In Profile: William Wyler

 When talking about greatest film directors of all time the names John Ford, David Lean, Billy Wilder, Martin Scorcese, Federico Fellini, Stanley Kubrick, Stephen Spielberg and Akira Kurosawa are all likely to be mentioned among others. One name that probably slips through the net more often than not is William Wyler. In fact he probably isn't as assosciated with his own films as much as his peers are with theirs. The films of Ben-Hur, Wuthering Heights, Funny Girl, Roman Holiday and The Best Years of Our Lives are all synonymous with American 20th century cinema and remain popular today. The average movie goer however may be unaware that they are all the output of one man.

 Born in the Franco-Germanic region of Alsace in 1901, Wyler was always destined for a career in movies. His mother's cousin was the founder of Universal Pictures, and it was through this connection Wyler went to try his hand at forging a film career in Hollywood. First though he arrived in New York to serve as a messenger for Universal Pictures, not to mention also working for New York's Home Guard. He did this for but a few years, before moving on to Hollywood to work as a stage hand and runner for Universal Pictures. He didn't impress early on, with legendary producer Ivan Thalberg nicknaming him "Worthless Willy" due to his lack of work ethic. He got a break and moved into editing, before becoming a third assistant director and eventually by 1925 beginning to direct his own shorts, and thus becoming the studios youngest director. In his early career he was mainly specialising in non too impressive Westerns.
 In 1928 he became a naturalised US citizen and began to direct his first non-Western pieces as well as new pictures utilising the advent of sound known as talkies. By now he was beginning to master his craft with popular films that were bringing in strong box office takings for Universal. One of which was called Hell's Heroes, Wyler's first full sound film and a great success upon release.
                                                           
 It was also at this time that his infamous reputation for multiple takes began to take shape. Though this technique would seem to garner impressive and adulating performances from his actors. The Good Fairy starring Margaret Sullavan (who he married in 1934) was his last film for Universal, and probably his best received up until that point. In 1935 he struck up a collaboration with another legendary producer, Samuel Goldwyn. It would prove one of the most prolific film creating partnerships in cinematic history.

                                                            
 Their first film Dodsworth was quite revolutionary in the time of Hayes code in dealing frankly with the subject of a failed marriage. It naturalistic and believable acting is testament to Wyler's ability with his cast, and the film won wide critical as well as box office acclaim, earning Wyler his first Best Director nomination. He followed this up with a less controversial version of the lesbian themed "The Children's Hour" called These Three, he would later remake this in it's original form with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine in the lead roles. His next film Dead End, proved another hit, featuring Joel McCrea and Humphrey Bogart in his pre-leading man gangster role. It was again received well commercially and critically, this would again continue with his film Jezebel featuring Bette Davies and Henry Fonda. Jezebel is still well regarded to this day, namely for Bette Davies' Oscar winning performance in the lead role, that helped cement her as one of Hollywood's most strong willed leading ladies. It would also mark the start of a very successful three film collaboration with Davies, that culminated in 1941's The Little Foxes.
                                                              

 1939 saw the production of one of Wyler's most famous films and the most celebrated screen adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. For the lead role of Heathcliffe, Wyler cast one of the most lauded acting professional's from the West End stage. Laurence Olivier had been to Hollywood in the early 30's, but was unable to make his mark on the film industry, and so returned to London. In 1939, his new girlfriend Vivien Leigh was cast in one of cinema's most sought after roles as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind. This marked Olivier's return to Hollywood, and Wyler provided him with his first role opposite Merle Oberon. The film was another success for Wyler as both he and Olivier earned Oscar nominations. Olivier credited Wyler, for helping to believe in the art of film acting, as Olivier had previously struggled with the concept. His performance in Wuthering Heights is widely regarded as one of his best. He would go on to be remembered as one of the acting greats, and even worked with Wyler once more in the largely underrated Carrie in 1952.

 Such was Wyler's brilliance that despite this influx of success and fortune, he didn't let up and continued to make films of a high quality. In 1940, not only did he direct The Letter but also achieved success directing Gary Cooper in The Westerner. After 1941's The Little Foxes he made Mrs. Miniver, which earned both himself, Theresa Wright and his lead Greer Garson an Oscar each. The film was not only a critical success, it was highly influential in galvanizing support for the British in the backdrop of their war against Nazi Germany.  Though President Roosevelt was very keen to aid Britain, and indeed sent aid packages across the Atlantic. General consensus amongst Americans at that time was they didn't want to get involved in someone else's War again. British Ambassador Joseph Kennedy went even further when he wrote a letter to Roosevelt informing him to give up on Britain. This in itself also had the reverse effect on the American's who felt it was ungentlemanly and cowardly of Kennedy to abandon his British post. Nonetheless, Wyler's film served it's own part in shifting public opinion on the war in Europe before Pearl Harbour.
                                                             

