: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.
:34:00
My father played the monster three times.
:34:03
The third time was Son of Frankenstein,
:34:06
and at that point he decided
he would not do it again.
:34:10
He felt that the story line
had been exhausted
:34:15
and the monster, as he had created him,
:34:18
had done all that he should
be asked to do.
:34:22
He was afraid that it would become
the brunt of bad jokes and bad scripts,
:34:26
and there are those
that would agree with him.
:34:29
Bill Condon's Academy Award-winning
film Gods and Monsters
:34:32
featured a reunion between the stars of
Bride of Frankenstein and their director.
:34:37
Hey, you/ With the camera/
We got a historical moment here.
:34:42
This is Mr James Whale,
:34:43
who made "Frankenstein"
and "Bride of Frankenstein".
:34:47
And this - forget the baby a second - is
:34:50
the monster
:34:52
and his bride.
:34:54
Oh, Karloff. Right/