For those hording toilet paper

I'm just happy yet sad. Happy that I had a chance to see both Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein back to back at a theater. Sad that it was over. As I was driving home on the Natchez Trace from the city, I was dwelling on how this probably would have felt even more special had it been on the weekend early in October when I wasn't as tired as now. I was weary because of working all day. I had recently watched Frankenstein and wrote a giant review on it, so that kind of took a bit of the magic away, but not much. I tell you the incredible Universal Studios sets really wow on the theater screen, especially in Bride. I think Bride was just a blast for me, although as I was watching--and on the way home while mulling it over--I think its overly camp nature (and Una O Conner) could be a detriment to newcomers who might consider her ravings a bit much. I just giggled to myself at the macabre antics of Pretorius (like in the mausoleum while sipping some liquor and snacking, toasting a skull and bones from the crypt he was thinking of looting or comparing himself to the Satan he created from scratch into a doll like size held in a jar) and was astounded at the Christ imagery that just seemed to stand out to me all throughout the film. I feel now watching them back to back, so intently and passionately, that the distinction is totally tone and I just feel you get all of Whale in Bride while a lot of the first is Robert Florey (Whale had yet to really solidify his films with that warped sense of humor I truly appreciate). There are a lot of dramatic poses (I'm just not a fan of Valerie Hobson, who I think is just too prone to stage-style theatrics, perhaps what Whale intended considering the opening has the "rolling his r's" actor portraying Lord Byron also laying it on thick) and shots of faces in the throes of heightened emotions. I laughed my ass off at Hobson's apparition experience, finally collapsing on Baron Frankenstein's bed. O Conner's screeching could certainly turn off a lot of people, although I just ate this silly baloney up. What hurt the experience of the first Frankenstein was that as the movie was running I all of a sudden had to urinate and yet I didn't want to miss a single moment so I held on until the end. I hate when that happens.