James Whale facts for kids

Quick facts for kids James Whale
James Whale on the set of Bride of Frankenstein, 1935.
Born	(1889-07-22)22 July 1889 Dudley, Worcestershire, England
Died	29 May 1957(1957-05-29) (aged 67) Hollywood, Los Angeles, California U.S.
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
Occupation	Film director Theatre director actor
Years active	1919–1952
Partner(s)	David Lewis Pierre Foegel

James Whale (22 July 1889 – 29 May 1957) was an English film director, theatre director and actor, who spent the greater part of his career in Hollywood. He is best remembered for several horror films: Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), all considered classics. Whale also directed films in other genres, including the 1936 film version of the musical Show Boat.

Whale was born into a large family in Dudley, Worcestershire now Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. He discovered his artistic talent early on and studied art. With the outbreak of World War I he enlisted in the British Army and became an officer. He was captured by the Germans and during his time as a prisoner of war he realised he was interested in drama. Following his release at the end of the war he became an actor, set designer and director. His success directing the 1928 play Journey's End led to his move to the US, first to direct the play on Broadway and then to Hollywood, California, to direct films. He lived in Hollywood for the rest of his life, most of that time with his longtime romantic partner, producer David Lewis. Apart from Journey's End (1930), which was released by Tiffany Films, and Hell's Angels (1930), released by United Artists, he directed a dozen films for Universal Pictures between 1931 and 1937, developing a style characterised by the influence of German Expressionism and a highly mobile camera.

At the height of his career as a director, Whale directed The Road Back (1937), a sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front. Studio interference, possibly spurred by political pressure from Nazi Germany, led to the film's being altered from Whale's vision, and it was a critical failure. A run of box-office disappointments followed and, while he would make one final short film in 1950, by 1941 his film directing career was effectively over. He continued to direct for the stage and also rediscovered his love for painting and travel. His investments made him wealthy and he lived a comfortable retirement until suffering strokes in 1956 that robbed him of his vigor and left him in pain.

Early years

"From early morn to dewy eve": watercolour cartoon by Whale of prisoners in Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp, 1918

Whale was born in Dudley, Worcestershire, at the heart of the Black Country, the sixth of seven children of William, a blast furnaceman, and Sarah, a nurse. He attended Kates Hill Board School, followed by Bayliss Charity School and finally Dudley Blue Coat School. His attendance stopped in his teenage years because the cost would have been prohibitive and his labor was needed to help support the family. Thought not physically strong enough to follow his brothers into the local heavy industries, Whale started work as a cobbler, reclaiming the nails he recovered from replaced soles and selling them for scrap for extra money. He discovered he had some artistic ability and earned additional money lettering signs and price tags for his neighbors. He used his additional income to pay for evening classes at the Dudley School of Arts and Crafts.

World War I broke out in early August 1914. Although Whale had little interest in the politics behind the war, he realized that conscription was inevitable so he voluntarily enlisted just before it was introduced into the British Army's Inns of Court Officer Training Corps in October 1915, and was stationed initially at Bristol. He was subsequently commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Worcestershire Regiment in July 1916. He was taken prisoner of war in battle on the Western Front in Flanders in August 1917, and was held at Holzminden Officers' Camp, where he remained until the war's end, being repatriated to England in December 1918. While imprisoned he became actively involved, as an actor, writer, producer and set-designer, in the amateur theatrical productions that took place in the camp, finding them "a source of great pleasure and amusement". He also developed a talent for poker, and after the war he cashed in the chits and IOUs from his fellow prisoners that he had amassed in gambling to provide himself with finances for re-entry into civilian life.

Career

Theatre

After the armistice, he returned to Birmingham and tried to find work as a cartoonist. He sold two cartoons to the Bystander in 1919 but was unable to secure a permanent position. Later that year he embarked on a professional stage career. Under the tutelage of actor-manager Nigel Playfair, he worked as an actor, set designer and builder, "stage director" (akin to a stage manager) and director. In 1922, while with Playfair, he met Doris Zinkeisen. They were considered a couple for some two years, despite Whale's living as an openly gay man. They were reportedly engaged in 1924, but by 1925 the engagement was off.

