Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor.
He directed more than 35
feature film
A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
s in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gained attention for
film noir mysteries such as ''
Laura'' (1944) and ''
Fallen Angel'' (1945), while in the 1950s and 1960s, he directed high-profile adaptations of popular novels and stage works. Several of these later films pushed the boundaries of
censorship
Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...
by dealing with themes which were then
taboo in Hollywood, such as
drug addiction (''
The Man with the Golden Arm'', 1955),
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...
(''
Anatomy of a Murder'', 1959) and
homosexuality
Homosexuality is Romance (love), romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romant ...
(''
Advise & Consent'', 1962). He was twice nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Director
The Academy Award for Best Director (officially known as the Academy Award of Merit for Directing) is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given in honor of a film director who has exhibi ...
. He also had several acting roles.
Early life
Preminger was born in 1905 in Wischnitz,
Bukovina
Bukovinagerman: Bukowina or ; hu, Bukovina; pl, Bukowina; ro, Bucovina; uk, Буковина, ; see also other languages. is a historical region, variously described as part of either Central or Eastern Europe (or both).Klaus Peter Berge ...
,
Austro-Hungarian Empire
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
(present-day
Vyzhnytsia,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...
), into a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family. His parents were Josefa (née Fraenkel) and
Markus Preminger. The couple provided a stable home life for Preminger and his younger brother
Ingwald, known as "Ingo", later the producer of the original film version of
''M*A*S*H'' (1970).
After the assassination in 1914 of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria, (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I.
F ...
, which led to
the Great War, Russia entered the war on the Serbian side. Bukovina was invaded by the Russian Army and the Preminger family fled. Like other refugees in flight, Markus Preminger saw Austria as a safe haven for his family. He secured a position as public prosecutor in
Graz
Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popula ...
, capital of
Styria
Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered ...
. When the Preminger family relocated, Otto was nearly nine, and was enrolled in a school where instruction in Catholic dogma was mandatory and Jewish history and religion had no place on the
syllabus. Ingo, not yet four, remained at home.
After a year in Graz, Preminger claims he was summoned to
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
and offered an eminent position (roughly equivalent to that of the
United States Attorney General
The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...
), but was told that the position would be his only if he converted to Catholicism, which he refused to do. The next year, he relocated his family to Vienna, where Otto later claimed to have been born.
Career
Theater
Preminger's first theatrical ambition was to become an actor. In his early teens, he was able to recite from memory many of the great monologues from the international classic repertory, and, never shy, he demanded an audience. Preminger's most successful performance in the National Library rotunda was
Mark Antony
Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the au ...
's funeral oration from ''
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...
''. As he read, watched, and after a fashion began to produce plays, he began to miss more and more classes in school.
When the war came to an end, Markus formed his own law practice. He instilled in both his sons a sense of fair play as well as respect for those with opposing viewpoints. As his father's practice continued to thrive in postwar Vienna, Otto began seriously contemplating a career in the theater. In 1923, when Preminger was 17, his soon-to-be mentor,
Max Reinhardt
Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born theatre and film director, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his innovative stage productions, he is regarded as one of the most pr ...
, the renowned Viennese-born director, announced plans to establish a theatrical company in Vienna. Reinhardt's announcement was seen as a call of destiny to Preminger. He began writing to Reinhardt weekly, requesting an audition. After a few months, Preminger, frustrated, gave up, and stopped his daily visit to the post office to check for a response. Unbeknownst to him, a letter was waiting with a date for an audition which Preminger had already missed by two days.
He juggled a commitment to university (attendance of which his parents insisted upon) and to his new position as a Reinhardt apprentice. The two developed a mentor-and-protege relationship, becoming both a confidant and teacher. When the theater opened, on 1 April 1924, Preminger appeared as a furniture mover in Reinhardt's comedic staging of
Carlo Goldoni's ''The Servant of Two Masters''. His next appearance came the next month with
William Dieterle
William Dieterle (July 15, 1893 – December 9, 1972) was a German-born actor and film director who emigrated to the United States in 1930 to leave a worsening political situation. He worked in Hollywood primarily as a director for much of his ...
(who would later move to Hollywood) in ''
The Merchant of Venice
''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock.
Although classified as ...
''. Other notable ''alumni'' with whom Preminger would work the same year were
Mady Christians, who died of a stroke after having been
blacklisted during the McCarthy era, and
Nora Gregor
Nora Gregor (3 February 1901 – 20 January 1949) was an Austrian stage and film actress.
