In the broadest sense, a vicar ( /ˈvɪkər/; Latin: vicarius) is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant. Linguistically, vicar is the root of the English prefix "vice", similarly meaning "deputy".

The title appears in a number of Christian ecclesiastical contexts, but also as an administrative title, or title modifier, in the Roman Empire. In addition, in the Holy Roman Empire a local representative of the emperor, perhaps an archduke, might be styled "vicar".

Roman Catholic[link]

The Pope uses the title Vicarius Christi, meaning, the vicar of Christ. The papacy first used this title in the 8th century; earlier they used the title "vicar of Saint Peter" or vicarius principis apostolorum, the "vicar of the chief of the apostles".

In Catholic canon law, a vicar is the representative of any ecclesiastic entity. The Romans had used the term to describe officials subordinate to the praetorian prefects. In the early Christian churches, bishops likewise had their vicars, such as the archdeacons and archpriests, and also the rural priest, the curate who had the cure or care of all the souls outside the episcopal cities. The position of the Roman Catholic vicar as it evolved is sketched in the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1908.^[1]

Vicars have various titles based on what role they are performing. An apostolic vicar is a bishop or priest who heads a missionary particular Church that is not yet ready to be a full diocese - he stands as the local representative of the Pope, in the Pope's role as bishop of all unorganized territories. A vicar capitular, who exercises authority in the place of the diocesan chapter, is a temporary ordinary of a diocese during a sede vacante period.

Vicars exercise authority as the agents of the bishop of the diocese. Most vicars, however, have ordinary power, which means that their agency is not by virtue of a delegation but is established by law. Vicars general, episcopal vicars, and judicial vicars exercise vicarious ordinary power; they each exercise a portion of the power of the diocesan bishop (judicial for the judicial vicar, executive for the others) by virtue of their office and not by virtue of a mandate.

A vicar forane, also known as an archpriest or dean, is a priest entrusted by the bishop with a certain degree of leadership in a territorial division of a diocese or a pastoral region known as a vicarate forane or a deanery.

A parochial vicar is a priest assigned to a parish in addition to, and in collaboration with, the pastor of the parish. He exercises his ministry as an agent of the parish's pastor, who is termed parochus in Latin.

Some papal legates are honoured by the title Vicar of the Apostolic See.

In Opus Dei, a regional vicar is a priest designated to fulfill responsibilies for an entire country or region, such as France or the United States.

Peter the disciple of Christ especially, and all the Apostles are noted by the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches to be the Vicar of Christ, and all bishops to be vicars of Jesus Christ.^[2]

Eastern Orthodox[link]

In the Russian Orthodox Church and some other non-Hellenic Eastern Orthodox Churches that historically follow Russian tradition vicar (Russian: vikariy / викарий) is a term for what is known as suffragan bishop in the Anglican Communion or as auxiliary bishop in the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. A vicar bishop usually bears in his title the names of both his titular see (usually, a smaller town within the diocese he ministers in) and the see he is subordinate to. For example, Bishop Ignaty Punin, the vicar bishop under the Diocese of Smolensk, is titled "The Rt. Rev. Ignaty, the bishop of Vyazma, the vicar of the Diocese of Smolensk", Vyasma being a smaller town inside the territory of the Diocese of Smolensk. Normally, only large dioceses have vicar bishops, sometimes more than one. Usually, Russian Orthodox vicar bishops have no independent jurisdiction (even in their titular towns) and are subordinate to their diocesan bishops; though some of them de facto may have jurisdiction over some territories, especially when there is a need to avoid an overlapping jurisdiction.

In some other Eastern Orthodox Churches the term "chorbishop" is used instead of "vicar bishop".

Anglican[link]

Anglicanism portal

In Anglican churches, a vicar is one type of parish priest. Historically, parish priests in the Church of England were divided into vicars, rectors, and perpetual curates. The parish clergy and church was supported by tithes—like a local tax (traditionally, as the etymology of tithe suggests, of ten percent) levied on the personal as well as agricultural output of the parish. Roughly speaking, the distinction was that a rector directly received both the greater and lesser tithes of his parish while a vicar received only the lesser tithes (the greater tithes going to the lay holder, or impropriator, of the living); a perpetual curate with a small cure and often aged or infirm received neither greater nor lesser tithes, and received only a small salary (paid sometimes by the diocese). (See also Church of England#Organisation) Today, the roles of a rector and a vicar are essentially the same. Which of the two titles is held by the parish priest is historical. Some parishes have a rector, others a vicar.

In the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, the positions of "vicar" and "curate" are not recognized in the canons of the entire church. However, some diocesan canons do define "vicar" as the priest-in-charge of a mission; and "curate" is often used for assistants, being entirely analogous to the English situation.

Lutheran usage[link]

In the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, Lutheran Church—Canada, and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod a vicar is a candidate for ordained pastoral ministry, serving in a vicariate or internship, usually in the third year of seminary training, though it can be delayed to the fourth year (this is often referred to as "a vicarage", a homonym of the residence of the Vicar). Typically at the end of the year of vicarage, the candidate returns to seminary and completes a final year of studies. After being issued a call or assignment, the candidate is ordained as a pastor in the ministry of Word and Sacrament. The role of a vicar in the Lutheran tradition is most comparable to that of a transitional deacon in the Anglican and Roman churches, except that Lutheran vicars are not ordained.

The title "Vikar", used in the Lutheran churches in Germany, is comparable.

Notable vicars[link]

In either tradition, a vicar can be the priest of a "chapel of ease", a building within the parish which is not the parish church. Non-resident canons led also to the institution of vicars choral, each canon having his own vicar, who sat in his stall in his absence (see Cathedral).

Oliver Goldsmith's novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) and the Barsetshire novels of Anthony Trollope, and in France Honoré de Balzac's The Curate of Tours (Le Curé de Tours) (1832) all evoke the impoverished world of the 18th- and 19th-century vicar. The satirical ballad "The Vicar of Bray" reveals the changes of conscience a vicar (whether of the Bray in Berkshire or of that in County Wicklow) might undergo in order to retain his meagre post, between the 1680s and 1720s. "The Curate of Ars" (usually in French: Le Curé d'Ars) is a style often used to refer to Saint Jean Vianney, a French parish priest canonized on account of his piety and simplicity of life.

