By Candlelight is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy film directed by James Whale. The film is based on the Austrian play Candle Light by Siegfried Geyer and Karl Farkas, which was adapted to the English-speaking stage by P. G. Wodehouse. The film stars Elissa Landi, Paul Lukas, Nils Asther, and Dorothy Revier. A musical version adapted by Rowland Leigh, Cole Porter, Robert Katscher and Edwin Gilbert premiered in 1938 under the title You Never Know, but was a critical and box office flop that closed after only 78 performances.
U.S. theatrical poster
James Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor, who spent the greater part of his career in Hollywood. He is best remembered for several horror films: Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), all considered classics. Whale also directed films in other genres, including the 1936 film version of the musical Show Boat.
Whale on the set of Bride of Frankenstein, 1935
"From early morn to dewy eve": watercolour cartoon by Whale of prisoners in Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp, 1918
Colin Clive in Whale's 1929 stage production of Journey's End
Whale directed Boris Karloff in the iconic horror film Bride of Frankenstein (1935).