Oscar Profile #9: James Whale

James Whale was born in Dudley, England, a poor mining town, in 1889. He learned to direct as a prisoner of war in a German prison camp during World War I. That experience led to the London stage, Broadway and eventually a Hollywood contract with Universal, where he made most of his films.

Although it was a war film, the screen version of his acclaimed Journey’s End, that brought him to Hollywood, it was his work in horror films that gave him his greatest reputation.

Combining humor and compassion for his characters with dollops of horror, those films were among the most popular of their time and continue to win new fans with each succeeding generation. Part of their success is due to the impeccable casting which was all Whale’s doing. It was he who saw something in British character actor Boris Karloff that moved him to cast the actor in his star-making role as the monster in Frankenstein. In addition to Karloff, Whale also gave career defining roles to Una O’Connor, Dwight Frye, Mae Clarke and Gloria Stuart in his films.

Growing tired of being boxed in as a director of only horror films, Whale’s greatest achievement outside the genre was Show Boat, the second of three versions of the film and by far the best. His next film, however, The Road Back, a sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front, was a critical and commercial failure, largely due to studio interference. His subsequent films were not successful and he made his last released film in 1941. He later directed a short film in 1950 which was never commercially released.

Whale’s last days were chronicled in the 1998 film, Gods and Monsters, which ironically won an Oscar (for Best Screenplay), though Whale himself never won.

While certainly a compelling film, it is nevertheless a work of fiction. The openly gay Whale had lived since the early 1930s with his life partner, producer David Lewis, who is not a character in the film. It was Lewis who found Whale’s body floating in the pool in 1957 and suppressed his suicide note until near the end of his own life in 1987. For the thirty years between, Whale’s death had been an unsolved mystery.

The note read:

“To All I Love,

Do not grieve for me. My nerves are all shot and for the last year I have been in agony day and night—except when I sleep with sleeping pills—and any peace I have by day is when I am drugged by pills. I have had a wonderful life but it is over and my nerves get worse and I am afraid they will have to take me away. So please forgive me, all those I love and may God forgive me too, but I cannot bear the agony and it is best for everyone this way. The future is just old age and illness and pain. Goodbye and thank you all for your love. I must have peace and this is the only way.

Jimmy”

He was 67.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

JOURNEY’S END (1930)

Colin Clive, David Manners and Ian MacLaren starred in the film version of Whale’s acclaimed anti-war play about claustrophobia in the trenches and the toll it takes on men’s souls.

Clive is the brusque, alcoholic Capt. Stanhope, Manners the impressionable Lt. Raeligh and MacLaren the sensitive Osborne. Billy Bevan and Anthony Bushell also turn in memorable performances in the film that was overshadowed by an even more impressionable anti-war film, Lewis Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western Front and Howard Hughes’ spectacular Hell’s Angels for which the unbilled Whale and Edmung Goulding provided much of the direction Hughes took credit for.

Ironically, when Universal wanted to make the 1937 sequel to All Quiet, they selected Whale and not Milestone to direct. The film, called The Road Back, was as I indicated a critical and commercial failure, due largely to studio interference. The powers that be were afraid of offending the Germans.

FRANKENSTEIN (1931)

Whale became the go-to director of horror films with his first foray into the genre, this exquisite version of Mary Shelley’s acclaimed novel about the obsessed scientist and the man he brings to life from assorted body parts of various dead people.

Colin Clive was once again Whale’s protagonist, the mad Dr. Frankenstein. Mae Clarke was his wife and Boris Karloff happily was the monster. One of the film’s key scenes, the one where the monster accidentally drowns the little girl was excised by the censors after the Hollywood Production Code went into practice in 1934 and was not restored until home video editions of the film in the 1980s.

John Boles, Edward Van Sloan and Dwight Frye co-star.

THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933)

Another movie milestone, The Invisible Man is quite faithful to the H.G. Wells novel on which it is based. Claude Rains’ casting as the mad scientist in his first talkie came about because Boris Karloff turned down the role, protesting that his face would be shown only at the end.

Co-star Gloria Stuart complained that Rains did his best to upstage her even though he was invisible! Character actress Una O’Connor all but steals the film as the screaming landlady.

THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935)

Whale agreed to direct the sequel to his 1931 monster hit only if he were given complete artistic control. He was, and the result was that rare sequel that is even better than the original.

Colin Clive and Boris Karloff were back as the mad scientist and his creation, along with Dwight Frye in a different role and Valerie Hobson in for Mae Clarke.

Ernest Thesiger as Dr. Pretorious and Una O’Connor as a screaming maid provide marvelous support, as does Elsa Lanchester in the dual role of Mary Shelley and the titled bride.

SHOW BOAT (1936)

Previously done as a partial talkie to mixed results, Whale’s version is far and away the best of the three film versions of the 1927 Broadway musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II.

Whale cast the film with performers who had previously played their roles on stage. Charles Winninger (Cap’n Andy), Paul Robeson (Joe) and Helen Morgan (Julie) were from the original production. Irene Dunne (Magnolia) starred in the first touring version while Allan Jones (Ravenal) and Hattie McDaniel (Queenie) had played their parts in Hollywood. Only Helen Westley (Pathy Ann) was new to the material. She was brought in as a replacement for Edna May Oliver who was committed to another project.

Dunne was the only one reluctant to recreate her role, primarily because she didn’t think Whale could do justice to the material. He proved her wrong, especially in the shuffle dance she does with Morgan, McDaniel and Robson and in the counter-duet, “I Have the Room Above Her” with Allan Jones.