Editing Mervyn LeRoy (section)

== Director at M-G-M: 1940–1949 ==

The onset of war in Europe in 1939 created anxiety in the Hollywood film industry as the overseas movie market contracted and currency restrictions mounted in Great Britain. Hollywood studios implemented salary reductions and limits on film content were imposed, particularly at M-G-M. Film historians [[Charles Higham (biographer)|Charles Higham]] and Joel Greenberg describe these developments persisting "almost to the end of the decade":

{{blockquote|At [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|Metro]], the idea was to concentrate on nice people involved in heartbreak, finding their happiness at last in each others arms, and all in settings of an idealized and antiseptic beauty: an England full of sunshine and [[chintz]] and doves, an America full of white fences and rambler roses around the door. Hagiographies of inventors and reformers glowed with optimistic charm…<ref>Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 7-8</ref>}}

Critic Andrew Sarris disparages the "sentimental piety and conformist cant" that characterized M-G-M studios, as well as Warner Brothers in [[Classical Hollywood cinema|Hollywood's Golden Age]]<ref>Sarris, year, Oxford University Press</ref>

LeRoy limited himself to directing features at M-G-M for the next 9 years, delivering 11 pictures. The quality of his output during this period is generally viewed as a decline creatively compared to his early work at Warner Brothers during the Thirties.<ref>Whiteley, 2020: "LeRoy's time at MGM was noteworthy for the change in the emphasis and genres of his movies. After the hard hitting social commentaries of his Warners career he began creating classic romantic dramas such as ''Waterloo Bridge''"</ref><ref>Georgaris. 2020: "In 1938 LeRoy switched to MGM and turned his hand to glossier, and, for the most part, less satisfactory fare." (The Virgin International Encyclopedia of Film, 1992) And: "If his late films seem somewhat slack, he more than made up for it with his early social dramas [at Warner Brothers], which remain some of the most riveting examples of early Hollywood sound cinema." (Wheeler Winston Dixon, 501 Movie Directors, 2007) And : "LeRoy's reputation declined somewhat after WWII, when he turned out a string of mediocre entertainment films for MGM, but it revived when he returned to Warners in the mid-50s." (The MacMillan International Film Encyclopedia, 1994). And: "He went about as far as it was possible for a contract director to go during the peak studio years of the 30s and 40s and, when the 50s decline set in, he attempted to continue as an independent producer-director for a time, albeit with only varying degrees of success." (Joel W. Finler, The Movie Director's Story, 1985)<br />Feaster, 2004 TCM: " When he moved to MGM, LeRoy turned his talents to directing high production romances and melodramas including Random Harvest (1942), Little Women (1949) and Blossoms in the Dust, which some of his critics construed as a loss of interest in social issues."</ref>

He resumed directorial duties with an adaptation of [[Robert E. Sherwood]]'s romantic play [[Waterloo Bridge (play)|''Waterloo Bridge'']] (1930).<ref>Landazuri, 2003. TCM: "...a remake of the popular Robert Sherwood tearjerker..."</ref><ref>Barson, 2020: "Finally, in 1940, LeRoy stepped behind the camera again. His first picture was ''Waterloo Bridge'', adapted from the Robert E. Sherwood play about a London dancer (Vivian Leigh) and a soldier (Robert Taylor) who fall in love during an air raid.</ref>

=== ''Waterloo Bridge'' (1940) ===

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased the rights to [[Waterloo Bridge (play)|''Waterloo Bridge'']] from [[Universal Pictures|Universal Studios]], which had produced an adaptation filmed in 1931 by [[James Whale]] and starring [[Mae Clarke]] as the [[fallen woman]], Myra.<ref>Landazuri, 2003. TCM: Filmed by James Whale at Universal, with Mae Clarke giving the best performance of her career as Myra. It would be remade as [[Gaby (film)|Gaby]] (1956), starring [[Leslie Caron]]."</ref><ref>LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 146</ref>

