William Wyler (70 page)

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Authors: Gabriel Miller

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Summerville, Slim

Sunderland, Nan

Surtees, Robert

Swerling, Jo

Swink, Robert

Sydney, George

 

Tallichet, Margaret (“Talli”; WW's second wife)

Tannenbaum, Harold

Taylor, Elizabeth

Technicolor

Technorama

Ten Commandments, The
(DeMille)

Thalberg, Irving;
The Good Earth

That Certain Woman
(Goulding)

These Three
(WW); casting; composition/framing; courtroom scene; critical reception/success of; ending; graduation scene; Hellman's
Children's Hour
adapted for; house as setting for; indoor/outdoor scenes; isolation of heroines in; Joe's inadvertent stay in Martha's room; Joe's proposal to Karen; Lily's entrance; Martha and Karen's relationship; Martha and Karen's relationship with Joe; Mary's entrance; Mary's lies; music; opening shot; plot; political context for; “quality of mercy” speech in; remake of; social issues in; on society vs. nature; on society vs. the individual; staging of confrontation; staircase scenes; style; title; Toland's camera work on; WW's contract/salary for; WW's disappointment with

They Knew What They Wanted
(Howard)

This Is the Army
(Berlin)

Thomas, J. Parnell

Thomson, David

Thorpe, Franklyn

Three Godfathers
(film, 1948; John Ford)

Three Godfathers, The
(film, 1916; Le Saint)

Three Godfathers, The
(film, 1936; Boleslawski)

Three Godfathers, The
(novel; Kyne)

Thunderbolt
(WW and Sturges)

Till the End of Time
(Dmytryk)

Tiomkin, Dmitri

To Each His Own
(Leisen)

Toland, Gregg:
The Best Years of Our Lives
filmed by;
Come and Get It
filmed by;
Dead End
filmed by; deep-focus technique used by; early association with WW;
The Little Foxes
filmed by; reputation of;
These Three
filmed by;
The Westerner
filmed by;
Wuthering Heights
filmed by

Tom Brown of Culver
(WW)

“Tom Brown's School Days”

Townsend, Jimmy

Tracy, Spencer

Trevor, Claire

Truman, Harry S.

Trumbo, Dalton

Tunberg, Karl

Twelfth Air Force. See also
Thunderbolt

Twelve O'Clock High
(Bartlett and Lay)

 

Unfinished Woman, An
(Hellman)

Union Pacific
(DeMille)

union's right to organize

United Artists

Universal Pictures. See also
Hell's Heroes

Uris, Leon

 

Van Every, Dale

Variety

Venus Observed
(Fry)

Vertigo
(Hitchcock)

Vidal, Gore

Vidor, King:
Street Scene

Vietnam War

Vinegarroon
(Lake)

Virginia City
(Curtiz)

Vista-Vision

Von Sternberg, Josef.
See
Sternberg, Josef Von

Von Stroheim, Erich.
See
Stroheim, Erich Von

 

Wagner housing bill

Wallace, Henry

Wallace, Lew:
Ben-Hur

Wallis, Hal

Wanger, Walter

war films. See also
Memphis Belle; Mrs. Miniver; Thunderbolt

Warner, Harry

Warner, Jack

Warner Brothers

Warrick, Ruth

Warshow, Robert

Washington Square
(James)

Watch on the Rhine
(Hellman)

Webb, James

Welles, Orson;
Citizen Kane

West, Claudine

West, Jessamyn;
The Friendly Persuasion

West, Mae:
The Drag

Westerner, The
(film; WW); action scenes; Bean challenged by Jane-Ellen; Bean's character; Bean's death; Bean's historical status vs. his portrayal; Bean's love for Lillie Langtry; Bean vs. the cattlemen; budget; casting; cattle herd in; Cole and Bean's friendship; Cole's character; Cole's love for Jane-Ellen; Cole's trial; comedy in; “Cooper Story” script revisions; ending; as historical romance; homesteader vs. cattleman plot; industrialization's role in; Jane-Ellen's character; Lake's
Vinegarroon
adapted for; music; nature and transformation of wilderness in; new vs. old order in; opening shots; opening title sequence; Oscars for; outdoor scenes; postproduction work; premiere; production schedule; publicity; release date; and rights to the Roy Bean story; “Saddle Tramp” script revisions; sepia printing for; shooting location; shooting schedule/difficulties; steer-killing farmer is hanged; themes; Toland's camera work on; WW's direction of

westerns

We the People
(Rice)

