:32:05
So somebody must come and
either kill or otherwise tame
:32:10
that monster that's been unleashed.
:32:12
And the villagers do that.
:32:15
The villagers in Frankenstein and in Bride
:32:19
are almost the villains of the piece.
:32:23
That's especially the case in the end of
Frankenstein, where they're a lynch mob.
:32:28
He had the idea that, when people thought
as a group, it could only lead to trouble.
:32:33
Somehow the mob mentality
was a scarier thing to face
:32:39
than any monster could possibly be.
:32:42
With Show Boat,
Whale had nearly achieved his dream
:32:45
of creative autonomy
and prestige productions.
:32:47
But Universal was burdened with debt
and in 1936 Carl Laemmle lost his studio.
:32:53
Whale had this amazing niche for five
years, working under Junior Laemmle.
:32:58
He almost acted as an independent
filmmaker today. He really had control.
:33:02
There was nobody -
either a studio person or a producer -
:33:05
over his shoulder, telling him what to do.
:33:08
When the Laemmles lost control
over Universal, that was gone.
:33:11
Whale suddenly found himself
working for people
:33:14
who were not in sympathy
with his methods at all.
:33:17
It was much closer to the factory
assembly-line form of filmmaking
:33:22
that they were doing at MGM
and the other studios.
:33:26
Whale worked very badly
in those conditions.
:33:29
Whale's last stand at Universal
was The Road Back,
:33:32
an uncompromising sequel to
All Quiet on the Western Front.
:33:35
Under pressure from Germany, the studio
regime severely cut the picture
:33:39
and it died at the box office.
:33:41
Whale retired from Hollywood in 1941.
Although financially secure for life,
:33:45
he did not live to enjoy the critical
acclaim his work finally received.
:33:49
Disabled and disoriented by a series
of strokes, he took his own life in 1957.
:33:54
Without Whale's masterful touch,
:33:56
the later Frankenstein films were
of little interest to their star.