LeRoy's [[Waterloo Bridge (1940 film)|''Waterloo Bridge'']] (1940), served as a vehicle to capitalize upon the meteoric rise of [[Vivien Leigh]], heroine of [[David O. Selznick]]'s epic [[Gone with the Wind (film)|''Gone with the Wind'']] (1939). In a period when foreign markets were in jeopardy, profitable films were at a premium.<ref>Baxter, 1970 p. 85: The 1940 ''Waterloo Bridge'' a LeRoy "money-spinner" for Metro.<br />Canham, 1976 p. 153-155: See here for Canham plot analysis and praise for acting: Though a "soap opera [it] stands on the strength of its casting...so much depends on the strength and conviction of the cast in terms of winning modern audience response."<br />Higham and Greenberg 1968 p. 172-173: Higham and Greenberg describe the performance of "the leading players [Leigh and Taylor]...appalling, but the film has considerable visual charm."</ref>

A silent film era technician and director in his early Hollywood career, LeRoy utilized silent film methods to film a key nightclub love scene with Leigh and costar [[Robert Taylor (American actor)|Robert Taylor]]. LeRoy describes his epiphany:

{{blockquote |No dialogue!...No dialogue at all!...I realized at that moment what all silent directors had always known...in great emotional moments, there are no words. A look, a gesture, a touch can convey much more meaning than spoken sentences [and] that's the way we played the scene...<ref>Landazuri, 2003: "Director Mervyn Leroy, who had begun his career in silent films, knew when to let the images tell the story without dialogue, and his touch is evident in the memorable scene in the nightclub." And: Landazuri quotes from LeRoy's memoir re: "a look, a gesture..."<br />LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 146-147: LeRoy: "the scene was one of those times when silence was more expressive than dialogue." See p. 147 for full quote.</ref><ref>Higham and Greenberg 1968 p. 172-173: Higham and Greenberg praise the "visual charm...of the lover's candlelit dance…" in the mostly silent restaurant scene.</ref>}}

LeRoy directed Robert Taylor, [[Norma Shearer]] and [[Conrad Veidt]] in the 1940 [[Escape (1940 film)|''Escape'']], the first of a number of anti-Nazi features suppressed by [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] and which ultimately led to the banning of all M-G-M pictures in Germany.<ref>Johnson, 2002. TCM: "Based on a popular 1939 novel by [[Ethel Vance]], Escape (1940) was one of MGM's first anti-Nazi films."</ref><ref>Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 98: LeRoy's anti-nazi film "Escape was equally crude as [[Frank Borzage]]'s ''[[The Mortal Storm]]'' (1940), and even less effective..."<br />Johnson, 2002 TCM: "Hitler banned Escape in Germany for its critical depiction of the country. When MGM continued making anti-Nazi films, Hitler eventually banned all MGM films."<br />Canham, 1976 p. 155: "...part of the anti-German propaganda which characterized American films...before Pearl Harbor."</ref>

=== The Greer Garson pictures ===

LeRoy completed four features with English actress [[Greer Garson]], an enormously profitable property cultivated by M-G-M to appeal to their British markets during WWII.<ref>Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 105: "...Metro seemed especially (and shewdly, in view of the British market) imbued with [[Anglophilia]]...with Greer Garson supplying the stiff upper lip..."</ref><ref>Miller, 2009 TCM: "With [Random Harvest] and ''[[Mrs. Miniver]]'', 1942 was definitely "The Year of Greer," as some industry insiders dubbed it...the combined success of both films made her the top female star on the MGM lot, a position she would hold through the '40s."</ref><ref>Arnold, 2012 TCM: "[Garson] had been discovered by Louis B. Mayer in London in 1938."</ref>

