Gods and Monsters

More than a few feature films over the years have attempted to explore the various stages of Hollywood fame (and, of course, infamy) - and in recent years, there have been a lot of them. From the affectionate Chaplin to the amusingly speculative Shadow Of The Vampire (and not forgetting, of course, the raft of biographical telemovies in recent years), filmmakers have tried many different approaches to turning the cameras on their own industry and telling an “inside story�.

Director James Whale was, in the ‘30s and ‘40s, one of the most innovative creative minds in Hollywood. An English expatriate, he come to notice for the 1930 film Journey’s End, from which point he worked constantly for over ten years directing films of all kinds - and uniquely, he had almost total creative control thanks to his understanding mentors at Universal. But it’s the camp 1931 horror classic Frankenstein and its 1935 sequel Bride Of Frankenstein that he is best remembered for, along with his version of The Invisible Man and the second filming of the musical Showboat. And while Whale craved respect as a “serious� director, he never quite achieved that aim. His sequel to All Quiet On The Western Front - 1937’s The Road Back - was altered by the studio before release, and within a few years Whale had retired from filmmaking, living off the substantial earnings from his films and dabbling in painting.

In May 1957, James Whale was found dead in the swimming pool of his Hollywood home, a death widely rumoured at the time to have been the result of foul play. That theory has since been disproved, but it’s that premise that Bill Condon’s Gods And Monsters explores.

It’s 1957, and James Whale (played here by Ian McKellen), long retired from public life, is enjoying a hedonistic existence, bothered only by the occasional visit from interviewers - who increasingly want to talk only about his best-known creation, Frankenstein, and not about his other creative endeavours. Whale, who has never hidden his homosexuality from the world, is in the midst of playing coy sexual games with one interviewer when he suffers a debilitating stroke; from this point on, his life has changed. Unable to paint anything even vaguely coherent any longer, and burdened by long-repressed memories of his early life and his horrific time in World War 1, Whale finds solace in the form of Clayton Boone (Brendan Fraser), a gardener who he initially invites to pose for a painting session. Boone, determinedly heterosexual and initially unaware of the attraction Whale has for him, is both flattered by the attention and intrigued by the conversations the pair have. But as their friendship grows, it becomes rapidly apparent that things are not all as they seem.

This speculative story of the last days of Whale’s life - initially a novel titled Father Of Frankenstein by author Christopher Bram - uses factual material as its base and extrapolates from there. In reality, no-one knows what happened to James Whale at the end of his life; that this fact-based fiction is so reverent about the man and his foibles is, though, a definite plus regardless of factual accuracy. Ian McKellen plays Whale with utter relish throughout; a very fine actor who has justifiably attained enormous respect throughout his many years on stage and screen, he’s absolutely perfect in Gods And Monsters, and Brendan Fraser shakes off the baggage of the other roles he was playing at the time in schlock fodder such as George Of The Jungle to turn in a completely convincing, admirably subtle performance as Boone. Lynn Redgrave, meanwhile, is almost unrecognisable as Whale’s housekeeper Hanna, but as the film’s comic relief and as a stoic foil to the jaded, arrogant Whale she’s brilliant.

Director and screenwriter Bill Condon (who won an Oscar for his screenplay for this film) has worked mainly in television and low-budget movies previous to Gods And Monsters. And while this one’s still hardly a cash-rich production (it was made on a paltry $3 million budget), Condon tells this story with exceptional skill and a wonderful sense of both dramatic flair and comic timing. Largely a conversational film, it seems a lot more epic than it is thanks both to his use of the widescreen image (the film was photographed this way as a nod to the look of big Hollywood films of the period) and the consummate skill of the actors. Condon’s obvious love for old Hollywood in general and Whale’s work in particular really rings true on the screen, but whether or not you’ve ever heard of James Whale, Gods And Monsters (the title comes from a line in one of Whale's Frankenstein films) is a movie that anyone who enjoys fine drama will feel well rewarded by - and the closing scenes are truly memorable cinema.

