I posted this to an online screenwriting group, I figured I’d share here as well.
Gods and Monsters, Directed and Written by Bill Condon, adapted from the novel “The Father of Frankenstein” by Christopher Bram. Won Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay in 1998. I was working at an independent video shop at the time and received a VHS screen copy of this movie in 1999.
The story is a fictionalization of how James Whale, the director of Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, (and others) lived his last days. James Whale was an open homosexual, which was not widely common in the 1920′s and 1930′s.
An ailing and fragile Whale is increasingly disconnected from his youth. Several strokes have rendered his mental state tenuous. He has nobody but his house keeper and his fleeting memories.
What drew me to the film was the gentle light in which Whale was painted. Whale’s fleeting past and his attempt to re-connect with a man who represents his own youth, Clay Boone his gardener, offers a compelling story of the past slipping through ones fingers.
In an intense scene, Whale tries to seduce Boone (who is a strapping young heterosexual) — Boone responds by attacking him. Wale then pleads for Boone kill him and end his misery. I could sense his longing and desperation – it spoke to me.
The most powerful scene, however, is the following morning when Wale is discovered drowned in the pool of apparent suicide. Even though I knew the fate the of the real James Wale, the scene was thoroughly affecting.
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