References[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2008)

External links[link]

• The Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. "vicar"
• The Vicar of Bray e-text

The Vicar of Dibley is a British sitcom created by Richard Curtis and written for its lead actress, Dawn French, by Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer, with contributions from Kit Hesketh-Harvey. It aired from 1994 to 2007. The Vicar of Dibley is set in a fictional small Oxfordshire village called Dibley, which is assigned a female vicar following the 1992 changes in the Church of England that permitted the ordination of women. The main character was an invention of Richard Curtis, but he and Dawn French extensively consulted the Rev. Joy Carroll, one of the first female priests,^[1] and garnered many character traits and much information.

In ratings terms, the programme is among the most successful in the digital era, with the various Christmas and New Year specials in 1999, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 all entering the top 10 programmes of the year.^[2] The Vicar of Dibley received multiple British Comedy Awards, two International Emmys, and was a multiple British Academy Television Awards nominee. In 2004, it placed third in Britain's Best Sitcom.

Cast[link]

Characters[link]

Boadicea "Geraldine" Granger[link]

Geraldine Granger (born 14 November 1964) is the female vicar, self-described as a "babe with a bob cut and a magnificent bosom". She is a bonne vivante and a liberal woman who enjoys nothing more than a good laugh, much to the consternation of David Horton. Despite her fun-loving and sometimes outrageous behaviour, she is deeply caring and does her best to help those in her parish in any way she can. She is well aware of her obesity but seems to take a relatively laid-back attitude toward it. A self-confessed chocoholic, her favourite being Smarties and Curly Wurlys, she often will go on a diet only to break it within minutes by eating one of the innumerable chocolate bars that she has hidden throughout her house (even in hollowed-out Bibles). On one occasion, she gives up chocolate for Lent and nearly goes mad but does succeed. Her unusual first name Boadicea is revealed later in the series, much to David Horton's ongoing amusement, although in the final episode her full name is given as (Boadicea) Geraldine Julie Andrews Dick Van Dyke Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Chim Chiminey Chim Chiminey Chim Chim Cher-ee Granger, the latter due to her mother's favourite book being Mary Poppins and the fact that the film was released the year of Geraldine's birth. Her best friend is Alice Tinker; at the end of each episode she tells a joke to Alice, but Alice never understands the humour. Geraldine was once going to marry David Horton but decided not to after all. In 2006, she receives a proposal from accountant Harry Jasper Kennedy and accepts by running around the village, screaming. In the final episode she marries him in a rather bizarre wedding with touches of Doctor Who, including the two bridesmaids being dressed as Daleks, and with parts of the church decorated with vegetables; she ends up getting married in her pyjamas because her wedding dress has been accidentally covered with mud by Owen Newitt.

David Horton[link]

Councillor David Francis Matthew Horton MBE, MA (Cantab), chairman of the Parish Council, gentleman farmer, pillar of the community and District Councillor for Dibley and Whitworth, and main opponent of the female vicar. He is rigid, old-fashioned, efficient, callous and punctual, yet as the show progresses, becomes lovable and endearing. He has never missed a council meeting. In fact, in one episode Jim and Owen reminisce about when David's wife went into labour with Hugo, and David held the meeting in the maternity ward with his brother Mark. In later episodes of the series, Horton comes to fall for the Vicar and even proposes to her (she accepts his proposal but later decides to back out of it). He is initially a Conservative, but defects to the Labour Party in 2000 as part of his attempt to persuade Geraldine to marry him. Whether he switches his party allegiance back after she refuses him is unknown. His love for the Vicar, however, is steadfast and true. He later supported the Make Poverty History campaign. He is a multi-millionaire.

Alice Springs Horton[link]

Alice Springs Horton (née Tinker) is verger at the church. Blonde and dippy, Alice is the only main character who does not sit on the Parish Council. She is the product of a one-night stand between her mad mother (who in the last two episodes is said to be in a mental home), and the cousin of David Horton's father (present-day David Horton's first cousin once removed and predecessor on the parish council), also called David Horton. She and Hugo, her second cousin once removed, are fond of each other and the vicar plays Cupid successfully in one episode. They eventually marry and have ten children - the eldest, Geraldine, was born on 24 December 1999, in the middle of the village Nativity play in which her parents were playing Mary and Joseph. Featuring in the closing credits for most episodes, Geraldine and Alice have a cup of tea while Geraldine tries to tell Alice a joke (frequently the joke is slightly off-colour). Alice never understands the jokes that Geraldine tells her and usually proceeds to over-analyse the humour thereby completely killing the joke. In the final episode Geraldine's new husband Harry Kennedy explains the grammar involved and Alice finally understands it. Alice believes in the Easter Bunny, Father Christmas and the tooth fairy. After reading The Da Vinci Code she believes herself to be descended from Jesus. She is dim-witted and naive but also sweet-natured and very endearing. She has many misconceptions, such as mistaking Black Sabbath for gospel singers, telling David that Jesus was one of The Carpenters and referring to Albert Einstein as Andrew Einstein.

Hugo Horton[link]

Hugo Horton is David's sweet-natured, friendly yet dim-witted son. Sometimes seen sporting a Royal Agricultural College tie, he served as his father's campaign manager at the October 1994 district council election, but inadvertently wound up going door to door with David's Labour opponent, delivering adverts and making introductions for him. Hugo and Alice Tinker are always shown to have tender feelings for each other, but they do not get together as a couple until Geraldine plays Cupid in "Engagement". David was never a loving nor affectionate father to Hugo, dominating him and undermining all his dreams and ambitions. In one episode, Geraldine mentions that God is a father much like his own father, and Hugo recalls what his father did to him as a child: shouting, insulting and caning him. When Geraldine corrects him and says she was referring to a loving, caring father, Hugo believes he had another father. Despite this, Hugo still loves and respects his father but finally stands up to him with respect to Alice, whom David predictably despises. He nicknames Geraldine "Mrs. God".

Frank Pickle[link]

Frank Pickle (born 12 August 1929) is the likable, but boring and pedantic, secretary to the Parish Council. He is so boring that nobody listens to him, even when he tries to relate such momentous events such as "the time he went down to the pub and they'd completely run out of crisps" or "the time when the milkman was 47 minutes late" or "when he heard a cuckoo in March, which turned out to be a pigeon". Due to his tendency to go on and on when given the opportunity, it is said that five people, including his parents, have died while he was talking. He decided to declare his homosexuality in a radio broadcast to the village (after over 40 years of keeping it secret), but apart from Geraldine, who was with Frank at the time, none of the villagers listened to his broadcast. The next day, he decides to assert his sexuality more openly by wearing a bright cerise blazer to attend the Parish Council meeting rather than his usual brown one. Other references in the show suggest that Frank is bisexual, as he also once admitted to fancying Margaret Beckett as well as fellow councillors Owen Newitt and David Horton; is as affected by the naked model in the Dibley Parish Life Art Class as the others and painted the same model in the Landscape class. He also admitted to sleeping with Owen's cousin Sally and it is implied that he fathered one of her three children (the other two being fathered by Jim and Owen). He defines his ideal man as a 25-year-old South American with an interest in Oxfordshire council procedures. He also gives Alice away at her wedding but wears a sign which states that he is not Alice's father and also tries to put a note in the programme that states that he is not Alice's father but is a close family friend and has "not had sexual relations with Mrs Tinker in any way whatsoever".

