Doctor Septimus Pretorius

Doctor Septimus Pretorius
Bride of Frankenstein character
Created by	William Hurlbut
Portrayed by	Ernest Thesiger
Information
Gender	Male

Septimus Pretorius is a fictional character who appears in the Universal film Bride of Frankenstein (1935). He is played by British stage and film actor Ernest Thesiger. Some sources claim he was originally to have been played by Bela Lugosi or Claude Rains. Others indicate that the part was conceived specifically for Thesiger.

Doctor Pretorius is a renegade mad scientist who persuades Henry Frankenstein to resume his experiments with bringing dead flesh to life. An amoral egomaniac, he has no regard for human life or ethics and cares only for his own prestige as a scientist.

Along with his sinister qualities, Pretorius is responsible for a large share of the film's dark humor. He eats a picnic dinner in a crypt, trades prissy banter with the Monster and laments that the tiny ballerina he created "will only dance to Mendelssohn's 'Spring Song.'" He claims that gin is his only weakness. Then later in the film, he claims his cigars are his only weakness when he first meets the Monster. Pretorius also delivers the famous toast "To a new world of gods and monsters!" midway through the film.

Septimus Pretorius, Frankenstein's former teacher, is a tall, emaciated-looking man with an unusually large nose and devilish pointed ears. A professor of philosophy, Pretorius first points young Henry on the path toward his unwholesome experiments in giving life to the dead. He himself is "booted out" from his teaching post "for knowing too much." Pretorius seeks out his former student after learning that the Monster has survived being trapped in the burning windmill in the climax of the first film. Pretorius himself acknowledges that he may be insane in a conversation with Frankenstein ("You think I'm mad? Perhaps I am!").

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