She's Alive! Creating the Bride of Frankenstein Page #3

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had gained weight...

He wasn't as cadaverous.

I think success...

He was able to eat more and

unfortunately he had a little fuller face.

But one of the biggest changes

was the results of the fire.

So they singed his hair off

and gave him almost this crew cut,

which through the film grows,

which I thought was pretty neat.

His make-up goes through four

or five stages of regeneration,

allowing him to grow both visually

as well as spiritually as the film unfolds.

They gave him a burn on his hand and

a bit of a burn on this side of his face.

But other than that the make-up

was basically the same.

The flat head, and they still had

the electrodes in the brow.

Just a slightly fuller face with a few

little burn scars and the singed-off hair.

A great make-up.

Actually there was another change.

In the original make-up, he only had one

clamp on his head - this side actually.

It was something they didn't notice

for the longest time.

You would see pictures from the Bride,

and you saw the two big clamps, the little

ones in-between and the ones on the side.

I used to always assume that was

the same on the original make-up.

Later, when I started looking at it,

I said "He only has one clamp."

During the filming of Frankenstein,

Karloff sustained a serious back injury,

and suffered many discomforts due to

the weighted boots and padded costume.

For the sequel, efforts were made

to lessen the ordeal.

I'm sure they treated him more like a star,

because he was successful with

Frankenstein and some films after that.

I think that, in the original, the top of his

head was probably fabricated each day,

built up out of cotton and collodion.

In the Bride and the Son later on,

there was a rubber forehead that went on,

which probably sped up the process

for Boris and Jack.

I know they gave Karloff a slant board,

because he still couldn't quite sit down.

I have a picture in my office of him in this

great slant board, drinking a cup of tea.

The make-up posed technical challenges

for cinematographer John Mescall,

who required special lighting

for the monster's skin tones.

Jack Pierce's make-up for the monster

essentially was a blue-green colour.

This was not due to any belief in

a colour aesthetic for the monster.

But if the monster were photographed

wearing this shade of greasepaint,

on orthochromatic film,

and if he was lit as Mescall lit him,

with blue-gelled light,

he would read as dead white.

Mescall had red added into the make-up

of those who had scenes with the monster

and often trained warmer lights on them.

The make-up for the Bride of

Frankenstein is an absolute masterpiece.

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