The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Completely Updated and Expanded (143 page)

In fifteen more years, Flaherty had three finished projects. On
Elephant Boy
he was engaged as a talisman to guarantee Sabu and the Hungarian Kordas against the spurious.
The Land
was made in America for the U.S. Film Unit, while
Louisiana Story
was sponsored by Standard Oil. Uselessly beautiful, it seems blind to the conflict between oil-company prestige and Flaherty’s unreasoned preference for raw nature. It was shot in Louisiana but is really sited in a dream world. It has banal symbols—the comparison of the boy’s bare feet and the metalwork of the derricks. But it also has the final version of a vigorous image that runs through Flaherty’s work—of a man hauling some object from the water: in
Nanook
, it is the walrus; in
Man of Aran
, the nets; in
Louisiana Story
, an alligator. Such repetition, and the poetic rapture that goes with it, speaks for the instinctive wildness embedded in Flaherty’s romantic style.

Richard Fleischer
, (1916–2006), b. Brooklyn, New York
1946:
Child of Divorce
. 1947:
Banjo
. 1948:
So This Is New York; Bodyguard
. 1949:
Make Mine Laughs; The Clay Pigeon; Follow Me Quietly; Trapped
. 1950:
Armored Car Robbery
. 1952:
The Narrow Margin; The Happy Time
. 1953:
Arena
. 1954:
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
. 1955:
Violent Saturday; The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing
. 1956:
Bandido; Between Heaven and Hell
. 1958:
The Vikings; These Thousand Hills
. 1959:
Compulsion
. 1960:
Crack in the Mirror
. 1961:
The Big Gamble
. 1962:
Barabbas
. 1966:
Fantastic Voyage
. 1967:
Dr. Dolittle
. 1968:
The Boston Strangler
. 1969:
Che!
. 1970:
Tora! Tora! Tora!; 10 Rillington Place
. 1971:
Blind Terror; The Last Run
. 1972:
The New Centurions/Precinct 45—Los Angeles Police
. 1973:
Soylent Green; The Don Is Dead
. 1974:
Mr. Majestyk; The Spikes Gang
. 1975:
Mandingo
. 1976:
The Incredible Sarah
. 1977:
The Prince and the Pauper/Crossed Swords
. 1979:
Ashanti
. 1980:
The Jazz Singer
. 1982:
Tough Enough
. 1983:
Amityville 3D
. 1984:
Conan the Destroyer
. 1985:
Red Sonja
. 1987:
Million Dollar Mystery
. 1989:
Call from Space
.

Fleischer was the son of Max Fleischer the cartoonist. He studied medicine and drama and in 1940 joined RKO to work on documentaries. While there, he made several pictures in the
This Is America
series and directed
Flickers Flashback
, an anthology of silent films.

Once upon a time, Richard Fleischer was a competent director of action pictures
—The Narrow Margin, Violent Saturday;
inclined to settle for schoolboy rough-and-tumble
—20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Bandido
, and
The Vikings;
the director of one excellent study of turn-of-the-century New York high society
—The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing
. But there were alarming signs of pretentiousness: not only
Compulsion
and
Crack in the Mirror
(which look like an insubstantial talent being buffeted by Darryl Zanuck and Orson Welles), but
Barabbas
, which is religiose and slow. There was a gap in his career in the mid-sixties after which Fleischer redoubled his efforts, veering from hokum (
Fantastic Voyage
and
Tora! Tora! Tora!
) to projects notable for their implausibility
—Dr. Dolittle, Che!
, and
10 Rillington Place
. Most remarkable of all is the way Fleischer has trudged from one famous murder case to another
—The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing; Compulsion; The Boston Strangler; 10 Rillington Place
—without suggesting more than a Sunday newspaper’s interest in the theme. It is an odd seriousness that can investigate such cases and still produce
The New Centurions
, a routine endorsement of the police, illuminated only by the brooding sequence in which George C. Scott kills himself. In the late sixties and early seventies, Fleischer aimed at being the most prolific and least identifiable director in America: twelve films in eight years is eccentric energy now. Yet he recognized no limitations and came unscathed through Charles Bronson and Glenda Jackson, and some British over-appreciation of the deft melodramatics of
Mandingo
.

