James Whale
James Whale, 1893-1957, English film director.
Whale had already produced several acclaimed adaptations of plays
-- R. C. Sherriff's Journey's End (1930), Robert Emmett
Sherwood's Waterloo Bridge (1931) -- before he was chosen
by Carl Laemmle to direct
Universal's film version of Frankenstein in 1931. Whale,
impressed with his work in The Criminal Code (1931), chose
Boris Karloff to play the part of the
Monster.
Whale, Karloff, and Colin Clive worked
together four years later in The Bride of
Frankenstein (1935), although he did not work on the
third Universal movie, Son of
Frankenstein (1939).
Whale's films include:
- Journey's End (1930)
- Hell's Angels (1930)
- Waterloo Bridge (1931)
- Frankenstein (1931)
- The Old Dark House (1932)
- The Impatient Maiden (1932)
- The Kiss before the Mirror (1933)
- The Invisible Man (1933)
- One More River (1934)
- By Candlelight (1934)
- Remember Last Night? (1935)
- The Bride Of Frankenstein (1935)
- Show Boat (1936)
- The Road Back (1937)
- The Great Garrick (1937)
- Wives Under Suspicion (1938)
- Sinners in Paradise (1938)
- Port Of Seven Seas (1938)
- The Man in the Iron Mask (1939)
- Green Hell (1940)
- They Dare Not Love (1941)
- Hello Out There (1949)
Whale is played by Ian McKellen in Gods and Monsters
(1998), Bill Condon's story of the days before Whale's suicide by
drowning.