Editing James Whale (section)

===With the Laemmles at Universal===
[[File:Frankenstein's monster (Boris Karloff).jpg|thumb|175px|Whale directed [[Boris Karloff]] in the iconic horror film ''[[Bride of Frankenstein]]'' (1935).]]
[[Universal Pictures|Universal Studios]] signed Whale to a five-year contract in 1931 and his first project was ''[[Waterloo Bridge (1931 film)|Waterloo Bridge]]''.<ref>{{cite news| last = Parsons| first = Louella| title = James Whale Will Direct For Universal| work = The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette| date = 11 March 1931| url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6v8MAAAAIBAJ&pg=2991,5750827| access-date = 17 January 2009}}{{Dead link|date=December 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Based on the Broadway play by [[Robert E. Sherwood]], the film stars [[Mae Clarke]] as Myra, a chorus girl in World War I London who becomes a prostitute. It too was a critical and popular success. At around this time, Whale and Lewis began living together.<ref name = anger210>Anger, p. 210.</ref>

In 1931, Universal chief [[Carl Laemmle, Jr.]] offered Whale his choice of any property the studio owned. He chose ''[[Frankenstein (1931 film)|Frankenstein]]'', mostly because none of Universal's other properties particularly interested him, and he wanted to make something other than a war picture.<ref name = skal129>Skal, p. 129.</ref> While [[Mary Shelley]]'s 1818 novel ''[[Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus]]'' itself was in the public domain, Universal owned the filming rights to a stage adaptation by [[Peggy Webling]]. Whale cast Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein and [[Mae Clarke]] as his fiancée Elizabeth. For the [[Frankenstein's monster|Monster]], he turned to the little known [[Boris Karloff]], who had wide-ranging experience in supporting roles. Shooting began on 24 August 1931 and wrapped on 3 October.<ref name = buehrer>Buehrer, p. 89.</ref> Previews were held 29 October,<ref>Curtis, p. 151.</ref> with wide release on 21 November.<ref>Curtis, p. 153.</ref> ''Frankenstein'' was an instant hit with critics and the public. The film received glowing reviews and shattered box office records across the United States,<ref>Curtis, p. 157.</ref> earning Universal $12&nbsp;million on first release.<ref name = buehrer />

Next from Whale were ''[[The Impatient Maiden]]'' and ''[[The Old Dark House (1932 film)|The Old Dark House]]'' (both 1932). ''The Impatient Maiden'' made little impression but ''The Old Dark House'', starring Karloff and [[Charles Laughton]], is credited with reinventing the "dark house" subgenre of horror films.<ref>Bansak, et al., p. 95.</ref> Thought [[Lost film|lost]] for some years, a print was found by filmmaker [[Curtis Harrington]] in the Universal vaults in 1968. It was restored by [[George Eastman House]],<ref name=fir>{{cite news|last=Del Valle |first=David |title=Curtis Harrington on James Whale |work=Films in Review |date=7 August 2008 |url=http://www.filmsinreview.com/2008/08/07/curtis-harrington-on-james-whale/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080903074125/http://www.filmsinreview.com/2008/08/07/curtis-harrington-on-james-whale/ |url-status=dead |archive-date= 3 September 2008 }}</ref> and released on Blu-ray disk in 2017.

Whale's next film was ''[[The Kiss Before the Mirror]]'' (1933), a critical success but a box-office failure. He returned to horror with ''[[The Invisible Man (1933 film)|The Invisible Man]]'' (1933). Shot from a script approved by [[H. G. Wells]],<ref>Skal, et al., p. 71.</ref> the film blended horror with humor and confounding visual effects. Much admired, ''[[The New York Times]]'' placed it in their list of the ten best films of the year,<ref>{{cite news| last = Hall| first = Mordaunt| title = The Outstanding Pictorial Features of 1933| work = The New York Times| date = 31 December 1933| isbn = 9780405066498| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PZ6lgRl6VAwC&pg=PA143| access-date = 26 December 2008}}</ref> and the film broke box-office records in cities across America. 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".<ref>Curtis, p. 221.</ref>

Also in 1933 Whale directed the romantic comedy ''By Candlelight'' which gained good reviews and was a modest box office hit.<ref>Curtis, p. 219.</ref> 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 [[Sadomasochism|sexual sadism]] implicit in the husband's abusive behavior.<ref>Curtis, pp. 224–25.</ref>
[[File:Bride of Frankenstein (1935 pictorial snipe).jpg|thumb|center|upright=2.3|1930s Universal's art director [[Karoly Grosz (illustrator)|Karoly Grosz]] designed this offbeat 1935 advertisement.]]