Wilcoxon, Henry

“Wild Boys of the Road, The” (Ahearn)

Wilder, Billy;
Ace in the Hole
;
Love in the Afternoon

Wilder, Robert

Wilder, Thornton

Willkie, Wendell

Wilson, Michael

Wimperis, Arthur

windows as metaphors for entrapment

Winged Victory
(Hart)

Wise, Robert:
The Sound of Music

Wiseman, Joseph

Wolfe, Thomas:
Look Homeward, Angel

Wood, Robin

Wordsworth, William: “A Night Piece”

Works Progress Administration

World War II: atomic bombs dropped on Japan; economic/political issues following; films about (see also
Memphis Belle; Mrs. Miniver; Thunderbolt);
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor; rise of totalitarian governments in; traumatized veterans of

World Wide Productions

Wright, Teresa

Wright, William

Writers' Guild of America

Wuthering Heights
(film; WW): casting; Cathy and Heathcliff's love; Cathy marries Edgar; Cathy's character; composition/framing; critical reception of; endings; experimentalism of; expressionism of; flashback scenes; Heathcliff returns from America; Heathcliff's death; house as setting for; Mr. Earnshaw's death; novel adapted for; opening shot; Oscar nominations for; Pennistone Crag scenes; society vs. nature in; society vs. the individual in; stylistic/thematic importance of; symbolic artistry of; Toland's camera work on

Wuthering Heights
(novel; Brontë)

Wyler, Melanie (WW's mother)

Wyler, Robert (WW's brother)
The Big Country
, involvement in; death of;
Detective Story
, involvement in;
Friendly Persuasion
, involvement in;
The Heiress
, involvement in;
A House Divided
, involvement in;
Roman Holiday
, involvement in;
The Shakedown
, involvement in

Wyler, William: Academy Awards and; affair with Bette Davis; anticommunism of; in the Army Air Force; arrival in America/background of; autocratic behavior of; Bazin on; bombing missions by; career, overview of; CFA role of; on composition; death/funeral of; vs. DeMille; on the director's function; vs. John Ford; at Goldwyn Productions; Goldwyn's relationship with (
see under
Goldwyn, Samuel); hearing loss by; HUAC investigation of; HUAC's impact on; illness of; investigation of communist affiliations of; Israel supported by; Leenhardt on; liberalism of; Liberty Films cofounded by (
see also
Liberty Films); marriage to Sullavan; marriage to Talli; military commission for; on morality; on Nazism; as non-pacifist; optimism of; Peck's friendship with; perfectionism of; politics/activism of; preliminary work on
The Sound of Music
; Production Code challenged by; on propaganda films; religious views of; reputation of; retirement of; Sarris on; at Universal; on the war; World War II involvement of; World War I's impact on

—
AWARDS
: American Film institute's Life Achievement Award; Directors' Guild Award; Golden Palme; Griffith Award; New York Film Critics Awards; Oscars; Thalberg Award; Victoire Award

—
FILMS
: authority/style of; breadth of;
The Children's Hour
;
Crook Buster
; deep-focus technique in; diversity of; early style of;
Ferry Command
;
The First Americans
;
The Gay Deception
;
The Good Fairy
;
Her First Mate
;
A House Divided
; houses used in;
How Green Was My Valley
(collaboration);
How to Steal a Million
;
Lazy Lightning
; melodrama in;
Memphis Belle
;
The Negro Soldier
;
Nine Lives
; overview of; pessimism in;
Phyllis Was a Fortress
; postwar;
R.A.F.-A.A.F
.; realism of; retakes in; retrospective of; script revisions by WW;
The Shakedown
; social/political vision in; staircases used in;
Thunderbolt
;
Tom Brown of Culver
; triangular shots in; war documentaries (see also
Memphis Belle
); window-framed shots used in.
See also specific films

—
WRITINGS
: “Escape to Reality”; “Flying over Germany”; “Forgotten Boy”;
Laughing Boy
; “No Magic Wand”; “Steel”

