Dry Rot said:
Casablanca, Mildred Pierce - what are your other favourites?
Funny, isn't it, that when the whole auteur theory came into vogue in the mid 1960s, excellent studio directors such as Curtiz were left out in the cold and their reputations never recovered.
It stuns me that Curtiz is not held in high regard and is barely remembered except by the more ardent buffs. I mean take a look at the years 1935-1950, he directed the following -
Captain Blood
Charge of the Light Brigade
Kid Galahad
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Angels With Dirty Faces
Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
Virginia City
The Sea Hawk
Santa Fe Trail
The Sea Wolf
Dive Bomber
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Casablanca
Mission to Moscow
Passage to Marseilles
Mildred Pierce
The Unsuspected
Life With Father
Flamingo Road
Breaking Point
Plus TWENTY THREE other films!
Now THAT is a streak. He was Warner Brothers golden boy and the dissenters will tell you that the luck was due to the efficiency of the studio system, but these films did not direct themsleves and he did many a fine job.
In David Niven's autobiography he tells of working with Errol Flynn on a Curtiz film and the director (a Hungarian with a bad temper) had a famous habit of mangling the English language. Laughing at something Curitz had mucked up, he turned to the two actors and screamed -
"You motherf**kers, you think I know f**k nothing, but let me tell you, I know f**k all!"
It made them laugh even harder.