A June Bride to Die For- “Bride of Frankenstein” Tonight!

June is the traditional month associated with brides, and , in the horror genre, one of the most honored brides is the lady who is the title mate in our feature tonight on MeTV- ironically celebrating her 80th "anniversary" this year- the "Bride of Frankenstein"!

This film starts with the original story's authoress- Mary Shelley-revealing that there is more to her previous story- and the tale picks up right where the original "Frankenstein" film left off- the burning windmill is collapsing , after Henry has been thrown from the top of it by the Monster, and the crowd is bringing his "body" home. The father of the child the Monster threw into the water to her drowning doom remains by the ruins, wanting to make sure the Monster has indeed met its end- only to find out all too well- and tragically- that the Monster still lives!

Meanwhile, when Henry is brought back to his fiancee Elizabeth- all are astounded to find that he (just like the Monster he created) is indeed alive! As Henry is being nursed back to health- he is visited by a strange and menacing figure- one Dr. Pretorious- a mentor of Henry's who has also dabbled in the creation of life, with some startling results. He needs Henry's knowledge and expertise to finally create a true perfect living being- but Henry is very reluctant, knowing the dire results of his previous experiment.

Meanwhile, the Monster roams the countryside, is captured, and escapes again- finally finding solace with a blind hermit (yes, the basis for the famous scene in "Young Frankenstein"!) His final finding of a friend is pulled from his grasp when a couple hunters (one of whom is John Carradine) accidentally wander into the cabin and recognize the Monster! Again, the lonely creature is on the run- and  stumbles upon a crypt in a graveyard- where the wily Pretorius just happens to be "looking for parts"- and Pretorius takes advantage of  the chance meeting to use the Monster to insure Henry's cooperation in his experimentation- by threatening  the lovely Elizabeth's safety! Forced back to work in the laboratory, Henry joins Pretorius in the creation of- the Bride!

This classic 1935 film  is not only a top horror film, but also included in lists of the top films of all times. Karloff continues to add facets to the character of the Monster- including the addition of speech- and Dr. Pretorius, portrayed by Ernest Thesiger, is, without a doubt, a truly memorable addition to the Frankenstein film legend. We'll tell you all about the cast and the production, and bring you plenty of Sven fun, including a new song.

"Bride of Frankenstein" walks down the aisle known as MeTV tonight at 10 pm eastern/pacific, 9 pm central, or- check  your local listings. ( A note- hockey fans have our permission to dvr our show, in the event that the Stanley Cup finals game continues into our air time!) In Chicago, if you missed the Dawn Wells appearance last week in "Curucu: Beast of the Amazon"- you can see it this morning at 11 am on our sister station, WCIU, the U! Also, if you're in our area, remember that you can meet me today from 5 to 7 pm at the Brauerhouse in Lombard during the Hardcore Hearse Club show- you'll find full details on our site under "appearances".

A few viewers have asked why we aren't showing a special movie to salute Christopher Lee tonight- as much as we'd like to, first off- we would not have time to get that together in a day and a half; second, we do not have broadcast rights to his films, and thirdly, in this age of digital TV,the public domain films of his that we have prints of  are not of good enough visual quality that management would allow us to run them. However,we made it a point to record a brief salute that will air in the show tonight. I understand that a couple of the cable channels who DO have the rights will be running films soon in well-deserved tribute.

Tonight, though, we salute a "happy couple"- and invite you to sit on either the bride's or the groom's side of your TV set for a match made, not in Heaven, but far more locally- in a laboratory!