William Wyler is one
of Hollywood’s greatest auteurs. Over the course of his directing career,
spanning five decades, he directed three Best Picture Winners, while winning
three Best Director Oscars (on twelve nominations). Only three filmmakers have
three or more Best Director wins (John Ford, 4, and Frank Capra, 3, are
the other two). His twelve nominations are also the most all-time (Billy Wilder is second
with eight). Wyler is also remembered for working with a slew of great actors
and actresses (he worked with Bette Davis and Audrey
Hepburn three times each, for example).
Early Career, 1920s:
Wyler was born in the year 1902
in Mulhouse, Alsace (then part of the German-Empire), but after WWI he decided
to leave Europe and come to America. He worked as a messenger in New York for
Universal Picture, which a cousin of his, Carl Laemmle, founded.
He then came out to Hollywood in
1923 with dreams of being a director, but first had to start at the bottom
working in the swing gang (cleaning stages and building and taking down sets).
He began to work his way up becoming a second assistant editor and then a third
assistant director. By 1925 he had become the youngest director at Universal
Pictures, directing Westerns.
This was during the silent era of
cinema, and Wyler garnered tons of experience directing over thirty films in
four years. His first takie was The
Shakedown. Proving himself a solid director, he started to be given higher
profile films with bigger actors.
Initial Acclaim,
1930s:
Wyler scored his first critical
hit with 1933’s Counsellor at
Law starring John
Barrymore. The film is about a successful lawyer who has to suddenly face his
background (his Jewish heritage and poverty-stricken past) when he learns his
wife has been cheating on him. Paul
Muni (who starred in the original Scarface) turned down the role
because he did not want to play a Jewish character. However, Wyler took on the
film, being of Jewish decent himself.
Wyler next left Universal
Pictures to work with Samuel Goldwyn first making Dodsworth with Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton,
and David Niven.
The film is about a retired couple that goes on vacation, the husband only
agreeing to please his wife who is vain and uses the trip to flirt with other
men. It is one of his most enduring and beloved films of the period. Wyler
received his first Best Director nomination for the film.
With Dead End, Wyler made his first
gangster film (a very popular genre at the time) about an unemployed architect
who interacts with well-known gangster Baby Face Martin over the course of a
day in their East Side neighborhood. It stars Humphrey Bogart
(in one of his best early roles). The film is also notable due to it being one of
his early collaborations with cinematographer Gregg Toland (who is maybe the
greatest in cinema history – developing deep focus). Wyler would collaborate
with Toland six times (Toland winning his only Oscar for Wyler’s Wuthering Heights despite his
brilliant career, including: The
Grapes of Wrath, Citizen
Kane, and Wyler’s The Best
Years of Our Lives).
By 1938, Wyler had developed a
tendency for doing a lot of takes – Bette Davis nicknaming him ’90-take Wyler’.
Along with Wyler doing a lot of takes, he also had a reputation for garnering
excellent performances out of his actors. Working with Davis for the first
time, he directed Jezebel,
which also starred Henry
Fonda. The film is about a headstrong Southern woman who loses her fiancé
due to her stubborn vanity and pride. However, she vows to get him back. Davis
won a Best Actress Oscar for the film – she is one of thirteen to win Oscars
under Wyler’s direction.
For his last great film of the
1930s, he directed an adaptation of Emily Bronte’s gothic novel
Wuthering Heights about the unfortunate tale of lovers Cathy and Heathcliffe.
The film stars Laurence
Olivier, Merle
Oberon, and David Niven. Olivier was one of Britain’s most accomplished and
admired stage actors when he first came to Hollywood to make this film; however,
despite his talent, he credits Wyler with teaching him how to act in films on
this project (he was nominated for an Oscar for the film, but did not win).
One of Hollywood’s
Finest Filmmakers and War, 1940s:
In 1940, Wyler returned to his
cinematic roots with the western The
Westerner starting Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan.
The film is about a self-appointed hanging judge in Texas and a saddle tramp
who opposes his policy against homesteaders. Despite their differences they
develop a friendship.