 As Wyler's reputation grew, so did his legend, especially his "90 takes Wyler" label. During the shoot of Jezebel, Henry Fonda got through 40 takes, before asking for what was wrong, Wyler simply responded by saying "It stinks.". His perfectionist style though garnered the best out of his performers and his performers would eventually come round to his criticisms and methods after seeing the finished article (and winning awards). His style has been adopted by other great directors such as Stanley Kubrick, and to similar effect.

 The war proved an interesting period for Wyler as he served as a Major in the United States army. He produced two documentaries on the war in this period, at great personal risk to his safety. Whilst making a documentary on The Memphis Belle as he filmed devastation over enemy territory and even one time passed out from a lack of oxygen in his cabin. One of his cinematographer's was shot down and perished during filming too. Wyler would also lose hearing in one of his ear's due to the loud sound produced from his plane's engines.

 The war had a profound effect on Wyler and inspired him to create another masterpiece with The Best Years of Our Lives. It centred around the lives of three homecoming veterans and their struggle back into civilian life. An emotionally charged film, it perfectly captured the mood of not only post-war America, but also the whole world after the effects of the war. The film also featured real life veteran and amputee Harold Russell as one of the three veterans; and despite no formal acting training, Russell would win two Academy awards for his performance. The Academy considered him an outside chance for the Best Supporting Oscar that they gave him an honorary award on behalf of the Allied veterans, but he went on to win the other Oscar regardless. Wyler himself also won his second Best Director Oscar, and his ability to create acting performances was given further credence as Frederich March scooped the Best Actor Oscar. It was a hugely personal film for Wyler, and is still today recognised as one of the great war films, for it's ability to humanise the aftermath of the war so well.

                                                              
 In 1949, Wyler returned to the more traditional plots of film-making with The Heiress. It featured Montgomery Clift as a swindler who tries to manipulate the naive and mousy Olivia De Havilland for her money, her father played by Ralph Richardson suspects from the outset and forbids his daughter from seeing him. Olivia De Havilland produces the performance of her career as the woman emotionally abused by the two men in her life. Her performance was possibly helped by the real life snide remarks she received from her co-stars, as well as Wyler's own demanding regime. The film was quite different for it's time and a little subversive, it again showed Wyler's ability to create well made and popular films.
 Wyler's next two films though very good and moderately successful, are largely forgotten today. 1951's The Detective Story was a crime thriller starring Kirk Douglas which centres around a police precint and the already mentioned Carrie with Olivier and Jennifer Jones. Though both these films had moderate moderate success at the box office.

 The film that followed these though was to become a classic. In Roman Holiday, Wyler cast the then unknown Audrey Hepburn as the European Princess seeking adventure on her own in the real world, where she meets Gregory Peck, the newspaper journalist who believes he's got the scoop of his life. Arguably Hepburn's best movie, it beautifully captures a wonderful love story against the backdrop of the beautifully captured Rome. It earned Wyler yet another Oscar nomination and secured the Best Actress Oscar for the new star Hepburn.

 In 1955 Wyler cast Humphrey Bogart in one of his final film roles, opposite Frederich March in The Desperate Hours; as well as making Friendly Persuasion which earned the director his first Palme D'Or at Cannes.
 1958 saw Wyler return to the Western genre after a near 30 year absence, in broadly scoped The Big Country. Wyler cast Peck again as a retired ship captain who has relocated to the American west to marry his fiance (Carroll Baker) and meet the approval of her father (Charles Bickford, who Wyler had worked with 30 years earlier). Possibly one of the most underrated Westerns ever, it is also one of the few pacifist Westerns. The film also featured another key moment that would influence Wyler's next film when he cast Charlton Heston as young ranch hand Steve Leach. Folk singer Burl Ives also received the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, laying further claim to Wyler's uncanny ability to produce great performances from his cast.

 Having broadened the cinematic scope of his films with The Big Country, Wyler's next project was even more ambitious. Having originally wanting to cast Peck again in the lead role, but reverted to Heston after Peck dropped out. It was an inspired choice for both parties. Heston had initially been reluctant to even do The Big Country due to the role not being big enough. It is somewhat ironic that it would eventually lead to the biggest role of his career and the one most people still remember him for in the remake of Ben-Hur. Wyler had worked as an assistant to Fred Niblo in the equally impressive silent version. Other interesting notes in project's development was that the screenplay had been partially written by the great playwright Christopher Fry, as well as the great novelist Gore Vidal.