Biography
She was born Eleonora Hermina Gregor in Görz, a town which then belonged to Austria-Hungary, but is now part of Italy, to Austrian-Jewish paren ...
, who was to star in
Jean Renoir's ''
La Règle du jeu
''The Rules of the Game'' (original French title: ''La règle du jeu'') is a 1939 French satirical comedy-drama film directed by Jean Renoir. The ensemble cast includes Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély, Marcel Dalio, Julien Carett ...
'' (1939).
The following summer, a frustrated Preminger was no longer content to occupy the place of a subordinate and he decided to leave the Reinhardt fold. His status as a Reinhardt muse gave him an edge over much of his competition when it came to joining German-speaking theater. His first theater assignments as a director in
Aussig were plays ranging from the sexually provocative
Wedekind ''
Lulu'' plays, to the Berlin-tried, melodramatic,
Sergei Tretyakov play ''Roar China!'', a pro-Communist
Agitprop
Agitprop (; from rus, агитпроп, r=agitpróp, portmanteau of ''agitatsiya'', "agitation" and ''propaganda'', " propaganda") refers to an intentional, vigorous promulgation of ideas. The term originated in Soviet Russia where it referred ...
.
In 1930, a wealthy industrialist from Graz approached Otto with an offer to direct a film called ''
Die große Liebe'' (''The Great Love''). Preminger did not have the same passion for the medium as he had for theater. He accepted the assignment nonetheless. The film premiered at the Emperor Theater in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
on 21 December 1931, to strong reviews and business. From 1931 to 1935, he directed twenty-six shows.
On 3 August 1932, he wed a Hungarian woman, Marion Mill. The couple married only thirty minutes after her divorce from her first husband had been finalized.
Hollywood
In April 1935, as Preminger was rehearsing a boulevard farce, ''The King with an Umbrella'', he received a summons from American film producer
Joseph Schenck
Joseph Michael Schenck (; December 25, 1876 – October 22, 1961) was a Russian-born American film studio executive.
Life and career
Schenck was born to a Jewish family in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Oblast, Russian Empire. He emigrated to New York ...
to a five o'clock meeting at the Imperial Hotel. Schenck and partner,
Darryl F. Zanuck, co-founders of
Twentieth Century-Fox, were on the lookout for new talent. Within a half-hour of meeting Schenck, Preminger accepted an invitation to work for Fox in Los Angeles.
Preminger's first assignment was to direct a vehicle for
Lawrence Tibbett
Lawrence Mervil Tibbett (November 16, 1896 – July 15, 1960) was an American opera singer and recording artist who also performed as a film actor and radio personality. A baritone, he sang leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera in New Yor ...
. Preminger worked efficiently, completing the film well within the budget and well before the scheduled shooting deadline. The film opened to tepid notices in November 1936. Zanuck gave Preminger the task of directing another B-picture
screwball comedy film ''
Danger – Love at Work''.
Simone Simon was cast but later fired by Zanuck and replaced with
Ann Sothern. The premise was that eight members of an eccentric, wealthy family have inherited their grandfather's land, and the
protagonist
A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...
is a lawyer tasked with persuading the family to hand the land over to a corporation that believes there is oil on the property. One of the female members of the wealthy family provides the romantic interest.
In November 1937, Zanuck's perennial emissary
Gregory Ratoff
Gregory Ratoff (born Grigory Vasilyevich Ratner; russian: Григорий Васильевич Ратнер, tr. ; April 20, c. 1893 – December 14, 1960) was a Russian-born American film director, actor and producer. As an actor, he was bes ...
brought Preminger the news that Zanuck had selected him to direct
''Kidnapped'', which was to be the most expensive feature to date for Twentieth Century-Fox. Zanuck himself had adapted the
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as '' Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...
novel. After reading Zanuck's script, Preminger knew he was in trouble since he would be a foreign director directing in a foreign setting. During the shooting of ''Kidnapped'', while screening footage of the film with Zanuck, the studio head accused Preminger of making changes in a scene; in particular, one with child actor
Freddie Bartholomew and a dog. Preminger, composed at first, explained, claiming he shot the scene exactly as written.