Jim Trott[link]

Jim Trott is a Parish Council member, who has an idiosyncratic way of prefacing "no-no-no-no-no..." to almost everything he says, in particular "yes!" His stuttering once led him to lose on Deal or No Deal. His wife Doris does the opposite, saying "yes-yes-yes-yes-yes...". Jim used to be a good dancer, though an unconvincing singer. Despite being married to Doris, he has no qualms about joining Owen in openly flirting with the Vicar, frequently commenting on her "lovely arse". He is also openly promiscuous with a penchant for young blondes and Eastern beauties. In one episode he learns that Doris is having sex with her cousin Brenda. In the final episode, he proposed to the vicar, suggesting that he is no longer married, perhaps through divorce, or that his wife has died prior to this episode or that he is willing to commit bigamy. He became the church organist after the death of Letitia Cropley.

Owen Newitt[link]

Owen Newitt is the local farmer and a Parish Council member, with a very earthy manner. He lives alone at the farm with his animals, and is famous for displaying extremely poor personal hygiene, compounded with chronic problems with his stomach and bowels, both resulting in flatulence. He was the first to support the new Vicar's appointment as a lone dissenter, saying that a woman wouldn't be a bad thing since the previous vicar was "a regular old woman anyway", just as David looked set to persuade the other members of the Parish Council to oppose Geraldine's appointment. His signature running gag was that he was chronically late for the Parish Council meetings, and had humorously legitimate, if gruesome, reasons for his delays (often involving graphic tales of amputating animals' appendages or otherwise mangling them). He has had a history of "sorrow and tragedy," according to Jim and Frank: his brother drowned himself, due to his girlfriend refusing to marry him; his father shot himself shortly after his wife at left him; and his grandmother tried to leave, but his grandfather shot her. Owen proposed to the Vicar in "Engagement." She rejected him (mostly because "his breath smells like nerve gas" and the gel on his hair is really lard), but he was not upset, having found out that she was a drinker. Despite this, he frequently makes crude and misguided attempts at flirting with her, which typically backfire, and even proposed to her again the night before her wedding to Harry Kennedy. Owen spent every Christmas alone since his uncle's death in 1971 until Geraldine joined him for Christmas dinner in 1996 (one of many such invitations she accepted that year). In several episodes, Owen is shown to be engaging in bestiality (such as when he declares rumours that the vicar is a lesbian to be the "best news since they made having sex with animals legal again").

Letitia Cropley[link]

Letitia Cropley was a Parish Council member and the Dibley church organist. Geraldine once referred to her as "The Queen of Cordon Bleurgh"^[3] and David Horton called her "The Dibley Poisoner". She was the creator of such revolting "delicacies" as; "Bread and butter pudding surprise" (a recipe for which she was breeding snails), Marmite cake (which she served for Frank's birthday), orange cake with Branston Pickle icing (which she served at the cake stall at the Dibley autumn fayre), chocolate mixed with cod roe, parsnip brownies, plain pancakes- with just a "hint" of liver, and chocolate spread sandwiches (with some taramosalata). Letitia only appeared in the first series and the special "The Easter Bunny", in which the character died. Her dying request to Geraldine was that she take over from her as the Easter Bunny, taking chocolate eggs around the village each Easter. However, when Geraldine saw every member of the parish council doing the same, it became clear that she had made the same request to all of them, owing to her forgetful nature. Earlier in the episode she said she had a 'memory like an elephant that's lost its memory'.

Simon Horton[link]

David Horton's very tall and attractive brother Simon Horton (Clive Mantle) becomes one of the Vicar's lovers in a brief romance. They first meet at the drinks party before Alice and Hugo's wedding and later they meet again when Simon comes up for Sunday lunch with David. After many efforts to get rid of several parishioners who come knocking on her door with various requests, including telling Jim Trott and Frank Pickle that 7 down on a crossword is "Plodipop", and arranging the four words "Leave-You-Remorseless-Bastards" on the Scrabble board, Geraldine finally manages to join Simon who's waiting patiently in her bedroom, followed by a few weeks of romantic bliss. Later Simon dumps her telling her that he has a girlfriend in Liverpool. A struck Geraldine therefore goes into seclusion, binging on chocolate bars and pots of ice cream, and neglecting her church duties. She decides to resign from her ministry as the Vicar of Dibley, but changes her mind when her parishioners and friends show their loyalty and support by hanging up a huge banner that reads "That tall git Simon may have bonked you and then dumped you like an old jock strap but we still love you."

Episodes[link]

The Vicar of Dibley first aired on 2 September 1994. After 18 episodes and three short specials, two 60-minute episodes were filmed in September 2006 and introduced a new character, Harry Kennedy, whom Geraldine marries. The first episode featuring Harry aired on Christmas Day 2006, the second was on New Year's Day 2007. The Christmas Day episode was watched by 11.4 million, more than any other programme on that day^[4] while the New Year's Day episode was watched by 12.3 million people. This was publicised as the last episode to be aired^[5] However, a few days later it was announced that a short special would be shown for Comic Relief and this, the last ever episode, was aired on 16 March 2007.^[6]

Following the opening credits of each episode, there is usually a humorous scene, e.g. a woman knitting straight off the sheep, or a man falling off a roof. At the end of each episode, after the closing credits, Geraldine tells a joke to Alice, her verger; most of the time, the joke is rather off-colour. Alice never understands the humour and tries to interpret the joke literally, explaining to Geraldine why the premise is implausible, much to the latter's chagrin, occasionally causing her to react violently. In the final episode, the joke is explained to Alice by Harry, in a comically convoluted manner which involves grammar. Contrary to expectations, given the character's limited intelligence, Alice does finally get the punchline. In the episode "Love and Marriage," David is the recipient of the joke and understands it straight away, but Geraldine begins to explain it to him, out of habit. In the 2005 episode Happy New Year, the joke was told at the beginning, as the end of the episode focused on the Make Poverty History campaign.

