Jean Negulesco(1900-1993)
- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jean Negulesco made his reputation as a director of both polished,
popular entertainments as well as critically acclaimed dramatic
pictures in the 1940s and 1950s. Born in Craiova, Romania, he left home
at age 12, ending up in Paris. He earned some money washing dishes,
which paid for his art tuition, on the way to fulfilling his dream of
becoming a painter. World War I intervened, and he found himself in the
French army working in a field hospital on the Western Front. Returning
to Paris unscathed, he embarked on a more serious study of the arts,
learning to paint under the guidance of his émigré compatriot
Constantin Brâncusi (1876-1957), and
subsequently returned home to Romania. Proving himself an adept pupil,
Negulesco sold 150 of his paintings at his very first exhibition. Back
in Paris by the early 1920s, he discovered another outlet for his
creativity by working as a stage decorator.
In 1927, Negulesco took some of his paintings to New York in the hope
of finding a wider audience. He liked it and decided to stay.
Travelling across the US to California--all the while making money by
painting portraits--Negulesco took years to arrive at his destination.
In 1932, he was hired by Paramount Pictures (working for producer
Benjamin Glazer) for his first job in
the movie industry, as a sketch artist and technical advisor, notably
designing the rape scene in
The Story of Temple Drake (1933)
without violating the Hays Code. Persuaded by an art critic,
Elie Faure, to throw himself whole-heartedly
into film work, Negulesco then financed and directed his own
experimental project, "Three and a Day", starring
Mischa Auer. Studio executives liked the
picture and Negulesco advanced up the ladder to second-unit director,
working on
A Farewell to Arms (1932) and
(on loan to Warner Brothers)
The Sea Hawk. He served in
diverse capacities during the remainder of the decade, including
associate director, scenarist and original story writer. In 1940, he
was approached by Warner Brothers and signed to a contract (until 1948)
to direct shorts. Between 1941 and 1944, Negulesco turned out a string
of shorts, generally of a musical nature and often featuring popular
big bands, including those of Joe Reichman,
Freddy Martin and
Jan Garber.
Negulesco's road to directing feature films was a tortured one. He was
replaced by John Huston two months
into shooting
The Maltese Falcon (1941) and
suffered a similar fate with
Singapore Woman (1941). His big
break came when he landed the directing job for
The Mask of Dimitrios (1944),
a tale of international intrigue, based on the novel "A Coffin for
Dimitrios" by Eric Ambler. The film was
unusual in that it starred two character actors instead of romantic
leads. The story, already convoluted by many flashbacks, was therefore
not muddied further by built-in romantic angles not integral to the
plot. The two films noir experts at the center of the action,
Sydney Greenstreet and
Peter Lorre, contributed greatly to
the success of the venture. Likewise did Negulesco's experience as an
artist, which had provided him with a keen eye for effective shots and
the ability to set a scene to create atmosphere. Critic
Pauline Kael aptly commented that the
picture "had more mood than excitement". "The Mask of Dimitrios" was a
financial boon for Warner Brothers and led to further assignments for
its director.
Continuing in the same genre, Negulesco was tasked with two more films
starring Greenstreet and Lorre,
The Conspirators (1944) and
Three Strangers (1946). He also
directed John Garfield and
Joan Crawford in the brilliantly
moody melodrama Humoresque (1946).
This picture was in many ways a victory of style over content. The
maudlin tale of an up-and-coming young violinist and his stormy,
ultimately, ill-fated relationship with an unhappily married alcoholic
socialite, could have been hackneyed soap opera under a lesser talent.
However, Negulesco not only elicited electrifying performances from his
stars, but also gave the film an edgy look, as well as effectively
juxtaposing the ghetto background of the Garfield character with the
lush, high-society settings of Crawford's. Aided by
Ernest Haller's photography, a bitingly
clever screenplay conceived by
Clifford Odets and
Zachary Gold, and with
Franz Waxman's lavish orchestration of
music by Antonín Dvorák and
Richard Wagner, "Humoresque" was
another major hit with critics and public alike.
'Mood" was again at the center of the success pf
Johnny Belinda (1948), the story
of a deaf-mute who is raped, has a child and later kills her assailant.
Negulesco tackled what was at the time a taboo subject in films
(considered box-office poison) with restrained sentimentality.
Bosley Crowther pondered in his review
why Warners had undertaken the project in the first place, but gave
both it and its director an excellent appraisal (October 2, 1948).