Zanuck insisted that he knew his own script. The confrontation escalated and ended with Preminger exiting the office and slamming the door. Days later, the lock to Preminger's office was changed, and his name was removed from the door. Later, a representative of Zanuck offered Preminger a buyout deal which he rejected: Preminger wanted to be paid for the remaining eleven months of his two-year contract. He searched for work at other studios, but received no offers – only two years after his arrival in Hollywood, he was unemployed in the film industry. He returned to New York, and began to re-focus on the stage. Success came quickly on Broadway for Preminger, with long-running productions, including ''Outward Bound'' with
Laurette Taylor and
Vincent Price, ''My Dear Children'' with
John and Elaine Barrymore and ''
Margin for Error'', in which Preminger played a shiny-domed villainous Nazi. Preminger was offered a teaching position at the
Yale School of Drama and began commuting twice a week to Connecticut to lecture on directing and acting.
20th Century Fox purchased the screen rights of
Margin for Error for approximately $25,000 in the spring of 1941, and
William Goetz, who was running Fox in Zanuck's absence, was soon impressed with Preminger and offered him a new seven-year contract calling on his services as both a director and actor. Preminger took full measure of the temporary studio czar, and accepted. He completed production on schedule, although with a slightly increased budget, by November 1942. Critics were dismissive upon the film's release the following February, noting the bad timing of the release, coinciding with the war. Before his next assignment with Fox, Preminger was asked by movie mogul
Samuel Goldwyn to appear as a Nazi once more, this time in a
Bob Hope
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with ...
comedy, ''They Got Me Covered''.
Preminger hoped to find possible properties he could develop before Zanuck's return, one of which was
Vera Caspary's suspense novel ''
Laura''. Before production would begin on ''Laura'', Preminger was given the green light to produce and direct ''Army Wives'', another B-picture morale booster for a country at war. Its focus was on showing the sacrifices made by women as they send their husbands off to the front.
''Laura''
Zanuck returned from the armed services with his grudge against Preminger intact. Preminger was not granted permission to direct ''Laura'', only to serve as producer.
Rouben Mamoulian
Rouben Zachary Mamoulian ( ; hy, Ռուբէն Մամուլեան; October 8, 1897 – December 4, 1987) was an American film and theatre director.
Early life
Mamoulian was born in Tiflis, Russian Empire, to a family of Armenian descent. ...
was selected to direct. Mamoulian began ignoring Preminger and started to rewrite the script. Although Preminger had no complaints about the casting of the relatively unknown
Gene Tierney and
Dana Andrews, he balked at their choice for the film's villain, Waldo, actor
Laird Cregar
Samuel Laird Cregar (July 28, 1913December 9, 1944) was an American stage and film actor. Cregar was best known for his villainous performances in films such as ''I Wake Up Screaming'' (1941) and '' The Lodger'' (1944).
Cregar's screen career ...
. Preminger explained to Zanuck that audiences would immediately identify Cregar as a villain, especially after Cregar's role as
Jack the Ripper in ''
The Lodger''.
Preminger wanted stage actor
Clifton Webb
Webb Parmelee Hollenbeck (November 19, 1889 – October 13, 1966), known professionally as Clifton Webb, was an American actor, singer, and dancer. He worked extensively and was known for his stage appearances in the plays of Noël Coward, i ...
to play Waldo and persuaded his boss to give Webb a screen test. Webb was cast and Mamoulian was fired for creative differences, which also included Preminger wanting Dana Andrews to be a more classy detective instead of a gumshoe detective. ''Laura'' started filming on 27 April 1944, with a projected budget of $849,000. After Preminger took over, the film continued shooting well into late June. When released, the film was an instant hit with audiences and critics alike, earning Preminger his first Academy Award nomination for direction.
Peak years
Preminger expected acclaim for ''Laura'' would promote him to work on better pictures, but his professional fate was in the hands of Zanuck, who had Preminger take over for the ailing
Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch (; January 29, 1892November 30, 1947) was a German-born American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as ...
on ''A Royal Scandal'', a remake of Lubitsch's own silent ''
Forbidden Paradise'' (1924), starring
Pola Negri
Pola Negri (; born Apolonia Chalupec ; 3 January 1897 – 1 August 1987) was a Polish stage and film actress and singer. She achieved worldwide fame during the silent and golden eras of Hollywood and European film for her tragedienne and femm ...
as
Catherine the Great
, en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes
, house =
, father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
, mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
, birth_date =
, birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...
. Before he suffered a heart attack, Lubitsch had spent months in preparation, and had already cast the film. Preminger cast
Tallulah Bankhead, whom he had known since 1938 when he was directing on Broadway.
