DECEMBER 4 FRI (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 FRANKENSTEIN
(1931) “It’s alive! It’s alive!” In the most
famous adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic,
Colin Clive’s Doctor Frankenstein determines to
create life itself, but proper brain procurement
proves the sticking point. Boris Karloff — in a
wordless role — indicates the Monster’s humanity
and terror beneath the iconic makeup created by
Jack Pierce.
1:00, 3:50, 6:40, 9:25
“The most influential horror film ever made, this stark and stylish work has a weird fairytale beauty. Karloff gives one of the most indelible performances in American cinema as the monster, at once terrifying and pathetic, a moving study of alienation and primitive anger.”
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice
“A landmark. When treating Karloff’s monster it is surprising, lyrical, and gravely tolerant. In the scene of the monster and the little girl the balannce of hope and menace is so exact that it still has the riveting effect of the best Hitchcock.”
– David Thomson
“Whale's scariest movie... with its stark compositions, rambunctious crowd scenes, sneaky humor and unexpected sympathy for the brutish lab-concocted creature played by Karloff, supplied a richer experience of terror than anything that had preceded it in the early era of talkies. ”
– Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times (November 29, 2009)
“A thriller, make no mistake. Women come out trembling, men exhausted.”
– Motion Picture Herald
 THE INVISIBLE MAN
(1933) “You fool! Together we could
have ruled the world!” Remarkably faithful
adaptation of the H. G. Wells classic and the 43-
year-old stage star Claude Rains’ film debut —
although, for obvious reasons, he isn’t actually
seen until the final moments. Still dazzling
special effects allow him to perform a total
striptease suitable for the entire family. With
Titanic’s Gloria Stuart as his pre-megalomania
sweetheart.
2:25, 5:15, 8:00
“Whale's most elegantly inventive movie... a film that always feels
both more sinister and more prankish than you remember it as:
it’s a startling piece of studio-made surrealism.”
– Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times (November 29, 2009)
“The screenplay is full of rich dialogue; no one could have delivered it better than the young, velvet-voiced Rains.
The special effectts are remarkable even today, as in a sequence worthy of a surrealist’s nightmare.”
– Stephen Whitty, The Star-Ledger
“A handsomely tricked-up version of the Wells fantasy, impressively well done with witty special effects and the Whale humor that enlivened The Old Dark House and The Bride of Frankenstein.”
– Pauline Kael
“Engrossing adaptation played for suspense, pathos and tongue-in-cheek humour.” – Geoff Andrew, Time Out (London)
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DECEMBER 5 SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
(1935) “To new worlds of gods and
monsters!” Karloff’s Monster learns from
the blind hermit to enjoy a good smoke and
speak, Elsa Lanchester alternates doom-laden
pronouncements as author/storyteller Mary
Shelley, and shrieks as the crazily-coiffed
Bride; and Ernest Thesiger’s avatar of camp
Dr. Pretorius rhapsodizes over his bottled
homunculi, in Whale’s ghoulishly humorous
masterpiece.
2:30, 5:30, 8:30
Also showing Sun., Dec 6 at 1:00, 10:00
(single feature)
“Whale's masterpiece – a still unmatched blend mix of horror, pathos, and sepulchral camp.”
– David Edelstein, New York magazine
“Camp long before the term was popularized, this is the wittiest as well as the most visually expressive of the classic Universal horror pictures – a bizarre analogue to the sort of wildly stylized erotica Josef von Sternberg was producing over at Paramount.”
– J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
“CRITIC'S PICK! Not many sequels wind up improving upon the original, but this horror classic,
which adds a large dose of pathos and dry wit to the mixture, is a notable exception.”
– Time Out New York
“Among the greatest of horror films.
Very funny and poignant.”
– David Thomson
“An extraordinary film, with sharp humour, macabre extravagance, and a narrative that proceeds at a fast, efficient pace.”
