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FRANKENSTEIN, 1931
Original Theater Used Vintage Photo Still (8x10")
Starring Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Mae Clarke
Historic 1931 Frankenstein scene with bride Mae Clarke!
The Frankenstein Masterpiece scene most people forgot!
Mae Clark's show-stopping scene occurs during the wedding party sequence where Elizabeth makes a grand entrance wearing one of the cinema’s most stunning bridal gowns. As the camera traces her every movement we watch transfixed as the lithe actress elegantly maneuvers through doorways and around furniture while her 15-foot tulle veil trails behind her. When the camera finally catches up to Elizabeth, she confronts her fiancé confessing her fears and trepidation about the day.
The scene emphasizes her character’s vulnerability and compassionate nature but Frankenstein ignores her warnings and abandons his distraught bride. His abandonment allows the monster to enter the room through an open window and it attacks her, leaving Elizabeth’s bruised and battered virginal body strewn across a bed. It’s a startling scene and remarkable for its grotesque beauty that recalls Henry Fuseli’s 18th-century painting “The Nightmare” which Mary Shelly referenced in her novel when describing Elizabeth’s murder at the hands of Frankenstein’s monster. Director James Whale, along with the various scriptwriters, undoubtedly used the original text as a reference but in this film Mae Clarke’s character lives to see another day although it seems likely she was driven mad by the horrific events that transpired.
More Fascinating Bio on Mae Clark:
It’s worth pointing out that Clarke was truly frightened by Boris Karloff in his makeup and found his ghastly appearance terrifying. Her screams in FRANKENSTEIN are genuine and derive from her own fears although before filming began she and Karloff discussed her feelings and came up with a way to lessen her anxieties. In Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff: The Expanded Story of a Haunting Collaboration, she described how the two actors collaborated before shooting the infamous bedroom attack so she wouldn’t “fall prey to hysterics.”
“When we rehearsed, I said, ‘Boris, what are we going to do about this? When we play it, and I have all my motors running, and turn and see you, I’ll fall to the floor! I won’t make the bed!’ Boris said, ‘Mae, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. When you turn around my one arm is up–camera; focus on the little finger. I’ll be wiggling it and you’ll know that it’s Boris in make-up.’ So I looked at Boris’s little finger (and it was a little finger compared to the rest of him!) and I was all right–just!”
– Mae Clarke, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff: The Expanded Story of a Haunting Collaboration
After appearing in FRANKENSTEIN, Clarke’s career should have continued to soar but it suddenly began to fizzle. Various personal problems, including two troubled marriages, the stress of being financially responsible for her parents as well as two younger siblings, compounded by a serious car accident that left her with facial scarring; eventually led to multiple mental breakdowns and lengthy hospital stays. The actress, who enjoyed writing poetry in her free time, was often described as “moody” by the press but these moods were hard to control.
“I’m jiggered. I tell myself, ‘you’ve got a good job, you’re young and healthy, you’ve got your family here, you’ve got a nice home–of course, it isn’t all paid for yet, but still you’ve got it – you get nice notices for your work’–but it doesn’t do any good. All I can think of is to talk back to myself and say ‘Well–and so what?’”
– Mae Clarke, Screen Land magazine 1932
Following her very public breakdowns, Clarke was considered unreliable and troublesome by the same Hollywood executives and journalists who had helped make her a star. Even her mentor James Whale, who had previously directed her in three films (WATERLOO BRIDGE, FRANKENSTEIN, and THE IMPATIENT MAIDEN), seemed to lose confidence in Clarke. When it came time to cast the film’s sequel in 1935, Whale reunited many of the original cast members including Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Dwight Frye, and Marilyn Harris, who had played the monster’s young victim, but the role of Elizabeth was offered to a 17-year-old budding starlet named Valerie Hobson.
According to Gregory William Mank’s Women In Horror Films: 1930s, Clarke was devastated that she hadn’t been asked to return to the role she made famous and work with a cast and crew that she was once called “family.” And although she continued to work in Hollywood, Clarke reportedly never recovered from that professional blow and in later years she often referred to herself as “the real Bride of Frankenstein.”
After the starring roles dried up she was eventually reduced to taking bit parts and uncredited roles in various films and television shows but despite numerous career setbacks and personal hurdles, the wraith-like appearance of Mae Clarke laying lifeless across her bridal bed in FRANKENSTEIN has become one of horror cinema’s most iconic images. Magnificently macabre and endlessly alluring, the original “Bride of Frankenstein” remains a fascinating figure in the minds and imaginations of classic horror fans.
Spectacular Sepia tone Vintage 1931 publicity photo still (8x10") of Mae Clark as Dr Frankenstein's bride just after being attacked by the Monster . NOT a reprint or re-release but an ORIGINAL from 1931 with the Original Studio number in lower corner. Very good with indications of theater use with pinholes on corners, especially for being over 90 years old.
Note: The number in lower corner of the still photo represents the movie scene for that particular film. So for example all studio production photos for Frankenstein start with 310 and the number of the scene.
* See enlargeable images above
Frankenstein, the classic 1931 James Whale Universal monster horror thriller ("The monster that terrorized the world!"; "The Man Who Made a Monster"; "Warning! The monster is loose!"; "Based upon the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Story"; "Adapted by John L. Balderston from the play by Peggy Webling"; the first of the Universal "Frankenstein" movies, and regarded as one of the finer movies of any genre, in large part due to the marvelous acting of Boris Karloff, and the marvelous direction of James Whale!) starring Colin Clive (as Dr. Herbert V. Frankenstein), Boris Karloff (as the Frankenstein monster), Edward Van Sloan, Fredric Kerr, Mae Clarke, Dwight Frye (extremely memorable as Fritz), and John Boles
Note: cvtreasures stamp Not on original photo
