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Michael Curtiz (/ k ɜːr ˈ t iː z / kur-Tiz; born Manó Kaminer; from 1905 Mihály Kertész; Hungarian: Kertész Mihály; December 24, 1886 – April 10, 1962) was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history.
- 2
- Film director
- Hungary (1886-1933), United States (after 1933)
- Mike Curtiz, Mihály Kertész
- Overview
- Early life and work
- The breakthrough years
Michael Curtiz (born December 25, 1886, Budapest, Austria-Hungary [now in Hungary]—died April 10, 1962, Hollywood, California, U.S.) Hungarian-born American motion-picture director whose prolific output as a contract director for Warner Brothers was composed of many solid but run-of-the-mill genre films along with a string of motion picture classics that included Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), Casablanca (1942), and Mildred Pierce (1945) as well as a series of adventure films that starred frequent collaborator Errol Flynn, most notably Captain Blood (1935), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), and The Sea Hawk (1940).
(Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.)
Little is known for certain about Curtiz’s early life because he left no autobiography, he was seldom interviewed, and, when he did talk about himself, he frequently gave contradictory accounts, including about when he was born. Nevertheless, it seems likely that he grew up in an upper middle-class Jewish family in Budapest and that his mother was a concert singer (his father’s occupation is less clear). Curtiz may have joined a traveling circus for a brief period during his teens before attending university and then studying acting at Budapest’s Royal Academy of Theatre and Art.
After making his stage debut in Budapest in 1910, he acted in and may have directed stage plays before starring in (and perhaps directing) the first feature film released by the nascent Hungarian film industry, Ma és holnap (1912; Today and Tomorrow). A period of directing films in Hungary was interrupted by a six-month stay in Denmark, where he starred in director August Bloom’s Atlantis (1913). Curtiz’s service in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I ended when he was wounded. He made fund-raising documentaries for the Red Cross and then returned to directing commercial films. By 1916, with many silent films to his credit, he had become one of Hungary’s most important directors. He left the country in 1919, however, after the communist government’s brief takeover of the film industry, and began working in Vienna, where his most important films were Sodom und Gomorrha (1922) and Die Sklavenkönigin (1924; The Moon of Israel).
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In 1926 Jack Warner invited Curtiz to Hollywood, beginning a 28-year stint at Warner Brothers for the director. After a short tenure directing silents, Curtiz made the part-sound films Tenderloin and Noah’s Ark (both 1928). Reminiscent of D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance (1916), Noah’s Ark featured a pair of parallel stories, one recounting the famous biblical flood, the other a World War I-era romance.
As Warner Brothers scrambled to keep pace with other, better-funded studios (introducing colour as well as sound), its directors worked often and quickly. Curtiz was no exception. In 1930 he directed Mammy, with Al Jolson; the comedy The Matrimonial Bed; Bright Lights, a musical; the drama River’s End; and the musical A Soldier’s Plaything. The roster of films he directed in 1931 included The Mad Genius, a vehicle for John Barrymore, and the romantic comedy God’s Gift to Women.
Curtiz made his breakthrough in 1933. With 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, he infused the tired prison film genre with a new drive, making the most of Spencer Tracy as a doomed inmate and Davis as his loyal moll. Even more impressive was Mystery of the Wax Museum, a quasi-sequel to Doctor X, with Atwill and Wray again struggling to the death. Less memorable were the five other films Curtiz directed that year: The Keyhole, Female, Goodbye Again, and a pair of films in which William Powell played private detectives, Private Detective 62 (also released as Man Killer) and The Kennel Murder Case.
Curtiz continued churning out films in 1934, though not always with satisfying results, as evidenced by Mandalay. Much better was Jimmy the Gent, the first of several successful collaborations with James Cagney, this time in the role of a charismatic con man who is taught a lesson by Davis. The Key found Powell as a captain in the Black and Tans occupying Ireland during the 1920s; British Agent was set during the Russian Revolution of 1917, with Leslie Howard in the title role and Kay Francis as his love interest, a Russian spy.
Socially conscious films were staples for Warner Brothers in the 1930s, and in 1935 Curtiz proved himself to be an able practitioner of the genre with Black Fury, in which Paul Muni played a coal miner who is murdered by company police. Less assured was the Perry Mason mystery The Case of the Curious Bride, another of his five credited films of 1935. Curtiz directed Davis for the fourth time in Front Page Woman, then failed in his attempt to transform South African child star Sybil Jason into another Shirley Temple in Little Big Shot. Captain Blood, however, was phenomenally successful. A classic swashbuckler, which was nominated for an Academy Award for best picture, it made a star of Errol Flynn (with whom Curtiz would work repeatedly), boosted the fortunes of Olivia de Havilland, and lifted Curtiz’s career to a whole new level.
In 1936 Flynn and de Havilland were reteamed (as they often would be) in The Charge of the Light Brigade, a big-budget period film that was inspired by the poem of the same name by Alfred Lord Tennyson, though its setting was transferred from the Crimean War to India. Also released in 1936 was The Walking Dead, a horror entry featuring Boris Karloff as an unjustly executed man who returns from the grave to exact vengeance.
- Michael Barson
Overview. Born. December 24, 1886 · Budapest, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary] Died. April 10, 1962 · Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (cancer) Birth name. Manó Kaminer. Nickname. Miska. Height. 5′ 9″ (1.75 m) Mini Bio. Curtiz began acting in and then directing films in his native Hungary. in 1912.
- December 24, 1886
- April 10, 1962
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Michael Curtiz. Director: Casablanca. Curtiz began acting in and then directing films in his native Hungary in 1912. After WWI, he continued his filmmaking career in Austria and Germany and into the early 1920s when he directed films in other countries in Europe.
- January 1, 1
- Budapest, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]
- January 1, 1
- Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
Michael Curtiz (1886–1962) was a Hungarian-born American film director whose career spanned from 1912 to 1961. During this period, he directed, wholly or in part, 181 films. [1] . He began his cinematic career in Hungary, then moved to Austria, and, finally, to the United States.
YearTitleFunction(other)1926With Dolores Costello and Jason Robards;1927With Dolores Costello, Warner Oland, ...1927With Irene Rich, William Russell, and ...1927With Helene Costello, Warner Oland, and ...Michael Curtiz was a Hungarian American film director best known for the classics ‘Casablanca,’ ‘Mildred Pierce,’ and ‘White Christmas’ among others. A highly prolific director, he directed more than 50 films in Europe and more than 100 in the United States, an output unmatched by anyone else of his era.
Michael Curtiz was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed classic films from the silent era and numerous others during Hollywood's Golden Age, when the studio system was prevalent.
