Character Overview
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, and the Monster says his first word to him: "Smoke". Pretorius also delivers the famous toast "To a new world of gods and monsters!" midway through the film.
Read more about this topic: Doctor Septimus Pretorius
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