Gods and Monsters
Director: Bill Condon
Year: 1998
Rating: 8.0
After the recent spate of Frankenstein films I have watched I had a yearning
to go back to the maker of the first two films, James Whale, in this sad
mournful film about aging, being forgotten, lost love, sexual desire and
memories. Most of the biographical details of the film are correct - he was
poor, went off to WWI, became a prisoner of war, came back after the war,
got into theater. then on to Hollywood, that he was very openly homosexual
and committed suicide by drowning in his pool. He made some famous films
besides Frankenstein - the Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The
Old Dark House, The Man in the Iron Mask and Show Boat. Then a few flops
and he was finished in Hollywood. He died in 1957 not having directed a feature
film since 1941. The horror genre owed so much to this man. Ian McKellen
as one has come to expect is brilliant portraying this lonely old man coming
to the end of his days and flashing to both his past glories as well as painful
memories that still eat him up.
