James Whale - Legacy

Legacy

Influential film critic Andrew Sarris, in his 1968 ranking of directors, lists Whale as "lightly likable". Noting that Whale's reputation has been subsumed by the "Karloff cult", Sarris cites Bride of Frankenstein as the "true gem" of the Frankenstein series and concludes that Whale's career "reflects the stylistic ambitions and dramatic disappointments of an expressionist in the studio-controlled Hollywood of the thirties".

Whale's final months are the subject of the 1995 novel Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram. The novel focuses on the relationship between Whale and a fictional gardener named Clayton Boone. Father of Frankenstein served as the basis of the 1998 film Gods and Monsters with Ian McKellen as Whale and Brendan Fraser as Boone. McKellen was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Whale.

A memorial statue was erected for Whale in 2002 on the grounds of a new multiplex cinema in his home town of Dudley. The statue, by Charles Hadcock, depicts a roll of film with the face of Frankenstein's monster engraved into the frames, and the names of his most famous films etched into a cast concrete base in the shape of film canisters.

Horror in Hollywood: The James Whale Story, a retrospective of Whale's artwork, opened at the Dudley Museum and Art Gallery in October 2012 and is scheduled to run through January 2013.