– Gavin Lambert
“Baroquely funny... takes both the comedy and the horror of Whale’s luxurious technique
about as far as they could go, into trackless realms of cinematic berserkness.”
– Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times (November 29, 2009)
“A macabre comedy classic. Whale had a good sense of gothic humor.” – Pauline Kael
 THE OLD DARK HOUSE
(1932) On the run in the Welsh countryside,
Raymond Massey, Gloria Stuart, and Melvyn
Douglas seek refuge in a creepy mansion,
complete with hulking mute butler Boris Karloff,
broadly-accented Charles Laughton, and headof
the household Ernest Thesiger, presiding
over “the most awful dinner party in the history
of the movies” (Simon Callow).
1:00, 4:00, 7:00
“A jeu d'esprit in which comedy of manners is edged into tragedy of horrors, the film never puts a foot wrong.”
– Tom Milne
“A wonderful deadpan takeoff of horror plays written in the witty, perverse, and creepy manner of the eccentric James Whale.”
– Pauline Kael
“A scream in more ways than its gripping tale of five troubled souls stranded for the night with the domestic prototype for the Addamses. The family's name is Femm, and it's presided over by a hilariously queeny Ernest Thesiger and his wild-eyed sidekick (played by an ape-hairy Boris Karloff), while an ancient bedridden patriarch is played by veteran actress Elspeth Dudgeon, who appears in the credits as John Dudgeon.”
– Ella Taylor, LA Weekly
“The greatest of
all horror films!” – William K. Everson
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DECEMBER 5 SAT (Separate Admission)
 GODS AND MONSTERS
(1998, Bill Condon) Ailing, retired director James
Whale (Ian McKellen) flashes back through his
life while naughtily making eyes at his hunky-but-straight
gardener Brendan Fraser under the eyes of
disapproving housekeeper Lynn Redgrave. Oscar
for Best Screenplay, with McKellen and Redgrave
also nominated.
10:00 ONLY
“You don't have to be a film buff to relish this portrait of Hollywood – to laugh at a world where the monsters, after a few martinis, are indistinguishable from the gods. This picture does Whale proud, and its closing shot is one of the loveliest I have ever seen.”
– Anthony Lane, New Yorker
“A deeply resonant portrait of Whale and the gay Hollywood of his era. Condon is at his most impressive when weaving
their peculiar bond into the spirit of the Frankenstein movies, something he does with tenderness and insight.”
– Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“This atmospheric glimpse into the life of the gothic visionary Whale impresses most with Ian McKellen's poweful star turn...
what you remember most about this movie are Condon's graceful re-creations of signature scenes from Whale's work,
scenes in which the dead aren't just re-animated, they're newly immortalized.”
– Manohla Dargis, LA Weekly
“Like watching a marvelous one-man show on an off-Broadway stage,
a showcase for a uniquely sympathetic virtuoso performance by Ian McKellen.”
– Jonathan Lethem
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DECEMBER 6 SUN (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 WATERLOO BRIDGE
(1931) Mae Clarke as the streetwalker beloved
by a sensitive, naïve soldier. Definitely Pre-Code
version — far franker than the 1940 remake
— of Robert Sherwood’s play, with a glimpse of the
very young Bette Davis.
2:30, 5:30, 8:30
“Deliciously and despondently Pre-Code. Whale and ace cinematographer Arthur Edeson (All Quiet on the Western Front) give the story a visual dynamism
that belies its theatrical origins.”
– Cullen Gallagher, The L Magazine
“A welcome rediscovery, particularly for its commanding lead performance by Mae Clarke.”
– Dave Kehr
“Whale's sensitive adaptation of Sherwood is a poignant superior to the better known 1940 remake.”
– Elliott Stein, Village Voice
“A masterpiece from Pre-Code Hollywood with Whale's visual flare.”
– Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
“Directed with a delicate mixture of realism and impressionism by James Whale,
head and shoulders above its heavily laundered 1940 remake.”