Awards and accolades[link]

• British Comedy Awards — 1997, 1998, 2000
• National Television Awards 1998
• International Emmy — 1998,^[7][8] 2001^[9]
• British Academy Television Awards — 1998 (nominee), 1999 (nominee), 2000 (nominee), 2001 (nominee), 2005 (nominee), 2007 (nominee)
• Britain's Best Sitcom (2004) — #3

In May 2007, Richard Curtis received a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award award for his humanitarian pursuits as well as his creative work including The Vicar of Dibley.^[10]

Location[link]

The Vicar of Dibley is set in the fictional Oxfordshire village of Dibley, although it is filmed in Turville in Buckinghamshire. St Barnabus (sic), the church in the show is filmed at the St Mary the Virgin church in the village. Also the local pub used in the final episodes was filmed here. Other TV programmes and films, such as Midsomer Murders, Goodnight Mister Tom, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Went the Day Well?, Father Came Too! and Marple , Foyle's War (ep: the invasion) were filmed here. The opening titles show the Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire countryside (and the Chiltern Hills), surrounding the M40 on the approach to High Wycombe (Buckinghamshire), which lies only a few miles from Turville Village.

Theme music[link]

The theme music was a setting of Psalm 23 composed by Howard Goodall and was performed by the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford with George Humphries^[11] singing the solo. The conductor was Stephen Darlington. Goodall originally wrote it as a serious piece of church choral music. It has been released as a charity single with proceeds to Comic Relief. It also appears on Goodall's CD Choral Works, which also includes his theme for another popular sitcom, Mr. Bean.

DVD releases[link]

The Vicar of Dibley was released in DVD in Region 2 (UK) from 2001. In 2002, a DVD entitled The Best of The Vicar of Dibley was released featuring a 90 minute film of Dawn French talking to the producer Jon Plowman with clips from the series. A 2002 documentary narrated by Jo Brand entitled The Real Vicars of Dibley was also on the DVD. In 2005, a boxset of the "complete collection" was released. This included all the then aired episodes and shorts except the 1997 BallyKissDibley Comic Relief short. The final two episodes and 6-disc "ultimate" box set were released on 26 November 2007, neither included the 2007 Comic Relief short or the BallyKissDibley one.

In 2011 it was revealed that the series will be re-released with several changes, as well with brand new material and both Comic Relief sketches and "BallyKissDibley" will be added to the set. French announced that she is delighted to be a part of the new boxset and is very excited to see the finish touches. The boxset will be released in February 2012.^{[citation needed]}

In Australia (Region 4), all episodes have been released on DVD, but, the 2007 Comic Relief short episode, Wife Swap, has only been released on a Comic Relief DVD called Now That's What I Call Comedy, but is rare to find.

In U.S./Canada (Region 1), all episodes have been released on DVD as of 26 August 2007, except for the 2007 Comic Relief short episode.

DVD release dates[link]

U.S. version[link]

The idea came about when two co-stars of the U.S. sitcom Frasier, Jane Leeves and Peri Gilpin set up their production company Bristol Cities with a U.S. version of The Vicar of Dibley as their first project. On 6 February 2007, Fox announced plans to adapt The Vicar of Dibley into an American sitcom, titled The Minister Of Divine. The series starred Kirstie Alley as a former "Wild Child" who returned to her hometown as its first female minister. The series was not picked up by Fox for its 2007–2008 schedule.^[12]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Vicar of Dibley

• The Vicar of Dibley at BBC Online
• The Vicar of Dibley at British TV Comedy
• The Vicar of Dibley at the British Comedy Guide
• The Vicar of Dibley at TV.com
• The Vicar of Dibley at the Internet Movie Database

v t e Richard Curtis Screenplays The Tall Guy (1989) Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) Bean (1997) Notting Hill (1999) Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) Love Actually (2003) Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) The Boat That Rocked (2009) War Horse (2011) Director Love Actually (2003) The Boat That Rocked (2009) Producer Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) Bean (1997) Notting Hill (1999) Sixty Six (2006) Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007) The Boat That Rocked (2009) Television Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979–1982) The Black Adder (1983) Spitting Image (1984–1985) Blackadder II (1986) Blackadder the Third (1987) Blackadder Goes Forth (1989) Mr. Bean (1990–1995) Bernard and the Genie (1991) The Vicar of Dibley (1994–2007) Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death (1999) Blackadder: Back & Forth (1999) The Girl in the Café (2005) Casualty (2007) The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (2008) Doctor Who: "Vincent and the Doctor" (2010) Other works Comic Relief The Atkinson People (1979) Dead on Time (1983) No Pressure (2010)

Mitchell and Webb
Robert Webb and David Mitchell in 2007
Medium	Television, radio, film
Nationality	British
Years active	1995–present
Genres	Sketch comedy Character comedy
Influences	Morecambe and Wise, Monty Python, The Two Ronnies, Fry and Laurie[1]
Notable works and roles	That Mitchell and Webb Look Peep Show
Members	David Mitchell Robert Webb

Mitchell and Webb are a British comedy double act, composed of David Mitchell (born 14 July 1974) and Robert Webb (born 29 September 1972). They are best known for starring in the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show and their award-winning sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Look. The duo first met at the Footlights in 1993 and collaborated for the 1995 Revue whilst studying at Cambridge University.

Works[link]

Television and radio[link]

After graduating from university, the duo did two-man shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and some sketch writing, including a series of Big Train and also for Armstrong and Miller's eponymous show.^[2] Their big break came in 2000 when they joined the writing team for the BBC Two sketch show Bruiser. The following year, the short-lived Play UK channel invited them to write their own sketch show, The Mitchell and Webb Situation. Despite the low ratings of the channel, the show was reasonably well-received by viewers. After the success, they wrote and starred in the Radio 4 sketch show, That Mitchell and Webb Sound – which was later adapted for television on BBC Two as That Mitchell and Webb Look. The first series of That Mitchell and Webb Look won the BAFTA for "Best Comedy Programme" in 2007.

They often appear with Olivia Colman, James Bachman, Mark Evans and Paterson Joseph.

In 2008, the duo wrote a pilot script for their first original sitcom; in Playing Shop, the two star as Eric and Jamie, friends who set up a business together after they are made redundant from their old jobs. Hartswood Films recorded the pilot episode on 20 December, with a view to producing a full series for BBC Two.^[3] Although approved by BBC, plans for future episodes fell through as Mitchell and Webb decided not to proceed with it.

