This article was originally written about TCM Spotlight in the TCM Now Playing newsletter in March 2018.
Michael Curtiz (1886-1962) had one of the most amazing and productive careers in the history of film directors, amassing 178 credits over six decades, moving freely among genres and racking up classics in many different movie styles, including drama, comedy, romance, film noir, musical, swashbuckler and war. His crowning glory is Casablanca (1942), the movie that brought Curtiz his only Oscar as Best Director of a feature among four nominations and secured a special place in the hearts of moviegoers everywhere. (He directed the 1939 short film “Sons of Liberty,” which earned an Oscar for Best Short Subject.)
Curtiz played star-maker for several powerhouse performers, and he directed 11 performances that were nominated for Academy Awards. In addition to his masterful handling of actors, Curtiz was known for his distinctive visual style, incorporating dramatic lighting effects with fluid camerawork that ranged from intimate close-ups to dramatic crane shots.
The Hungarian-born director, known as a stern taskmaster when making his films, provided inadvertent humor with his sometimes-awkward way with the English language. David Niven was so amused by one of Curtiz's malapropisms that he used it as the title of a memoir: "Bring on the empty horses!"
Curtiz was born Manó Kaminer in Budapest to a Jewish family and later changed his name to Mihály Kertész, which he would use when working at the National Hungarian Theatre and in directing Hungarian films beginning in 1912. After becoming an important director in Hungary, Austria and Denmark, he signed a contract with Warner Bros. and came to the U.S. in 1926, changing his name to Michael Curtiz. His career at Warners would encompass 28 years and 86 films. After 1954, he began freelancing.
This TCM tribute includes movies from every decade of Curtiz's American career, ranging from Noah's Ark (1928), starring Dolores Costello, to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960), starring Eddie Hodges.
Highlights from the 1930s include Captain Blood (1935), based on the Rafael Sabatini novel and featuring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland as a popular romantic team in their star-making roles. This swashbuckling pirate adventure brought Curtiz his first Oscar nomination as Best Director (unofficially, as a write-in candidate) and established him as Warner Bros.' top director.
Flynn and de Havilland were reunited under Curtiz's direction in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Dodge City (1939) and The Private Affairs of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). The latter film also stars Bette Davis in a powerful interpretation of Queen Elizabeth. Curtiz’s 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932) had helped establish Davis' career, along with that of Spencer Tracy, who won an MGM contract as a result of the Curtiz film. Edward G. Robinson won some of his best reviews for Kid Galahad (1937), directed by Curtiz and co-starring Davis and Humphrey Bogart.
In 1939, Curtiz received Best Director nominations for two movies. The crime film Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) stars James Cagney and Pat O'Brien and also features Humphrey Bogart and The Dead End Kids. That film brought Cagney his first Oscar nomination. The romantic drama Four Daughters (1938) stars the Lane sisters (Priscilla, Rosemary and Lola) and introduced John Garfield in an Oscar-nominated performance. The 1940s brought even more prestige to Curtiz, who began the decade with four more Flynn vehicles: Santa Fe Trail (1940), again costarring Oliva de Havilland; Virginia City (1940), featuring Randolph Scott and Humphrey Bogart; The Sea Hawk (1940), with Alan Hale; and Dive Bomber (1941), costarring Fred MacMurray.
In 1942, the immortal Casablanca and Yankee Doodle Dandy arrived, which brought Cagney his only Academy Award. Joan Crawford also won her only Oscar under the direction of Curtiz, in Mildred Pierce (1945). Curtiz directed the American classic Life with Father (1947), starring Oscar nominee William Powell and Irene Dunne. He also introduced Doris Day to movie audiences as the star of his musicals Romance on the High Seas (1948) and My Dream Is Yours (1949).
In the 1950s, Curtiz teamed with Day again for Young Man with a Horn (1950), also starring Kirk Douglas and Lauren Bacall; and directed John Garfield again in The Breaking Point (1950), a film noir co-starring Patricia Neal. He brought his definitive touch to the biopics The Helen Morgan Story (1957), starring Ann Blyth and Paul Newman; The Story of Will Rogers (1952), starring Will Rogers Jr. and Jane Wyman; and Jim Thorpe--All American (1951), starring Burt Lancaster.
While working on 1961’s The Comancheros, Curtiz’s health took a turn for the worse, causing the film’s star John Wayne to take over directing. Curtiz died of cancer at 75 years old on April 10, 1962.
