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Post by spiderwort on Oct 7, 2019 17:45:36 GMT
Michael Curtiz is famously known for directing his masterpiece, Casablanca, but it sometimes seems that the rest of his 49 year career with 178 directing credits is overlooked - or maybe sometimes people love his films, but just don't realize he directed them. Besides the unbeatable Casablanca, my other favorite Curtiz films include: Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
White Christmas (1954)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Young Man With a Horn (1950)
The Sea Wolf (1941)
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Four Daughters (1938)
Romance on the High Seas (1948)
Roughly Speaking (1945)
King Creole (1958)
But there are so many more to choose from - everything from swashbucklers to westerns to dramas to musicals; along with Howard Hawk, he was the king of genre swapping.
Side note about Roughly Speaking: It's based upon a memoir by Louise Randall Pierson, mother of Frank Pierson, Oscar winning screenwriter of Dog Day Afternoon and Cool Hand Luke, among others. He's portrayed in the film as a child/young man. |
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Post by TerryMontana on Oct 7, 2019 18:12:02 GMT
Casablanca
Angels with Dirty Faces
Yankee Doodle Dandy
We're No Angels
Mildred Pierce
Of course Casablanca is one of the best movies in film history and by far my #1 of Curtiz.
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Post by spiderwort on Oct 7, 2019 18:30:38 GMT
Casablanca Angels with Dirty Faces Yankee Doodle Dandy We're No Angels Mildred Pierce Of course Casablanca is one of the best movies in film history and by far my #1 of Curtiz.
Glad to see another fan and know that we share many favorites. I was doing some research on Curtiz recently and, although I know his career was very long and genre varied, I had no idea that he began directing in 1912 in Hungary under his real name, Kertész Mihály. It's quite amazing to learn how many wonderful Hollywood directors began their careers in Europe in the early days of cinema - so many more than we generally realize.
Oh, and yes, Casablanca is without a doubt one of the greatest movies ever made! I saw an interview with Ingrid Bergman recently, and she verified what has always been reported: they were indeed writing the script as they went along, and she wasn't sure who she really loved and who she'd end up with. That made it difficult for her, of course, but it also added great depth and emotional complexity to her internal conflict.
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Post by therealcomicman117 on Oct 7, 2019 19:38:46 GMT
Casablanca (of course)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (though he shared co-credit with William Keightley, Curtis apparently did most of the heavy-lifting by the end)
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Captain Blood
The Sea Hawk
Mildred Pierce
Life With Father
The Charge of The Light Brigade
King Creole
One of the great "studio directors". He was involved with a wide variety of movies over the years. Lots of them with Errol Flynn & Olivia DeHavilland earlier on in his career as well.
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Post by spiderwort on Oct 7, 2019 20:16:01 GMT
Casablanca (of course) The Adventures of Robin Hood (though he shared co-credit with William Keightley, Curtis apparently did most of the heavy-lifting by the end) Yankee Doodle Dandy Captain Blood The Sea Hawk Mildred Pierce Life With Father The Charge of The Light Brigade King Creole One of the great "studio directors". He was involved with a wide variety of movies over the years. Lots of them with Errol Flynn & Olivia DeHavilland earlier on in his career as well. Generally speaking, I'm not a big swashbuckler fan, but I have to say that he was really excellent at making those, in addition to all the other genres. Captain Blood and Sea Hawk are very well done and were models for films to come. |
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Post by therealcomicman117 on Oct 7, 2019 20:39:39 GMT
Casablanca (of course) The Adventures of Robin Hood (though he shared co-credit with William Keightley, Curtis apparently did most of the heavy-lifting by the end) Yankee Doodle Dandy Captain Blood The Sea Hawk Mildred Pierce Life With Father The Charge of The Light Brigade King Creole One of the great "studio directors". He was involved with a wide variety of movies over the years. Lots of them with Errol Flynn & Olivia DeHavilland earlier on in his career as well. Generally speaking, I'm not a big swashbuckler fan, but I have to say that he was really excellent at making those, in addition to all the other genres. Captain Blood and Sea Hawk are very well done and were models for films to come. It helps that worked with such a charismatic classic adventure leading man in Errol Flynn. He and Flynn in total made ten movies between 1935 and 1940, and not a single one of them, that I've seen (around 7), is a true "dud". An unsung director / actor collaboration to say the least. |
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urbanpatrician
Bad Ass
Goodbye Jaclyn. Girl on Tinder matched for a year and half I never spoke a word to. WILL BE MISSED
Posts: 2,361
Likes: 797
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Post by urbanpatrician on Oct 7, 2019 22:37:39 GMT
1. Casablanca
2. Captain Blood
3. Mildred Pierce (although I thought the remake was a lot better)
Some others I personally like:
4. Romance on the High Seas
5. Passage to Marseilles
6. My Dream is Yours
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Post by spiderwort on Oct 9, 2019 0:29:15 GMT
1. Casablanca 2. Captain Blood 3. Mildred Pierce (although I thought the remake was a lot better) Some others I personally like: 4. Romance on the High Seas 5. Passage to Marseilles 6. My Dream is Yours Glad to see another Doris Day fan. I especially like her in her debut performance in Romance on the High Seas. |
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Post by SeanJoyce on Oct 9, 2019 3:33:20 GMT
Haven't seen anybody mention The Breaking Point yet, which is a damn fine film noir and a more accurate adaptation of To Have and Have Not than the Bogie/Bacall cocktail (which is really just Casablanca 2.)