Mitchell and Webb collaborated with Armstrong and Miller again for the 2009 Red Nose Day fundraising event. They co-wrote and starred in two short sketches incorporating Armstrong and Miller's iconic World War II airmen characters from The Armstrong and Miller Show and their characters Sir Digby and Ginger from their radio show That Mitchell and Webb Sound.

Other[link]

Mitchell and Webb have also appeared in the short-lived U.K. regional versions of the 'Get a Mac' advertisements for Apple.

They also voiced a pair of peas on the Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway sponsorship adverts for Birds Eye.

Magicians, a film starring the pair was released on 18 May 2007.^[4]

They have also released the book This Mitchell and Webb Book.

References[link]

This biographical article related to British television is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

James Whale (22 July 1889 – 29 May 1957) was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his work in the horror film genre, having directed such classics as Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Whale directed over a dozen films in other genres, including what is considered the definitive film version of the musical Show Boat (1936). He became increasingly disenchanted with his association with horror, but many of his non-horror films have fallen into obscurity.

Born into a large family in Dudley, England, Whale early discovered his artistic talent and studied art. With the outbreak of World War I, Whale enlisted in the British Army and became an officer. He was captured by the Germans and during his time as a prisoner of war he realized he was interested in drama. Following his release at the end of the war he became an actor, set designer and director. His success directing the 1928 play Journey's End led to his move to the United States, first to direct the play on Broadway and then to Hollywood to direct motion pictures. Whale lived in Hollywood for the rest of his life, most of that time with his longtime companion, producer David Lewis. Including Journey's End (1930), Whale directed a dozen films for Universal Studios between 1930 and 1936, developing a style characterized by the influence of German Expressionism and a highly mobile camera.

At the height of his popularity as a director, Whale directed The Road Back, a sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front, in 1937. Studio interference, possibly spurred by political pressure from Nazi Germany, led to the film's being altered from Whale's vision and The Road Back was a critical and commercial failure. A string of commercial failures followed and, while Whale would make one final short film in 1950, by 1941 his film directing career was over. Whale continued to direct for the stage and also rediscovered his love for painting and travel. His investments made him wealthy and he lived a comfortable retirement until suffering strokes in 1956 that robbed him of his vigor and left him in pain. Whale committed suicide on 29 May 1957 by drowning himself in his backyard swimming pool.

Whale was openly gay throughout his career, something that was very unusual in the 1920s and 1930s. As knowledge of his sexual orientation has become more common, some of his films, Bride of Frankenstein in particular, have been interpreted as having a gay subtext and it has been claimed that Whale's refusal to remain in the closet led to the end of his career. However, Whale's associates dismissed the notions that Whale's sexuality informed his work or that it cost him his career.

Early years[link]

Whale was born in Dudley, England, the sixth of the seven children of William, a blast furnaceman,^[1] and Sarah, a nurse.^[2] He attended Kates Hill Board School, followed by Bayliss Charity School and finally Dudley Blue Coat School. His attendance stopped in his teenage years because the cost would have been prohibitive and his labor was needed to help support the family. Thought not physically strong enough to follow his brothers into the local heavy industries, Whale started work as a cobbler, reclaiming the nails he recovered from replaced soles and selling them for scrap for extra money. He discovered he had some artistic ability and earned additional money lettering signs and price tags for his neighbors.^[3] Whale used his additional income to pay for evening classes at the Dudley School of Arts and Crafts.^[4]

Cartoon by Whale of theatrical rehearsals in Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp.

World War I broke out in 1914. Although Whale had little interest in the politics behind the war, he realized that conscription was inevitable so he enlisted in the Army. Considered because of his age a good candidate for officer training, Whale joined the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps in October 1915 and was stationed in Bristol. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Worcestershire Regiment in July 1916.^[5] He was taken a prisoner of war during the course of the Flanders Campaign in August 1917 and was held at Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp, where he remained until December 1918.^[6][7] While imprisoned, he became actively involved, as an actor, writer, producer, and set-designer, in the amateur theatrical productions which took place in the camp, finding them "a source of great pleasure and amusement".^[8][9] He also developed a talent for poker, and after the war he cashed in the chits and IOUs from his fellow prisoners to serve as a nest egg.^[10] During his imprisonment, Whale conceived an abiding hatred of Germany.^[11]

Career[link]

Theatre[link]

After the armistice he returned to Birmingham and tried to find work as a cartoonist. He sold two cartoons to the Bystander in 1919 but was unable to secure a permanent position.^[10] Later in 1919 Whale embarked on a professional stage career. Under the tutelage of actor-manager Nigel Playfair, Whale worked as an actor, set designer and builder, "stage director" (akin to a stage manager) and director.^[12] In 1922, while with Playfair, Whale met Doris Zinkeisen. The two were considered a couple for some two years, despite Whale's living as an openly gay man. The couple was reportedly engaged in 1924 but by 1925 the engagement was off.^[13]

Colin Clive in Whale's 1929 stage production of Journey's End.

In 1928 Whale was offered the opportunity to direct two private performances of R. C. Sherriff's then-unknown play Journey's End for the Incorporated Stage Society, a theatre society that mounted private Sunday performances of plays.^[14] Set over a four-day period in March 1918 in the trenches at Saint-Quentin, France, Journey's End gives a glimpse into the experiences of the officers of a British Army infantry company in World War I. The key conflict is between Captain Stanhope, the company commander, and Lieutenant Raleigh, the brother of Stanhope's fiancée.^[15] Whale offered the part of Stanhope to the then-barely known Laurence Olivier. Olivier initially declined the role,^[16] but after meeting with the playwright agreed to take it on.^[17] Maurice Evans was cast as Raleigh.^[18] The play was well received and transferred to the Savoy Theatre in London's West End, opening on 21 January 1929.^[14] A young Colin Clive was now in the lead role,^[19] Olivier having accepted an offer to take the lead in a production of Beau Geste.^[17] The play was a tremendous success, with critics uniform and effusive in their praise and with audiences sometimes sitting in stunned silence following its conclusion only to burst into thunderous ovations.^[20] As Whale biographer James Curtis wrote, the play "managed to coalesce, at the right time and in the right manner, the impressions of a whole generation of men who were in the war and who had found it impossible, through words or deeds, to adequately express to their friends and families what the trenches had been like".^[21] After three weeks at the Savoy, Journey's End transferred to the Prince of Wales Theatre,^[14] where it ran for the next two years.^[22]