– GreenCine
 THE KISS BEFORE
THE MIRROR
(1933) While defending Paul Lukas on a charge
of murdering his unfaithful wife, Viennese lawyer
Frank Morgan starts to look askance at his own
frau Nancy Carroll.
4:05, 7:05
“An audaciously stylized drama (complete with a stunning 360-degree panning shot). Brimming over with masochistic longing,
IT'S ONE OF THE GLORIES
OF THE EARLY SOUND PERIOD. ”
– Dave Kehr, The New York Times (December 4, 2009)
“One of the most unusual films to come out of
Hollywood in 1933. Whale brings to it the same
elegance and unsettling emotional intensity
as his famous horror pictures”
– Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
“One of Whale’s best films, confirming his right to be considered one of the high stylists of film of the early 30s.
Pure film all the way and stunningly
photographed by Karl Freund.”
– William K. Everson
“Begins like a horror film, with a mysterious figure wandering, in silhouette, through a stylized nighttime landscape toward
a house with too many windows, but it develops into a twisty moral drama about marital fidelity and the betrayal of trust.
[It has] a fluent melancholy that stands out against the homelier virtues of studio-era filmmaking. ”
– Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times (November 29, 2009)
“Epitomizes the meticulous grandeur of Whale's direction, from seductive, secretive tracking shots of Gloria Stuart backlit against the night sky, to long shots of high-ceilinged sets that emphasize densely detailed décor and atmospheric lighting.”
– Cullen Gallagher, The L Magazine
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Sunday, December 6 • Separate admission
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
Click here for more information about BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
Previously showing Saturday, December 5
1:00, 10:00
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DECEMBER 7 MON (3 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
BY CANDLELIGHT
(1933) Butler Paul Lukas steals the identity and
Casanovaish moves of his suave prince boss — all to
romance maid Elissa Landi, herself masquerading
as her countess boss. Based on a play adapted
from the German by P.G. Wodehouse.
1:00, 5:15, 9:30
“Blithely pre-Code, By Candlelight is an upstairs-downstairs bedroom farce, predicated on class privilege and mistaken identity.
Where Lubitsch might have been suave; Whale skews the action towards hysteria.”
– J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
“Utterly charming. Shows off Whale's rarely tapped capacity for sophisticated social and sexual satires.”
– Cullen Gallagher, The L Magazine
“A dazzling display of romantic confidence trickery which takes on Lubitsch in his own territory.
Delightful in its complications and malicious social implications, the whole film fairly glitters with wit.”
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)
“Arguably the definitive comedy of deception. A breezy and delightful frolic. James Whale deserts Grand Guignol
and melodrama to enter Lubitsch territory… very much in the tradition of Trouble in Paradise, if even more frothy and artificial.”
– William K. Everson
 IMPATIENT MAIDEN
(1932) Boy, Mae Clarke has hard, cynical
ideas about marriage — but then she’s the
bachelorette secretary to lecherous divorce
lawyer John Halliday; with Lew Ayres and Andy
Devine as friendly ambulance drivers, and an
elaborate appendectomy climax.
2:25, 6:40
“Has a dandy of a first act, with determinedly single gal Mae Clarke and her roommate glibly flirting with an ambulance crew while a lovelorn attempted suicide recovers on their couch. Whale's camera glides through their Bunker Hill rental with the same elegance it shows in drawing rooms.”
– Nick Pinkerton, The Village Voice
“Whale has obviously inserted a great deal of personal style into it… The macabre sense of humor in the hospital scenes for example; his way of theatrically staging many dialogue scenes by a window (one of them, in a hospital, even has the sinister and unlikely shadow of a dead-looking Frankensteinian tree across the drawn-blinds); and above all his constantly mobile camera. There is real warmth and easy grace in the performances, especially those of Mae Clarke and John Halliday and it moves at a physically brisk pace.”