In 1928 Whale was offered the opportunity to direct two private performances of R. C. Sherriff's then-unknown play Journey's End for the Incorporated Stage Society, a theatre society that mounted private Sunday performances of plays. Set over a four-day period in March 1918 in the trenches at Saint-Quentin, France, Journey's End gives a glimpse into the experiences of the officers of a British infantry company in World War I. The key conflict is between Capt. Stanhope, the company commander, and Lt. Raleigh, the brother of Stanhope's fiancée. Whale offered the part of Stanhope to the then barely known Laurence Olivier. Olivier initially declined the role, but after meeting the playwright agreed to take it on. Maurice Evans was cast as Raleigh. The play was well received and transferred to the Savoy Theatre in London's West End, opening on 21 January 1929. A young Colin Clive was now in the lead role, Olivier having accepted an offer to take the lead in a production of Beau Geste. The play was a tremendous success, with critics uniform and effusive in their praise and with audiences sometimes sitting in stunned silence following its conclusion only to burst into thunderous ovations. As Whale biographer James Curtis wrote, the play "managed to coalesce, at the right time and in the right manner, the impressions of a whole generation of men who were in the war and who had found it impossible, through words or deeds, to adequately express to their friends and families what the trenches had been like". After three weeks at the Savoy, Journey's End transferred to the Prince of Wales Theatre, where it ran for the next two years.

Colin Clive in Whale's 1929 stage production of Journey's End.

With the success of Journey's End at home, Broadway producer Gilbert Miller acquired the rights to mount a New York production with an all-British cast headed by Colin Keith-Johnston as Stanhope and Derek Williams as Raleigh. Whale also directed this version, which premiered at Henry Miller's Theatre on 22 March 1929. The play ran for over a year and cemented its reputation as the greatest play about World War I.

Early work in Hollywood

The success of the various productions of Journey's End brought Whale to the attention of movie producers. Coming at a time when motion pictures were making the transition from silent to talking, producers were interested in hiring actors and directors with experience with dialogue. Whale traveled to Hollywood in 1929 and signed a contract with Paramount Pictures. He was assigned as "dialogue director" for a film called The Love Doctor (1929). He completed work on the film in 15 days and his contract was allowed to expire. It was at around this time that he met David Lewis.

Whale was hired by independent film producer and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes, who planned to turn the previously silent Hughes production Hell's Angels (1930) into a talkie. Whale directed the dialogue sequences. When his work for Hughes was completed, he headed to Chicago to direct another production of Journey's End.

Having purchased the film rights to Journey's End, British producers Michael Balcon and Thomas Welsh agreed that Whale's experience directing the London and Broadway productions of the play made him the best choice to direct the film. The two partnered with a small American studio, Tiffany-Stahl, to shoot it in New York. Colin Clive reprised his role as Stanhope, and David Manners was cast as Raleigh. Filming got underway on 6 December 1929 and wrapped on 22 January 1930. Journey's End was released in Great Britain on 14 April and in the United States on 15 April. On both sides of the Atlantic the film was a tremendous critical and commercial success.

With the Laemmles at Universal

Whale directed Boris Karloff in the iconic horror film Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

Universal Studios signed Whale to a five-year contract in 1931 and his first project was Waterloo Bridge. Based on the Broadway play by Robert E. Sherwood, the film stars Mae Clarke. It too was a critical and popular success. At around this time, Whale and Lewis began living together.

In 1931, Universal chief Carl Laemmle, Jr. offered Whale his choice of any property the studio owned. He chose Frankenstein, mostly because none of Universal's other properties particularly interested him, and he wanted to make something other than a war picture. While Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus itself was in the public domain, Universal owned the filming rights to a stage adaptation by Peggy Webling. Whale cast Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein and Mae Clarke as his fiancée Elizabeth. For the Monster, he turned to the little known Boris Karloff, who had wide-ranging experience in supporting roles. Shooting began on 24 August 1931 and wrapped on 3 October. Previews were held 29 October, with wide release on 21 November. Frankenstein was an instant hit with critics and the public. The film received glowing reviews and shattered box office records across the United States, earning Universal $12 million on first release.

Next from Whale were The Impatient Maiden and The Old Dark House (both 1932). The Impatient Maiden made little impression but The Old Dark House, starring Karloff and Charles Laughton, is credited with reinventing the "dark house" subgenre of horror films. Thought lost for some years, a print was found by filmmaker Curtis Harrington in the Universal vaults in 1968. It was restored by George Eastman House, and released on Blu-ray disk in 2017.