 Ben-Hur was a huge project for Wyler, and many doubted whether he could produce a film of Cecille B. De Mille proportions. It is, arguably now considered better than anything De Mille ever conceived. Whilst maintaining a lot of what made the original silent so popular, Wyler even managed to improve these aspects. Most notably the chariot race, which featured some of the most realistic action sequences ever commited to screen art that point. Later directors such as Ridley Scott have commented on the incredibly scale of the set pieces used by Wyler in the picture. Scott even compared his own CGI in Gladiator as a pale imitation of the physically constructed sets used in Ben-Hur.
 The film was a monumental success for Wyler, and earned a record 11 Academy Awards, including another one for best director; as well as two more acting awards, including Best Actor for Heston. The film has lost none of it's power since it's release and is often a stalwart during the holiday season on the television schedules.

 As Wyler grew into his 60's his output began to lower slightly, but his quality ceased to diminish. In 1961 he remade his own film These Three, to include the more subversive tones of the original play The Children's Hour. It was the second film he made with Hepburn, who played one of the accused, along with Shirley MacLaine, of being a lesbian by one of their students. Though not as successful award wise as Ben-Hur, it again achieved mass critical acclaim and was a notable entry in Wyler's career at his ability to mould his movies to feel the vibe of his film contemporaries.
                                                                
 His next film was the even more subversive and morbid The Collector, which again has been somewhat overlooked, but earned Wyler yet another Best Director nomination. A very intimate film, it told the story of a man (Terence Stamp) obsessed with beauty in a dark and sinister fashion. The film has served as a point of origin for many disturbing thrillers since, most notably The Silence of the Lambs.

 In 1966, Wyler teamed up with Hepburn for a third and final time, this time opposite the great Peter O'Toole. Here she plays the daughter of an art forger who teams up with O'Toole in order to steal a museum statue and conceal her father's fraud. A light hearted caper, it serves as yet another example of Wyler's unique ability to tackle any project with a remarkable sense of knowing. Though not as much a critical success, it has managed to survive the years and is still fondly remembered for it's sense of fun and the solid performances of screen idols Hepburn and O'Toole.
                                                                

 Two years later, Wyler was assigned to direct his first musical of his long and illustrious career. It was to serve as a vehicle for it's star, who had already conquered Broadway in the same role, Barbara Streisand. Wyler has initial reservations about the film, due to his loss of hearing, but decided to take it as he enjoyed the challenge. He espescially commented on Streisand's untraditional lead lady looks. Here she played comedienne and stage star Fanny Brice and centres on her turbulent relationship with Nick Arnstein (played by the always immaculate Omar Shariff). Despite the "challenges", the film was yet another bonafide success for Wyler and it's stars. It propelled Streisand into a global megastar as she won the Oscar for Best Actress. An incredible feat for a movie debutant, that is as much to do with Wyler as it was Streisand.

 In 1970 Wyler made his last film, which again was a complete change of tone for the master of variety. Another dark film that tackles the issues of racial prejudice and bigotry in small town America. The film wasn't much of a critical or commercial success, perhaps as it had arrived too late in relation to other potent civil rights related films. But perhaps it is fitting that Wyler would end his career, with a film so on a tangent in relation to the other films in his cannon.

 Wyler retired from Hollywood and largely remained quiet in his final year. Having received the Thalberg Oscar for outstanding Lifetime Achievement by the Academy in 1965, he was then awarded the AFI Lifetime Achievement award in 1976. In 1981 he gave a retrospective interview for PBS called Directed by William Wyler, with his daughter Catherine. He died from a heart attack three days after film, at the age of 79.
 The man's legacy though is without question. Having earned 12 Academy Award nominations and 3 wins for Best Director, as well as a Lifetime Achievement award, he is one of the most decorated directors of all time. The most supportive claim to his legacy of greatness is the fact that he has directed more actors to Oscar nominated performances with 36; 14 of whom went on to win their Awards, than any other director in history. He was married twice, briefly in the mid-30's to actress Margaret Sullavan, before marrying Margaret Tallichet in 1938 and spending the rest of his life with her.
                                                             
 It seems incredible that this man with such humble European beginnings would go on to truly conquer Hollywood. The greatest compliment that can be paid to him as a director, is that some of his films aren't instantly recognisable as a Wyler flick. Such was the man's range and skill; it really is hard to believe that the man could achieve such great results in such a wide variety of genres and types of films. In an age where film critics and historians tend to concentrate of the auteurs of the industry (Kubrick, Tarantino and Renoir) as being the benchmarks of greatness in the field of direction; Wyler is the exception to this. His ability to work with studios and conform to certain styles and methods, whilst at the time exerting his own influence, is something that is confounding to some. Surely a sign of true greatness?

