Attore e regista teatrale
londinese, James Whale si trasferì a Hollywood per affrontarvi una breve carriera cinematografica
(praticamente soltanto gli anni trenta), e, ritiratosi dagli schermi, si convertì alla pittura.
La sua più celebre fatica è l'adattamento del romanzo gotico-
fantascientifico di Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1931). Il povero essere solitario del romanzo
divenne così un efferato folle omicida. Il conte Frankenstein e l'assistente nano gobbo rimediano
organi e membra nel vicino cimitero; e il gobbo ruba il cervello di un criminale dall'aula
dell'università; nel laboratorio della torre compongono i vari pezzi e con l'ausilio di una
macchina elettro-chimica tentano in una notte di tempesta di dar vita al nuovo corpo; in un caos
pirotecnico di lampi e scoppi il mostro si anima .All'esperimento presenziano anche l'amico, la fidanzata
e il vecchio maestro, preoccupati per l'accanimento con cui il giovane scienziato persegue il suo scopo. Il
mostro muove i primi goffi passi: l'andatura lenta e legnosa di Karloff fissa una volta per tutte la
disumanità del personaggio.
Viene rinchiuso in cantina, dove l'assistente si diverte a frustarlo e a tormentarlo
con la luce della torcia, finché il mostro si ribella ed impicca il persecutore, ed evade approfittando
dell'assenza del suo creatore convalescente per un esaurimento, uccide anche il vecchio maestro. Mentre
nel villaggio si preparano le nozze dello scienziato, che è figlio del barone, e le strade sono in
festa, il mostro vaga per la campagna; annega una bambina che gioca in riva a un lago e si spinge fino in
paese; penetra nella camera della sposa terrorizzandola. Il villaggio interrompe la festa per organizzare la
battuta che si conclude in un mulino, dove il mostro perisce tra le fiamme.
Ma anche il film rimane un duro apologo sulla giustizia e sulla
solidarietà, benché qui importino più i lati orrifici, dal diabolico nano alla bimba
in riva al lago.
The Bride of Frankenstein (1933) riesuma la creatura, che non
è perita nel rogo, ma vaga per la campagna seminando la morte; un altro scienziato pazzo,
incontrato in un cimitero, decide di dargli una compagna; costringe il conte a dargli una mano, facendo
rapire dal mostro sua moglie; il mostro femmina risulta comunque troppo sensibile per resistere alla vista
del compagno; questi, disperato e furente, lascia fuggire il conte ma fa saltare in aria gli altri due e se
stesso. Un umorismo da commedia regge i fili della storia, che in certi punti sarebbe degna di una
tragedia.
The Old Dark House (1932) era un thriller umoristico, ambientato
in Galles
Karloff è il maggiordomo muto di una famiglia di eccentrici; un thriller espressionista a
sfondo comico ambientato in una casa dove capita di tutto.
The Invisible Man (1933) tratta dello scienziato inventato da
Wells, possessore di un siero che lo rende invisibile ma non dell'antidoto; semina il terrore per vendicarsi
dell'ostilità popolare, la polizia gli dà una caccia spietata finché riesce ad
ucciderlo. Il terrore, come un film di Lewton, è dato dal non vedere il mostro, dalla presenza che
si intuisce ma non si vede.
Remember Last Night? (1935) is a comedy and a murder mystery that is
not always plausible but intricate enough.
The rich young couple of
Carlotta and Tony celebrate their wedding in a surrealistic rococo-style
salon of their mansion with their rich friends. Bette, Vic's wife, who used to be a showgirl, is plotting something
with the chaffeur, Flanagan, who hates Vic.
Vic doesn't miss any opportunity to prove how unpleasant a man he is: in the
middle of the party, he intimates to Tony that he has to pay back the money
that he was loaned. The party gets wild and goes on till late.
Everybody gets drunk. In the meantime, gangsters are plotting to kidnap Vic
and blackmail his wife with the help of an French chaffeur.