Unfortunately, Warners did not concur and, though "Johnny Belinda" made
the studio $4 million, Negulesco was unceremoniously fired. He did have
the last laugh, however, being nominated for an Academy Award for Best
Director and seeing his star, Jane Wyman,
walking away with a Best Actress Oscar.
Between 1948 and 1958, Jean Negulesco became a contract director for
20th Century-Fox, a studio where he found the pace more to his liking.
His first assignment was
Road House (1948), another robust film
noir with a good cast, headed by Ida Lupino
and Richard Widmark. He then helmed the
realistic war drama
Three Came Home (1950), which
enjoyed good reviews by both "Variety" and the "New York Times". After
a brief interlude in England, directing the idiosyncratic comedy
The Mudlark (1950) with
Alec Guinness, Negulesco had a less
successful outing with his version of the sinking of the
Titanic (1953).
From 1953, Negulesco effectively reinvented himself as a director of
more commercial, glossy entertainments, beginning with the expensively
made and deliriously enjoyable comedy
How to Marry a Millionaire (1953).
With Marilyn Monroe at the peak of her
career, this was also one of the first pictures to be shot in
CinemaScope. Not necessarily a critical hit but a hugely popular
success was the Oscar-nominated
Three Coins in the Fountain (1954),
which was filmed on location in Rome and became another major hit for
its director. This was followed, in a similar vein, by the excellent
all-star Woman's World (1954).
Negulesco's variable output during the remainder of the decade ranged
from the CinemaScope musical
Daddy Long Legs (1955) to the
colorful
Boy on a Dolphin (1957), which
introduced Sophia Loren to American
audiences. Among Negulesco's notable failures during this period were
The Rains of Ranchipur (1955)
and The Gift of Love (1958).
In the late 1960s he moved to Marbella, Spain, to paint and to collect
art. He made three more films after 1963,
The Pleasure Seekers (1964),
The Invincible Six (1970) and
Hello-Goodbye (1970), which are
best forgotten.
Jean Negulesco reminisced about his Hollywood experiences in an
autobiography in 1984, "Things I Did...and Things I Think I Did". He
died in Marbella of a heart attack at the respectable age of 93.
popular entertainments as well as critically acclaimed dramatic
pictures in the 1940s and 1950s. Born in Craiova, Romania, he left home
at age 12, ending up in Paris. He earned some money washing dishes,
which paid for his art tuition, on the way to fulfilling his dream of
becoming a painter. World War I intervened, and he found himself in the
French army working in a field hospital on the Western Front. Returning
to Paris unscathed, he embarked on a more serious study of the arts,
learning to paint under the guidance of his émigré compatriot
Constantin Brâncusi (1876-1957), and
subsequently returned home to Romania. Proving himself an adept pupil,
Negulesco sold 150 of his paintings at his very first exhibition. Back
in Paris by the early 1920s, he discovered another outlet for his
creativity by working as a stage decorator.
In 1927, Negulesco took some of his paintings to New York in the hope
of finding a wider audience. He liked it and decided to stay.
Travelling across the US to California--all the while making money by
painting portraits--Negulesco took years to arrive at his destination.
In 1932, he was hired by Paramount Pictures (working for producer
Benjamin Glazer) for his first job in
the movie industry, as a sketch artist and technical advisor, notably
designing the rape scene in
The Story of Temple Drake (1933)
without violating the Hays Code. Persuaded by an art critic,
Elie Faure, to throw himself whole-heartedly
into film work, Negulesco then financed and directed his own
experimental project, "Three and a Day", starring
Mischa Auer. Studio executives liked the
picture and Negulesco advanced up the ladder to second-unit director,
working on
A Farewell to Arms (1932) and
(on loan to Warner Brothers)
The Sea Hawk. He served in
diverse capacities during the remainder of the decade, including
associate director, scenarist and original story writer. In 1940, he
was approached by Warner Brothers and signed to a contract (until 1948)
to direct shorts. Between 1941 and 1944, Negulesco turned out a string
of shorts, generally of a musical nature and often featuring popular
big bands, including those of Joe Reichman,
Freddy Martin and
Jan Garber.
