Michael Curtiz in Favorite Directors Forum

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Michael Curtiz

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Richard Valley	Michael Curtiz	Lead	[-]
Posts: 54081 Mar 24 01 4:13 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tags : None If the secret of good directing is to make your style invisible, then Michael Curtiz is one of the greats. (THE KENNEL MURDER CASE is rather an exception.) He's made some great films, he keeps everything moving, he's never less than professional, but the joys of his films stem mainly from solid stories and great performances. If that makes Curtiz sound like a traffic cop, well, better a good traffic cop than a bad one. Here's my Top Twnty in order of preference: 1. CASABLANCA 2. MILDRED PIERCE 3. ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES 4. THE WALKING DEAD 5. FLAMINGO ROAD 6. THE SEA WOLF 7. THE KENNEL MURDER CASE 8. DOCTOR X 9. THE SEA HAWK 10. YANKEE DOODLE DANDY 11. THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD 12. CAPTAIN BLOOD 13. FOUR DAUGHTERS 14. LIFE WITH FATHER 15. THE MAD GENIUS 16. KING CREOLE 17. ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS 18. YOUNG MAN WITH A HORM 19. PASSAGE TO MARSEILLE 20. THE UNSUSPECTED
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Jose Goas Jul	Hey, Richard!	#1	[-]
Posts: 149 Mar 24 01 5:06 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Hey, did you forget to add in the first places THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE or is it that its not among your favorites? Whenever I think of Curtiz, its one of the first that spring to mind...
Richard Valley	Re: Hey, Richard!	#2	[-]
Posts: 54081 Mar 24 01 5:46 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I don't particularly care for THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, no. With very few exceptions, I'm not much of an Errol Flynn fan . . .
Ken Hanke	Re: Hey, Richard!	#3	[-]
Posts: 71301 Mar 25 01 12:11 AM Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Well, since I've already listed my top Curtiz films in the Walsh thread, they'd be redundant here. And while I rather like Errol Flynn, I have to say that I have never warmed to CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.
The Borgo Kid	Re: Michael Curtiz	#4	[-]
Posts: 3768 Mar 25 01 12:35 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The thing about Curtiz is that while he may not have the distinctive style of some of the auteurs, he has more unquestionable top-ten qualifying best films of the American studio era in more genres than anyone else I can think of: 1. Swashbuckler 2. Horror 3. Film Noir 4. Musical 5. Historical Adventure 6. Biography 7. Mystery/Detective One or two of his Westerns would have to be included in the top twenty. And, of course, we'll always have CASABLANCA, whatever pigeonhole that fits into . . .
The Borgo Kid	Re: Michael Curtiz	#5	[-]
Posts: 3768 Mar 25 01 3:32 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I should add the Crime/Gangster genre, too.
Richard Valley	Re: Michael Curtiz	#6	[-]
Posts: 54081 Mar 26 01 4:18 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	>>top-ten qualifying best films of the American studio era in more genres<< Much as I enjoy YANKEE DOODLE DANDY and Curtiz's other musicals, none of them would make my top 20 in that genre . . .
Jose Goas Jul	The Charge	#7	[-]
Posts: 149 Mar 26 01 3:48 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	But The Charge...OK, maybe this is not Flynns top performance, the love triangle is uninteresting...but The Charge...It will undoubtedly (well, I personally have no doubts, I mean) remain as one of the most spectacular moments in cinema history. Full of nerve, movement. Unreal, impossible, but I cant help feeling a chill -out of pleasure- down my spine whenever I see it. Stunned. Knocked Out.
The Borgo Kid	Re: The Charge	#8	[-]
Posts: 3768 Mar 27 01 11:52 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I remember reading in more than one place that the charge itself was directed by Mascot/Republic serial director B. Reeves Eason. If so, Curtiz' resum needs to be docked of one of the most memorable sequences in film history. As an aside, I also remember reading that the towers of the frontier city where the massacre occurs were deliberately constructed by bored and rascally set designers and carpenters to resemble erect peckers . . .
MarkDClark	NOW you're talkin!	#9	[-]
Posts: 4501 Mar 27 01 4:33 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Michael Curtiz is one of my very favorite directors. He's definitely not an autuer, but cinema has known very few finer craftsmen. As has already been said, Curtiz could make a good movie in almost any genre. His greatest works, imho, are... 1. CASABLANCA - Nuff said. 2. THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD - Still the best swashbuckler of 'em al, one of my all-time faves 3. MILDRED PIERCE 4. ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES 5. CAPTAIN BLOOD 6. THE WALKING DEAD 7. YANKEE DOODLE DANDY 8. NOAH'S ARK 9. SANTA FE TRAIL 10.MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM Among many other fine films...