Gods And Monsters was released on DVD in the US by Universal, and the transfer on this local version (released by The AV Channel and authored by Madman Interactive) is most likely the very same telecine work. While there’s a fair amount of film scratches and nicks during the opening credits, the rest of the transfer is absolutely superb, the 2.35:1, 16:9 enhanced image displaying marvellous detail, rich colour saturation and has virtually no distracting compression artefacts to spoil the experience. There’s a fair amount of grain visible at times, but that seems to have been an intentional decision on the part of the cinematographer.

Overall, this is quite a stunning transfer, especially given the budget this film was working with.

The layer change on this disc deserves a mention: it was surprisingly clunky on the player used for this review, and while reasonably well placed it did cause an unusually lengthy pause.

This film’s audio was originally mixed in good old Dolby Stereo, and that soundtrack is faithfully reproduced here, encoded at a decently high bitrate and sounding perfectly clear and mostly free of problems; there is the occasional instance of distortion on dialogue, but that quite obviously comes from the original recordings made on set, and again is quite forgivable given the film’s limited budget. Composer Carter Burwell’s typically wonderful score is especially well represented (what a shame there’s no music-only track here).

One issue that’s worth mentioning: this audio track has quite obviously been time-compressed to maintain the same musical pitch as the theatrical film, rather than being subjected to the more common 4% speed-up due to the faster frame rate of PAL video - switch between the commentary and the movie soundtrack during a section backed by music and you’ll immediately hear the difference. The maintaining of correct pitch is an admirable decision, one we’d like to see done more often - but in this case, there are clearly audible artefacts from the time compression that anyone who’s worked with that technology before will notice immediately. It won’t bother 99% of this disc’s audience, but this is something that can be avoided with the right software and due care.

A modest but good-quality selection of extra material is provided on the Gods And Monsters DVD - and admirably it includes all the key extras that appeared on the US version of the disc.

Audio Commentary: With the opening film-company trailer removed from this version of the disc, presumably for licensing reasons, the beginning of Condon’s commentary is cut off, which is disconcerting. But with that out of the way, the director settles in for an hour and 40 minutes of high-speed commenting, constantly interrupting himself in order to squeeze as much information in as possible. He’s very interesting for much of the time, but his penchant for distracting himself can be a little frustrating at times. Still, there’s a wealth of information here both about the difficulties of producing a film on such a limited budget and about such an unusual subject, and of course about the shooting of the film itself.

The World Of Gods And Monsters: A Journey With James Whale: A 29-minute documentary narrated by esteemed author (and sometime film director) Clive Barker, who served as Executive Producer on this film. This is a reasonably good featurette, though it does verge dangerously close to cheesy promo territory at times thanks to its over-reliance on footage from the film; one gets the sense that this deserved to be a lot longer. Still, it’s an entertaining and often very informative look at the production of the film, and includes interviews with the principal cast as well as the production team.

Production Notes: A nine-page standard-issue summary of the film’s genesis, most of it covered in the documentary.

Cast And Filmmaker: Modest biographies and filmographies for McKellen, Fraser, Redgrave and the director.

Theatrical Trailer: Letterboxed but not 16:9 enhanced, this is a rather nicely done trailer for a film that’s obviously not the easiest thing to market to the wider world.

Awards: A screen listing some of the awards the film and its actors have won.

Gods And Monsters is a wonderfully scripted, insightfully acted telling of a very unusual story that’s given added impetus by the element of truth amongst its fiction. Sometimes reverent and always at least affectionate towards its main subject, it nonetheless does not take itself too seriously - in much the same way, suitably, as Whale himself approached his own movies. This is a film that can be appreciated by everyone - but if you love movies about Hollywood and its inhabitants in the “golden� years, you’ll find even more to enjoy in Gods And Monsters. The AV Channel’s DVD is up to their usual high standard, and replicates all the key features from Universal’s US release, lovely film transfer and all.