With the success of Journey's End at home, Broadway producer Gilbert Miller acquired the rights to mount a New York production with an all-British cast headed by Colin Keith-Johnston as Stanhope and Derek Williams as Raleigh.^[23] Whale also directed this version, which premiered at Henry Miller's Theatre on 22 March 1929.^[14] The play ran for over a year and cemented its reputation as the greatest play about World War I.^[23]

Hollywood[link]

The success of the various productions of Journey's End brought Whale to the attention of film producers. Coming at a time when motion pictures were making the transition from silent to talking, producers were interested in hiring actors and directors with experience with dialogue. Whale traveled to Hollywood in 1929 and signed a contract with Paramount Pictures. He was assigned as "dialogue director" for a film called The Love Doctor (1929).^[24] Whale completed work on the film in 15 days and his contract was allowed to expire. It was at around this time that Whale met David Lewis.^[25]

Whale next went to work for independent film producer and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes, who planned to turn the previously silent Hughes production Hell's Angels (1930) into a talkie. Hughes hired Whale to direct the dialogue sequences.^[26] With work completed, Whale headed to Chicago to direct another company of Journey's End.^[27]

Having purchased the film rights to Journey's End, British producers Michael Balcon and Thomas Welsh agreed that Whale's experience directing the London and Broadway productions of the play made him the best choice to direct the film. The two partnered with a small American studio, Tiffany-Stahl, to shoot the film in New York.^[28] Colin Clive reprised his role as Stanhope,^[29] and David Manners was cast as Raleigh.^[30] Filming got underway on 6 December 1929^[31] and wrapped on 22 January 1930.^[32] Journey's End was released in Great Britain on 14 April and in the United States on 15 April.^[33] On both sides of the Atlantic the film was a tremendous critical and commercial success and placed Whale at the top of the British film industry.^[34]

Whale directed the iconic horror film Frankenstein (1931)

Universal Studios signed Whale to a five-year contract in 1931 and his first project was Waterloo Bridge.^[35] Based on the Broadway play by Robert E. Sherwood, the film stars Mae Clarke as Myra, a chorus girl in World War I London who becomes a prostitute. It too was a critical and popular success. At around this time, Whale and Lewis began living together.^[36]

In 1931, Universal chief Carl Laemmle, Jr. offered Whale his choice of any property the studio owned. Whale chose Frankenstein, mostly because none of Universal's other properties particularly interested him and he wanted to make something other than a war picture.^[37] Casting the familiar Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein and Mae Clarke as his fiancée Elizabeth, Whale turned to an unknown actor named Boris Karloff to play the Monster. Shooting began on 24 August 1931 and wrapped on 3 October.^[38] Previews were held 29 October,^[39] with wide release on 21 November.^[40] Frankenstein was an instant hit with critics and the public. The film received glowing reviews and shattered box office records across the country,^[41] earning Universal $12 million on first release.^[38] It is one of only a few of Whale's films that has remained in the public eye and is regarded as a classic of the horror genre.

Next from Whale were Impatient Maiden and The Old Dark House, both in 1932. Impatient Maiden made little impression but The Old Dark House is credited with reinventing the "dark house" subgenre of horror films.^[42] Thought lost for decades, a print was found by filmmaker Curtis Harrington in the Universal vaults in 1968 and restored by George Eastman House.^[43]

Whale's next film was The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933), a critical success but a box office failure. Whale next turned his attention to The Invisible Man (1933). Shot from a script approved by H. G. Wells,^[44] the film was a blend of horror, humor and confounding visual effects. The film was critically acclaimed, with The New York Times listing it as one of the ten best films of the year,^[45] and broke box office records in cities across the country. So highly regarded was the film that France, which restricted the number of theatres in which undubbed American films could play, granted it a special waiver because of its "extraordinary artistic merit".^[46]

Also in 1933 Whale directed the romantic comedy By Candlelight which got good reviews and was a modest box office hit.^[47] In 1934 he directed One More River, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by John Galsworthy. The film tells the story of a woman desperate to escape her abusive marriage to a member of the British aristocracy. This was the first of Whale's films for which Production Code Administration approval was required and Universal had a difficult time securing that approval because of the elements of sexual sadism implicit in the husband's abusive behavior.^[48]

Bride of Frankenstein was Whale's next project. Whale had long resisted doing a sequel to Frankenstein as he feared being pigeonholed as a horror director. Bride hearkened back to an episode from Mary Shelley's original novel in which the Monster promises to leave Frankenstein and humanity alone if Frankenstein makes him a mate. He does, but then destroys the female without bringing it to life. The film was a critical success and a box office sensation, having earned some $2 million for Universal by 1943.^[49] Lauded as "the finest of all gothic horror movies",^[50] Bride is frequently hailed as Whale's masterpiece.^[51][52]

With the success of Bride Laemmle was eager to put Whale to work on Dracula's Daughter, the sequel to Universal's first big horror hit. Whale, wary of doing two horror films in a row and concerned that directing Dracula's Daughter could interfere with his plans for the remake of Show Boat, instead convinced Laemmle to buy the rights to a novel called The Hangover Murders. The novel is a comedy-mystery in the style of The Thin Man, about a group of friends who were so drunk the night one of them was murdered that none can remember anything.^[53] Retitled Remember Last Night?, the film was one of Whale's personal favorites,^[43] but met with sharply divided reviews and commercial disinterest.^[54]

With the completion of Remember Last Night? Whale immediately went to work on Show Boat (1936). Whale gathered as many of those as he could who had been involved in one production or another of the musical, including Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, Charles Winninger, and, as Magnolia, Irene Dunne, who believed that Whale was the wrong director for the piece.^[55] The 1936 Show Boat is considered the definitive film version of the musical,^[56][57] but became unavailable following the 1951 remake.^[55] This was the last of Whale's films to be produced under the Laemmle family; the Laemmles lost control of the studio to J. Cheever Cowdin, head of the Standard Capital Corporation, and Charles R. Rogers, who was installed in Junior Laemmle's old job.^[58]

Career in decline[link]

