Editing Bride of Frankenstein (section)

===Gay reading===  
[[File:Bride of frankenstein 1935 still 03.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Elsa Lanchester]] as the [[Bride of Frankenstein (character)|Bride of Frankenstein]].]]
In the decades since its release, modern film scholars have noted the possible [[gay]] interpretations of the film. Director James Whale was openly gay, and some of the actors in the cast, including Ernest Thesiger and, according to rumor, Colin Clive, were respectively gay or [[bisexual]].<ref name=Bright>{{cite journal| last =Morris| first =Gary| title =Sexual Subversion: The Bride of Frankenstein| journal =[[Bright Lights Film Journal]]| issue =19| date =July 1997| url =http://brightlightsfilm.com/sexual-subversion-bride-frankenstein/| access-date =January 7, 2008}}</ref> Although James Curtis, Whale's biographer, rejects the notion that Whale would have identified with the Monster from a homosexual perspective,<ref name="Curtis, p. 144">Curtis, p. 144</ref> scholars have perceived a gay [[subtext]] suffused through the film, especially a [[Camp (style)|camp]] sensibility,<ref>Skal, p. 184</ref> particularly embodied in the character of Pretorius and his relationship with Henry.

Gay film historian [[Vito Russo]], in considering Pretorius, stops short of identifying the character as gay, instead referring to him as "[[sissy|sissified]]",<ref>Russo, p. 50</ref> "sissy" itself being Hollywood code for "homosexual". Pretorius serves as a "gay [[Mephistopheles]]",<ref name = skal185 /> a figure of seduction and temptation, going so far as to pull Frankenstein away from his bride on their wedding night to engage in the unnatural act of creating non-procreative life. A novelization of the film published in the United Kingdom made the implication clear, having Pretorius say to Frankenstein: "Be fruitful and multiply. Let us obey the Biblical injunction: you of course, have the choice of natural means; but as for me, I am afraid that there is no course open to me but the scientific way".<ref>Egremont, Michael, quoted in Skal, p. 189</ref>

The Monster, whose affections for the male hermit and the female Bride he discusses with identical language ("friend") has been interpreted as sexually "unsettled" and bisexual.<ref name = Bright /> Gender studies author Elizabeth Young writes: "He has no innate understanding that the male-female bond he is to forge with the bride is assumed to be the primary one or that it carries a different sexual valence from his relationships with [Pretorius and the hermit]: all affective relationships are as easily 'friendships' as 'marriages'".<ref>Young, p. 134</ref> Indeed, his relationship with the hermit has been interpreted as a [[same-sex marriage]] that heterosexual society will not tolerate: "No mistake – this is a marriage, and a viable one ... But Whale reminds us quickly that society does not approve. The monster – the outsider – is driven from his scene of domestic pleasure by two gun-toting rubes who happen upon this startling alliance and quickly, instinctively, proceed to destroy it", writes cultural critic Gary Morris for ''Bright Lights Film Journal''.<ref name = Bright /> The creation of the Bride scene, Morris continues, is "Whale's reminder to the audience – his Hollywood bosses, peers, and everyone watching – of the majesty and power of the homosexual creator".<ref name = Bright />

Filmmaker [[Curtis Harrington]], a friend and confidant of Whale's, dismissed this as "a younger critic's evaluation. All artists do work that comes out of the unconscious mind and later on you can analyze it and say the symbolism may mean something, but artists don't think that way and I would bet my life that James Whale would never have had such concepts in mind".<ref name=fir>{{cite news |last=Del Valle |first=David |author-link=David Del Valle |title=Curtis Harrington on James Whale |work=Films in Review |date=November 29, 2009 |page=3 |url=http://www.filmsinreview.com/2009/11/29/curtis-harrington-on-james-whale/3/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718030330/http://www.filmsinreview.com/2009/11/29/curtis-harrington-on-james-whale/3/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 18, 2011 |access-date=June 10, 2010}}</ref> Specifically in response to the "majesty and power" reading, Harrington stated: "My opinion is that's just pure bullshit. That's a critical interpretation that has nothing to do with the original inspiration".<ref name = fir /> He concludes: "I think the closest you can come to a homosexual metaphor in his films is to identify that certain sort of camp humor".<ref name = fir /> Whale's companion [[David Lewis (producer)|David Lewis]] stated flatly that Whale's sexual orientation was "not germane" to his filmmaking: "Jimmy was first and foremost an artist, and his films represent the work of an artist – not a gay artist, but an artist".<ref name="Curtis, p. 144"/>
[[File:Bride of Frankenstein (1935 pictorial snipe).jpg|thumb|center|upright=2.3|1930s Universal's art director [[Karoly Grosz (illustrator)|Karoly Grosz]] designed this offbeat 1935 advertisement.]]