Digging Up the Truth of a Mysterious Death

On May 29, 1957, the lifeless body of director James Whale was found in the pool of his Pacific Palisades home--and for more than two decades, fans of the cinematic father of “Frankenstein” wondered: Was Whale the victim of foul play?

It took 25 years, and the tenacity of biographer James Curtis, to publicly reveal the truth behind the filmmaker’s death. In fact, Whale had left a suicide note, citing failing health for the action he was about to take. The note’s existence was known only to the director’s closest friends until the mid-1970s, when Curtis, a film enthusiast fascinated by the Whale films he had seen on television, began research on a biography.

Curtis was introduced to Whale’s longtime companion, producer David Lewis. Recalls Curtis, “David said at one point, ‘I’ve been approached to do Jimmy’s story before. I’ve never seen anyone who I felt could do it correctly. But if you’d like to try it, and I like what you’ve done, I’ll give you the material for the finish.’ ”

Lewis approved of Curtis’ work and kept his word, giving him the note Whale wrote before throwing his weakened body into the shallow end of his pool. Curtis’ book, “James Whale,” was published in 1982 but, despite its revealing account of the director’s death, Curtis was disappointed in the result.

“It was a novice piece of work,” he admits. In 1993, after publishing a biography of Preston Sturges, Curtis set out to improve his book on Whale, conducting fresh interviews and rewriting his text from scratch. The result, “A New World of Gods and Monsters,” was recently published by Faber and Faber to enthusiastic reviews.

Curtis, 45, admits to mixed feelings about the movie “Gods and Monsters,” a fictional telling of Whale’s last days. He chose not to work with the filmmakers because his biography had been optioned by another screenwriter. And though Curtis praises Sir Ian McKellen’s performance (“I think he captured Whale’s dignity”), he says his own casting pick for Whale would be David Bowie.

“He [Whale] influenced every director that came after him in the [horror] genre, and his films aren’t relics; they’re still effective after 70 years. That’s quite an achievement.”