Bride of Frankenstein : Why couldn't they get Elizabeth's hair color right?

Why couldn't they get Elizabeth's hair color right?

In the original, bride-to-be Elizabeth was a blonde. Then she was a brunette. It kills the continuity with a totally different woman. Perhaps we should overlook the different sets between the two movies, but it's hard to resolve this glaring difference. Perhaps they thought, after 4 years had passed (release dates), no one would remember the first Elizabeth was a blonde?

Re: Why couldn't they get Elizabeth's hair color right?

James Whale selected another actress, because Mae Clarke had been injured in an auto accident, and was hospitalized at the time. She had also suffered a nervous breakdown from overwork around the same time, and probably needed a good rest.

Like it or not, stars DO get changed, and sometimes for the better. Valerie Hobson was far better for the "Fractured Fairytale" BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, just as Mae was better for the overly serious Original FRANKENSTEIN of 1931.

Valerie was also under contract to UNIVERSAL at the time, so it saved the Laemmles from having to pay a Loan Out Fee.

(As it was, they probably had to pay Warner Brothers to get Clive back.)







I do hope he won't upset Henry...

Re: Why couldn't they get Elizabeth's hair color right?

Not to mention the glaring difference of her having a different face, along with a number of others.

"Ludwig," the father of the drowned Maria, is now "Hans" and played by an actor (Reginald Barlow) 20 years older than the original one (Michael Mark); the Burgomaster is slick-haired, nasal and wiry E.E. Clive in place of burly, blustery and white-maned Lionel Belmore in the original.

We've been having a discussion in just the last couple days on the Son Of Frankenstein board about various inconsistencies between films (in the "Castle set design" thread). Speaking purely in matters of casting, out of the first four "pure Frankenstein" films, Bela Lugosi is the only actor not to have had the role he created (Ygor) played by another actor at some point (it's tempting to add Colin Clive, but even his role, that of Henry, showed up as a ghost in the fourth film played by Cedric Hardwicke, who was also playing son Ludwig).

If extended to the following three, we can add Lon Chaney as Larry Talbot and John Carradine as Dracula (and if the Abbott and Costello entry is counted, that knocks Carradine out).


Poe! You are...avenged!

Re: Why couldn't they get Elizabeth's hair color right?

I had always considered Hans and his wife to be Maria's GRANDPARENTS. Doting Grandparents would certainly call a grandchild "Our little Maria".

The same with the Burgomaster. Lionel Belmore was at MGM, working on MARK OF THE VAMPIRE at the time, so the Town of Goldstadt simply chose a new Burgomaster.

I haven't seen the 1940's Frankenstein films in years: "NO KARLOFF" is the main reason, the other is that the stories are about as appealing as the thought of Count Dracula wearing a ZOOT SUIT.






I do hope he won't upset Henry...

Re: Why couldn't they get Elizabeth's hair color right?


I had always considered Hans and his wife to be Maria's GRANDPARENTS.
Well now, there's a possibility. Works as well as any other, I guess. And suggests an answer to "Mrs. Hans'" question, "Maria drowned to death and you burned up...what should I do then?" She'll always have Ludwig...or would have, if it hadn't been made moot a moment later, anyway.


Lionel Belmore was at MGM, working on MARK OF THE VAMPIRE at the time, so the Town of Goldstadt simply chose a new Burgomaster.
They sure worked fast. Belmore was the one who organzied the search parties and sent them out with torches that evening, and by the time they burned the windmill, they already had another. They must have voted on the road.

Actually, Belmore was right there on the scene in the original after Henry's been thrown from the mill, instructing, "Bring him down to the village and let's take him home."

The scene was rewritten and restaged for Bride, with E.E. Clive issuing the instructions: "Ride as fast as you can to the castle and tell the old Baron Frankenstein we are bringing his son home."

Incidentally, Belmore appeared in ten films in '35, and Mark Of the Vampire wasn't among them. At any rate, if Whale had wanted him, I'm sure Belmore could have squeezed in a couple day's work on Bride, but it appears a more comically pompous and ineffectual direction for the character was the one in which Whale wanted to go.


Poe! You are...avenged!

Re: Why couldn't they get Elizabeth's hair color right?

We're both right, Doghouse....but Lionel Belmore WAS listed in the AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE Cast records for MARK OF THE VAMPIRE. No Character name was given, so he was probably in either background shots or edited out.

I'll stick with my original theory...









I do hope he won't upset Henry...

Re: Why couldn't they get Elizabeth's hair color right?

A-ha! I appreciate that further info. Y'know, even after all these years, it's still a wonder to me that imdb manages to be as comprehensive as it does with a seemingly impossible volume of data collection.


Poe! You are...avenged!
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