Director: James Whale
Cast: Gloria Stuart, Claude Rains, William Harrigan, Una O’Connor
Have I Seen It Before: Oh, sure.
Did I Like It: Sometimes I wonder if I’m going crazy, not unlike Jack Griffin (Rains) here. I actually wondered at some point during the screening of this film whether or not Whale is actually a great director, or if he was merely an absolutely master of casting.
It’s a crazy thought—Whale is undeniably a master, and to think anything else of he who wrought The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) is, indeed deeply insane—but I think a lesser filmmaker of the era could glean a lesson from Whale’s casting that might be able to paper over their own deficiencies.
Honestly, if I stumble across a film and Una O’Connor* is in it, it is a good movie. She truly, absolutely is the Michael Keaton or Lupita Nyong’o of pre-1960 cinema**. She shows up in this, or Bride, or The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), or even later on in The Court Jester (1955) and the entire film around her disappears. Is she broad? Yes. Is she too broad for the movie around her? Never.
One might want to focus on the stars of great films of the past. Karloff, Errol Flynn, Danny Kaye, whoever. But there is so much enjoyment to find in the bit players and character actors.
And as good as all of the rest of those actors I listed were, Una O’Connor was the absolute, unassailable best at what she did. The Michael Jordan of bit players***.
*Honestly, she is not nowhere near the top four credited actors in this film (as the in-hours Party Now, Apocalypse Later style guid dictates, but as that guide is largely a figment of my own imagination, I am perfectly poised to override it.
**I said what I said, or at least typed what I typed.
***See the previous footnote.