Speaking of unsung director/actor collaborations, Curtiz and Garfield made a pretty potent pair and The Breaking Point provided the great Garfield with another plum leading man role before he left us far too soon (but not without giving us the cracking He Ran All the Way.)
I also really enjoy The Comancheros, especially Lee Marvin's sparkplug cameo as a drunken, half-scalped scoundrel.
I agree that Curtiz was the king of genre hopping alongside Hawks (though [Robert] Wise also deserves mention.)
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Post by jimmalone on Oct 9, 2019 7:58:20 GMT
That man certainly deserves his own thread. The amount of films he made is incredible. I mean he is one of my most watched directors with me having seen 27 of his films and still this is only a small percentage of his filmography. Of course there is Casablanca, which stands out of this list. I agree that this is one of the best films ever made. But there are few other great films Curtiz has made and which are actually hurt by Casablanca in that way, that they are always overshadowed by it. The The Adventures of Robin Hood is the second film of Curtiz which I'd hail a masterpiece without hesitating. Even today more filmmakers should look at this one when working in that genre for how well Curtiz built his movie around the story. Some other favourites: We're no Angels, a hilarious comedy Angels with Dirty FacesThe Charge of the Light BrigadeI also like a lot: 20.000 Years in Sing SingMildred PierceFour DaughtersCaptain BloodThe Sea Hawk The Comancheros
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Post by spiderwort on Oct 9, 2019 12:35:06 GMT
Haven't seen anybody mention The Breaking Point yet, which is a damn fine film noir and a more accurate adaptation of To Have and Have Not than the Bogie/Bacall cocktail (which is really just Casablanca 2.) Speaking of unsung director/actor collaborations, Curtiz and Garfield made a pretty potent pair and The Breaking Point provided the great Garfield with another plum leading man role before he left us far too soon (but not without giving us the cracking He Ran All the Way.) I also really enjoy The Comancheros, especially Lee Marvin's sparkplug cameo as a drunken, half-scalped scoundrel. I agree that Curtiz was the king of genre hopping alongside Hawks (though [Robert] Wise also deserves mention.)
Really appreciate your comments, and your reminder of The Breaking Point. I've seen dozens of Curtiz films, but I haven't seen this one, and it certainly seems that I've missed one of his better efforts. To say nothing of what I'm sure is the joy of Garfield and Neal playing opposite each other. I really need to catch up with this one, so thanks again for the reminder.
Of his westerns, I really enjoy the Errol Flynn/Olivia de Havilland efforts, Santa Fe Trail and Dodge City. I'm sure I saw The Comancheros, but for some reason I'm not remembering it.
And thanks for the mention of Robert Wise, definitely another multi-genre master who far too often gets overlooked in that regard. He was nominated for three Oscars for directing (and one for editing) and won two. The two he won for were for musicals. The other nomination was for the courtroom/prison drama, I Want to Live!. He also directed and received an Oscar nomination for best picture for the military war story, The Sand Pebbles. He's another of my favorite directors and I think deserves his own his own thread, too.
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Post by spiderwort on Oct 9, 2019 12:51:40 GMT
That man certainly deserves his own thread. The amount of films he made is incredible. I mean he is one of my most watched directors with me having seen 27 of his films and still this is only a small percentage of his filmography. Of course there is Casablanca, which stands out of this list. I agree that this is one of the best films ever made. But there are few other great films Curtiz has made and which are actually hurt by Casablanca in that way, that they are always overshadowed by it. The The Adventures of Robin Hood is the second film of Curtiz which I'd hail a masterpiece without hesitating. Even today more filmmakers should look at this one when working in that genre for how well Curtiz built his movie around the story. Some other favourites: We're no Angels, a hilarious comedy Angels with Dirty FacesThe Charge of the Light BrigadeI also like a lot: 20.000 Years in Sing SingMildred PierceFour DaughtersCaptain BloodThe Sea Hawk The Comancheros
Great comments, jim. And even though it's not really my genre, I have to agree with you about The Adventures of Robin Hood. It's a beautifully conceived and executed film.
And one on your lists that I didn't mention originally but that I also really like is 20,000 Years in Sing Sing. When I think of that one I always think of the wonderful performances in it. That brings me to another of the remarkable things about Curtiz: in addition to his ability to change genres like composers change keys in music he was truly wonderful with actors, despite the fact that he didn't speak English all that well. But he always got sensitive performances out of everyone. That's something I really don't think he gets enough credit for. Many actors were nominated for or won Oscars under his direction.
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