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THE GAY LEGACY OF FRANKENSTE
Jam Whale (1889-1957) was a gay man, and that may have ntributed to the llapse of his reer the late 1930s. It is now believed that the Monster, as nceived by Whale, was the director exprsg his own tratn over how gays were treated by society. Bri of Frankenste is a dark edy, filled wh graveyard humor and an obv gay subtext.
Watchg Bri of Frankenste today, is hard to image that 1935 dienc failed to see the obv: that this was the work of an unashamed gay filmmaker.
Over the years, many film historians have speculated that Whale’s openns regardg his homosexualy may have st him his reer. Jam Whale, who had also directed the first Frankenste and The Invisible Man, lived openly as a gay man.
JAM WHALE: FRANKENSTE’S GAY FATHER
This has led to film scholars readg homoeroticism to the sequel he directed, where Dr Pretor (played by Ernt Thiger) tempts Dr Frankenste away om his wife to create another unnatural life sympathetic: Elsa Lanchter and Boris Karloff ‘The Bri of Frankenste’ (1935) (Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock)Whale’s spiratn for the Bri was Maria, the female robot om Frz Lang’s Metropolis (1927). Many people know about Whale om the 1998 movie Gods and Monsters, a fictnalized acunt of his last days (starrg Ian McKellen) that strs his profsnal tratns as an openly gay man Hollywood. **Edor’s Note: Jam Whale: Frankenste’s Gay Father is a ntuatn of iHorror’s Horror Pri Month celebratg the LGBTQ Communy and their ntributns to the genre.
Life as an out of the closet gay man the 1930s was far om easy, even Hollywood. Gay dienc, then and now, see all of those thgs and somethg more.
Each of them are revered for their own style and each is filled wh the director’s gay sensibili. Some film scholars argue that there is a gay sensibily this film, which turn triggered a rise of homosexual terpretatns of the movie. As a matter of fact, some of the people volved the productn of the film were eher homo- or bisexual, cludg director Jam Whale and -stars Col Clive and Ernt Thiger.