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Michael Curtiz |
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Director |
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1886 - 1962 |
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Born December 24,
Budapest, Hungary |
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Key
Production Country: USA |
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Key Genres:
Drama, Romance, Musical, Biography, Adventure, Melodrama,
Musical Drama, Crime Drama, War Drama, War, Traditional Western |
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Key
Collaborators: Max Steiner (Composer), George Amy
(Editor), Sol Polito (Cinematographer), Anton Grot (Production
Designer), Errol Flynn (Leading Player), Hal Wallis (Producer), Alan
Hale (Leading Character Player), Robert Buckner (Screenwriter), Olivia
de Havilland (Leading Player), Robert Haas (Production Designer) |
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Highly
Recommended: Angels
with Dirty Faces (1938), Casablanca (1942)*, Mildred Pierce
(1945)*#, Young
Man with a Horn (1950) |
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Recommended: Captain Blood (1935), The
Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)*[co-directed by
William
Keighley], Dodge City (1939), The Sea Wolf (1941), The Unsuspected
(1947)#, My Dream is Yours
(1949), The Breaking Point (1950)#, King Creole (1958) |
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Worth
a Look: Female (1933), Mystery
of the Wax Museum (1933), 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1933), The Charge
of the Light Brigade (1936), The Walking Dead (1936), The Private Lives
of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), The Sea Hawk (1940), Dive Bomber
(1941), Flamingo Road (1949), The Best Things in Life are Free (1956) |
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Approach with Caution:
The Casbah (1931), The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932), Santa Fe
Trail (1940), Virginia City (1940), Captains of the Clouds (1942),
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Passage to Marseille (1944), Life with
Father (1947), Francis of Assisi (1961) |
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Duds: Front Page
Woman (1935), Night and Day (1946) |
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* Listed in TSPDT's
1,000 Greatest Films
section; #
Listed in TSPDT's
250 Quintessential Noir Films
section. |
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Links: [
Amazon
] [
IMDB ] [
TCMDB ] [
All-Movie
Guide ] [
Film Reference ]
[
A
Michael Curtiz Website ] [
Reel
Classics Page ] [
Films
of the Golden Age Article ] |
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Books: [
The
Casablanca Man: The Cinema of Michael Curtiz ] [
The
American Films of Michael Curtiz ] |
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   ![The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) [co-directed by William Keighley]](films/adventuresofrobinhood.jpg) |
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"Curtiz
worked in every film genre imaginable - social drama, musical
comedy, Westerns, sea sagas, swashbuckling romances, gangster
and prison melodramas, horror films, mystery thrillers, etc. His
forceful personality frequently broke through the most routine
material, and it was often difficult to tell who was subservient
to whom, Curtiz to the studio system or the studio system to
Curtiz. More often than not, they seemed to be one and the
same." -
The
MacMillan International Film Encyclopedia, 1994 |
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"Neither
a common theme nor a consistent style exists to confirm him as
an auteur, yet his solid craftsmanship and an ability to
elicit, if not the best, then the 'starriest' performances from
his actors made him a superior purveyor of polished hokum." -
Geoff
Andrew (The Director's Vision, 1999) |
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"Curtiz's
record during the transition to sound elevated him to the top
echelon of contract directors at Warners. Unlike others, Curtiz
seemed not to utilize this success to push for greater freedom
and independence, but rather seemed content to take what was
assigned, and execute it in a classic style. He produced crisp
flowing narratives, seeking efficiency of method. He was a
conservative director, adapting, borrowing and ultimately
utilizing all the dominant codes of the Hollywood system.
Stylistic innovations were left to others." -
Douglas
Gomery (International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers,
1991) |
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"The marks of a Curtiz film are fast pace, fluid camera
movement, expressive lighting, and simple story. Was the master
of the sound swashbuckler (The Adventures of Robin Hood,
38; The Sea Hawk, 40), and distinguished himself in
almost every other area of Hollywood film." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
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Please
note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based
only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director
that we haven't seen include Noah's Ark (1929), Mammy (1930), The Cabin
in the Cotton (1932), Doctor X (1932), The Kennel Murder Case (1933),
The Keyhole (1933), Man Killer (1933), British Agent (1934), Jimmy the
Gent (1934), The Key (1934), Mandalay (1934), Black Fury (1935), The
Case of the Curious Bride (1935), Kid Galahad (1937), Mountain Justice
(1937), The Perfect Specimen (1937), Stolen Holiday (1937), Four
Daughters (1938), Four's a Crowd (1938), Gold is Where You Find It
(1938), Daughters Courageous (1939), Four Wives (1939), Mission to
Moscow (1943), This is the Army (1943), Janie (1944), Roughly Speaking
(1945), Abilene Town (1946), Romance on the High Seas (1948), The Lady
Takes a Sailor (1949), Bright Leaf (1950), Force of Arms (1951), I'll
See You in My Dreams (1951), Jim Thorpe: All American (1951), The Jazz
Singer (1952), The Story of Will Rogers (1952), Trouble Along the Way
(1953), The Boy From Oklahoma (1954), The Egyptian (1954), White
Christmas (1954), We're No Angels (1955), The Scarlet Hour (1956), The
Vagabond King (1956), The Helen Morgan Story (1957), The Proud Rebel
(1958), The Hangman (1959), The Man in the Net (1959), The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn (1960), A Breath of Scandal (1960), and The Comancheros
(1961). |
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"Warner
Bros.’ consummate house director during the classical era,
Michael Curtiz was an expert technician who worked in a
variety of genres and with a wide range of top studio stars,
and like all of Warner’s long-term contract directors, he
was amazingly prolific. Curtiz directed nearly one hundred
features over some twenty-seven years at Warner (1926–1953),
including over fifty films during the manic 1930s. Most were
routine studio fare, although he occasionally directed
prestige productions like the Errol Flynn-Olivia de
Havilland vehicles. As Warner’s output slowed and its
ambitions increased during the 1940s, Curtiz handled many of
the studio’s top pictures, including back-to-back hits in
1942, Yankee Doodle Dandy and Casablanca, two
of Warner’s signature wartime releases."
-
Thomas Schatz, Schirmer Encyclopedia
of Film |
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●
Top 250 Directors |
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●
Key
Noir Filmmaker |
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●
Lightly Likable |
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●
Jean-Pierre Melville's 64 Favourite Pre-War
American Filmmakers
(Cahiers du Cinema, October 1961) |
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●
501 Movie Directors: A
Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers |
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See Also |
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●
Allan
Dwan |
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William
Dieterle |
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John
Huston |
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William
Keighley |
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Sidney
Lanfield |
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Mervyn
LeRoy |
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Anatole
Litvak |
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●
Jean
Negulesco |
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●
Irving
Rapper |
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King
Vidor |
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Sam
Wood |
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●
William
Wyler |
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