MICHAEL CURTIZ
1917click here for more pictures from this period
Tempestuous, tyrannical, and extremely talented, Michael Curtiz was one of Hollywood's most prolific and
colorful directors. Born to a well-to-do Jewish family in Budapest (his father was an architect and his mother an opera-singer), Curtiz ran away from home to join a
circus at 17, then trained for an acting career at the Royal Academy for Theater and Art. He worked as a
leading man at the Hungarian Theatre before turning to directing stage plays and then films; his first
cinematic effort was Az utolso bohem (1912), which was also the first feature-length film ever made in
Hungary. Curtiz moved on to the more progressive Danish film industry, returning to Hungary in 1914 and
serving for a year in the Austro-Hungarian infantry before resuming his directing career.
Kolozsvár (Transsylvania, Hungary) in 1914 with
Janovics Jenő on the left.
While it's arguable
that Curtiz was Hungary's finest director, he certainly was the busiest, helming no fewer than fourteen films
in 1917, most of which starred his first wife, actress Lucy Doraine. When the Hungarian film industry was
nationalized by the new Communist government in 1919, Curtiz packed his bags and headed for Sweden,
France, Germany and Austria. He directed 21 European pictures in a seven-year period, including the epic
Sodom and Gomorrah (1923), which served as the film debut for Walter Slezak.In 1926, Curtiz was
brought to Hollywood by Warner Bros,; going along for the ride was the director's second wife, actress Lili
Damita, who later married Curtiz' frequent star Errol Flynn (1935 - 1942 divorced) ,the director's third and final wife was
screenwriter Bess Meredyth with whom he would work on his first production effort "The Unsuspected". Curtiz's first few American films were stylish but only moderately expensive:
not so 1929's Noah's Ark, a superspectacular which bombed at the boxoffice but which firmly established
Curtiz as a "prestige" director. It also set the standard for Curtiz' utter lack of concern for the well-being of
his actors; several extras died during the climactic flood sequence, reportedly because Curtiz, hoping to
incur genuine panic in his performers, had failed to inform them that they'd be deluged with literally tons
of water. Most leading actors despised the dictatorial Curtiz, but were willing to work with him time and
again due to his uncanny knack for turning out topnotch films. While his detractors have noted that Curtiz'
much-praised visual style was due more to Warners' team of cinematographers and art directors than to the
director himself, few can deny that his films were among the best and most profitable that the studio ever
turned out. To list his greatest sound films would require a book in itself, but a representative cross-section
will give the reader a slight notion of Curtiz' creative contributions of the 1930s and 1940s: Captain Blood
(1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Angels With Dirty Faces (1938), Casablanca (1942) (which
won him an Oscar), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Mildred Pierce (1945), Night and Day (1946), Life with
Father (1947). So inextricably linked was Curtiz to the Warners modus operandi that, when he left the
studio to work at 20th Century-Fox and Paramount in 1954, he seemed to flounder, his films becoming
banal and ponderous. Even in his professional dotage, he was responsible for one of the biggest box-office
successes of the mid-1950s, White Christmas (1954). One year after completing his final film, the 1961
John Wayne vehicle The Comancheros, Michael Curtiz died at the age of 73, his reputation only slightly
tarnished by his so-so efforts of the past decade.
Kolozsvár (Transsylvania, Hungary) in 1914 with Janovics Jenő on the left.
While it's arguable that Curtiz was Hungary's finest director, he certainly was the busiest, helming no fewer than fourteen films in 1917, most of which starred his first wife, actress Lucy Doraine. When the Hungarian film industry was nationalized by the new Communist government in 1919, Curtiz packed his bags and headed for Sweden, France, Germany and Austria. He directed 21 European pictures in a seven-year period, including the epic Sodom and Gomorrah (1923), which served as the film debut for Walter Slezak.In 1926, Curtiz was brought to Hollywood by Warner Bros,; going along for the ride was the director's second wife, actress Lili Damita, who later married Curtiz' frequent star Errol Flynn (1935 - 1942 divorced) ,the director's third and final wife was screenwriter Bess Meredyth with whom he would work on his first production effort "The Unsuspected". Curtiz's first few American films were stylish but only moderately expensive: not so 1929's Noah's Ark, a superspectacular which bombed at the boxoffice but which firmly established Curtiz as a "prestige" director. It also set the standard for Curtiz' utter lack of concern for the well-being of his actors; several extras died during the climactic flood sequence, reportedly because Curtiz, hoping to incur genuine panic in his performers, had failed to inform them that they'd be deluged with literally tons of water. Most leading actors despised the dictatorial Curtiz, but were willing to work with him time and again due to his uncanny knack for turning out topnotch films. While his detractors have noted that Curtiz' much-praised visual style was due more to Warners' team of cinematographers and art directors than to the director himself, few can deny that his films were among the best and most profitable that the studio ever turned out. To list his greatest sound films would require a book in itself, but a representative cross-section will give the reader a slight notion of Curtiz' creative contributions of the 1930s and 1940s: Captain Blood (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Angels With Dirty Faces (1938), Casablanca (1942) (which won him an Oscar), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Mildred Pierce (1945), Night and Day (1946), Life with Father (1947). So inextricably linked was Curtiz to the Warners modus operandi that, when he left the studio to work at 20th Century-Fox and Paramount in 1954, he seemed to flounder, his films becoming banal and ponderous. Even in his professional dotage, he was responsible for one of the biggest box-office successes of the mid-1950s, White Christmas (1954). One year after completing his final film, the 1961 John Wayne vehicle The Comancheros, Michael Curtiz died at the age of 73, his reputation only slightly tarnished by his so-so efforts of the past decade.