Whale's next film was The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933), a critical success but a box-office failure. He returned to horror with The Invisible Man (1933). Shot from a script approved by H. G. Wells, the film blended horror with humor and confounding visual effects. Much admired, The New York Times placed it in their list of the ten best films of the year, and the film broke box-office records in cities across America. So highly regarded was the film that France, which restricted the number of theatres in which undubbed American films could play, granted it a special waiver because of its "extraordinary artistic merit".

Also in 1933 Whale directed the romantic comedy By Candlelight which gained good reviews and was a modest box office hit. In 1934 he directed One More River, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by John Galsworthy.

1930s Universal's art director Karoly Grosz designed this offbeat 1935 advertisement

Bride of Frankenstein (1935) was Whale's next project. He had resisted making a sequel to Frankenstein as he feared being pigeonholed as a horror director. Bride hearkened back to an episode from Mary Shelley's original novel in which the Monster promises to leave Frankenstein and humanity alone if Frankenstein makes him a mate. He does, but the mate is repelled by the monster who then, setting Frankenstein and his wife free to live, chooses to destroy himself and his "bride". The film was a critical and box office success, having earned some $2 million for Universal by 1943. Lauded as "the finest of all gothic horror movies", Bride is frequently hailed as Whale's masterpiece.

Boris Karloff and Whale on set of Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

With the completion of Remember Last Night? Whale immediately went to work on Show Boat (1936). Whale gathered as many of those as he could who had been involved in one production or another of the musical, including Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, Charles Winninger, Sammy White, conductor Victor Baravalle, orchestrator Robert Russell Bennett, and, as Magnolia, Irene Dunne, who believed that Whale was the wrong director for the piece. The 1936 version of Show Boat, faithfully adapted from the original stage production, is believed to be the definitive film version of the musical by many critics, but became unavailable following the 1951 remake. In 2014, a restoration of the film became available on DVD in the U.S. as part of Warner Home Video's Archive Collection line; and in 2020, a 4K restoration Blu-Ray was released by The Criterion Collection.

Show Boat was the last of Whale's films to be produced under the Laemmle family. The studio was now bankrupt, and the Laemmles lost control to J. Cheever Cowdin, head of the Standard Capital Corporation, and Charles R. Rogers, who was installed in Junior Laemmle's old job.

Career decline

Whale's career went into sharp decline following the release of his next film, The Road Back (1937). The sequel to Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, which Universal had filmed in 1930, the novel and film follow the lives of several young German men who have returned from the trenches of World War I and their struggles to re-integrate into society. The Los Angeles consul for Nazi Germany, Georg Gyssling, learned that the film was in production. He protested to PCA enforcer Joseph Breen, arguing that the film gave an "untrue and distorted picture of the German people". Gyssling eventually met Whale, but nothing came of it. Gyssling then sent letters to members of the cast, threatening that their participation in the film might lead to difficulties in obtaining German filming permits for them and for anyone associated in a film with them. While the low volume of business conducted by Universal in Germany made such threats largely hollow, the State Department, under pressure from the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League and the Screen Actors Guild, stepped in and the German government backed down. Whale's original cut of the film was given generally positive reviews, but some time between preview screenings and the film's general release, Rogers capitulated to the Germans, ordering that cuts be made and additional scenes be shot and inserted. Whale was furious, and the altered film was banned in Germany anyway. The Germans were successful in persuading China, Greece, Italy and Switzerland to ban the film as well.

Following the debacle of The Road Back, Charles Rogers tried to get out of his contract with Whale; Whale refused. Rogers then assigned him to a string of B movies to run out his contractual obligation. Whale only made one additional successful feature film, The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), before retiring from the film industry in 1941.

Post-film life

With his film career behind him, Whale found himself at a loose end. He was offered the occasional job, including the opportunity to direct Since You Went Away for David O. Selznick, but turned them down. Lewis, meanwhile, was busier than ever with his production duties and often worked late hours, leaving Whale lonely and bored. Lewis bought him a supply of paint and canvasses and Whale re-discovered his love of painting. Eventually he built a large studio for himself.

With the outbreak of World War II, Whale volunteered his services to make a training film for the United States Army. He shot the film, called Personnel Placement in the Army, in February 1942. Later that year, in association with actress Claire DuBrey, he created the Brentwood Service Players. The Players took over a 100–seat theatre. Sixty seats were provided free of charge to service personnel; the remaining were sold to the public, with the box office proceeds donated to wartime charities. The group expanded to the Playtime Theatre during the summer, where a series of shows ran through October.

