James Whale

22.07.1889, Dudley - 29.05.1957, Los Angeles

English film director, theater director and actor.

He spent most 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 The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), all of which are considered classics.

Whale also directed films in other genres, including the 1936 film version of the musical Show Boat.

Filmography

Films by this director

Frankenstein

(USA, 1931)

Directed by: James Whale

PHOTOGRAPHY: Arthur Edeson, Paul Ivano

Synopsis:

Ever since his student days, the young scientist Henry Frankenstein has been obsessed with the idea of artificially creating human life. It seems that he could finally achieve this goal in a Bavarian castle, with the crucial help of his loyal assistant, the physically handicapped hunchback Fritz. The two, namely, finally manage to assemble a human body from the parts of deceased people that they collected in secret from various sources. What Frankenstein definitely wants to succeed in is to use...

35 mm, b/w, 70'

The Invisible Man

(USA, 1933)

Directed by: James Whale

PHOTOGRAPHY: Arthur Edeson

Synopsis:

One snowy winter night, an unusual stranger arrives at the small Lion's Head inn in the provincial English village of Iping in Sussex. His head is completely wrapped in bandages and his eyes are hidden behind dark glasses, and he demands that the owner of the inn and everyone else leave him alone. Sometime later, innkeeper Hall's wife hires him to chase down the mysterious stranger, since he's late on his rent and has made quite a mess of the room while doing some research of his ow...

b/w, 71'

The Bride of Frankenstein

(USA, 1935)

Directed by: James Whale

PHOTOGRAPHY: John J. Mescall

Synopsis:

Encouraged by the extraordinary popularity of her novel Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus, the young English writer Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, with the suggestion of her husband Percy Bisshe Shelley and the famous poet George Gordon Byron, decided to write its sequel for the strong thunderstorms of 1816. In her version of the new story of Dr. Henry Frankenstein's monster, which is re-enacted in 19th-century Germany, the creature's fate is significantly different, as it survives be...

b/w, 75'

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