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Miklós Rózsa

Biographical Sketch

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Franz Waxman

Biographical Sketch

Bride of Frankenstein

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The Bride of Frankenstein

The popularity of Frankenstein (1931) led Universal Studios to plan a sequel. In the program notes for Waxman’s Suite for Orchestra entitled Bride of Frankenstein, Allen Cohen describes the story of its music:

Wisely, director James Whale was cognizant that this production, more ambitious in scope than its predecessor, cried out for an extended musical treatment. Having met composer Franz Waxman at a stylish Hollywood party and being familiar with his music composed for “Liliom,” a French film of 1933, Whale invited Waxman to score the sequel to “Frankenstein”: It was a “super Horror” movie and demanded hauntingly eerie, weird, and different music.

What resulted can be called, without reservation, the single most important effort composed for the cinema of the fantastic, a true pioneering achievement.

“The Bride of Frankenstein” premiered on May 9, 1953 at the Roxy Theater in New York. It was an instantaneous success. Waxman’s score earned him a contract with Universal Studios who were so taken with his work they reused it, albeit somewhat altered, in countless subsequent productions including “Flash Gordon,” “Buck Rodgers,” and “Radio Patrol.”

Waxman’s autograph score/sketch for Bride of Frankenstein.