Negulesco's road to directing feature films was a tortured one. He was
replaced by John Huston two months
into shooting
The Maltese Falcon (1941) and
suffered a similar fate with
Singapore Woman (1941). His big
break came when he landed the directing job for
The Mask of Dimitrios (1944),
a tale of international intrigue, based on the novel "A Coffin for
Dimitrios" by Eric Ambler. The film was
unusual in that it starred two character actors instead of romantic
leads. The story, already convoluted by many flashbacks, was therefore
not muddied further by built-in romantic angles not integral to the
plot. The two films noir experts at the center of the action,
Sydney Greenstreet and
Peter Lorre, contributed greatly to
the success of the venture. Likewise did Negulesco's experience as an
artist, which had provided him with a keen eye for effective shots and
the ability to set a scene to create atmosphere. Critic
Pauline Kael aptly commented that the
picture "had more mood than excitement". "The Mask of Dimitrios" was a
financial boon for Warner Brothers and led to further assignments for
its director.
Continuing in the same genre, Negulesco was tasked with two more films
starring Greenstreet and Lorre,
The Conspirators (1944) and
Three Strangers (1946). He also
directed John Garfield and
Joan Crawford in the brilliantly
moody melodrama Humoresque (1946).
This picture was in many ways a victory of style over content. The
maudlin tale of an up-and-coming young violinist and his stormy,
ultimately, ill-fated relationship with an unhappily married alcoholic
socialite, could have been hackneyed soap opera under a lesser talent.
However, Negulesco not only elicited electrifying performances from his
stars, but also gave the film an edgy look, as well as effectively
juxtaposing the ghetto background of the Garfield character with the
lush, high-society settings of Crawford's. Aided by
Ernest Haller's photography, a bitingly
clever screenplay conceived by
Clifford Odets and
Zachary Gold, and with
Franz Waxman's lavish orchestration of
music by Antonín Dvorák and
Richard Wagner, "Humoresque" was
another major hit with critics and public alike.
'Mood" was again at the center of the success pf
Johnny Belinda (1948), the story
of a deaf-mute who is raped, has a child and later kills her assailant.
Negulesco tackled what was at the time a taboo subject in films
(considered box-office poison) with restrained sentimentality.
Bosley Crowther pondered in his review
why Warners had undertaken the project in the first place, but gave
both it and its director an excellent appraisal (October 2, 1948).
Unfortunately, Warners did not concur and, though "Johnny Belinda" made
the studio $4 million, Negulesco was unceremoniously fired. He did have
the last laugh, however, being nominated for an Academy Award for Best
Director and seeing his star, Jane Wyman,
walking away with a Best Actress Oscar.
Between 1948 and 1958, Jean Negulesco became a contract director for
20th Century-Fox, a studio where he found the pace more to his liking.
His first assignment was
Road House (1948), another robust film
noir with a good cast, headed by Ida Lupino
and Richard Widmark. He then helmed the
realistic war drama
Three Came Home (1950), which
enjoyed good reviews by both "Variety" and the "New York Times". After
a brief interlude in England, directing the idiosyncratic comedy
The Mudlark (1950) with
Alec Guinness, Negulesco had a less
successful outing with his version of the sinking of the
Titanic (1953).
From 1953, Negulesco effectively reinvented himself as a director of
more commercial, glossy entertainments, beginning with the expensively
made and deliriously enjoyable comedy
How to Marry a Millionaire (1953).
With Marilyn Monroe at the peak of her
career, this was also one of the first pictures to be shot in
CinemaScope. Not necessarily a critical hit but a hugely popular
success was the Oscar-nominated
Three Coins in the Fountain (1954),
which was filmed on location in Rome and became another major hit for
its director. This was followed, in a similar vein, by the excellent
all-star Woman's World (1954).
Negulesco's variable output during the remainder of the decade ranged
from the CinemaScope musical
Daddy Long Legs (1955) to the
colorful
Boy on a Dolphin (1957), which
introduced Sophia Loren to American
audiences. Among Negulesco's notable failures during this period were
The Rains of Ranchipur (1955)
and The Gift of Love (1958).
In the late 1960s he moved to Marbella, Spain, to paint and to collect
art. He made three more films after 1963,
The Pleasure Seekers (1964),
The Invincible Six (1970) and
Hello-Goodbye (1970), which are
best forgotten.
Jean Negulesco reminisced about his Hollywood experiences in an
autobiography in 1984, "Things I Did...and Things I Think I Did". He
died in Marbella of a heart attack at the respectable age of 93.