Editing Mervyn LeRoy (section)

== Return to Warner Brothers: 1955–1959 ==

After completing his last production featuring [[Greer Garson]] in ''[[Strange Lady in Town]]'' (1955), LeRoy turned largely to adapting Broadway successes, serving as producer and director and often enlisting casts from the original stage productions.<ref>Barson, 2020: "He returned to Warner Brothers, where he both produced and directed ''Strange Lady in Town'' (1955) was a minor western starring Garson as a frontier doctor..."</ref><ref>Canham, 1976 p. 164:"LeRoy's work in the later half of the Fifties and Sixties has been largely confined to the adaptations of stage successes..."</ref>

=== ''Mister Roberts'' (1955) ===

Warners tasked LeRoy and [[Joshua Logan]] with completing [[Mister Roberts (1955 film)|''Mister Roberts'']] after the original director [[John Ford]] was hospitalized with a gallbladder disorder and removed from the production.<ref>Barson,2020: "LeRoy was asked to take over the service comedy ''Mister Robert''s (1955) from John Ford."</ref><ref>Flint, 1987: "In early 1955 Mr. LeRoy took over the just-begun ''Mister Roberts'' from the ailing John Ford.<br />Cady, 2004 TCM: "After exterior shooting was completed, Ford was hospitalized with a gallbladder attack. The day he went into hospital for surgery, he was replaced by Mervyn LeRoy."</ref> Ford's departure and substitution proved to be fortuitous. [[Henry Fonda]], who played the lead character, was a screen star in several Ford pictures, as well as the lead actor in the highly acclaimed, 1948 Broadway production of [[Mister Roberts (play)|''Mister Roberts'']]. Fonda had been at odds with Ford's film adaptation: the two engaged in a demoralizing contretemps that threatened to undermine the project.<ref>Barson, 2020: "LeRoy was asked to take over the service comedy ''Mister Roberts'' (1955) from John Ford, who was ill and had disagreed violently during shooting with Henry Fonda, the star of the original Broadway success."</ref><ref>Cady, 2004 TCM: "''Mister Roberts'' (1955)...but became popular when it hit Broadway as a stage play in 1948...The play starred movie actor Henry Fonda who had left Hollywood after making Fort Apache (1948) with director John Ford. For once, that turned out to be a wise decision, as the play became one of Broadway's most popular hits." And See Cady for description of conflict between Fonda and Ford: "The damage [between Fonda and Ford] was done and was irreparable."</ref>

''Mister Roberts'' enjoyed immense popular and financial film success for Warners and earned supporting actor [[Jack Lemmon]] his first Oscar.<ref>Flint, 1987: "Movie audiences loved ''Mister Roberts'', making it 1955's third-biggest box office hit."</ref><ref>Barson, 2020: ''Mister Roberts'' "was a major box-office hit and was Oscar nominated as best picture. For the rest of his career, LeRoy made a specialty of adapting Broadway hits."</ref>