– William K. Everson
 SINNERS IN PARADISE
(1938) In the wake of the crash of a China-bound
seaplane, its Grand-Hotelish passengers — on the-
run-from-a-loveless-marriage nurse Madge
Evans, oily Senator Gene Lockhart, an heiress, a
mobster with moll, et al. — are washed ashore on a
lonely island solely inhabited by John Boles and his
Oriental servant. And then...
3:55, 8:10
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DECEMBER 8 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 THE MAN IN THE
IRON MASK
(1939) D’Artagnan (WB Pre-Code titan Warren
William) and the Musketeers once again ride to
the rescue of 17th-century France, with Louis
Hayward in double role as the eponymous victim
and... we’re not telling. “Exhilarating... the three
musketeers in full cry.” – Leslie Halliwell.
1:30, 5:20, 9:10
“Recommended! The first and best take on Dumas's classic sibling rivalry.
Whale imparts a fair amount of good-natured swish to the proceedings.”
– Time Out New York
“Exhilarating.” – Leslie Halliwell
“A rousing and fast-paced adventure, and an object lesson in how a good director can make a cheap production look like a million-dollar epic. The cast pulls its weight magnificently; Warren William is a fine D'Artagnan, with an enjoyably Barrymoresque half-wit masquerade interpolated. But it's really James Whale's show, and it's a pleasure to see his signature peeking through every so often; the camera movements, the pantomimic gestures and the compositions in the first scenes of the masked prisoner, isolated in his cell, bring similar images to mind from The Invisible Man.”
– William K. Everson
 GREEN HELL
(1940) “It’s just a coma,” assures doctor
Alan Hale after peering under a patient’s
mosquito net. Intentional/unintentional spoof
of jungle adventure, with Douglas Fairbanks,
Jr. leading George Sanders, Vincent Price
— and Joan Bennett? — off in search of Inca
treasure.
3:35, 7:25
“Its hyper-masculine, colonialist fantasy
is certainly entertaining today.”
– Cullen Gallagher, The L Magazine
“An enjoyable piece of stylish hoke, its jungle action well underplayed and often done via suggestion, much in the manner of the Val Lewton. Much of the dialogue is in the best tradition, particularly the Britishers musing about the rhododendrons blooming in Devonshire -- while awaiting a poisoned dart in the neck from an insensitive head-hunter lurking in the studio jungle outside.”
– William K. Everson
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DECEMBER 9 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 SHOW BOAT
(1936) Kern and Hammerstein’s American
musical classic, with Irene Dunne and Allan
Jones meeting and parting; Helen Morgan’s
heart-wrenching torch songs; Paul Robeson’s
expressions providing their own commentary;
and topped by the incredible crane shot of his
electrifying “Ol’ Man River.”
2:35, 6:20*, 10:05
*
Amy Asch, editor of The Complete Lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II (published by Knopf), will introduce the 6:20 show
“Definitive. The Mississippi River setting is full of American myths, and Whale perfectly connects to the collective nostalgia—and guilt—of his adopted country. One appreciates not only the tragic grandeur Whale gives Paul Robeson's 'Ol' Man River,' but also the director's intelligence—knowing to do nothing that might break the intimate spell of Helen Morgan's tremulous, wrenching rendition of 'Bill,' one of the most perfect movie moments we have.”
– Nick Pinkerton, The Village Voice
“Masterly, with some definitive performances and an exquisite evocation of the period and the landscape,
for the first time in Whale’s work unmistakably American.”
– John Russell Taylor
“Time and again surprises with its vivacity and the equal skill out—doors and in front of backdrops.
Suggests true versatility, plus the mixture of sophistication and unashamed sentiment.”
– David Thomson
“The cast brings them to life so vividly one sometimes forgets that one is simply watching a movie.
The viewer truly comes to care for these people as old, treasured friends. Show Boat, more than any other movie musical
of the 1930s, unfolds like the vision of America as seen on the pages of a well-worn family album.”