'''''[[Blossoms in the Dust]]''''' (1941): The screenplay by [[Anita Loos]] portrays the struggle by social reformer [[Edna Gladney]] to redeem children stigmatized by [[Legitimacy (family law)|illegitimacy]]. Termed "highly romanticized" and "shamelessly sentimental" by film historian Kingley Canham,<ref>Canham, 1976 p. 157<br />Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 91: "Mervyn LeRoy's ''Blossoms in the Dust'' (1941) was an exquisitely designed production (photographed jointly in Technicolor by [[Karl Freund]] and [[Alfred E. Green]]) in which [[Greer Garson]] played Mrs. [[Edna Gladney]], a Texas woman who did much to remove the nineteenth-century social stigma from illegitimate children. [[Anita Loos]]'s script played free with the fact and was shamelessly sentimental, but the film nevertheless had a real feeling for the subject. As a soap opera-cum-message picture, discreetly directed and bathed in lovely pastel colors, it yielded much enjoyment."</ref> LeRoy defended the picture as virtuous and socially significant:

{{blockquote |''Blossoms in the Dust'' began my association with Greer Garson...the picture made an immediate and profound contribution to the world we live in. Between it and [[I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang|Fugitive]], I think I have contributed toward making this a better country.<ref>LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 148-149</ref>}}

The pairing of Garson with [[Walter Pidgeon]] proved particularly appealing to their fans. They would appear together in a number of pictures, including LeRoy's 1943 biopic of [[Madame Curie]].<ref>Feaster, 2004 TCM: "Garson and Pidgeon were such a successful onscreen couple in Blossoms that they were soon paired in a number of romantic films including the enormously popular ''Mrs. Miniver'' (1942), ''Madame Curie'' (1943) and Mrs. Parkington (1944).</ref><ref>Passafiume, 2007 TCM: "...Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon went on to make [six] more features together; they were teamed on the screen a total of nine times."</ref>

As LeRoy's first color film, ''Blossoms in the Dust'' demonstrates an aesthetically pleasing and an adroit handling of the new [[Technicolor]] technology.<ref>Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 91: "...an exquisitely designed production filmed by...[[Karl Freund]]...discreetly directed and bathed in lovely pastel colors..."</ref>

'''[[Random Harvest (film)|''Random Harvest'']]''' (1942): LeRoy and producer [[Sydney Franklin]] paired Garson with fellow Briton [[Ronald Colman]] in a romance that dramatizes clinical amnesia suffered by a WWI combat veteran.<ref>Miller, 2009 TCM: "''Random Harvest'' is often cited as one of Hollywood's all-time greatest tearjerkers. It's also considered the definitive treatment of amnesia in a romantic film."</ref> Garson's genteel and largely desexualized screen image – "M-G-M's First Lady of Saintly Virtue" – favored by [[Louis B. Mayer]], is countered by LeRoy's less inhibited Garson as the "impulsive Scottish lass" Paula.<ref>Canham, 1976 p. 157: "Genteel" and "Saintly Virtue" And p. 181: Garson's "impulsive Scottish lass."</ref>

LeRoy's leisurely narrative pace, the lavishness of the settings, the fulsome musical score and the balanced editing demonstrate his embrace of M-G-M production values and distinguishing the stylish ''Random Harvest'' from his work at Warner Brothers.<ref>Canham, 1976 p. 159-160</ref>

'''[[Madame Curie (film)|''Madame Curie'']]''' (1943): Apropos LeRoy's "lavish and lengthy biography"<ref>Canham, 1976 p. 181</ref> portraying the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Nobel prize-winning]] scientist [[Marie Curie]],<ref>Passafiume, 2007 TCM: "Marie Curie was the first woman in France to receive a Ph.D., the first woman ever to receive a Nobel Prize, and the first person ever to receive two Nobel Prizes."</ref> critics Higham and Greenberg make these observations:

