:54:38
Here's another Whale trademark: Moving
his camera through the wall of a set.
:54:43
The watchtower set
from the first film is revisited,
:54:45
with a crossbeam
now spanning the staircase -
:54:49
just in case one feels like hanging oneself
from a convenient rafter.
:54:54
The mordant pleasantries
about slimy steps
:54:56
and the charms of the house are ad-libs.
:54:59
The next four minutes are mainly
the contribution of John Balderston.
:55:02
The immediate necessity of a fresh heart
is a full incident retained from his script.
:55:07
Pretorius's line to Henry
about "once upon a time
:55:09
being burnt at the stake as wizards
for the experiment" is rather ingenuous.
:55:13
He fails to consider
that kidnapping, grave-robbing,
:55:16
corpse mutilation and murdering
young girls for their body parts -
:55:20
have I forgotten anything? - Might
merit the gallows, if not the stake.
:55:23
This line was spoken in Balderston's
script by a professor of anatomy,
:55:27
while energising dead frog parts
with a galvanic battery.
:55:31
In his screenplay,
Balderston shamelessly rehashed
:55:34
the medical-school business
of the first film,
:55:36
even to reviving
the deceased hunchback Fritz.
:55:39
Apparently nothing is impossible
when your boss is Dr Frankenstein.
:55:43
Fritz procures a desiccated specimen,
:55:45
enraging Henry, who demands a fresh
one, and offers the 1,000-crown bounty.
:55:49
Fritz obliges - in the Great Depression
people would do anything for money.