SOURCE: "Sexual References in James Whale's 'Bride of Frankenstein'," in Eros in the Mind's Eye: Sexuality and the Fantastic in Art and Film, edited by Donald Palumbo, Greenwood Press, 1986, pp. 141-50.

In the following essay, Norden discusses sexual themes and motifs in Bride of Frankenstein.

The few critical evaluations of the cult favorite Bride of Frankenstein (1935), directed by James Whale, have largely been limited to explorations of the film's horrific and humorous qualities. Critics have commonly observed that Bride, an early example of the American horror film, is a worthy successor to the original Frankenstein (1931), also directed by Whale. New York Times film critic Frank Nugent, one of the earliest to recognize the importance of the film to the genre, termed it "a first-rate horror film" in a 1935 review. Bride's reputation as a masterpiece of horror remains undiminished, as is indicated by Michael G. Fitzgerald's late-1970s classification...