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James Whale

British-born American film director

3.11body-of-work score · ranked #352 of 2631 directors · 7 films in our library

A director's score is the sum of their films' composite canon scores — methodology.

Born
July 22, 1889 · Dudley
Died
May 29, 1957 · Hollywood
Nationality
United Kingdom
Work
film director, theatre director, screenwriter, director
Reference
Wikipedia · Wikidata
Portrait of James Whale
Universal Studios · Public domain

Films in our library, ranked

Ranked by composite canon score across 20+ authoritative lists, awards and polls — our ordering, with every placement citing its evidence on the film's page.

  1. 1
    Bride of Frankenstein

    1935 · United States · horror, sci-fi

    TIME All-TIME 100 · National Film Registry (inducted 1998) · Empire 500 (2008) #204

    1.046 citations
  2. 2
    Frankenstein

    1931 · United States · horror, sci-fi

    AFI 100 (1998) #87 · National Film Registry (inducted 1991) · NYT Best 1,000 Movies

    0.744 citations
  3. 3
    Show Boat

    1936 · United States · musical

    National Film Registry (inducted 1996) · Criterion Collection spine #1021 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema

    0.503 citations
  4. 4
    The Invisible Man

    1933 · United States · horror, sci-fi

    National Film Registry (inducted 2008) · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies

    0.342 citations
  5. 5
    The Old Dark House

    1932 · United States · horror, comedy, drama

    Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema

    0.222 citations
  6. 6
    Hell's Angels

    1930 · United States · war, drama, musical

    Criterion Collection spine #1288

    0.161 citation
  7. 7
    The Great Garrick

    1937 · United States · comedy, romance

    Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema

    0.111 citation

Complete filmography

All 22 directorial credits recorded on Wikidata, in chronological order; films in our library link to their canon-score page.