Whale's career went into sharp decline following the release of his next film, The Road Back (1937). The sequel to Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, which Universal had filmed in 1930, the novel and film follow the lives of several young German men who have returned from the trenches of World War I and their struggles to re-integrate into society. The Los Angeles consul for Nazi Germany, George Gyssling, learned that the film was in production. He protested to PCA enforcer Joseph Breen, arguing that the film gave an "untrue and distorted picture of the German people".^[59] Gyssling eventually met with Whale but nothing came of it.^[60] Gyssling then sent letters to members of the cast, threatening that their participation in the film might lead to difficulties in obtaining German filming permits for them and for anyone associated in a film with them.^[61] While the low volume of business conducted by Universal in Germany made such threats largely hollow, the State Department, under pressure from the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League and the Screen Actors Guild,^[62] stepped in and the German government backed down.^[63] Whale's original cut of the film was given generally positive reviews but sometime between preview screenings and the film's general release Rogers capitulated to the Germans, ordering that cuts be made and additional scenes be shot and inserted.^[36] Whale was furious,^[64] and the altered film was banned in Germany anyway.^[65] The Germans were successful in persuading China, Greece, Italy and Switzerland to ban the film as well.^[61]

Following the debacle with The Road Back, Charles Rogers tried to get out of his contract with Whale; Whale refused. Rogers then assigned him to a string of B movies to run out his contractual obligation. Whale only made one additional successful feature film, The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), before retiring from the film industry in 1941.^[4]

Post-film life[link]

With his film career behind him, Whale found himself at loose ends. He was offered the occasional job, including the opportunity to direct Since You Went Away for David O. Selznick,^[66] but turned them down.^[67] Lewis, meanwhile, was busier than ever with his production duties and often worked late hours, leaving Whale lonely and bored. Lewis bought him a supply of paint and canvasses and Whale re-discovered his love of painting. Eventually he built a large studio for himself.^[68]

With the outbreak of World War II, Whale volunteered his services to make a training film for the United States Army. Whale shot the film, called Personnel Placement in the Army, in February 1942. Later that year, in association with actress Claire DuBrey, Whale created the Brentwood Service Players.^[69] The Players took over a 100–seat theatre. Sixty seats were provided free of charge to service personnel; the remaining were sold to the public, with the box office proceeds donated to wartime charities.^[70] The group expanded to the Playtime Theatre during the summer, where a series of shows ran through October.^[71]

Whale returned to Broadway in 1944 to direct the psychological thriller Hand in Glove.^[72] It was his first return to Broadway since his failed One, Two, Three! in 1930.^[73] Hand in Glove would fare no better than his earlier play, running the same number of performances, 40.^[74]

Whale directed his final film in 1950, a short subject based on the William Saroyan one-act play Hello Out There. The film, financed by supermarket heir Huntington Hartford, was the story of a man in a Texas jail falsely accused of rape and the woman who cleans the jail. Hartford intended for the short to be part of an anthology film along the lines of Quartet.^[75] However, attempts to find appropriate short fiction companion pieces to adapt were unsuccessful and Hello Out There was never commercially released.^[76]

Whale's last professional engagement was directing Pagan in the Parlour, a farce about two New England spinster sisters who are visited by a Polynesian whom their father, when shipwrecked years earlier, had married. The production was mounted in Pasadena for two weeks in 1951. Plans were made to take it to New York, but Whale suggested taking the play to London first.^[77] Before opening the play in England, Whale decided to tour the art museums of Europe. In France he renewed his acquaintanceship with Curtis Harrington, whom Whale had met in 1947. While visiting Harrington in Paris, Whale went to some gay bars. At one he met a 25-year-old bartender named Pierre Foegel,^[4] who Harrington believed was nothing but "a hustler out for what he could get".^[43] The 62-year-old Whale was smitten with the younger man and hired him as his chauffeur.^[78]

A provincial tour of Pagan in the Parlour began in September 1952 and it appeared that the play would be a hit. However, Hermione Baddeley, starring in the play as the cannibal "Noo-ga," was drinking heavily and began engaging in bizarre antics and disrupting performances. Because she had a run of the play contract she could not be replaced and so producers were forced to close the show.^[79]

Whale returned to California in November 1952 and advised David Lewis that he planned to bring Foegel over early the following year. Appalled, Lewis moved out of their home.^[80] While this ended their 23-year romantic relationship, the two men remained friends. Lewis bought a small house and dug a swimming pool, prompting Whale to have his own pool dug, although he did not himself swim in it. Whale began throwing all-male swim parties and would watch the young men cavort in and around the pool.^[81] Foegel moved in with Whale in early 1953 and remained there for several months before returning to France. He returned in 1954 permanently,^[81] and Whale installed him as manager of a gas station that he owned.^[82]

Whale and Foegel settled into a quiet routine until the spring of 1956, when Whale suffered a small stroke. A few months later he suffered a larger stroke and was hospitalized.^[82] While in the hospital he was treated for depression with shock treatments.^[83]

Upon his release, Whale hired one of the male nurses from the hospital to be his personal live-in nurse.^[84] A jealous Foegel maneuvered the nurse out of the house and hired a female nurse as a non live-in replacement.^[85] Whale suffered from mood swings and grew increasingly and frustratingly more dependent on others and his mental faculties were diminishing.^[86] Whale committed suicide by drowning himself in his swimming pool on 29 May 1957 at the age of 67.^[87] He left a suicide note, which Lewis withheld until shortly before his own death decades later. Because the note was suppressed, the death was initially ruled accidental.^[88] The note read in part:

"To ALL I LOVE,
"Do not grieve for me. My nerves are all shot and for the last year I have been in agony day and night—except when I sleep with sleeping pills—and any peace I have by day is when I am drugged by pills.
"I have had a wonderful life but it is over and my nerves get worse and I am afraid they will have to take me away. So please forgive me, all those I love and may God forgive me too, but I cannot bear the agony and it [is] best for everyone this way.
"The future is just old age and illness and pain. Goodbye and thank you for all your love. I must have peace and this is the only way.
"Jimmy"^[83]

Whale was cremated per his request and his ashes were interred in the Columbarium of Memory at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale. Because of Whale's habit of periodically revising his date of birth, his niche lists the incorrect date of 1893.^[89] When his longtime companion David Lewis died in 1987, his executor and Whale biographer James Curtis had his ashes interred in a niche across from Whale's.^[90]

Sexuality[link]

James Whale lived as an openly homosexual man throughout his career in the British theatre and in Hollywood, something that was virtually unheard of in the 1920s and 1930s. He and David Lewis lived together as a couple from around 1930 to 1952. While he did not go out of his way to publicize his homosexuality, he did not do anything to conceal it either. As filmmaker Curtis Harrington, a friend and confidant of Whale's, put it, "Not in the sense of screaming it from the rooftops or coming out. But yes, he was openly homosexual. Any sophisticated person who knew him knew he was gay."^[43] While there have been suggestions that Whale's career was terminated because of homophobia,^[91][92] and Whale was supposedly dubbed "The Queen of Hollywood",^[93] Harrington states that "nobody made a thing out of it as far as I could perceive".^[43]

With knowledge of his sexuality becoming more common beginning in the 1970s, some film historians and gay studies scholars have detected homosexual themes in Whale's work, particularly in Bride of Frankenstein in which a number of the creative people associated with the cast, including Ernest Thesiger and Colin Clive,^[94] were alleged to be gay or bisexual. Scholars have identified a gay sensibility suffused through the film, especially a camp sensibility,^[95] particularly embodied in the character of Pretorius (Thesiger) and his relationship with Henry Frankenstein (Clive).

