The Great Garrick

James Whale was a great film director, making most of his masterpieces in the 1930's, when he had a great control over his material. Especially in his film, THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, Whale exhibited a great sense of modernity, implanting certain themes that, had they been overt, would have gotten him thrown out of Hollywood. His horror films are great, and, in the case of THE INVISIBLE MAN, pretty effective in whatever way he wants them to be. With THE GREAT GARRICK, though, Whale shows a sense of modernity through comedy. Loosely based off of a real actor known as the Great Garrick in old-era England, the story is about a pretentious stage actor named Garrick, who, with his crony, travels to the theater house in Paris. The Parisians have erroneously heard that Garrick made a speech about them, saying that he plans to "teach them how to act". Deeply offended, the similarly pretentious Paris actors decide to rent out an entire hotel where Garrick is due to stay between his departure from England and his arrival in Paris. Each one of them playing a different part, and completely making up the hotel staff and residents, the actors plan to scare Garrick out of France as mad Frenchman. Little do the French know however, but an old man who loves Garrick's acting, rides on horseback to warn him. What follows is the exploits at the hotel, and Garrick having a one-up on the Paris actors. What is more entertaining though, is that Whale has sided with the man who is pretentious because he is deserving of it, instead of the Paris actors who aren't very good actors, but who act arrogantly anyway.

★★★★ out of Five