Bankhead learned that Preminger's family would be barred from emigrating to the U.S. due to
immigration quotas, and she asked her
father (who was
Speaker of the House
The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England.
Usage
The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hunger ...
) to intervene to save them from the Nazis. He did, which earned Bankhead Preminger's loyalty. Thus when Lubitsch wanted to make the film into a vehicle for
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragic ch ...
, Preminger, although he would have been eager to direct the film that brought Garbo out of retirement, refused to betray Bankhead. They became good friends and got along well during filming. The film received generally lackluster reviews as the
Ruritanian romance genre had become outdated, and it failed to earn back its cost of production.
''
Fallen Angel'' (1945) was exactly what Preminger had been anticipating. In ''Fallen Angel'', a con man and womanizer ends up by chance in a small California town, where he romances a sultry waitress and a well-to-do spinster. When the waitress is found killed, the drifter, played by
Dana Andrews, becomes the prime suspect.
Linda Darnell played the doomed waitress. ''
Centennial Summer'' (1946), Preminger's next film, would be his first shot entirely in color. The reviews and box office draw were tepid when the film was released in July 1946, but by the end of that year Preminger had one of the most sumptuous contracts on the lot, earning $7,500 a week.
''
Forever Amber'', based on
Kathleen Winsor
Kathleen Winsor (October 16, 1919 – May 26, 2003) was an American author. She is best known for her first work, the 1944 historical novel '' Forever Amber''. The novel, racy for its time, became a runaway bestseller even as it drew criticism f ...
's internationally popular novel ''
Forever Amber'', published in 1944, was Zanuck's next investment in adaptation. Preminger had read the book and disliked it immensely. Preminger had another bestseller aimed at a female audience in mind, ''
Daisy Kenyon''. Zanuck pledged that if Preminger did ''Forever Amber'' first, he could make ''Daisy Kenyon'' afterwards. ''Forever Amber'' had already been shooting for nearly six weeks when Preminger replaced director
John Stahl
John Macdonald Steele (23 June 1953 – 2 March 2022), better known as John Stahl, was a Scottish actor best known for playing Rickard Karstark in HBO's '' Game of Thrones'' and Tom 'Inverdarroch' Kerr in ''High Road''.
Life and career
Stahl ...
. Zanuck had already spent nearly $2 million on the production.
Only after turning to his revised script did Preminger learn Zanuck had recast Linda Darnell. Zanuck was convinced that whoever played Amber would become a big star, and he wanted that woman to be one of the studio's own. Zanuck had bought the book because he believed its scandalous reputation promised big box-office returns, and he was not surprised when the
Catholic Legion of Decency
The National Legion of Decency, also known as the Catholic Legion of Decency, was a Catholic group founded in 1934 by Archbishop of Cincinnati, John T. McNicholas, as an organization dedicated to identifying objectionable content in motion pictu ...
condemned the film for glamorizing a promiscuous heroine who has a child out of
wedlock; they successfully lobbied
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...
to make changes to the film. ''Forever Amber'' opened to big business in October 1947 and garnered decent reviews. Preminger called the film "the most expensive picture I ever made and it was also the worst".
Preminger maintained a busy schedule, working with writers on scripts for two planned projects, ''Daisy Kenyon'' (1947) and ''The Dark Wood''; the latter was not produced.
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion pict ...
starred in ''Daisy Kenyon'' alongside
Dana Andrews,
Ruth Warrick and
Henry Fonda. ''
Variety'' proclaimed the film "high powered melodrama surefire for the femme market". After the modest success of ''Daisy Kenyon'', Preminger saw ''That Lady in Ermine'' as a further opportunity.
Betty Grable was cast opposite
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Douglas Elton Fairbanks Jr., (December 9, 1909 – May 7, 2000) was an American actor, producer and decorated naval officer of World War II. He is best known for starring in such films as ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1937), ''Gunga Din'' (1939) ...
The film had previously been another Lubitsch project, but after Lubitsch's sudden death in November 1947, Preminger took over. His next film was a period piece based on ''
Lady Windermere's Fan''. Over the spring and early summer of 1948 Preminger turned
Oscar Wilde's play into ''
The Fan'' (1949), which starred
Madeleine Carroll; the film opened to poor notices.
Challenging taboos and censorship
Several of his films in this period dealt with controversial and taboo themes, thereby challenging both the
Motion Picture Association of America
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distrib ...