Gay film historian Vito Russo, in considering Pretorius, stops short of identifying the character as gay, instead referring to him as "sissified"^[96] ("sissy" itself being Hollywood code for "homosexual"). Pretorius serves as a "gay Mephistopheles",^[97] a figure of seduction and temptation, going so far as to pull Frankenstein away from his bride on their wedding night to engage in the unnatural act of non-procreative life. A novelisation of the film published in England made the implication clear, having Pretorius say to Frankenstein "'Be fruitful and multiply.' Let us obey the Biblical injunction: you of course, have the choice of natural means; but as for me, I am afraid that there is no course open to me but the scientific way."^[98] Russo goes so far as to suggest that Whale's homosexuality is expressed in both Frankenstein and Bride as "a vision both films had of the monster as an antisocial figure in the same way that gay people were 'things' that should not have happened".^[99]

The Monster, whose affections for the male hermit and the female Bride he discusses with identical language ("friend"), has been read as sexually "unsettled" and bisexual.^[94] Writes gender studies author Elizabeth Young: "He has no innate understanding that the male-female bond he is to forge with the bride is assumed to be the primary one or that it carries a different sexual valence from his relationships with [Pretorius and the hermit]: all affective relationships are as easily 'friendships' as 'marriages'."^[100] Indeed, his relationship with the hermit has been interpreted as a same-sex marriage that heterosexual society will not tolerate: "No mistake—this is a marriage, and a viable one", writes cultural critic Gary Morris for Bright Lights Film Journal. "But Whale reminds us quickly that society does not approve. The monster—the outsider—is driven from his scene of domestic pleasure by two gun-toting rubes who happen upon this startling alliance and quickly, instinctively, proceed to destroy it."^[94] The creation of the Bride scene has been called "Whale's reminder to the audience—his Hollywood bosses, peers, and everyone watching—of the majesty and power of the homosexual creator".^[94]

However, Harrington dismisses this as "a younger critic’s evaluation. All artists do work that comes out of the unconscious mind and later on you can analyze it and say the symbolism may mean something, but artists don’t think that way and I would bet my life that James Whale would never have had such concepts in mind."^[43] Specifically in response to the "majesty and power" reading, Harrington states "My opinion is that’s just pure bullshit. That’s a critical interpretation that has nothing to do with the original inspiration."^[43] He concludes, "I think the closest you can come to a homosexual metaphor in his films is to identify that certain sort of camp humor."^[43]

Whale's companion David Lewis stated flatly that Whale's sexual orientation was "not germane" to his filmmaking. "Jimmy was first and foremost an artist, and his films represent the work of an artist—not a gay artist, but an artist."^[101] Whale's biographer Curtis rejects the notion that Whale would have identified with the Monster from a homosexual perspective,^[102] stating that if the highly class-conscious Whale felt himself to be an antisocial figure, it would have been based not in his sexuality but in his origin in the lower classes.^[103]

Film style[link]

James Whale memorial statue in Dudley, England.

Whale was heavily influenced by German Expressionism. He was a particular admirer of the films of Paul Leni, combining as they did elements of gothic horror and comedy. This influence was most evident in Bride of Frankenstein.^[104] Expressionist influence is also in evidence in Frankenstein, drawn in part from the work of Paul Wegener and his films The Golem (1915) and The Golem: How He Came into the World (1920)^[105] along with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) from Robert Wiene, which Whale reportedly screened repeatedly while preparing to shoot Frankenstein.^[106] Frankenstein roughly alternates between distorted expressionistic shots and more conventional styles, with the character of Dr. Waldman serving as "a bridge between everyday and expressionist spaces".^[107] Expressionist influence is also evident in the acting, costuming and the design of the Monster.^[108] Whale and makeup artist Jack Pierce may also have been influenced by the Bauhaus school of design.^[109] The expressionist influence lasted throughout Whale's career, with Whale's final film, Hello Out There, praised by Sight & Sound as "a virtuoso pattern of light and shade, a piece of fully blown expressionist filmmaking plonked down unceremoniously in the midst of neo-realism's heyday".^[110]

Whale was known for his use of camera movement. He is credited with being the first director to use a 360-degree panning shot in a feature film, included in Frankenstein.^[111] Whale used a similar technique during the Ol' Man River sequence in Show Boat, in which the camera tracked around Paul Robeson as he sang the song. Often singled out for praise in Frankenstein is the series of shots used to introduce the Monster: "Nothing can ever quite efface the thrill of watching the successive views Whale's mobile camera allows us of the lumbering figure".^[112] These shots, starting with a medium shot and culminating in two close-ups of the Monster's face, were repeated by Whale to introduce Griffin in The Invisible Man and the abusive husband in One More River. Modified to a single cut rather than two, Whale uses the same technique in The Road Back to signal the instability of a returning World War I veteran.^[55]

Legacy[link]

Influential film critic Andrew Sarris, in his 1968 ranking of directors, lists Whale as "lightly likable". Noting that Whale's reputation has been subsumed by the "Karloff cult", Sarris cites Bride of Frankenstein as the "true gem" of the Frankenstein series and concludes that Whale's career "reflects the stylistic ambitions and dramatic disappointments of an expressionist in the studio-controlled Hollywood of the thirties".^[113]

Whale's final months are the subject of the 1995 novel Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram. The novel focuses on the relationship between Whale and a fictional gardener named Clayton Boone. Father of Frankenstein served as the basis of the 1998 film Gods and Monsters with Ian McKellen as Whale and Brendan Fraser as Boone.^[114] McKellen was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Whale.^[115]

A memorial statue was erected for Whale in 2002 on the grounds of a new multiplex cinema in his home town of Dudley. The statue, by Charles Hadcock, depicts a roll of film with the face of Frankenstein's monster engraved into the frames and the names of his most famous films etched into a cast concrete base in the shape of film canisters.^[116]

Filmography[link]

Notes[link]