Next, he directed the film-noir
crime drama The Letter,
again working with Bette Davis. The film is about a wife who shoots a man to
death and claims self-defense. However, a letter surfaces and with it her
potential undoing. The film is also interesting as it takes place in colonial
Singapore, which gives it a different feel and flare (much how Casablanca
taking place in Morocco adds a certain edge to the film).
Wyler then directed one of his
best films in The
Little Foxes, again starring Bette Davis (their final collaboration together).
It is also the film debut of Teresa Wright (who
would work with Wyler three times). It is about a ruthless, wealthy Southern
clan who poisons their region of the Deep South with their greed and scheming.
With Mrs. Miniver, Wyler won his
first Best Director Oscar and the film Best Picture (winning six in total). It
stars Greer Garson
(who also won an Oscar for Best Actress), Walter Pidgeon,
and Teresa Wright (who won an Oscar as well for Best Supporting Actress – she
was nominated for Oscars in her first three performances, winning one). The
film is about the plight of Britain in the first few months of WWII as shown
through a middle-class family. To some extent, it can be viewed as a propaganda
film rallying support for England – and it did. Winston Churchill claimed that
the film had done more for the war effort than a flotilla of destroyers. The
film is very dramatically powerful with great characters. It is still among the
best war films ever made.
Becoming a U.S. citizen in 1928,
Wyler enlisted and served as a major in the United States Army Air Force during
the war. He made two documentaries: The Memphis Belle: A Story of a
Flying Fortress and Thunderbolt.
During the filming of The Memphis Belle, Wyler and his crew accompanied the
aircraft personnel into battle – Wyler lost his ability to hear in one ear and
one of his cinematographers was aboard a plane that was shot down and perished
(his name was Harold
J. Tannenbaum).
Returning from the war, Wyler
directed The Best Years of Our
Lives, which seems to perfectly capture the mood and struggle of returning
veterans to an America that had been mostly untouched by the horrors of war. It
is essential viewing for those interested in WWII. Wyler assembled a fantastic
cast with Fredric
March, Dana
Andrews, Myrna
Loy, Teresa Wright, Harold
Russell, and Virginia
Mayo. The film won seven Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director
(as well as acting Oscars for March and Russell). It also features standout
work from cinematographer Gregg Toland.
Moving on from WWII, Wyler next
directed The Heiress about a
young, wealthy woman who somewhat naively falls for a handsome man who her
emotionally controlling father believes is only interested in her for her
fortune. It stars Olivia
de Havilland (who won an Oscar for Best Actress) and rising star Montgomery Clift.
It is an excellent romance drama.
Discovering Audrey
and Making an Epic, 1950s:
Wyler had made a name for himself
during the 1940s, with two Best Pictures, as one of Hollywood’s biggest talents
behind the camera. For his first project of the 1950s he returned to film-noir
with the crime drama Detective
Story starring Kirk
Douglas. The film is about a day in the life of a hard-noised detective.
For his next picture, Wyler
decided to shoot a film on location in Rome – something very rare during the
studio era of Hollywood (location shooting). The film was Roman
Holiday, a romantic comedy about a young princess who runs away to
experience a single day in the life of a normal person. She ends up spending
the day with a newspaper man who initially just wants the scoop. In addition to
starring Gregory
Peck, it also introduced the world to Audrey Hepburn (who did have a few
small roles prior, but this is the film that launched her career). Wyler has
originally wanted Jean
Simmons to play the lead, and almost cancelled the film when she was
unavailable. However, he saw Hepburn’s screen test and was blown away, casting
her immediately despite her limited film experience. During filming, co-star
Peck knew that she was fantastic and informed Wyler that she would win an Oscar
for her work and that he should put her name ahead of his in the billing –
Wyler did and Hepburn did win her first Oscar. Even now, sixty years later,
Roman Holiday is the standard by which romantic comedies are judged.
