The Bride's Wig

[Monster Bob]

No disrespect to you E, or Mank, or anybody else, but i'm not buying it.

That is wig lace in some of those shots, and I can clearly see she did not have anything close to the straight hairline that she has in some of those close-ups, nor nearly that much hair. The light won't even shine through it in backlight in some of those shots. In a couple of the shots (like the one she is looking straight forward), that may be her hairline, but there are still added hairpieces involved behind the lightning bolts (she would have had lambchop sideburns bigger than 70's Elvis' in some of the pics).

Arrow points at the lip (lace) of the wig...


Sorry, gang, in this shot, this is definitely a wig...



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I got into it with Al Lewis once over whether or not he had a MUNSTERS tuxedo (actually two) that had red lapels on the series THE MUNSTERS and in the technicolor MUNSTER, GO HOME!. Al claimed he absolutely, positively, did NOT have such a tuxedo. Period. No way. No how. No argument. Then Kevin Burns pulled out this photo and set it in front of him....


Big Al looked at this very photo, and even then wouldn't acknowledge it. Nope. Didn't have one. Okaaaayyyyy...so, no doubt, I have first hand experience that memories fuzz up over time in matters like this. (BTW, Al is wearing white side hairpieces and eyebrows here (not his own hair) that he did not wear on the series. This is a makeup/portrait shot from MUNSTER,GO HOME!)

[Scatter]

That looks VERY wiggy.

[bigbud]

That looks VERY wiggy.

Hey Scatter. Ya big ape! How about I pull YOUR hair and send you crying wiggy-wiggy-wiggy all the way home! Love, Buddy

[Scatter]

Hey Scatter. Ya big ape! How about I pull YOUR hair and send you crying wiggy-wiggy-wiggy all the way home! Love, Buddy

Depends where you're pulling from.

[Dr.Terror]

I'm guessing Elsa's wire cage story refers to shooting film.   Looks like its a wig in the publicity stills.   

[Gillfan]

This may reveal way too much about my psyche, but I always thought Elsa looked hot as the Bride, but not so much when out of makeup.

[Count_Zirock]

This may reveal way too much about my psyche, but I always thought Elsa looked hot as the Bride, but not so much when out of makeup.

That's because they cut out all the close-ups of her as Mary Shelley where she's practically spilling out of the top of her dress! Which was accurate to the period, but too much for the Hayes Office.

[Monster Bob]

This may reveal way too much about my psyche, but I always thought Elsa looked hot as the Bride, but not so much when out of makeup.

ditto.  And I always thought Yvonne DeCarlo was way hotter done up as Lily than not.

[Unknown Primate]

I dig monster chicks!

[long live kong]

I dig monster chicks!

This may reveal way too much about my psyche, but I always thought Elsa looked hot as the Bride, but not so much when out of makeup.

Same here! I like reading these investigative threads. If I could afford to buy any cool props from classic films I don't think I would, as there would always be that doubt in my mind that they aren't Kosher.

[Scatter]

I dig monster chicks!

Oh yeah.

[Dr. Madd]

I don't know about this 'she didn't wear a wig' thing. There's just way too much hair here. Even at a minimum, there are huge hairpieces behind the lightning bolts on the sides of her head.
Elsa's natural hairline:



In the bottom pics especially, notice how straight her hairline is, and in the first two photos below, I detect wig "lace", a sure sign she's wearin' a full piece in these shots. Perhaps they did a little of both-her hair enhanced with clipped-in hairpieces (including the lightning bolts and the sideburns behind them), and at times a full fledged wig, like the recreation, which many of these shots suggest.


Irregardless, the variations in her lightning bolts in these shots show she was 'done up' a number of different times, much more than her brief appearance in the movie would have you believe.

My opinion? Whiule this will egt you a cup of joe if you have 5o cents. I believe a wig might've been used in the shots where she was bandaged. Then her real war was combed over a chicken wire cage frame for the shots out of it.

[Most Horrible]

Strait from The Brides mouth:

"I've often been asked how my hair was made to stand on end. Well, from the top of my head they made four tiny, tight braids. On these was anchored a wired horsehair cage about five inches high. Then my own  hair was brushed over this structure, and two white hair pieces-one from the right temple and the other from the left cheekbone-were bunched onto the top."

Elsa Lanchester Herself by Elsa Lanchester, pg. 135

[Monster Bob]

I'm guessing Elsa's wire cage story refers to shooting film.   Looks like its a wig in the publicity stills.

I believe this to be the case also.


I just watched the last few minutes of BRIDE last night, and honestly her appearance is so short and the editing and the shots so fast (not to mention the film is anything but sharp by today's standards), it's hard to tell anything. Even if only a cage and no formal wig was used on screen, there is added hair on Elsa's head (besides the bolts), as Lanchester's hair just isn't that thick. Alot like Lily Munster's hair on THE MUNSTERS- the base was her hair and an 'Indian wig', with added, clipped-in extensions.

Bottom line is, a production wig was made, as is evidenced by the large portrait shots above. Whether a wig actually saw screen time really makes no difference. The enigma was- How could a BoF wig be on display at The Museum of the Moving Image, when Elsa herself said they used her own hair/cage in the production of BoF?   In the prop collecting world, production-made pieces (as opposed to screen-used pieces) are still very much valued, just less in dollars and cents. Just like "hero" (close-up/detailed), "stunt" (rubber or resin copies), and "production made but not screen-used" props. It was still made for the production, therefore it is an authentic and important artifact of the film.

The museum originally did not identify it as a recreation, presumably because they never thought they would be grilled about it (or thought your average museum goer would care or question it). But in the last few years, and especially with the different house auction prop scandals, it seems everything in Hollywood Prop-land is now questioned, and especially on the 'net.