Whale returned to Broadway in 1944 to direct the psychological thriller Hand in Glove. It was his first return to Broadway since his failed One, Two, Three! in 1930. Hand in Glove would fare no better than his earlier play, running the same number of performances, 40.

Whale directed his final film in 1950, a short subject based on the William Saroyan one-act play Hello Out There. The film was never commercially released.

Whale returned to California in November 1952. In 1956, he suffered a small stroke. A few months later he suffered a larger stroke and was hospitalized. While in the hospital he was treated for depression with shock treatments.

Death

Whale died on 29 May 1957 at the age of 67. His body was cremated per his request, and his ashes were interred in the Columbarium of Memory at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale. Because of his habit of periodically revising his date of birth, his niche lists the incorrect date of 1893. When his longtime partner David Lewis died in 1987, his executor and Whale biographer James Curtis had his ashes interred in a niche across from Whale's.

Film style

Whale was heavily influenced by German Expressionism. He was a particular admirer of the films of Paul Leni, combining as they did elements of gothic horror and comedy. This influence was most evident in Bride of Frankenstein. Expressionist influence is also in evidence in Frankenstein, drawn in part from the work of Paul Wegener and his films The Golem (1915) and The Golem: How He Came into the World (1920) along with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) from Robert Wiene, which Whale reportedly screened repeatedly while preparing to shoot Frankenstein. Frankenstein roughly alternates between distorted expressionistic shots and more conventional styles, with the character of Dr. Waldman serving as "a bridge between everyday and expressionist spaces". Expressionist influence is also evident in the acting, costuming and the design of the Monster. Whale and makeup artist Jack Pierce may also have been influenced by the Bauhaus school of design. The expressionist influence lasted throughout Whale's career, with Whale's final film, Hello Out There, praised by Sight & Sound as "a virtuoso pattern of light and shade, a piece of fully blown expressionist filmmaking plonked down unceremoniously in the midst of neo-realism's heyday".

Whale was known for his use of camera movement. He is credited with being the first director to use a 360-degree panning shot in a feature film, included in Frankenstein. Whale used a similar technique during the Ol' Man River sequence in Show Boat, in which the camera tracked around Paul Robeson as he sang the song. (The sequence also uses expressionist montages illustrating some of the lyrics.) Often singled out for praise in Frankenstein is the series of shots used to introduce the Monster: "Nothing can ever quite efface the thrill of watching the successive views Whale's mobile camera allows us of the lumbering figure". These shots, starting with a medium shot and culminating in two close-ups of the Monster's face, were repeated by Whale in The Invisible Man and in One More River. Modified to a single cut rather than two, Whale uses the same technique in The Road Back to signal the instability of a returning World War I veteran.

Legacy

James Whale memorial sculpture (2001) by Charles Hadcock, in Dudley, England

Influential film critic Andrew Sarris, in his 1968 ranking of directors, lists Whale as "lightly likable". Noting that Whale's reputation has been subsumed by the "Karloff cult", Sarris cites Bride of Frankenstein as the "true gem" of the Frankenstein series and concludes that Whale's career "reflects the stylistic ambitions and dramatic disappointments of an expressionist in the studio-controlled Hollywood of the thirties".

Whale's final months are the subject of the novel Father of Frankenstein (1995) by Christopher Bram. The novel focuses on the relationship between Whale and a fictional gardener named Clayton Boone. Father of Frankenstein served as the basis of the 1998 film Gods and Monsters with Ian McKellen as Whale and Brendan Fraser as Boone. McKellen was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Whale. Bram's novel has also been adapted as a play which premiered in London at the Southwark Playhouse in February 2015.

Only two of Whale's films received Oscar nominations: The Man in the Iron Mask (for its musical score), and Bride of Frankenstein (for its sound recording).

A memorial sculpture was erected for Whale in September 2001 on the grounds of a new multiplex cinema in his home town of Dudley. The sculpture, by Charles Hadcock, depicts a roll of film with the face of Frankenstein's monster engraved into the frames, and the names of his most famous films etched into a cast concrete base in the shape of film canisters. Other sculptures related to Whale's cinema career were planned, referencing his early work in a local sheet metal factory, but none had been installed as of 2019.

Horror in Hollywood: The James Whale Story, a retrospective of Whale's artwork, opened at the Dudley Museum and Art Gallery in October 2012 and ran through to January 2013.

Filmography

See also

In Spanish: James Whale para niños