Wyler then again returned to
film-noir with the crime drama The
Desperate Hours, reuniting him with stars Humphrey Bogart and Fredric
March. The film about three convicts who terrorize a suburban household has a
dark edge to it, and is a great thriller. And then, he made another Western
with Gary Cooper called Friendly
Persuasion. It is about an Indiana Quaker family in 1862 whose religious
values are tried when Southern troops pass their territory. The film won the
Palme d’Or at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival.
Sticking with westerns, Wyler
next made his first epic with The Big
Country, about a New England ship captain who arrives in the Old West to
marry only to become embroiled in a feud between two families over a piece of
land. It stars Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives (who won
an Oscar), and Charles
Bickford. What makes this western feel epic is Wyler’s ability to present
the landscapes as huge bodies of wilderness and the fantastic drama between the
characters. The square-off between Peck and Heston is brilliant (as is Peck’s
performance).
Next, Wyler made maybe his
greatest masterpiece – or at least his biggest – with the grand epic Ben-Hur.
The film is a massive, lavish production in the tradition of Hollywood’s best
epics (like Lawrence
of Arabia and Gone
with the Wind). The classic story is that of Ben-Hur a Jewish prince who is
betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend only to regain his freedom and
come back for revenge. It won eleven Oscars on twelve nominations (eleven
Oscars is still a record, though Titanic and The
Return of the King tied it), including Best Picture and Best Director.
Charlton Heston stars (giving the best performance of his career and winning an
Oscar) with a brilliant supporting cast featuring Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd, and Hugh Griffith (who
also won an Oscar). This is a must-see for all cinema fans.
Winding Down a
Career, 1960s:
Leaving epics behind, Wyler
collaborated again with Audrey Hepburn remaking his own film These Three based on Lillian
Hellman’s play The Children’s
Hour. These Three, released in the 1930s, was stripped of much of its
social dramatic power, but with the remake Wyler could stick much closer to the
play. It also stars Shirley
MacLaine and James
Garner. The social drama is about a troublemaking student at an all-girls
school who accuses two teachers of being lesbians. The film is built on its
wonderful dramatic performances and (sadly) still seems to have a social relevance
today (as people’s ignorance, hate, and fear seem to still reign the day). At
the time of its release in 1961, the film’s subject matter was very sensitive
and risqué.
For his next film Wyler made
something completely different from all his other films with the dark thriller The Collector about a man who
kidnaps a young woman and holds her against her will just for the pleasure of
having her around (it reminds me of the Peter
Seller’s film Hoffman
that would come out five years later, though that film is not nearly as dark or
creepy). It stars Terence
Stamp and Samantha
Eggar.
Again doing something completely
different to his last project, Wyler made How to
Steal a Million next, a romantic comedy/heist film (and one of my personal
favorites in the genre). Wyler filmed on location in Paris with stars Audrey
Hepburn (her third and final collaboration with Wyler), Peter O’Toole, Eli Wallach, and
Hugh Griffith. The film is about the daughter of a great art forger who enlists
a thief to help her steal her family’s own piece of art on display in a Paris
museum to save her father from jail – as the piece is to be inspected by a
specialist sure to discover its inauthenticity. Initially, Wyler intended the
film to be his follow up to Roman Holiday with Hepburn starring opposite
Gregory Peck. He also envisioned a grittier/darker tone and had approached Stanley Kubrick to help, having
seen and liked The
Killing. As it is, How to Steal a Million is a fun light film that soars on
the great chemistry and performances of Hepburn and O’Toole (and Hepburn and
Griffith who play daughter and father).
For his last film of note (and
second to last of his career), Wyler made the film adaptation of the Broadway
musical Funny Girl, with Barbara Streisand
making her film debut (reprising her role from Broadway). The film is maybe not
the best in what was probably the golden age of big Hollywood musicals (West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound
of Music, and Oliver!
all winning Best Picture Oscars during the 1960s), but it is one of the most
beloved – mostly thanks to Streisand who won an Oscar for her performance. It also
starred Omar Sharif
and is about the life of Jewish comedienne Fannie Brice and her rise from the
slums of the Lower East Side to the heights of stardom.
Career Highlights:
*Editor’s picks
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