Sting makes his debut as a leading man on the silver screen when he portrays Baron Charles Frankenstein in Franc Roddam’s The Bride (1985). A psychological/feminist revision of The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Roddam’s film puts a modern slant on Mary Shelley’s classic 19th-century tale, injecting elements from both Pygmalion and Beauty and the Beast. Paired with Sting as Frankenstein’s female creation, Eva, is Jennifer Beals, who had just recently been catapulted to stardom by the surprise 1984 hit, Flashdance.
In his castle laboratory, Frankenstein brings Eva to life in a tumultuous opening scene of appropriate Gothic proportion. Assuming that the raven-haired damsel was created to be his bride, Frankenstein’s monster (Clancy Brown) is understandably disappointed when he learns that Eva is in fact the object of desire of the Baron and responds by destroying the lab, a scene which, when filmed, resulted in a seven-stitch wound to FrankenSting’s noggin.
Dr. Frankenstein proclaims that he wants to shape the pristine mind of Eva into that of the "New Woman," a person of free thought and equal standing to men. However, when Eva becomes sufficiently buoyed by her newfound freedom and begins challenging the repressive control under which Frankenstein keeps her, the Baron devolves into just another male chauvinist pig, exhibiting the kind of obsessive evil that so intrigues Sting, the actor.
Sting’s real-life hero, Quentin Crisp, plays his assistant, Dr. Zalhus, in the film and David Rappaport steals many scenes as Rinaldo, the dwarf who befriends, empowers, and humanizes Frankenstein’s monster, ultimately preparing him for a climactic scene that pits the evil doctor against his two creations. We don’t want to give away the ending, but let’s just say that we "never saw no miracle of science that didn’t go from a blessing to a curse."
Columbia (USA)
PG-13
Color
118 minutes
Directed by: Franc Roddam
Produced by: Victor Drai
Written by: Lloyd Fonvielle
based on characters created by Mary Shelley
Cast:
| Frankenstein | Sting |
| Eva | Jennifer Beals |
| Clerval | Anthony Higgins |
| Viktor | Clancy Brown |
| Rinaldo | David Rappaport |
| Mrs. Baumann | Geraldine Page |
| Magar | Alexei Sayle |
| Bela | Phil Daniels |
| Countess | Veruschka Von Lehndorff |
| Dr. Zalhus | Quentin Crisp |
| Josef | Cary Elwes |
| Paulus | Timothy Spall |
| Pedlar | Ken Campbell |
| Count | Guy Rolfe |
| Priest | Andrew De La Tour |
| Tavern keeper | Tony Haygarth |
Also:
| Cinematography | Stephen H. Burum |
| Editing | Michael Ellis |
| Music | Maurice Jarre |
| Art Direction | Michael Seymour |
| Set Decoration | Tessa Davies |
| Costume Design | Shirley Russell |
| Makeup | Sarah Monzani |