''[[Bride of Frankenstein]]'' (1935) was Whale's next project. He had resisted making 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 the mate is repelled by the monster who then, setting Frankenstein and his wife free to live, chooses to destroy himself and his "bride". The film was a critical and box office success, having earned some $2&nbsp;million for Universal by 1943.<ref>Curtis, p. 251.</ref> Lauded as "the finest of all [[gothic horror]] movies",<ref>{{cite news | last =French | first =Philip | title = Films of the Day: The Bride of Frankenstein | work=[[The Observer]] | date =2 December 2007}}</ref> ''Bride'' is frequently hailed as Whale's masterpiece.<ref>Gifford, p. 55.</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Graham |first=Bob |title='Bride' Is as Lovely as Ever |work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] |date=9 October 1998 |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/1998/10/09/DD32378.DTL&type=printable |access-date=8 January 2008 |archive-date=9 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090209000148/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/1998/10/09/DD32378.DTL&type=printable |url-status=live }}</ref>
With the success of ''Bride'', Laemmle was eager to put Whale to work on ''[[Dracula's Daughter]]'' (1936), the sequel to Universal's first big horror hit of the sound era. Whale, wary of doing two horror films in a row and concerned that directing ''Dracula's Daughter'' could interfere with his plans for the first all-sound version of ''Show Boat'' (previously filmed as a [[part-talkie]] by [[Harry A. Pollard]]), 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.<ref>Curtis, pp. 254–55.</ref> Retitled ''[[Remember Last Night?]]'', the film was one of Whale's personal favorites,<ref name = fir /> but met with sharply divided reviews and commercial uninterest.<ref>Curtis, p. 259.</ref>
[[File:Karloff-whale-mescall-bride opt2.jpg|thumb|[[Boris Karloff]] and Whale on set of ''Bride of Frankenstein'' (1935)]]
With the completion of ''Remember Last Night?'' Whale immediately went to work on ''[[Show Boat (1936 film)|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 (singer)|Helen Morgan]], [[Paul Robeson]], [[Charles Winninger]], [[Sammy White (actor)|Sammy White]], conductor [[Victor Baravalle]], orchestrator [[Robert Russell Bennett]], and, as Magnolia, [[Irene Dunne]], who believed that Whale was the wrong director for the piece.<ref name=senses>{{cite web |last=Lugowski |first=David |title=James Whale |work=Senses of Cinema |url=http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/05/whale.html |access-date=15 January 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090417063003/http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/05/whale.html |archive-date=17 April 2009}}</ref> The 1936 version of ''Show Boat'', faithfully adapted from the original stage production, is believed to be the definitive film version of the musical by many critics,<ref>Anger, p. 209. "Whale's is by far the best of the three screen versions of Jerome Kern's musical."</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Rosenbaum |first=Jonathan |title=Show Boat |work=The Chicago Reader |quote=...&nbsp;infinitely superior to the dull 1951 MGM Technicolor remake&nbsp;... |url=http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/11056_SHOW_BOAT_JAMES_WHALE.html |access-date=15 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090606090815/http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/11056_SHOW_BOAT_JAMES_WHALE.html |archive-date=6 June 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref> but became unavailable following the [[Show Boat (1951 film)|1951 remake]].<ref name = senses /> In 2014, a restoration of the film became available on DVD in the U.S. as part of [[Warner Home Video]]'s [[Warner Archive Collection|Archive Collection line]];<ref>{{cite web|url=http://shop.warnerarchive.com/product/show+boat+%281936%29+1000466749.do?sortby=bestSellers&refType=&from=fn|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140225183135/http://shop.warnerarchive.com/product/show+boat+(1936)+1000466749.do?sortby=bestSellers&refType=&from=fn|url-status=dead|archive-date=25 February 2014|title=Show Boat (1936) (MOD)|work=WBShop.com}}</ref> and in 2020, a 4K restoration Blu-Ray was released by [[The Criterion Collection]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.criterion.com/films/29035-show-boat|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200420194352/http://www.criterion.com/films/29035-show-boat|archive-date=20 April 2020|title=Show Boat (1936) - The Criterion Collection|work=criterion.com|access-date=20 April 2020|url-status=live}}</ref>

''Show Boat'' was the last of Whale's films to be produced under the Laemmle family. The studio was now bankrupt, and the Laemmles lost control to [[J. Cheever Cowdin]], head of the Standard Capital Corporation, and [[Charles R. Rogers]], who was installed in Junior Laemmle's old job.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Universal to Cowdin |magazine=Time |date=23 March 1936 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,930838,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081215085216/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,930838,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 December 2008| access-date = 14 January 2009}}</ref>