A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
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- Tay Garnett (born June 13, 1894, Los Angeles, California, U.S.—died October 3, 1977, Los Angeles) was an American director who, during a career that spanned more than four decades, worked in a variety of genres but was best known for the film-noir classic The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).
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Tay Garnett. Jump to Edit. Overview. Born. June 13, 1894 · Santa Ana, California, USA. Died. October 3, 1977 · Sawtelle, California, USA (leukemia) Birth name. William Taylor Garnett. Mini Bio. Following his service as a naval aviator in WW I, Tay Garnett entered films in 1920 as a screenwriter.
- June 13, 1894
- October 3, 1977
Tay Garnett’s Hollywood career began with the birth of the Motion Picture industry and endured nearly sixty years. He began as a title writer at the Mack Sennett Studios, writing for the greats of the silent era, including Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon, Will Rogers, Laurel & Hardy.
- Overview
- Early work
- Films of the 1940s
- Later work
Tay Garnett, (born June 13, 1894, Los Angeles, California, U.S.—died October 3, 1977, Los Angeles), American director who, during a career that spanned more than four decades, worked in a variety of genres but was best known for the film-noir classic The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).
Garnett sold cartoons and stories to pulp magazines before serving in World War I as a pilot in the U.S. Navy. After the war, he broke into Hollywood as a gag writer for Hal Roach and Mack Sennett. He later contributed to the screenplays for such movies as The Strong Man (1926), directed by Frank Capra; Getting Gertie’s Garter (1927); and Skyscraper (1928). In 1928 Garnett directed his first feature-length film, Celebrity. After several forgettable movies, he found success with Her Man (1930) and the gangster epic Bad Company (1931), both of which starred Ricardo Cortez and Helen Twelvetrees. The popular One Way Passage (1932), set on an ocean liner, featured William Powell as a convict sentenced to death who falls in love with a fatally ill woman (played by Kay Francis). Destination Unknown (1933) also went to sea, but its story about a troubled rum-running schooner was less successful.
In1933 Garnett helmed S.O.S. Iceberg, a well-received adventure drama that starred Rod La Rocque as a scientist who leads a mission to Greenland; Leni Riefenstahl was featured in a supporting role. The director earned further acclaim for China Seas (1935), a lively tale about piracy that starred Clark Gable and Jean Harlow; Wallace Beery supplied the villainy. That box-office hit was followed by She Couldn’t Take It (1935), a screwball crime comedy with George Raft and Joan Bennett. Garnett’s last credit from 1935 was the adventure drama Professional Soldier, which centres on a young king (Freddie Bartholomew) who is kidnapped by a mercenary (Victor McLaglen).
Garnett began the decade with Seven Sinners (1940), the first of several films to feature John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich, who played, respectively, a navy officer and Bijou, the café singer who loves him. Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941) was a departure for Garnett; the sentimental piece centres on a schoolteacher (Martha Scott) who devotes herself to her students to make up for the emptiness of her personal life. He turned to World War II for Bataan (1943), a superior drama that featured a top-notch cast headlined by Robert Taylor, Thomas Mitchell, Desi Arnaz, and Robert Walker. The Cross of Lorraine (1943) also illuminated the horrors of war; Peter Lorre played a sadistic Nazi, and Gene Kelly was a tortured American prisoner of war. Garnett then made two films with Greer Garson: Mrs. Parkington (1944), an adaptation of Louis Bromfield’s novel, and The Valley of Decision (1945), a socially conscious melodrama set in 1870s Pittsburgh. In the latter movie, the actress portrayed a housemaid who falls in love with the son (Gregory Peck) of her employer, a steel magnate who owns the mill where her father suffered a serious injury that left him crippled.
In 1946 Garnett directed his most noteworthy film, The Postman Always Rings Twice, an adaptation of James M. Cain’s crime novel. John Garfield was perfectly cast as Frank, the drifter who cannot say no to his employer’s seductive wife, even when it means committing murder, and Lana Turner gave the performance of her career as the glamorous Cora. The movie was an enormous hit and became a defining example of film noir.
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Garnett’s subsequent films, however, were largely forgettable. The modest sports drama The Fireball (1950) featured Mickey Rooney as an orphan who becomes a roller-derby champion; the film was arguably best remembered for Marilyn Monroe, who had a minor role. While Cause for Alarm! (1951) was a solid thriller, Soldiers Three (1951) was a disappointing remake of Gunga Din (1939). The Korean War drama One Minute to Zero (1952) also failed to attract moviegoers, despite the presence of Robert Mitchum. The Black Knight (1954), however, was a serviceable entry in the then-popular medieval adventure genre.
After directing the India sequence of the documentary Seven Wonders of the World (1956), Garnett focused largely on television, helming episodes of such series as The Loretta Young Show, Rawhide, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and Death Valley Days. His few film credits during this time included The Night Fighters (1960), a tale about the Irish Republican Army starring Mitchum and Richard Harris; Cattle King (1963); and The Delta Factor (1970), a low-budget adaptation of a spy novel by Mickey Spillane. After Challenge to Be Free and Timber Tramps (both 1975), Garnett retired from directing.
- Michael Barson
Tay Garnett. Director: China Seas. Following his service as a naval aviator in WW I, Tay Garnett entered films in 1920 as a screenwriter. After a stint as a gag writer for Mack Sennett and Hal Roach he joined Pathe, then the distributor for both competing comedy producers, and in 1928 began directing for that company.
- January 1, 1
- Santa Ana, California, USA
- January 1, 1
- Sawtelle, California, USA
May 27, 2021 · Although opinions vary on the American director Tay Garnett’s auteur status, his high-spirited lowlife drama is well worth a look. Garnett (1894-1977) broke into movies writing slapstick ...
Tay Garnett Bio Family Photo Album Tay's and Tiela's Writing Publicity "The Kingdom That Was Hollywood" by Tiela Garnett ... CLICK HERE TO BUY TAY'S MOVIES!
Active - 1924 - 1995 | Born - Jun 13, 1894 | Died - Oct 3, 1977 | Genres - Drama, Western, Comedy. Overview. Filmography. Other Appearances. Share on. facebook. twitter. Biography by AllMovie [+] Infected with wanderlust almost from birth, Taylor Garnett joined the Naval Air Service in 1917.
