Born into a large family in Dudley, England, Whale early discovered his artistic talent and studied art. With the outbreak of World War I, Whale 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 realized 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 United States, first to direct the play on Broadway and then to Hollywood to direct motion pictures. Whale lived in Hollywood for the rest of his life, most of that time with his longtime companion, producer David Lewis. Including Journey's End (1930), Whale directed a dozen films for Universal Studios between 1930 and 1936, developing a style characterized by the influence of German Expressionism and a highly mobile camera.
At the height of his popularity as a director, Whale directed The Road Back, a sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front, in 1937. Studio interference, possibly spurred by political pressure from Nazi Germany, led to the film's being altered from Whale's vision and The Road Back was a critical and commercial failure. A string of commercial failures followed and, while Whale would make one final short film in 1950, by 1941 his film directing career was over. Whale 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. Whale committed suicide on 29 May 1957 by drowning himself in his backyard swimming pool.
Whale was openly gay throughout his career, something that was very unusual in the 1920s and 1930s. As knowledge of his sexual orientation has become more common, some of his films, Bride of Frankenstein in particular, have been interpreted as having a gay subtext and it has been claimed that Whale's refusal to remain in the closet led to the end of his career. However, Whale's associates dismissed the notions that Whale's sexuality informed his work or that it cost him his career.
Hollywood
The success of the various productions of Journey's End brought Whale to the attention of film 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).[24] Whale completed work on the film in 15 days and his contract was allowed to expire. It was at around this time that Whale met David Lewis.[25]
Whale next went to work for independent film producer and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes, who planned to turn the previously silent Hughes production Hell's Angels (1930) into a talkie. Hughes hired Whale to direct the dialogue sequences.[26] With work completed, Whale headed to Chicago to direct another company of Journey's End.[27]
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 the film in New York.[28] Colin Clive reprised his role as Stanhope,[29] and David Manners was cast as Raleigh.[30] Filming got underway on 6 December 1929[31] and wrapped on 22 January 1930.[32] Journey's End was released in Great Britain on 14 April and in the United States on 15 April.[33] On both sides of the Atlantic the film was a tremendous critical and commercial success and placed Whale at the top of the British film industry.[34]
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In 1931, Universal chief Carl Laemmle, Jr. offered Whale his choice of any property the studio owned. Whale chose Frankenstein, mostly because none of Universal's other properties particularly interested him and he wanted to make something other than a war picture.[37] Casting the familiar Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein and Mae Clarke as his fiancée Elizabeth, Whale turned to an unknown actor named Boris Karloff to play the Monster. Shooting began on 24 August 1931 and wrapped on 3 October.[38] Previews were held 29 October,[39] with wide release on 21 November.[40] Frankenstein was an instant hit with critics and the public. The film received glowing reviews and shattered box office records across the country,[41] earning Universal $12 million on first release.[38] It is one of only a few of Whale's films that has remained in the public eye and is regarded as a classic of the horror genre.
Next from Whale were Impatient Maiden and The Old Dark House, both in 1932. Impatient Maiden made little impression but The Old Dark House is credited with reinventing the "dark house" subgenre of horror films.[42] Thought lost for decades, a print was found by filmmaker Curtis Harrington in the Universal vaults in 1968 and restored by George Eastman House.[43]
Whale's next film was The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933), a critical success but a box office failure. Whale next turned his attention to The Invisible Man (1933). Shot from a script approved by H. G. Wells,[44] the film was a blend of horror, humor and confounding visual effects. The film was critically acclaimed, with The New York Times listing it as one of the ten best films of the year,[45] and broke box office records in cities across the country. 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".[46]
Also in 1933 Whale directed the romantic comedy By Candlelight which got good reviews and was a modest box office hit.[47] In 1934 he directed One More River, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by John Galsworthy. The film tells the story of a woman desperate to escape her abusive marriage to a member of the British aristocracy. This was the first of Whale's films for which Production Code Administration approval was required and Universal had a difficult time securing that approval because of the elements of sexual sadism implicit in the husband's abusive behavior.[48]
Bride of Frankenstein was Whale's next project. Whale had long resisted doing 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 then destroys the female without bringing it to life. The film was a critical success and a box office sensation, having earned some $2 million for Universal by 1943.[49] Lauded as "the finest of all gothic horror movies",[50] Bride is frequently hailed as Whale's masterpiece.[51][52]
