow? When the Monster is driven again and again from each refuge, it’s easy to feel his pain in the reverberations of the strings on the stage.

Igor, Frankenstein, and Inga in Young Frankenstein / Supergia Cinema

I never thought I would include the word “unfortunately” when talking about getting to watch Mel Brooks’s iconic Young Frankenstein, but time makes fools of us all. Unfortunately, the Frankenstein double feature at Benaroya only featured live music for the first film and not the second. While it would have been a more cohesive experience, at the end of the day, I still got to see Young Frankenstein on the big screen for the first time. And to see it juxtaposed against one of the core films it spoofs was an especially good treat. While Young Frankenstein pokes good-natured fun at all five of the original Universal Frankenstein films, the most obvious influences are from the first two.

It is an altogether different experience to know that Brooks reused a lot of Kenneth Strickfaden’s original props and to see them side-by-side in different but eerily familiar labs, the only true difference being that one is inhabited by Colin Clive and the other by a wild-eyed Gene Wilder. The hermit scenes were an interesting contrast: one is a barely concealed depiction of gay domesticity while the other is a slapstick comedy of errors.

While I would have enjoyed having orchestral accompaniments for both films, the double feature was still a wonderful and seasonally appropriate experience. Personally, I’ve watched both Young Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein to death. Yet Benaroya offered the unique privilege of getting to experience them in a different light.

Getting to see the electrically-fried bride, one of the most iconic figures in horror movie history, with an entire orchestra backing up every hiss and each dramatic tilt of her head felt a bit like being transported back to even before the Bride’s time. (Most films had live accompaniment before the advent of talkies.) Finally, adding Young Frankenstein to the mix highlighted the artistry of the parody and showcased Brooks and Wilder’s reverence for the original films.

---

**Editor’s Note: With love and respect to Teri Garr, 1944-1924, known for playing Inga in Young Frankenstein.