's
Production Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...
of censorship and the
Hollywood blacklist. The Catholic
Legion of Decency
The National Legion of Decency, also known as the Catholic Legion of Decency, was a Catholic group founded in 1934 by Archbishop of Cincinnati, John T. McNicholas, as an organization dedicated to identifying objectionable content in motion pictu ...
condemned the comedy ''
The Moon Is Blue'' (1953) on the grounds of moral standards. The film was based on a Broadway play which had inspired mass protests for its use of the words "virgin" and "pregnant". Refusing to remove the offending words, Preminger had the film released without the Production Code Seal of Approval. Based on the novel by
Nelson Algren
Nelson Algren (born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham; March 28, 1909 – May 9, 1981) was an American writer. His 1949 novel '' The Man with the Golden Arm'' won the National Book Award and was adapted as the 1955 film of the same name.
Algren articulat ...
, ''
The Man with the Golden Arm'' (1955) was one of the first Hollywood films to deal with
heroin
Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and bro ...
addiction.
Later, ''
Anatomy of a Murder'' (1959), with its frank courtroom discussions of rape and sexual intercourse led to the censors objecting to the use of words such as "rape", "sperm", "sexual climax" and "penetration". Preminger made but one concession (substituting "violation" for "penetration") and the picture was released with MPAA approval, marking the beginning of the end of the Production Code. With ''
Exodus
Exodus or the Exodus may refer to:
Religion
* Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible
* The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan
Historical events
* E ...
'' (1960) Preminger struck a first major blow against the
Hollywood blacklist by acknowledging banned screenwriter
Dalton Trumbo. The film is an adaptation of the
Leon Uris bestseller about the founding of the state of
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. Preminger also acted in a few movies including the World War II Luft-Stalag Commandant, Oberst von Scherbach of the German POW camp ''
Stalag 17'' (1953), directed by
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian-American filmmaker. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Holly ...
.
From the mid-1950s, most of Preminger's films used animated titles designed by
Saul Bass
Saul Bass (; May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996) was an American graphic designer and Oscar-winning filmmaker, best known for his design of motion-picture title sequences, film posters, and corporate logos.
During his 40-year career, Bass wor ...
, and many had jazz scores. At the
New York City Opera, in October 1953, Preminger directed the American premiere (in English translation) of
Gottfried von Einem's
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
''Der Prozeß'', based on
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...
's novel ''
The Trial''. Soprano
Phyllis Curtin headed the cast. Preminger also adapted two operas for the screen during the decade. ''
Carmen Jones'' (1954) is a reworking of the
Bizet
Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', which has become on ...
opera ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the ...
'' to a wartime African-American setting while ''
Porgy and Bess
''Porgy and Bess'' () is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play '' Porgy'', ...
'' (1959) is based on the
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
opera. His two films of the early 1960s were ''
Advise & Consent'' (1962), a political drama from the
Allen Drury
Allen Stuart Drury (September 2, 1918 – September 2, 1998) was an American novelist. During World War II, he was a reporter in the Senate, closely observing Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, among others. He would convert th ...
bestseller with a homosexual subtheme, and ''
The Cardinal'' (1963), a drama set in the Vatican hierarchy for which Preminger received his second Best Director Academy Award nomination.
Later career
Beginning in 1965, Preminger made a string of films in which he attempted to make stories that were fresh and distinctive, but the films he made, including ''
In Harm's Way'' (1965) and ''
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon'' (1970), became both critical and financial flops. Preminger's ''
Hurry Sundown'' (1967) is a lengthy drama set in the
U.S. South and was partly intended to break cinematic racial and sexual taboos. However, the film was poorly received and ridiculed for a heavy-handed approach, and for the dubious casting of
Michael Caine as an American Southerner.
''Hurry Sundown'' signaled a decline in Preminger's reputation, as it was followed by several other films which were critical and commercial failures, including ''
Skidoo'' (1968), a failed attempt at a hip sixties comedy (and
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...
's last film), and ''
Rosebud'' (1975), a terrorism thriller which was also widely ridiculed. Several publicized disputes with leading actors did further damage to Preminger's reputation. His last film, an adaptation of the
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
espionage novel
Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intelligenc ...
''
The Human Factor'' (1979), had financial problems and was barely released.
