The most horrible horror of all is presenting your sweet little heart to that special someone — who promptly screams and staggers away from your monstrousness.
“Friend?” you beg. “Friend?” No dice, buddy. She may be alive, but she’s no friend of yours. If her hair hadn’t already been shocked into a tower of frizz by all that lightning and laboratory stuff, the sight of you would have done the job. That’s gotta hurt.
The terrible truth at its core — the monster is really just a lonely, sensitive, misunderstood dude — is what propels “Bride of Frankenstein” up lists of the greatest horror films ever made. Some say it’s the best ever. It’s one of those rare sequels that’s generally considered an improvement over the original.
The first “Frankenstein” film was released in 1931 to great acclaim and it still can scare the stuffing out of audiences — even though, some may snipe, it’s primitive, disjointed and slow to get moving when compared to today’s film fare. The best thing about “Frankenstein” was the humanity that actor Boris Karloff brought to the brick-headed monster.
If You Go
• What: Vancouver Toy Junkies mini-show and “Bride of Frankenstein” screening. A benefit for the Chris Bailey family and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
• When: 10 a.m. toy and record show; noon movie. Jan. 6.
• Where: Kiggins Theatre, 1011 Main St., Vancouver.
• Admission: Free, but donations accepted.
Did You Know?
• “Bride of Frankenstein” launched a career for Elsa Lanchester, who went on to appear in many movies and TV shows. She’s the cranky nanny who quits at the start of Disney’s “Mary Poppins.”
• The 1998 film “Gods and Monsters” is about the last days of James Whale, who directed “Frankenstein” and “Bride of Frankenstein.” The title comes from a line in “Bride,” as mad scientist Dr. Pretorius proposes a toast: “To a new world of gods and monsters!”
• A “Bride of Frankenstein” remake, rumored to star Javier Bardem and Angelia Jolie, was aiming for a February 2019 release, but has been delayed indefinitely.
That humanity comes through even stronger, and sadder, in the 1935 sequel, as the poor boy yearns for and then finally meets his lovely, big-haired bride.
“He smokes, he drinks, he talks. It’s funny and it’s scary,” said Michael McClafferty. “In the end, it breaks your heart. People can relate to that. When she recoils in horror, that’s the real horror story.”
Great cause
McClafferty has sponsored a free screening of “Bride of Frankenstein” along with a free mini-show of vintage toys and vinyl records by Vancouver Toy Junkies, a group he started a few years ago. The toy show starts at 10 a.m. Jan. 6 and the movie begins at noon.
The event is technically free, McClafferty said, but he’s sure hoping people will donate at least $1 each — which seems like a laughably small amount — to a great cause: fighting childhood leukemia.
That’s because one of his friends and regular toy vendors, Chris Bailey, recently suffered a terrible shock: his 11-year-old daughter, Kira, was diagnosed with leukemia. The Bailey family, from the Salem, Ore., area, is a proud and private one, McClafferty said, and at first they were reluctant to accept help from anyone. But their needs are piling up, said McClafferty, who figured a fundraising toy-and-movie event was the least he could do.
“I have an 11-year-old daughter” and three other children, McClafferty said. “I don’t know what I would do.”
All donations will be gratefully accepted and passed along to the Bailey family, he said; also, many participating toy vendors will donate a portion of their sales to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which is renowned as one of the top childhood cancer treatment and research facilities in the world.
Unadulterated
Why does a grown man buy, sell and trade vintage toys? Because he’s trying to recapture his youth, of course. McClafferty grew up in the era of the original “Star Wars,” he said, which completely took over his childhood for about a decade.
At age 14, he said, his parents sat him down and told him it was time to move on. Clearly, they failed.
“There’s a certain sensation you had as a child, when you got a new toy, when you opened it up,” McClafferty said. “Like on Christmas morning when you find something and get a shot of adrenaline. There’s pure pleasure. Pure joy. It’s unadulterated.”
McClafferty loves everything about vintage toys — even the beautiful packaging, he said. He started Vancouver Toy Junkies after an ongoing, collectible toy show in Portland imploded during the Great Recession. That seemed like a foolish time to start a replacement venture, he said, but he stuck to his guns — and stuck to Vancouver as the place where he’d always host his events. McClafferty, a longtime and familiar face at Vancouver Pizza and an organizer of the Uptown Village Association, is a dedicated Vancouver booster.
That’s another reason why he’s holding this free mash-up of great old toys and a great old film at the Kiggins Theatre, he said: to say thank you.
“Old classic movies are much like vintage toys,” he said. “They’re underappreciated by people who are under 30 or 40. We’re in this hipster mecca, and I just want to give all these young hipsters a chance to see this iconic movie.”
