Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film (Screen Classics)

About this book

Academy Awardwinning director Michael Curtiz (18861962)whose best-known films include Casablanca (1942) Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) Mildred Pierce (1945) and White Christmas (1954)was in many ways the anti-auteur. During his unprecedented twenty-seven year tenure at Warner Bros. he directed swashbuckling adventures westerns musicals war epics romances historical dramas horror films tearjerkers melodramas comedies and film noir masterpieces. The directors staggering output of 180 films surpasses that of the legendary John Ford and exceeds the combined total of films directed by George Cukor Victor Fleming and Howard Hawks. In the first biography of this colorful instinctual artist Alan K. Rode illuminates the life and work of one of the film industrys most complex figures. He explores the directors little-known early life and career in his native Hungary revealing how Curtiz shaped the earliest days of silent cinema in Europe before immigrating to the United States in 1926. In Hollywood Curtiz earned a reputation for explosive tantrums his difficulty with English and disregard for the well-being of others. However few directors elicited more memorable portrayals from their casts and ten different actors delivered Oscar-nominated performances under his direction. In addition to his study of the directors remarkable legacy Rode investigates Curtizs dramatic personal life discussing his enduring creative partnership with his wife screenwriter Bess Meredyth as well as his numerous affairs and children born of his extramarital relationships. This meticulously researched biography provides a nuanced understanding of one of the most talented filmmakers of Hollywoods golden age.