Old Stuff
Gods and Monsters (1998)
Directed by Bill Condon
If you like stories about the movies and stories about twisted characters in twisted relationships, you'll get plenty of both in "Gods and Monsters". It’s about James Whale, a director from the old studio days of Hollywood. Whale is best known for "Frankenstein" and it's sequel, "Bride of Frankenstein" though he directed many other big films including "Showboat" and "The Man In the Iron Mask". He was also a member of Hollywood's gay aristocracy. It's not really surprising that a gay director is the one who brought a story about a man making a child without a woman and then two men getting together to make a woman, to the big screen. Nor is it a surprise that Clive Barker is one of the producers of this film. It's right up his alley (no joke intended).
The movie begins with Whale retired and ill. He's suffering from a degenerative brain disorder, which is breaking down his ability to remain focused on the present. Memories keep intruding on his daily existence. They send him into a daydreaming stupor, unless he takes medication to control them. He lives in a big Hollywood house alone except for his frumpy housekeeper.
A young art student comes to interview him and only wants to hear about the "Frankenstein" movies. I think the actor's name is Todd Babcock, and he's really good as a young poof looking to make inroads into the movie biz. Whale makes a deal that the boy has to remove one article of clothing for each question. Ian McKellen is really at his best in the lecherous moments of this film. His looks of utter lust for the young man's body are at the same time predatory and terribly pathetic.
Along comes Clay Boon, a new groundskeeper played by the latest cookie-cutter, Hollywood hunk, Brendan Fraser. Fraser is actually pretty good. He plays a big, dumb, good looking, ex-marine (a real departure for him) who Whale immediately starts to work on. It's unclear if he's trying to just get him to strip for him or if it's a full on seduction in progress. They end up getting into a strange, sexually tense friendship. Whale always protests his lack of interest in Boone, other than his wish to sketch him and his deep concern that he has a place to skinny dip.
Hanna, his cheerless, German housekeeper, is a wonderfully disapproving character played by Lynne Redgrave. She is the one who, after realizing Boone is not getting the bone, finally hips him in to the fact that "Mr. Jimmy" has a penchant for "unnatural acts" with other men. She was SO funny and such a funny character. She obviously finds Whale's lifestyle abhorrent yet she also cares for him a great deal. She laments the fact that he will never see the gates of heaven because of those things he does with the young men.
Whale's intrusive daydreams are done as flashbacks. One of the best is a memory of directing the scene that unveils Elsa Lanchester as the Bride. The biggest concern of the actor playing Dr. Pretorius is that the audience will think that he is the one who "dressed her like this." Whale is telling him how he is really in love with Henry Frankenstein. Everyone in the scene nails it perfectly. The entire cast is really great. I won't give it away but I did find the end just a trifle contrived, but gripping. If you can handle a film with no action, no sex, and no full frontal nudity, this is a great little movie. -- Rating: $8.00
Mike Maurer -- copyright 1998