Director Michael Curtiz (1888-1962) was one of the great craftsmen of the Hollywood studio system, directing every genre with style. Among his films at Warner Bros. that emerged as Oscar®-winning classics are The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Casablanca (1942) and Mildred Pierce (1945).

Born Mano Kertesz Kaminer in Budapest, Curtiz was an actor in his youth and entered Hungarian films in 1912. After World War I he directed films in Austria and Germany that caught the eye of Harry Warner of Warner Bros., who brought Curtiz to Hollywood in 1926. Over the next 25 years, Curtiz directed more than 100 films at Warners. Some were routine but others, including a cycle of Errol Flynn adventure movies, showed that Curtiz could to rise to brilliant heights.

As handled by Curtiz (and co-director William Keighley), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) is a splendid blend of action, romance and Technicolor. Curtiz directed James Cagney to his only Oscar for Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), helped resurrect Joan Crawford's career and guided John Garfield and Doris Day through their early days of movie stardom.

Among the actors who worked for him, Curtiz was known for his demanding ways (Olivia de Havilland called him a "tyrant" and a "villain"), and for his mangling of the English language.

"In the saddle nearly to the end," according to this entry from the TCMdb, "Curtiz died six months after the release of his final film, The Commancheros (1961), a well-paced actioner with John Wayne as a Texas Ranger out to bring in the gang supplying liquor and guns to the Comanches. Though he may not have demonstrated the easily identifiable style demanded by the 'politique des auteurs' of the CAHIER DU CINEMA, Curtiz left behind an impressive body of work possessing an incredibly consistent narrative energy. He scoffed at attempts to delve beneath the polished surface of his films: "I put all the art into my pictures I think the audience can stand. I don't see black-and-white words in a script when I read it. I see action." The director displayed his "personal vision" in the "look" of his films. Curtiz instinctively understood where to put the camera in relation to the action to achieve maximum emotional identification from his audience. Perhaps only John Ford and William Wyler enjoyed comparable success directing within the studio system."

by Roger Fristoe