Author Hal Erickson wrote in his All Movie Guide that director John Cromwell "...wasn't very fond of any of his films, and was given to responding to the queries of movie buffs over this or that movie by turning his thumbs down or holding his nose!" Had Cromwell been a hack director the response would have been understandable, but he was responsible for Of Human Bondage (1934), Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936), and The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), three films that are now regarded as classics. His betrayal by Hollywood during the House Un-American Activities Committee and his subsequent seven-year blacklist may have caused that reaction. John Cromwell never deserved that treatment nor were his films ever recognized for their excellent craftsmanship: he was a director who was able to work in several genres and produced films that unlike those of many of his contemporaries, are still being watched and appreciated seventy years later.

Elwood Dager John Cromwell was born in Toledo, Ohio on December 23, 1887. Only a few years out of high school he was working as an actor on Broadway in Little Women (1912). He also directed plays such as The Painted Woman (1913), acted and co-directed with Frank Craven in Too Many Cooks (1946) which ran for a successful 223 performances. Cromwell made history by starring as Charles Lomax in the first Broadway performance of George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara (1915). During the years just preceding World War I, he also worked as a theater director for the great William Brady.

His career was briefly interrupted by military service during the war but he soon returned to Broadway. For the next decade he continued to hone his craft, alternating between acting and directing. When Hollywood films made the transition to sound films, the studios were scouring Broadway and regional theater for actors who could read lines and directors with stage experience. Cromwell was hired to work for Paramount Pictures in 1928 as a dialogue director, and the following year co-directed his first film (with A. Edward Sutherland) Close Harmony (1929) starring Jack Oakie.

During the 1930s Cromwell's films were highly successful in part because of his ability to get great performances out of actresses. Leaving Paramount for RKO, his Of Human Bondage gave Bette Davis her first truly great film role and cemented her reputation as a powerful actress. The film was a smash at the box office, which was helped along by Davis' performance, the censors who objected to the risqué storyline and the priests who picketed the film outside the theaters where it was shown. Unlike many directors who worked well with women, he was not stereotyped as a 'woman's director.' His 1937 adventure film The Prisoner of Zenda starred Ronald Colman in one of his most iconic roles, and one of his most popular. It allowed Cromwell to show his flair for comedy and his ability to create suspense, and a deft handling of action scenes. Cromwell was equally gifted at directing adult dramas like Sweepings (1933) starring Lionel Barrymore and Gloria Stuart and Jalna (1935) with Kay Johnson and Ian Hunter.

When not directing films in Hollywood, Cromwell continued to act. He co-starred with Katharine Cornell in several plays, Romeo and Juliet (1935) and Saint Joan (1936), and with John Gielgud in Hamlet (1936). In the 1940s, his reputation was such that he was not only elected as President of the Screen Actors' Guild (1944-46) but also co-hosted the Academy Awards with Bob Hope in 1945.

His training as an actor had Cromwell placing great importance on rehearsal, which was not always appreciated by the studio heads who wanted films made quickly. As DeWitt Bodeen wrote in his profile of Cromwell, "He believed in full rehearsals with camera before any shooting took place. "For every day of full rehearsal you give me," he was fond of saying, "I'll knock off a day on the shooting schedule." At RKO they gave him three days for rehearsal, and he obligingly came in three days early. The Enchanted Cottage (1945) was a tricky assignment; the love story was so sensitive that it could easily slip into sentimentality, but it never did. He treated it realistically, an approach that, as he said, is "the only way to treat a fantasy. It always works.""

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Cromwell's films took on a darker tone with the film noir thriller Dead Reckoning (1947), about a man falsely accused of murder, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lizabeth Scott; and the crime drama The Racket (1951), starring Lizabeth Scott and Robert Mitchum. Cromwell's own life took a dark turn in the early 1950s when he was falsely accused of being a Communist by producer Howard Hughes. Cromwell became a victim of the Hollywood blacklist for seven years from 1951-1958. He later denied the allegation, saying "I was never anything that suggested a Red and there never was the slightest evidence with which to accuse me of being one." Unlike other Hollywood directors who fled to Europe to make films, Cromwell returned to the stage, winning a Tony Award in 1952 for playing Henry Fonda's father in Point of No Return.

John Cromwell directed only three more films after his blacklist was lifted, the Kim Stanley film The Goddess (1958), said to be loosely based on Marilyn Monroe, and two low-budget films, The Scavengers (1959) and his final film, A Matter of Morals (1961). Cromwell was never idle, continuing to act both on Broadway and in repertory theater and in the 1970s, director Robert Altman cast him in two of his own films, 3 Women (1977) and A Wedding (1978), which was completed shortly before Cromwell's death on September 26, 1979. He was survived by his fourth wife, and his son, actor James Cromwell, from his marriage to actress Kay Johnson.

by Lorraine LoBianco

SOURCES:
Nndb.com
Wikipedia.org
Profile of John Cromwell by DeWitt Bodeen, filmreference.com
Answers.com
All Movie Guide by Hal Erickson
The Internet Movie Database

* Films in Bold Type will air on TCM