Directing style and personality
As noted above, both as a director and (later in his career) as the producer of his own films, Preminger repeatedly broke new ground, by challenging long-established norms and taboos in Hollywood films. He was also known for his efficiency as a filmmaker—for most of his career he routinely completed his films on time and on budget. He frequently favoured long takes, often filmed dialogue in two-shots, rather than intercutting, and preferred minimal cuts. John Ford was also known for similar techniques, filming as few takes as possible, and "cutting in the camera", and it is likely that Preminger preferred these methods for the same reasons as Ford, who had learned from hard experience that shooting as little footage as possible reduced costs, while also minimising the ability of studio executives to recut their films against their wishes.
However, despite his liberal social outlook, Preminger became notorious for his domineering and abrasive personality, his explosive temper, and his dictatorial manner on set, which earned him nicknames like "Otto the Terrible" and "Otto the Ogre"—although it has been speculated that (like his contemporary
John Ford
John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...
) Preminger's tyrannical persona and abusive behaviour were to some extent a calculated pose, intended to garner publicity, keep his cast and crew under his control, and keep interfering studio executives at bay.
Preminger evidently had relatively few conflicts with the major stars with whom he worked, although there were notable exceptions.
Lana Turner (originally cast in the role that subsequently went to
Lee Remick
Lee Ann Remick (December 14, 1935 – July 2, 1991) was an American actress and singer. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for the film '' Days of Wine and Roses'' (1962), and for the 1966 Tony Award for Best Actress ...
) quit ''Anatomy of a Murder'' a month before filming was due to start, over a dispute about her wardrobe, with Turner telling the press that she couldn't deal with Preminger's domineering personality,
and renowned British actor
Paul Schofield reportedly quit ''Saint Joan'' after he got into a heated argument with Preminger during the first cast read-through of the script.
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage ...
, who played a police inspector in the psychological thriller ''
Bunny Lake Is Missing'' (1965), shot in England, recalled in his autobiography ''Confessions of an Actor'' that he found Preminger a "bully".
Adam West, who portrayed the lead in the 1960s ''
Batman
Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939. I ...
'' television series, echoed Olivier's opinion. He remembered Preminger, who played
Mr. Freeze, as being rude and unpleasant, especially when he disregarded the typical thespian etiquette of subtly cooperating when being helped to his feet, in a scene by West and
Burt Ward.
Preminger became notorious for his abusive and bullying behaviour towards his crews, and he was especially intolerant of less experienced actors—he reputedly completely memorised every line of each script before shooting began, and would fly into a rage at any actor who struggled to remember their lines. He is said to have grabbed one nervous young actor by the shoulders and screamed in his face "Relax! Relax!" Composer
Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein ( '; April 4, 1922August 18, 2004) was an American composer and conductor. In a career that spanned over five decades, he composed "some of the most recognizable and memorable themes in Hollywood history", including over 150 origi ...
, who scored ''The Man with the Golden Arm'' recalled, "He was a scary character. I thought he was going to throw me out of the office when I told him that what I had in mind was to do a jazz-based score. But he said that that was what I had been hired for, and that was what I should go away and do."
[
Linda Darnell was another famous target of Preminger's temper—he reportedly screamed at her almost every day for two months during the filming of ''Forever Amber''. She came to loathe him, and the combination of the long hours of filming, heavy dieting and Preminger's constant harangues caused Darnell to collapse twice on set, and she was ordered to take ten days off by a doctor. During rehearsals for the Herman Wouk play "A Modern Primitive", Preminger screamed so violently at an actor who struggled to remember his lines that the man allegedly suffered a nervous breakdown, and one witness later commented, "I had never seen such terrifying rage in anyone," describing the director as having "veins standing out on his forehead" and "literally foaming at the mouth".
One of the most infamous examples of his mistreatment of inexperienced actors was Jean Seberg, whom he plucked from obscurity and directed in ''Saint Joan'' and ''Bonjour Tristesse''. Seberg later commented: "With him, I became a nervous wreck, crying and jumping when the phone started ringing, incapable of walking calmly across a room." Preminger imposed an intense, constant and minute level of control over Seberg throughout their association, and her co-star Richard Widmark later characterised Preminger's behaviour towards her as "sadistic". Tom Tryon, the star of Preminger's 1963 feature ''The Cardinal'' received similar treatment—Preminger would scream at him, zoom in on his shaking hands, and repeatedly fired and rehired him, with the result that Tryon was hospitalised with a body rash and peeling skin, due to nerves. Interviewed some 30 years later, Tryon admitted that he still hated talking about the experience, and his brother Bill Tryon told the same interviewer: "I'll never watch that movie again the rest of my life, knowing what Tom went through."