After that, Fleischer became a director who would do anything—and thus he seemed to have no character. His work in the eighties was dire, but evidently he was obliged to do whatever was offered. As one who never thought much of
Mandingo
, I feel it necessary to stress that
The Narrow Margin
is still excellent, while many other Fleischer films are genuine entertainments.

Victor Fleming
(1883–1949), b. Pasadena, California
1920:
When the Clouds Roll By
(codirected with Ted Reed);
The Mollycoddle
. 1921:
Mama’s Affair
. 1922:
Woman’s Place; Red Hot Romance; The Lane That Had No Turning; Anna Ascends
. 1923:
Dark Secrets; Law of the Lawless; To the Last Man; Call of the Canyon
. 1924:
Empty Hands; The Code of the Sea
. 1925:
A Son of His Father; Adventure; The Devil’s Cargo; Lord Jim
. 1926:
Blind Goddess; Mantrap
. 1927:
Rough Riders; The Way of All Flesh; Hula
. 1928:
Abie’s Irish Rose; The Awakening
. 1929:
Wolf Song; The Virginian
. 1930:
Common Clay; Renegades
. 1931:
Around the World in 80 Minutes
. 1932:
The Wet Parade; Red Dust
. 1933:
The White Sister; Bombshell
. 1934:
Treasure Island
. 1935:
Reckless; The Farmer Takes a Wife
. 1937:
Captains Courageous
. 1938:
Test Pilot
. 1939:
The Wizard of Oz; Gone With the Wind
(codirected with George Cukor and Sam Wood). 1941:
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
. 1942:
Tortilla Flat
. 1943:
A Guy Named Joe
. 1946:
Adventure
. 1948:
Joan of Arc
.

Originally a cameraman with Griffith and Douglas Fairbanks, Fleming was known as a director of masculine adventure pictures. But ironically, he obtained some excellent performances from leading actresses, if often ones that resembled those portraits of erotic splendor seen through the smoke above the bar in Westerns. Above all, Clara Bow in
Mantrap
and
Hula
, and Jean Harlow in
Red Dust
and
Bombshell
. In the 1920s, Fleming was a Paramount director, but by 1932 he had moved to MGM. Chances are that he would have been happier at Warners. But his career is sprinkled with interest:
Red Hot Romance
was an Anita Loos satire;
Adventure
came from Jack London, and
Lord Jim
from Conrad, with Percy Marmont in the title part;
Wolf Song
and
The Virginian
were big roles for the young Gary Cooper. At MGM, both
Treasure Island
and
Captains Courageous
were big successes, but as nothing compared with the extraordinary one-two of
The Wizard of Oz
and
Gone With the Wind
in 1939. It is easy to say that those fascinating perennials appear undirected, or that they owe their life to Mervyn Le Roy and David Selznick. The first was far outside Fleming’s territory, but it is by turns a moving and dark fantasy, beautifully played by an adventurous cast. Fleming was the second director on
Gone With the Wind
, Gable’s defender after Cukor had become enchanted by Vivien Leigh and slowed by years of screen tests. That
Wind
got completed, with energy on the screen, surely owes a lot to Fleming’s bad-tempered urge to get the damn thing done. After that, Fleming declined. His
Jekyll and Hyde
is a plain version of the story, apart from the blatant eroticism in the frenzy of transformation, while
Joan of Arc
is the director at the stake for an Ingrid Bergman who claims to hear voices.