With the success of Bride Laemmle was eager to put Whale to work on Dracula's Daughter, the sequel to Universal's first big horror hit. Whale, wary of doing two horror films in a row and concerned that directing Dracula's Daughter could interfere with his plans for the remake of Show Boat, instead convinced Laemmle to buy the rights to a novel called The Hangover Murders. The novel is a comedy-mystery in the style of The Thin Man, about a group of friends who were so drunk the night one of them was murdered that none can remember anything.[53] Retitled Remember Last Night?, the film was one of Whale's personal favorites,[43] but met with sharply divided reviews and commercial disinterest.[54]
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, and, as Magnolia, Irene Dunne, who believed that Whale was the wrong director for the piece.[55] The 1936 Show Boat is considered the definitive film version of the musical,[56][57] but became unavailable following the 1951 remake.[55] This was the last of Whale's films to be produced under the Laemmle family; the Laemmles lost control of the studio to J. Cheever Cowdin, head of the Standard Capital Corporation, and Charles R. Rogers, who was installed in Junior Laemmle's old job.[58]
Post-film life
With his film career behind him, Whale found himself at loose ends. He was offered the occasional job, including the opportunity to direct Since You Went Away for David O. Selznick,[66] but turned them down.[67] 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.[68]
With the outbreak of World War II, Whale volunteered his services to make a training film for the United States Army. Whale shot the film, called Personnel Placement in the Army, in February 1942. Later that year, in association with actress Claire DuBrey, Whale created the Brentwood Service Players.[69] 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.[70] The group expanded to the Playtime Theatre during the summer, where a series of shows ran through October.[71]
Whale returned to Broadway in 1944 to direct the psychological thriller Hand in Glove.[72] It was his first return to Broadway since his failed One, Two, Three! in 1930.[73] Hand in Glove would fare no better than his earlier play, running the same number of performances, 40.[74]
Whale directed his final film in 1950, a short subject based on the William Saroyan one-act play Hello Out There. The film, financed by supermarket heir Huntington Hartford, was the story of a man in a Texas jail falsely accused of rape and the woman who cleans the jail. Hartford intended for the short to be part of an anthology film along the lines of Quartet.[75] However, attempts to find appropriate short fiction companion pieces to adapt were unsuccessful and Hello Out There was never commercially released.[76]
Whale's last professional engagement was directing Pagan in the Parlour, a farce about two New England spinster sisters who are visited by a Polynesian whom their father, when shipwrecked years earlier, had married. The production was mounted in Pasadena for two weeks in 1951. Plans were made to take it to New York, but Whale suggested taking the play to London first.[77] Before opening the play in England, Whale decided to tour the art museums of Europe. In France he renewed his acquaintanceship with Curtis Harrington, whom Whale had met in 1947. While visiting Harrington in Paris, Whale went to some gay bars. At one he met a 25-year-old bartender named Pierre Foegel,[4] who Harrington believed was nothing but "a hustler out for what he could get".[43] The 62-year-old Whale was smitten with the younger man and hired him as his chauffeur.[78]
A provincial tour of Pagan in the Parlour began in September 1952 and it appeared that the play would be a hit. However, Hermione Baddeley, starring in the play as the cannibal "Noo-ga," was drinking heavily and began engaging in bizarre antics and disrupting performances. Because she had a run of the play contract she could not be replaced and so producers were forced to close the show.[79]
Whale returned to California in November 1952 and advised David Lewis that he planned to bring Foegel over early the following year. Appalled, Lewis moved out of their home.[80] While this ended their 23-year romantic relationship, the two men remained friends. Lewis bought a small house and dug a swimming pool, prompting Whale to have his own pool dug, although he did not himself swim in it. Whale began throwing all-male swim parties and would watch the young men cavort in and around the pool.[81] Foegel moved in with Whale in early 1953 and remained there for several months before returning to France. He returned in 1954 permanently,[81] and Whale installed him as manager of a gas station that he owned.[82]
Whale and Foegel settled into a quiet routine until the spring of 1956, when Whale suffered a small stroke. A few months later he suffered a larger stroke and was hospitalized.[82] While in the hospital he was treated for depression with shock treatments.[83]
Upon his release, Whale hired one of the male nurses from the hospital to be his personal live-in nurse.[84] A jealous Foegel maneuvered the nurse out of the house and hired a female nurse as a non live-in replacement.[85] Whale suffered from mood swings and grew increasingly and frustratingly more dependent on others and his mental faculties were diminishing.[86] Whale committed suicide by drowning himself in his swimming pool on 29 May 1957 at the age of 67.[87] He left a suicide note, which Lewis withheld until shortly before his own death decades later. Because the note was suppressed, the death was initially ruled accidental.[88] The note read in part:
"To ALL I LOVE,Whale was cremated per his request and his ashes were interred in the Columbarium of Memory at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale. Because of Whale's habit of periodically revising his date of birth, his niche lists the incorrect date of 1893.[89] When his longtime companion David Lewis died in 1987, his executor and Whale biographer James Curtis had his ashes interred in a niche across from Whale's
"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 for all your love. I must have peace and this is the only way.
"Jimmy"[83]
Film style
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. 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 to introduce Griffin in The Invisible Man and the abusive husband 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.
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