{{blockquote |With money rolling in and attendance at all time highs, studios in the Forties could afford to indulge in [[Prestige picture|'prestige productions']] as never before. Lives of the great and famous proved, as always, tempting material: authors, saints, politicians, scientists, inventors and tycoons received solid if none too accurate tributes…<ref>Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 117 And p. 172: "Nearly all of Greer Garson's pictures were unbearably glutinous...Madame Curie (1943) a preposterous version of the great scientist's life story..."</ref>}}

LeRoy and producer [[Sidney Franklin (director)|Sydney Franklin]] made a genuine effort to make the "highbrow" subject of the film – the heroic discovery of [[radium]] isotopes – engaging to the public, resorting to romanticizing and simplifying the topic.<ref>Passafiume, 2007 TCM: "The biggest challenge for making a movie of ''Madame Curie'' was in making the unlikely subject of the discovery of radium interesting and entertaining for audiences." And quotes from LeRoy's autobiography. Also: "Franklin very much wanted to keep the events in the film as historically and scientifically accurate as possible...he brought in Dr. Rudolph MeyerLanger, a physicist from [[California Institute of Technology|Cal Tech]], as an official technical advisor.</ref><ref>LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 151: ""I didn't let a scene go by unless I understood it myself..."</ref>

''Madame Curie'' was one of nine pictures in which Garson was cast with leading man Pidgeon. Married to [[Buddy Fogelson]], Garson earned the title "the daytime Mrs. Pidgeon" on M-G-M sets.<ref>Feaster, 2004 TCM: "Their film match-ups proved so reliable Garson was referred to on the MGM lot as 'the daytime Mrs. Pidgeon.'"</ref><ref>LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 117: "...Fogelson, Greer Garson's husband..."</ref>

'''''[[Desire Me]]''''' (1946): LeRoy attempted to reshoot an uncompleted [[George Cukor]] project starring Garson and [[Robert Mitchum]], ''Desire Me'', but abandoned the film, disparaging the "rotten script, a script that made absolutely no sense.". Neither Cukor nor LeRoy appeared in the credits.<ref>LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 196: LeRoy: "...I tried my best to make something out of it, but I failed...It was a botch...It was the only major film ever issued with a director's credet."</ref><ref>Arnold, 2012 TCM: "LeRoy also worked, uncredited, on the Garson film Desire Me, 1947, a film released without any directing credit."</ref>

'''''[[Strange Lady in Town]]''''' (1955): LeRoy's first film after returning to [[Warner Bros.|Warner Brothers]] studios as a director-producer. Garson, passed over by M-G-M to star as opera diva [[Marjorie Lawrence]] in [[Interrupted Melody]] (1955), signed with Warners to make ''Strange Lady in Town'', a western set in [[Santa Fe, New Mexico]] and endowed to Garson's satisfaction "with horses and sunsets." [[Dana Andrews]] co-stars.<ref>Arnold, 2012 TCM: "Garson was crushed...After that, she left the studio [M-G-M] and signed with Warner Bros. in early 1954 to make Strange Lady in Town." And: Garson: "...a richly corny period story which interested me particularly because I've been a carpet actress all my life in Hollywood...I wanted to do an outdoor role, one with horses and sunsets."</ref>

=== Wartime propaganda: 1944–1945 ===

In the final years of [[World War II]], LeRoy directed propaganda films dramatizing the American war efforts at home and overseas.<ref>Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 96: See Chapter 6, "War Propaganda" And: p. 110: "With U.S. involvement in the Pacific after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese...became prime targets for the Hollywood propaganda machine..."</ref><ref>Canham, 1976 p. 160: "LeRoy turned his hand to war-time propaganda with ''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo''..."</ref>

