James Whale: From prisoner of war to Hollywood horror king
James was an outsider who started out as a working-class lad in Dudley and went on to become one of most foremost film directors of his day and is widely held to have defined the popular horror movie genre as we know it.
James Whale
Born in 1889, the son of a blast furnaceman and the second-youngest of seven children. His family lived in a back-to-back in the workers warren of Dudleys Kates Hill district.
The Baylies's Charity School in Tower Street still stands to this day and has recently been renovated.
He attended Kate’s Hill Board School, Baylie's Charity School and Dudley Blue Coat School before enrolling in evening art classes at Dudley School of Art
The School of Art, that Whale attended. (The building is currently empty). It Started out life as The Library / Art Gallery / School of Art and in recent years acted as the Town Museum and Art Gallery.
In 1915, at the age of 26, Whale enlisted and was assigned to the Worcestershire infantry regiment. In the summer of 1916, having been commissioned as a second lieutenant he travelled with his unit to France. Where he spent a year amongst the front-line trenches of the Western Front and surviving the Somme, before he was captured by the Germans. He saw out the rest of the war as a prisoner-of-war. It was during his time in captivity that his love of telling stories and staging a show first began to grow by partaking in small productions for the other prisoners where he started experimenting with costumes and theatrics.
After the war, he returned to Dudley and joined Birmingham Birmingham Repertory Theatre as an actor. He then became a set designer and an assistant director before moving on to direct productions in London's West End including the hugely-successful war play Journey's End which led him to Hollywood to direct the film version in 1929.
In 1931, he signed a five-year contract with Universal Pictures and his first movie was Waterloo Bridge, which tells the story of a desperate American chorus girl stranded in London during the First World War.
But it was release of Frankeinstein in 1931 which saw him a make a name for himself and it's still considered by many film buffs to be the definitive monster movie.
Frankenstein
Whale directed numerous classic Hollywood horror films in the 1930s such as Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein and The Invisible Man. He also directed Show Boat and many other films of note. Whale remains a rarity in cinema history - an English director in Hollywood, who never made a film in his own country.
The Bride Of Frankenstein movie poster
Unfortunately horror directors seldom receive the acclaim that, say, the makers of dramas or musicals might; that and his career lasted a mere ten years and not least because, for someone working in an industry that is so geared towards self promotion, Whale was immensely private and self-deprecating, something that could been seen as a typical Black Country trait.
Another nod to James Whale, in Dudley Town Centre,. One of the ‘Time Trail’ Plaques. outside the Baylies's School in Tower Street, where James attended.
At the height of his career as a director Whale directed The Road Back a sequel to All Quiet On The Western Front Unfortunately studio interference, led to the film being altered from Whale's vision and it was a critical and commercial failure. A run of similar box-office disappointments followed and, while he would make one final short film in 1950, by 1941 his film directing career was effectively over.
The Road Back
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 a stroke in 1956 that robbed him of his gusto and left him in constant pain. He committed suicide on 29 May 1957 by drowning himself in his swimming pool.
The memorial to James Whale at Castle Gate Cinema complex, Dudley
Thank you to Jan Hart and David Fisher for their contributions to this article.