Ken Hanke	Re: NOW you're talkin!	#10	[-]
Posts: 71301 Mar 27 01 6:50 PM Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Interested to see the very underrated NOAH'S ARK on your list, Mark...
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MarkDClark	NOAH'S ARK	#11	[-]
Posts: 4501 Mar 27 01 7:31 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I saw this on a late-night TCM broadcast one evening and was absolutely blown away. An amazing film.
Jose Goas Jul	The Charge against Borgo	#12	[-]
Posts: 149 Mar 28 01 6:01 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Right, but I dont care if the towers were built with matchsticks, made of chocolate or designed by people with marital problems, the thing here is what I feel and how much I enjoy the sequence. As for Reeves Easons work, its alright for me, I had also read about his deeds. So what? Curtiz didnt make it? OK, the charge has not lost any of its virtues and Curtiz is still great -apart from the fact that he surely had something to do with the sequence; he was already a reasonably famous director after his previous great success CAPTAIN BLOOD.
The Borgo Kid	Re: The Charge Against Borgo	#13	[-]
Posts: 3768 Mar 29 01 12:08 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts
Bavafreak	Let's examine this....	#14	[-]
Posts: 5693 Mar 29 01 3:42 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	If we are basing some portion of our admiration for an artist on a sequence... and that sequence turns out to have been created by another technician... I think this is definitely a vital point. I mean, let's say that Saul Bass really DID direct the shower scene in PSYCHO. Would this detract from Hitchcock? To an extent, yes, simply because that's one of his most famous setpieces. (BTW, I don't believe that Bass did direct it). It absolutely wouldn't undercut everything that made Hitchock what he was, but it is something that deserves note. If Curtiz didn't direct the actual Charge in LIGHT BRIGADE, we surely shouldn't credit him with said sequence, now should we?
Richard Valley	Re: The Charge	#15	[-]
Posts: 54081 Mar 29 01 4:54 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	>>If so, Curtiz' resum needs to be docked of one of the most memorable sequences in film history.<< I've been reading some interesting stuff of late about second unit directors, and Curtiz wouldn't be the only director credited with shooting a scene when he wasn't even on the set . . .
Ken Hanke	Re: The Charge	#16	[-]
Posts: 71301 Mar 29 01 12:46 PM Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I've always been interested in the fact that in his list of favorite directors Ken Russell includes Frank Tuttle. Now, I have no problem with that--I don't think Tuttle was great, but I do think he's underrated and underexamined. What bothers me is that the film that Ken cites him for is ROMAN SCANDALS...where Tuttle directed neither the musical numbers, nor the action scenes...
Unregistered(d)	Curtiz	#17	[-]
Posts: 0 Mar 31 01 3:29 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I have to confess that I own more Michael Curtiz films on Laser Disc and DVD than any other director. I have always been amazed that he could make a film in any genre, and win Oscars for many of them. However, one of my favorite films he made at Warner Brothers is DODGE CITY, which I have yet to see mentioned. Maybe it's my Michael Curtiz guilty pleasure! Another director I have a great deal of respect for is Edward Dmytryk: THE DEVIL COMMANDS, HITLER'S CHILDREN, MURDER MY SWEET, THE CAINE MUTINY, THE LEFT HAND OF GOD, THE YOUNG LIONS, CORNERED, THE SNIPER, WARLOCK etc. He's another director that seems to have been able to work in any genre, like Curtiz, and have little or no style that defined his work as an "Edward Dmytryk film."
Richard Valley	Stoolie	#18	[-]
Posts: 54081 Mar 31 01 3:40 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	As a director, I like Edward Dmytryk well enough. As a person, well . . .
Unregistered(d)	Re: Stoolie	#19	[-]
Posts: 0 Apr 1 01 1:20 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Richard, I assume that you are referring to the Holllywood Ten. I don't think that any of us can understand the pressures that were being exerted on people within the movie industry at that time. I'm not sure what my cracking point is. Do you know yours? At least he stuck it out for some time before tossing out names. I can't dismiss a director's work because he broke under the strain of the Red Witch Hunt. I think that it is a crime that Elia Kazan has been relinquished to zero by modern critics because of his cooperation with the persecutors of talented individuals within the film colony. I know that you didn't relinquish his movies to the trash can because of his political past, but Stoolie seems rather crass, taking into consideration the circumstances that were taking place at the time.
Richard Valley	Re: Stoolie	#20	[-]
Posts: 54081 Apr 1 01 2:44 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	>>I'm not sure what my cracking point is. Do you know yours?<< Yes, it's about three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Let's just say I have infinitely more respect for those who didn't name names than for those who did, and sympathy for some--but only some--who cracked and did . . .
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