Frankenstein. The Old Dark House. The Invisible Man. Bride of Frankenstein. Unquestionable horror classics that have remained iconic nearly a century after their release. All directed by one man, James Whale.
Today marks the anniversary of the 1998 film, Gods And Monsters, Whale was portrayed in a partially fictionalized account of his final days before drowning by suicide in 1957. The film garnered several Oscar nods including nominations for Ian McKellen and Lynn Redgrave and winning Best Adapted Screenplay by Bill Condon.
Portions of this page also appear in an upcoming article for Horrorr’s Hallowed Grounds in Horror Hound magazine.
The film begins with Clay (Brendan Fraser) leaving his trailer parked on the White Point Park Beach in San Pedro, California.
Not far from the beach is Walker’s Café, located at 700 West Paseo Del Mar across from Point Fermin Park.
The Santa Monica Library is San Pedro High School in reality. Also shot at this location were the interiors of the doctor’s office.
The Whale house took some heavy research to find, but I finally located it at 1220 Rancho Road in Arcadia, California.
Although a few scenes were shot inside the house, other interiors were mostly filmed elsewhere and at the studio.
As luck would have it, the date of my visit was also the day after an estate sale, so I was able to check out the gorgeous backyard.
The pool house was used for many key scenes. The production replaced the sliding doors with windows and a traditional door for the film.
The flashback sequences were shot at Lacy Street Studios at 2630 Lacy Street in Los Angeles. This studio was also used in Saw, Freddy’s Dead, and Leprechaun In The Hood.
The pool and surrounding area have remained virtually unchanged since filming.
The final scene was shot in San Pedro, not sure if this is the right alley but working on it.
James Whale’s real house was at 788 Amalfi Drive in Pacific Palisades, California. Whale’s partner, David Lewis, continued to live in there until the 1980s until it was purchased by Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell for several years.
James Whale’s final resting place is at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California
I was fortunate to see the premiere of the film at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998 with Lynn Redgrave in attendance.