 

Yordan, Philip

Yoshimura, Kamisaburo

Young, William W.:
Ben-Hur

Yvain, Maurice

 

Zanuck, Darryl F.;
The Longest Day
produced by; military commission for

Zerbe, Anthony

Ziegfeld Follies

Zimbalist, Sam

Zinnemann, Fred;
High Noon
;
The Search

Zukor, Adolph

S
CREEN
C
LASSICS

Screen Classics is a series of critical biographies, film histories, and analytical studies focusing on neglected filmmakers and important screen artists and subjects, from the era of silent cinema to the golden age of Hollywood to the international generation of today. Books in the Screen Classics series are intended for scholars and general readers alike. The contributing authors are established figures in their respective fields. This series also serves the purpose of advancing scholarship on film personalities and themes with ties to Kentucky.

S
ERIES
E
DITOR

Patrick McGilligan

B
OOKS IN THE
S
ERIES

Mae Murray: The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips
Michael G. Ankerich

Hedy Lamarr: The Most Beautiful Woman in Film
Ruth Barton

Von Sternberg
John Baxter

The Marxist and the Movies:
A
Biography of Paul Jarrico
Larry Ceplair

Warren Oates:
A
Wild Life
Susan Compo

Jack Nicholson: The Early Years
Robert Crane and Christopher Fryer

Being Hal Ashby: Life of a Hollywood Rebel
Nick Dawson

John Gilbert: The Last of the Silent Film Stars
Eve Golden

Mamoulian: Life on Stage and Screen
David Luhrssen

My Life as a Mankiewicz: An Insider's Journey through Hollywood
Tom Mankiewicz and Robert Crane

William Wyler: The Life and Films of Hollywood's Most Celebrated Director
Gabriel Miller

Raoul Walsh: The True Adventures of Hollywood's Legendary Director
Marilyn Ann Moss

Some Like It Wilder: The Life and Controversial Films of Billy Wilder
Gene D. Phillips

Arthur Penn: American Director
Nat Segaloff

Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice
David J. Skal with Jessica Rains

Buzz: The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley
Jeffrey Spivak

Thomas Ince: Hollywood's Independent Pioneer
Brian Taves

Carl Theodor Dreyer and
Ordet:
My Summer with the Danish Filmmaker
Jan Wahl

A reptilian fisherman (Walter Huston) comes between his mail-order bride (Helen Chandler) and his son (Kent Douglass), who wants to take her from him, in
A House Divided
(1931).

John Barrymore greets his “Yiddishe mama” (Clara Langsner) in
Counsellor-at-Law
(1933).

The young members of a love triangle (Joel McCrea, Merle Oberon, Miriam Hopkins) gather around the patron who ruins them (Alma Kruger) in
These Three
(1936).

A similar triangular configuration in Wyler's remake of
The Children's Hour
(1961) features James Garner, Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, and Fay Bainter (back to the camera).

Sam Dodsworth (Walter Huston) and his wife, Fran (Ruth Chatterton), are American innocents whose marriage breaks apart on a European vacation in
Dodsworth
(1936).

Wyler maximizes space with his use of depth-of-field shots on the set for
Dead End
(1937).

A group shot from
Dead End
puts the characters on different planes, featuring “Baby Face” Martin (Humphrey Bogart) and the Dead End Kids.

Julie Marsden (Bette Davis), escorted by her fiancé, Preston Dillard (Henry Fonda), scandalizes southern society in her red dress in
Jezebel
(1938).

Julie tries on a conventional white dress before rejecting it; Wyler traps her within the mirror's frame.

Heathcliff (Laurence Olivier) and Cathy (Merle Oberon) enjoy freedom in their natural habitat in
Wuthering Heights
(1939).

Judge Roy Bean (Walter Brennan), the sole patron at Lillie Langtry's concert, is surprised by his executioner and friend Cole Hardin (Gary Cooper) in a tightly framed “unwestern” space in
The Westerner
(1940).

Horace Giddens (Herbert Marshall) thinks he has the upper hand in a confrontation with his wife, Regina (Bette Davis), in one of the many staircase scenes in
The Little Foxes
(1941).

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