Films of the Month: September

 Red Planet was a film with an interesting enough plot synopsis that I thought it would be worth ago, despite it's less than favourable reviews. Centring on the first manned mission to Mars and their efforts to terra form the planet in order to rehabit the Earth, I was expecting something a bit more high brow. Instead I was provided with the same generic Sci-Fi Action movie that has seemed to plague the genre since the 80's. What was made worse is that usually in these films there's the same mix of the group of characters central to the plot; but in this all the characters were exactly the same two dimensional replicas of each other. This was made worse by the atrocious dialogue written for them. I would feel sorry for the actors involved, but they seemed to revel in their roles of the arrogant driven types with the false sense of bravado. Even Terence Stamp's lack of humility in delivering inane line after inane line cannot be forgiven. The worst offenders are two of the biggest stars Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore, who provoke the viewer into wishing they would never have to watch another film with them in.
 As the film progresses though there are glimmer's of hope for it, as the plot takes some interesting twists, but it also suffers in the fact that when the action happens some of the CGI effects look quite dated. The CGI for  AMEE, the AI robot that's been assigned to the mission, does manage to look okay until it starts attacking the cast (which is a saving grace in itself). It's a shame though that films like these aren't remade, as there really isn't much to be lost in redoing this as opposed to a remake of Total Recall. The film's essence has potential, but sadly all the ingredients used to turn the screenplay into a movie have proved disastorous, and this film doesn't end up offering much in the way of a entertainment nor originality. I suppose the most irritating thing about this film, is the knowledge that it had such a large budget and you're left wondering how and where it was spent.
                                                        

Fred Zinneman's A Man For All Seasons with Paul Scholfield as the saintly Sir Thomas More, torn between the role of serving his king or serving his God. It's film that perhaps doesn't resonate with the state of today's secular society, but it is a great tale of a Godly man which still shows the important role of religion and morality in the world not only then, but now. Legendary playwright Robert Bolt delivers one of his most fascinating screenplays for this film as the tensions between More, King Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell come to a head. Robert Shaw delivers a typically strong and charismatic performance as the obstinate King Henry, Cromwell by the reliable Leo McKern. An impressive cast is completed with a young John Hurt as the pivotal Richard Rich and Susannah York as More's daughter; along with cameos from Orson Welles as the late Cardinal Wolsey and Vanessa Redgrave as Anne Boleyn. It is really though all about Schofield who provides an exceptional performance as the man who stood up for his own beliefs and followed his own moral compass at risk of his own demise.
 Whilst the film isn't as gripping as maybe Becket, it is yet another great example of the terrific output of cinema during the 1960's. It's yet another impressive movie from Zinneman and Bolt and is a fantastic portrait of one of history's few good men.
                                                          

I then watched my first ever movie starring one of early cinema's biggest icons: Jean Harlow. Platinum Blonde was early Columbia picture, directed by Frank Capra, the man that would propel the studio to the mainstream a few years later with It Happened One Night. Although this film was released after her career defining Hell's Angels and The Public Enemy, it was made before Harlow had become a mainstream megastar, which is probably why she plays a slightly different role to her usual type.
 The film is about a reporter (Robert Williams) trying to get a scoop on a wealthy socialite's (Harlow) family's misdemeanours, instead he falls in love with her and they elope. His colleague Gallagher (Loretta Young) is in love with the reporter and is heartbroken when she learns of their marriage. Meanwhile the newly weds each try to change each other to how they want them to be, with him wanting her to be his obedient wife and she wanting him to become a gentleman and a playwright. Whilst the film does come of as a bit dated in some places, the story is still enjoyable and engaging enough for today's modern audience. The acting is pretty decent for an early talkie, although one can't help but think the film would have worked better with Harlow and Young switching roles. Harlow seems beyond her age of 20 in this role, but she is very cute in this role, and her voluptuous figure is reminiscent of Mae West, which probably isn't befitting of 1930's socialite. Loretta Young is equally beautiful, even though she is stuck in dowdy clothes for the most part.
 The biggest tragedy is watching the film knowing the untimely death of it's star, not Jean Harlow who would die just 6 years after this film, but Robert Williams, who died just after the film's release. He manages to carry the film where needed, and is similar in style to Cary Grant. It seems a shame that he would die at such a young age, as no doubt he would have gone on to a successful career as one of Hollywood's leading men. The film also has the early hallmarks of a Frank Capra picture, with all the witticisms and fast paced progress that his future films contained. Admittedly, the comedy is slightly laboured and dated at times. Overall though it is a decent film that serves as a launchpad for me to watch more of Harlow's films.
                                                             