Robert Florey
(1900–79), b. Paris
1923:
50–50
. 1927:
One Hour of Love; The Romantic Age; Face Value
. 1928:
The Life and Death of 9413—A Hollywood Extra
(s);
The Loves of Zero
(s);
Johann the Coffinmaker
(s);
Skyscraper Symphony
(s);
Night Club
(s). 1929:
Pusher-in-the-Face
(s);
The Hole in the Wall; The Cocoanuts
(codirected with Joseph Santley);
The Battle of Paris
. 1930:
La Route est Belle; L’Amour Chante; Le Blanc et le Noir
(codirected with Marc Allégret). 1932:
Murders in the Rue Morgue; Man Called Back; Those We Love
. 1933:
Girl Missing; Ex-Lady; House on 56th Street
. 1934:
Bedside; Smarty; Registered Nurse; I Sell Anything
. 1935:
I Am a Thief; The Woman in Red; The Florentine Dagger; Going Highbrow; Don’t Bet on Blondes; The Pay-Off; Ship Cafe
. 1936:
The Preview Murder Mystery; ’Til We Meet Again; Hollywood Boulevard
. 1937:
Outcast; King of Gamblers; Mountain Music; This Way Please; Daughter of Shanghai
. 1938:
Dangerous to Know; King of Alcatraz
. 1939:
Disbarred; Hotel Imperial; The Magnificent Fraud; Death of a Champion
. 1940:
Women Without Names; Parole Fixer
. 1941:
The Face Behind the Mask; Meet Boston Blackie; Two in a Taxi
. 1942:
Dangerously They Live; Lady Gangster
. 1943:
The Desert Song
. 1944:
Roger Touhy, Gangster; Man From Frisco
. 1945:
God Is My Co-Pilot; Danger Signal
. 1947:
The Beast with Five Fingers
. 1948:
Tarzan and the Mermaids; Rogue’s Regiment
. 1949:
Outpost in Morocco; The Crooked Way
. 1950:
Johnny One-Eye; The Vicious Years
.

Florey is an idiosyncrat seen fleetingly at the ends of film-world corridors. He is usually presented as a charming dilettante, rather overwhelmed by the few large projects that came his way, but flourishing as an intellectual fed on crazy B pictures. If nothing else, he is an early instance of full-blooded French enthusiasm for American movies; so much so that it is strange that his twilight work at Warners and Paramount should not have been more fully endorsed. In truth, his films are fragments, skillfully arranged to imply disappointed greatness. The films themselves offer little to suggest that Florey had any real idea about how to stick the fragments together. Disarray is the style that expresses him best, despite his various publications on cinema.

He sounds like the sort of man who gathered in experiences with future interviewers in prospect. As a child, he met and observed Méliès at work. As an adolescent, he acted in Swiss movies—he was schooled privately near Geneva. He went to France and acted in and assisted Feuillade on
L’Orpheline
(21). Then he went to Hollywood, as a journalist and as publicity man for Douglas Fairbanks. He toured with Valentino handling publicity, from which he retreated to the probably less demanding task of making films. MGM hired him for second-unit and tests work and he assisted King Vidor and John Stahl. Eventually he attained actual credits as assistant director:
The Masked Bride
(25, Christy Cabanne);
Parisian Nights
(25, Alfred Santell);
The Exquisite Sinner
(26, Phil Rosen, after von Sternberg had been fired);
The Magic Flame
(27, Henry King); and
Seventh Heaven
(27, Frank Borzage).

He rose to full director and in 1928 made several aggressively “experimental” shorts—especially
The Life and Death of 9413
—and was in charge of Paramount’s sound studios at Long Island. Perhaps to remove such temptations, Paramount put him to direct. He began more auspiciously than his later credits might suggest: Gertrude Lawrence and Charles Ruggles in
The Battle of Paris;
Claudette Colbert and Edward G. Robinson in
The Hole in the Wall;
the Marx Brothers in
Cocoanuts
. In 1930 Florey went to Britain to direct French films and collaborated on the script of
Frankenstein
(31, James Whale). Universal liked that enough to give Florey Bela Lugosi in
Murders in the Rue Morgue
, a stylish horror film. From 1933–35, Florey worked for Warners and First National and made enough bad films to dash his quirky reputation: notably Bette Davis in
Ex-Lady
and Stanwyck in
Woman in Red
. Then he went back to Paramount and made B pictures there until 1940. He proved the director for Akim Tamiroff and directed the little Russian in
King of Gamblers, Dangerous to Know
, and
The Magnificent Fraud
. After that, he freelanced, edging farther out into smaller companies and more lurid rubbish. Even so, he dealt blithely with the tender madness of Peter Lorre in
The Face Behind the Mask
and
The Beast with Five Fingers
. In 1947, he assisted Chaplin on
Monsieur Verdoux
and then, after a jolly Foreign Legion backlot picture,
Outpost in Morocco
, again with Tamiroff, he retired from movies and worked for TV.