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Leo McCarey |
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Director / Producer /
Screenwriter |
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1898 - 1969 |
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Born October 3,
Los Angeles, California, USA |
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Key
Production Country: USA |
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Key Genres:
Comedy,
Drama, Romance, Melodrama |
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Key
Collaborators: Robert Emmett Dolan (Composer),
Hans Dreier (Production Designer), Cary Grant
(Leading Player), George Barnes (Cinematographer),
Leroy Stone (Editor), William Flannery (Production Designer), Bing
Crosby (Leading Player),
Irene Dunne (Leading Player), Vina Delmar (Screenwriter),
Delmer Daves
(Screenwriter) |
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Highly Recommended: Duck Soup (1933)*, The Awful Truth
(1937)*, Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)*,
Love Affair (1939) |
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Recommended:
Big Business (1929) [co-directed by James W. Horne],
Ruggles of Red Gap (1935), An Affair to Remember (1957)* |
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Worth a Look: Wrong
Again (1929), The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), Good Sam (1948), Rally 'Round the Flag,
Boys! (1958) |
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Approach with Caution:
Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942), Going My Way (1944), My Son John (1952) |
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* Listed in TSPDT's
1,000 Greatest Films
section. |
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Links:
[
Amazon
] [
IMDB ]
[
TCMDB ] [
All-Movie
Guide ] [
Senses
of Cinema: Great Directors ] [
Film Reference ]
[
Leo
McCarey: Hollywood Auteur, Hollywood Renegade ] [
Village
Voice Article ] [
Wikipedia ] [
Boston Phoenix
Article (2008) ] [
Moving Image Source Article (2008) ] |
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Books:
[
Leo
McCarey and the Comic Anti-Hero Film ] [
Leo McCarey: From Marx to McCarthy ] |
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"Leo
McCarey has always presented auteur criticism with one of
its greatest challenges and one that has never been convincingly
met... He worked consistently (and apparently quite
uncomplainingly) within the dominant codes of shooting and
editing that comprise the anonymous "classical Hollywood"
style... Yet his name is on some of the best - and best-loved -
Hollywood films (as well as on some that embarrass many of even
his most fervent defenders)." -
Robin Wood (The St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia, 1998) |
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"Blending an
explosive sense of humor with unabashed sentimentality, McCarey
came up with such comedy gems as Ruggles of Red Gap and
The Awful Truth and such maudlin pearls as Make Way
for Tomorrow and Going My Way." -
(The
MacMillan International Film Encyclopedia, 1994) |
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"Leo
McCarey represents a principle of improvisation in the history
of the American film. Noted less for his rigorous direction than
for his relaxed digressions, McCarey has distilled a unique
blend of farce and sentimentality in his best efforts... McCarey's
moments may outlive his movies...After enough great moments are
assembled, however, a personal style must be assumed even though
it is difficult to describe." -
Andrew
Sarris (The American Cinema, 1968)
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"Jean Renoir once said that McCarey
understood people better than anyone else in Hollywood. That
facility enabled him to create warm, witty, sometimes zany
comedies and gentle dramas." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
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"I only
know I like my characters to walk in clouds, I like a little bit
of the fairy tale. As long as I'm there behind the camera lens,
I'll let somebody else photograph the ugliness of the world." -
Leo McCarey |
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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
Mighty Like a
Moose (1926), Pass the Gravy (1928), Wild Company (1930), Indiscreet
(1931), The Kid From Spain (1932), Belle of the Nineties (1934), Six of
a Kind (1934), The Milky Way (1936), and Satan Never
Sleeps (1962). |
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