The Great Gabbo was an early talkie that featured a starring role for the great director Erich Von Stroheim. The film is heavily referenced in an episode of The Simpsons, and as such isn't as forgotten as the majority of film's of this ilk from this era. The quality of the film isn't great as it's degraded understandably over the years, and 26 minutes of footage is missing (including early colour footage), which is unfortunate. Having said that though, the movie is decent, and features some good acting, especially for an early talkie.
 Von Stroheim shows us that he wasn't just meticulous director, but also a meticulous and accomplished actor also. He plays the title role as a ventriloquist, who becomes tired of being upstaged by his incredibly life like dummy. It's hard to understand whether Gabbo is just a great ventriloquist, or Otto does have a life of his own. Equally one could come to the conclusion that Gabbo is quite literally mad and is a borderline schizophrenic with Otto serving as his other half.
 It is very unnerving movie, which is heightened with each time Gabbo and Otto appear on screen. This is a credit Von Stroheim, who is one of the few actors to be able to create such intensity in these early days of Hollywood. It's also interesting that Ben Hecht wrote the screenplay, a man who would go on to write some of the great screenplays for both MGM and Hitchcock. The film does try to utilise it's sound a bit too much, with plenty of musical numbers, which come across as superfluous in places, but are quite visually impressive. Nonetheless, it's an interesting film (thanks mainly to Von Stroheim), that would possibly be even more highly regarded if fully restored. The entire film can be viewed below:

F for Fake was a documentary produced and starring Orson Welles. It focused on the art of fraud, specifically centring on the story of Clifford Irving and how writing a biography of the great art forger Elmyr De Hory, inspired him to write the most infamous biography of the 20th century.

 Of course, I had already been fortunate enough to watch the adaptation of Irving's publication of the fake Howard Hughes biography in 2006's The Hoax. This probably helped me understand a lot of the information Welles was presenting in this film, concerning Irving as a person and his motivation. However it is De Hory's forging of art's great masterpieces that produces the most intriguing debate on the morality and legality of such hoaxes. Without doubt Elmyr is an artist with incredible skill and technique; his ability to recreate works by Matisse, Modigliani and Renoir is astonishing. Welles rightly questions whether instead of criminalising him, we should laud him. Though this film tends to do just that anyway. It was also nice to see Welles make reference to his own infamous hoax: his 1938 radio broadcast of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, which sparked mass panic and hysteria across America, But it isn't only these three characters that cause such fascination with their enigmatic and evasive characteristics. Howard Hughes himself is perhaps the most enigmatic and certainly the most evasive of this film's cast. Hughes had his own penchant for trickery and showmanship, using his own doubles, his pioneering work in the aircraft industry; even with the in question biography, some believed Hughes has perpetuated a lot of the hoax himself in order to pressurise then President Richard Nixon.

 It is a captivating documentary that goes one step further (arguably one too far) at the end. Even so the final segment is still spellbinding due to Welles' own art of storytelling, as well as the theatrics. It may not be to everyone's taste, but people with a sense of admiration for those who achieve infamy through undiscerning routes, will be swept away by the deception. It is a film that is emblematic of Welles as a person and a film maker, which is a compliment to this documentary.

                                           

 I finished the month by watching the latest Pixar offering Brave. It was an interesting take on the princess stories, with a tomboy Scottish princess (Kelly MacDonald) this time trying to take her destiny into her own hands. Sadly the concept was the best thing about the story, as the film resulted in being a bit of a jumbled mess, and not nearly as captivating as the majority of Pixar's output.

 Granted, the animation was magnificent, but I'm afraid that Pixar, and for that matter animation, has gone beyond being just well animated to be regarded as good; it needs to be backed up. The film also has a strong and talented British cast, but here their voices don't lend much to the film, possibly because their characters lack enough depth to make them engaging. The one character that really goes well with the movie is The Witch played by Julie Walters. The rest of the film seems to be stuck in limbo, as it seemingly attempts to be a cross between Princess Mononoke and Braveheart, but pales in comparison in almost every aspect. There are some murmurings that Pixar are on a downward trajectory, but I think that's a bit unfair, as unfortunately they may be becoming victims of their own success. Unfortunately, the majority of their film's are seen as some of the greatest of all time in terms of animated features, and rightly so.