]
Preservation
The Academy Film Archive has preserved several of Otto Preminger's films, including '' The Man With the Golden Arm'', '' The Moon is Blue'', '' The Cardinal'' and '' Advise & Consent''.
Personal life
Preminger and his wife Marion became increasingly estranged. He lived like a bachelor, as was the case when he met the burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee
Gypsy Rose Lee (born Rose Louise Hovick, January 8, 1911 – April 26, 1970) was an American burlesque entertainer, stripper and vedette famous for her striptease act. Also an actress, author, and playwright, her 1957 memoir was adapted in ...
and began an open relationship with her.
Lee had already attempted to break into movie roles, but she was not taken seriously as anything more than a stripper. She appeared in B pictures
A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...
in less-than-minor roles. Preminger's liaison with Lee produced a child, Erik. Lee rejected the idea of Preminger's helping to support the child and instead elicited a vow of silence from Preminger: he was not to reveal Erik's paternity to anyone, including Erik himself. Lee called the boy Erik Kirkland after her husband, Alexander Kirkland, from whom she was separated at the time. It was not until 1966, when Preminger was 60 years old and Erik was 22, that father and son finally met.
In May 1946, Marion asked for a divorce, after meeting a wealthy (and married) Swedish financier, Axel Wenner-Gren. The Premingers' divorce ended smoothly and speedily. Marion did not seek alimony, only personal belongings. Axel's wife, however, was unwilling to grant a divorce. Marion returned to Otto and resumed appearances as his wife, and nothing more. Preminger had begun dating Natalie Draper, a niece of Marion Davies.
While filming '' Carmen Jones'' (1954), Preminger began an affair with the film's star, Dorothy Dandridge, which lasted four years. During that period he advised her on career matters, including an offer made to Dandridge for the featured role of Tuptim in ''The King and I
''The King and I'' is the fifth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on Margaret Landon's novel '' Anna and the King of Siam'' (1944), which is in turn derived from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, governess to the chil ...
'' (1956). Preminger advised her to turn it down, as he believed it unworthy of her. She later regretted taking his advice.
Death
Preminger died in his home on the Upper East Side
The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the we ...
of Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in 1986, aged 80, from lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, mali ...
while suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He was survived by three children; his son, Erik, and twins Mark William and Victoria Elizabeth, from his marriage to Hope Bryce. Preminger was cremated and his ashes are in a niche in the Azalea Room of the Velma B. Woolworth Memorial Chapel at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...
.
Filmography
Films
Acting roles
Awards
Preminger's '' Anatomy of a Murder'' was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only categ ...
. As the producer of the film, he received the nomination. He was twice nominated for Best Director: for '' Laura'' and for '' The Cardinal''. He won the Bronze Berlin Bear award for the film '' Carmen Jones'' at the 5th Berlin International Film Festival
The 5th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 24 June to 5 July 1955. This year's festival did not give any official jury prizes, instead awards were given by audience voting. This continued until the FIAPF granted Berlin "A-S ...
.
References
Further reading
Journals
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* Bernhard Valentinitsch,Graham Greenes Roman 'The Human Factor'(1978) und Otto Premingers gleichnamige Verfilmung (1979).In:JIPSS(=Journal for Intelligence,Propaganda and Security Studies),p. 34-56.
Books
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;Interviews
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External links
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Cinema Retro: Keir Dullea Recalls Starring in Preminger's ''Bunny Lake is Missing''
Literature on Otto Preminger
virtual-history.com; accessed 1 February 2017
Otto Preminger
interview on BBC Radio 4 '' Desert Island Discs'', 8 February 1980
Otto Preminger
(in German) from the archive of the Österreichische Mediathek
Further reading:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Preminger, Otto
1905 births
1986 deaths
20th-century American male actors
American male film actors
American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Austrian emigrants to the United States
Austrian film directors
Austrian male television actors
Austro-Hungarian Jews
Bukovina Jews
Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)
People with Alzheimer's disease
Deaths from lung cancer in New York (state)
Film directors from New York City
German-language film directors
Golden Globe Award-winning producers
Jewish American male actors
Jewish Austrian male actors
People from Vyzhnytsia
People from the Duchy of Bukovina
People from the Upper East Side
People with acquired American citizenship
Ukrainian Jews
20th-century American Jews