– Miles Kreuger
“Very lavish... directed with a fine moneyed smoothness... proves good entertainment,
sentimental, literary, but oddly appealing.”
– Graham Greene
 REMEMBER LAST NIGHT?
(1935) A Thin Man-type murder mystery, as filthy
rich lounge lizard Robert Young and equally zany
wife Constance Cummings alternately team with
and stymie detective Edward Arnold.
1:00, 4:45, 8:30
“Who would have expected Will Hays to approve a boozy, screwball murder mystery in which the characters are too drunk to notice a murder and too hungover to really care? I'll raise a glass to this forgotten 30s gem any day.”
– Cullen Gallagher, The L Magazine
“A MUST-SEE!”
– Flavorpill
"Delightful screwball parody of the detective thriller...Whale's use of elisions, non-sequiturs
and unexpected stresses creates what is virtually a blueprint for the style developed
by Robert Altman in and after MASH."
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)
“A screwball comedy and murder mystery in the Thin Man mode. Whale has never been properly appreciated for the wit and the engaging minor characters found in some of his nonhorror features. This 1935 release is one of the best of that neglected batch; its sheer goofiness helps explain why critic Tom Milne once compared Whale to Jean-Luc Godard.”
– Jonathan Rosenbaum
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DECEMBER 10 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 THE ROAD BACK
(1937) ... to civilian life after WWI for German
soldiers John King, Slim Summerville, Andy
Devine, et al. — and it’s a bumpy one. Adapted
from Erich Maria Remarque’s sequel to his All
Quiet on the Western Front, with gritty nighttime
battle scenes, the rise of what would become
the Nazis, and sweeping high angle shots of
street riots.
3:40, 7:15
“An artistic triumph, an elegiac and solemn sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front laden with Whale's own personal memories of the trenches.”
– Cullen Gallagher, The L Magazine
“One of the more ambitious of Hollywood’s early attacks on German militarism. The battlefield scenes have a typical Whale-Gothic look. Whale’s handling of the visuals make it eminently worth seeing and studying.”
– William K. Everson
 ONE MORE RIVER
((934) Bad enough that Diana Wynyard is married to brutal wifebeater Colin Clive (Dr. Frankenstein himself, “Whale's discovery and finest star, here at his ulcerous, hate-encysted best.”– Cullen Gallagher, The L Magazine), but now he’s insanely jealous of her innocent relationship with callow Frank Lawton. Well, if it’ll get her that divorce... Authentic adaptation of Nobel laureate John Galsworthy’s novel.
2:00, 5:35, 9:10
"The most British movie ever made in Hollywood. An elegant film, with a grace that even Lubitsch couldn't have topped."
– William K. Everson
“Whale achieves a world-weariness almost worthy of the later films of Max Ophuls. His fluid camera explores
the dark complications of married life, moving curiously from bedroom to drawing room — and finally, into the courtroom.”
– Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times (November 29, 2009)
“A polished, elegant gem of a movie. A glowing example of how to turn English drawing-rooms and stiff upper lips into the stuff of tragedy. It's not unlike Brief Encounter, raised a couple of rungs in the social ladder to the milieu of noblesse oblige and the proper thing, pride, privilege and Tory victories at the polls; but what astonishes is the skill and sensitivity with which Whale manages to suggest the still waters of passion slowly coming to the boil under the surface.”
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)
“A deeply personal masterpiece.” – Senses of Cinema
“Reflects a peculiarly refined expressionist style and a strange, ambiguous moral sensibility.”
– Dave Kehr
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Special thanks to Paul Ginsburg, Bob O’Neil (Universal Pictures); Tim Lanza (The Rohauer Collection); Mike Mashon,
Rob Stone (Library of Congress); Marilee Womack (Warner Bros.); Lionsgate; Mark McElhatten (Sikelia Productions); Pat Doyen
(George Eastman House); Jared Sapolin, Grover Crisp, Helena Brisenden (Sony Pictures); Tom Weaver; and Martin Scorsese. |
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