Contents:
THE GAY LEGACY OF FRANKENSTE
Yet there’s somethg about this story of unhallowed arts that mak darkly ronant for queer artists beyond any other you’re gay and grow up feelg like a hio misf, fully nsc that some believe your sir to be wicked and want to kill you for them, intifyg wh the Monster is hardly a stretch: A misunrstood beast fds solace the solu of the woods, but seems to endlsly face the wrath of the torch-bearg, small-md habants the world beyond. “Frankenste, ” Boris Karloff, 1931, via Everett CollectnHOMOEROTIC SUBTEXT was hntg “Frankenste” way before “Gods and Monsters, ” though: Boris Karloff’s fond nickname for his favore role was “the ar old monster.
While some people claim that homophobia end Whale’s reer and that he was disparaggly referred to as “The Queen of Hollywood, ” an terview wh Films Review, Whale’s long time iend Curtis Harrgton claimed that no one ma a big al of Whale’s sexualy. I will never know how much of the trends uld be attributed to Whale vers the choic of screenwrers and actors, but seems hard to believe that an openly gay man creatg movi that align wh the queer experience is jt a cince. Acrdg to Arthur Flannigan-Sat-Aub, “[t]here is an tablished tradn of examg the works of prumed or avowed homosexual wrers, for example, to postulate the existence of a homosexual thematic and/or stylistic” (“Sexual Preference” 67).
This leav wh an tentnal gay readg, which is thor-centred, and an untentnal gay readg, which strs the text’s impact on the rear and dog so legimat a homosexual readg which do not have to be ncerned wh the qutn whether the thor wanted his text to be read homosexually or not. Jam Whale’s Bri of Frankenste is a perfectly suable example for a discsn on the applibily of both ncepts as has a homosexual director, a prumed homosexual readg, and the much-discsed qutn if this terpretatn was tend by the director.
JAM WHALE: FRANKENSTE’S GAY FATHER
Most film crics and Whale’s ntemporari foc on the thor-centred tentnal gay readg to eher dismiss a homosexual terpretatn as a revisnist view of the film that wants a movie shot 1935 to transm morn valu or they clearly state that was impossible for such a sophistited director as Jam Whale not to be aware of all the film’s evince of a gay sensibily. Elsa Lanchter, who portrayed Mary Shelley and the Bri Bri of Frankenste and who was married to openly homosexual actor Charl Lghton, nsired their not marryg to be a reason for Jam Whale’s “not havg a normal life” (qtd.
This quotatn n be read as an ditor for Hollywood’s homophobic stance the 1930’s, sce “not havg a normal life” tends to suggt a notn of normaly wh regard to sexualy, where an openly gay life style is emed to be not normal.
Many nsir his not remag the closet as the ma reason for the end of his reer, although John D’E and Estelle Freedman suggt that the 1930’s “relatns wh genrs were slowly alterg” (Young, “Here Com the Bri” 413) wh homosexual exprsns lerature, mic, and psychology, so that “the rourc for namg homosexual sire slowly expand” (qtd. Consirg Whale’s bgraphy and the artistic circumstanc provid by the then newly tablished Co era, there were no other optns left for the director except to portray one of the major them of his own life – homosexualy – allegoril movi. Bri of Frankenste is therefore at the same time jt one example of his beg a homosexual film-maker and a film which stands out om all his other works regardg the fluence of his sexual orientatn.