Tony and Carlotta are stopped by the police for speeding
and drinking and driving, but they manage to escape. The following morning
they wake up in their room, but they find a knife in the bathroom, blood
in their car and Vic dead in the living room. They have no recollection of
what happened. They think Vic's wife Bette also slept over, but instead in
the guest room they find their friend Penny asleep, and she doesn't remember
how she got there: she was as drunk as them.
To figure out what happened, Tony calls their old friend Danny,
a detective. In the meantime, Vic's chaffeur Flanagan disappears and someone
tries to burn the bloody rug of the car.
Danny loses his patience when all the people who were at the party repeat
that they don't remember anything.
Vic's wife Bette shows with Vic's friend Billy: they were also drunk and
don't remember, but somehow Bette ended up sleeping at Billy's place. She
is flabbergasted to learn of her husband's murder.
Danny visits another house and
finds out that the knife came from its kitchen: the chef remembers
that Tony and Vic had an argument and Tony threatened him with that knife.
They don't know it, but the chef is one of the gangsters who were planning
to kidnap Vic.
Bette finds mysterious cheques that Vic made out to a Gordon, whom nobody seems to know.
By the time Danny returns, someone has stolen the cheques. Danny finds
Vic's notebook, that lists a debt by Billy. Finally a potential motive: Bette
slept at Billy's place, and Billy owed Vic money.
Later, Bette attempts to commit suicide and is saved by Tony and Carlotta.
Later, Carlotta finds the pistol that killed Vic: it was in Tony's dressing
gown. Being obviously a very incriminating finding, they decide to hide it and not to tell Danny.
Tony has already phoned a hypnotist, to see if he can rescue their memories.
While hypnotized, Tony remembers how the crowd got back from the swimming pool
and Vic and Penny decided to stay over.
Having hypnotized everybody, the psychiatrist is ready to pronounce is verdict.
He thinks he knows who the murderer is, but is shot by a bullet in front of
everybody by someone who was outside the window.
Danny finds something outside that belongs to Carlotta, coincidentally
the only one who was not in the room.
And Carlotta finds out that the pistol has been stolen.
On the other hand, Tony finds a note written in Greek addressed to the French
chaffeur, about a rendesvouz at the chef's wine cellar.
Tony and Carlotta rush to the wine cellar and overhear the chef talking to
a gangster. Tony realizes that the chef, the French chaffeur and this
gangster had planned to kidnap Vic and probably killed him when he resisted.
The chef catches them and is about to admit something, but the gangster
kills him and runs away.
Next, Danny and Tony find that the French chaffeur has been murdered too.
They visit the dead man's mother, who pretens to be blind. But Danny easily
forces her to confess that she is not. She claims that her son paid for
an expensive operation. Danny and Tony find incriminating documents in
the son's room.
Back at Tony's mansion, Danny's assistan has arrested Flanagan, who was
trying to enter the mansion. Danny now suspects that Flanagan was a partner
in the murder of Vic and then killed the French chaffeur. But Bette in person
stands up to defend him: Flanagan came back to get money from her, who,
in reality, is his sister. She had him hired by her husband, who never knew
the truth. Yet another theory falls apart.
Billy, who is again the prime suspect, calls Jake, Penny's husband.
Danny and Tony follow him.
Billy mentions to Jake that he is the mysterious Gordon, and admits having
stolen the cheques, out of fear that they would incriminate him.
Jake knocks him out, then hides him in a closet. When Danny and Tony arrive,
Jake pretends that there was a fight and Billy escaped after confessing that
he was in cahoots with the French chaffeur to kill Vic. Billy, who has
recovered, overhears him and tries to shoot Jake, but Tony sees the pistol
and saves Jake. Billy commits suicide. Now it seems obvious that the case is
closed: Billy owed Vic money and killed him. But Danny doesn't buy it:
Billy could not have run away and hidden in the closet. Jake is the mastermind
of the whole series of murders.
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If English is your first language and you could translate my old Italian text, please contact me.
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