'''''[[Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo]]''''' (1944) recounts the 1942 U.S. bombing mission over Tokyo by sixteen [[B-25]]s, coordinated by Lieutenant-Colonel [[James H. Doolittle]] (played by [[Spencer Tracy]]). LeRoy employs flashbacks in an effort to present the personal lives of the airmen and their spouses, including an emotionally wrought scene in which the wounded Lieutenant [[Ted W. Lawson]] (played by [[Van Johnson]]) has his leg amputated.<ref>Canham, 1976 p. 160: "...relying on embarrassing flashbacks [that appear] delirious, or in the amputation sequence...the emotionalism is probably quite valid...but it is so overplayed that it is difficult to take seriously..."</ref><ref>Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 111: LeRoy's "''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'', written by [[Dalton Trumbo]]...a tedious, tendentious affair, its avowed morale-boosting aim was to emphasize the close cooperation between army and navy that made the Tokyo raid possible and – ironically in view of later developments- to foster closer relations 'between the American people and their courageous Chinese allies." And: "...soporific"</ref>

Conceived as a morale-builder for the [[United States home front during World War II|homefront]], ''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'', with a script written by [[Dalton Trumbo]] "lacks the scope and organization" and compares unfavorably to director [[John Cromwell (director)|John Cromwell]]'s 1943 [[Since You Went Away]] according to critic Kingsley Canham.<ref>Canham, 1976 p. 160: "An exceptionally long film, it tries to cover similar ground as Cromwell's Since You Went Away...but Trumbo's script lacks the scope and organization of [[David O. Selznick]]'s..."</ref><ref>Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 111: "...avowed moral-boosting aim..." And p.113: See here praise for Cromwell's Since You Went Away as a "masterpiece" despite its "idiotic sentiments."</ref><ref>Miller, 2011 TCM: Miller disagrees: "Dalton Trumbo's screenplay is considered the best of his work before he was blacklisted in 1947.</ref> The rescue sequences of the downed American flyers' by Chinese guerrillas was designed "to foster closer relations 'between the American People and their courageous Chinese allies'" and includes a scene with Chinese children at a mission hospital honoring the airmen with a rendition of [[Katherine Lee Bates]]' patriotic anthem [[America the Beautiful]].<ref>Canham, 1976 p. 160: Canham reports song as "America", assumed here to be the song derived from Bates' 1895 poem.</ref><ref>Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 111: Praise for Chinese allies "ironic in view of later developments..."</ref>

'''[[The House I Live In (1945 film)|''The House I Live In'']]''' (1945), Documentary short: LeRoy reports in his memoir ''Take One'' that [[Frank Sinatra]] approached him in 1945 with the idea of making a short movie version based on the song by [[Abel Meeropol]] ''The House I Live In''. LeRoy thought it a worthy project and "a good thing to do during the wartime years." The script was written by [[Albert Maltz]] and produced by [[Frank Ross (producer)|Frank Ross]] and LeRoy, who also directed.<ref>LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 155-156: NOTE that entries on this page do not appear in Take One index under ''The House I Live In''</ref><ref>Canham, 1976 p. 181-182: "Leroy produced an Academy Award winning documentary short called The House I Live In collaboration with [[Frank Ross (producer)|Frank Ross]].I t was directed as [[Axel Stordahl]]."</ref><ref>Barson, 2020: "Another exercise in patriotism was a documentary short about religious tolerance, ''The House I Live In'' (1945), written by Albert Maltz (later of the Hollywood Ten), with Frank Sinatra delivering the message."</ref>

''The House I Live In'' garnered LeRoy a special Oscar for his role as producer in the short film, the only Academy Award he would ever receive.<ref>Barson, 2020: "LeRoy, Maltz, Sinatra, and three others won a special Oscar for the film; it was the only Oscar LeRoy would ever receive."</ref><ref>Weil, 1987: "In 1945 he made ''The House I Live In'', starring Frank Sinatra. Mr. LeRoy's first documentary, it won a special Academy Award.``</ref> In appreciation for LeRoy's contributions to ''The House I Live In,'' Frank Sinatra presented him with a medallion bearing the Jewish Star of David on one side and a Saint Christopher medal on the obverse.<ref>LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 174</ref>