Editing Michael Curtiz (section)

=== Director ===
He worked as Mihály Kertész at the National Hungarian Theater in 1912.<ref name=Rosenzweig>Rosenzweig, Sidney. ''Casablanca and Other Major Films of Michael Curtiz''. Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1982. {{ISBN|0835713040}}</ref>{{rp|5}} and was a member of the Hungarian fencing team at the [[1912 Summer Olympics|Olympic Games]] in Stockholm. Kertész directed Hungary's first feature film, ''[[Today and Tomorrow (1912 film)|Today and Tomorrow]]'' (''Ma és holnap'', 1912), in which he also had a leading role. He followed that with another film, '' [[The Last Bohemian (1912 film)|The Last Bohemian]]'' (''Az utolsó bohém'', also 1912).<ref name=Vasvari>Vasvári, Louise Olga, ed. Portuges, Caterine. "Curtiz, Hungarian Cinema, and Hollywood",  ''Comparative Hungarian Cultural Studies'', Purdue Univ. Press (2011)</ref>{{rp|163}}

Curtiz began living in various cities in Europe to work on silent films in 1913. He first went to study at [[Nordisk Film|Nordisk studio]] in [[Denmark]], which led to work as an actor and assistant director to [[August Blom]] on Denmark's first multireel feature film, ''[[Atlantis (1913 film)|Atlantis]]'' (1913).<ref name=Britannica>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Michael-Curtiz Biography of Michael Curtiz], ''Encyclopædia Britannica''</ref>

[[File:Moon-of-Israel-poster-FBO.jpg|thumb|Movie poster, 1924]]
After [[World War I]] began in 1914, he returned to Hungary, where he served in the army for a year, before he was wounded fighting on the Russian front.<ref name=Britannica /><ref name=Gutterman /> Curtiz wrote of that period:
{{blockquote|The intoxicating joy of life was interrupted, the world had gone mad ... We were taught to kill. I was drafted into the Emperor's Army ... After that, many things happened: destruction, thousands forever silenced, crippled or sent to anonymous graves. Then came the collapse [of Austria-Hungary]. Fate had spared me.<ref name=Marton />{{rp|22}}}}

He was assigned to make fund-raising documentaries for the [[Red Cross]] in Hungary.<ref name=Britannica /> In 1917, he was made director of production at Phoenix Films, the leading studio in Budapest, where he remained until he left Hungary.<ref name=Wakeman />{{rp|173}} However, none of the films he directed there survive intact, and most are completely lost.<ref name=Wakeman />{{rp|173}}

By 1918, he had become one of Hungary's most important directors,<ref name=Britannica /> having by then directed about 45 films.<ref name=Vasvari />{{rp|163}} However, following the end of the war, in 1919, the new [[Hungarian Soviet Republic|communist government]] nationalized the film industry, so he decided to return to [[Vienna]] to direct films there.<ref name=Britannica />

Curtiz briefly worked at [[UFA GmbH]], a German film company, where he learned to direct large groups of costumed extras, along with using complicated plots, rapid pacing, and romantic themes.<ref name=Vasvari /> His career truly started due to his work for Count [[Alexander Kolowrat]] (known as Sascha), with whom he made at least 21 films for the count's film studio, [[Sascha Films]]. Curtiz later wrote that at Sascha, he "learned the basic laws of film art, which, in those days, had progressed further in Vienna than anywhere else."<ref name=Wakeman />{{rp|173}}

Among the films he directed were Biblical epics such as ''[[Sodom und Gomorrha]]'' (1922) and ''[[Die Sklavenkönigin]]'' (1924) (titled ''[[Moon of Israel]]'' in the U.S.).<ref name=Britannica /> He also made ''Red Heels'' (1925) and ''The Golden Butterfly'' (1926),<ref name=TCM /> and once directed 14-year-old [[Greta Garbo]] in Sweden.<ref name=Tennessee /> During this period, he tended to specialize in directing two kinds of films, either sophisticated light comedies or historical spectaculars.<ref name=Wakeman />{{rp|173}} He launched the career of [[Lucy Doraine]], who went on to become an international star, along with that of [[Lili Damita]], who later married [[Errol Flynn]].<ref name=Wakeman />{{rp|173}}

{{quote box|align=left|width=25em|bgcolor = MistyRose|quote=I was laid in the aisles by Curtiz's camera work ... [by] shots and angles that were pure genius.|source=– [[Jack L. Warner]], after watching ''Moon of Israel''<ref name=Pontuso />{{rp|136}}}}

''[[The Moon of Israel]]'' (1924) was a spectacle of the enslavement of the children of Israel and their miraculous deliverance by way of the Red Sea. Shot in Vienna with a cast of 5,000, it had for its theme the love story of an Israelite maiden and an Egyptian prince.<ref name=Vasvari />{{rp|163}} [[Paramount Pictures]] in the U.S. bought the rights to the film to compete with [[Cecil B. DeMille]]'s [[The Ten Commandments (1923 film)|''The Ten Commandments'']]. However, ''The Moon of Israel'' caught the attention of [[Jack L. Warner|Jack]] and [[Harry Warner]], and Harry went to Europe in 1926 just to meet Curtiz and watch him work as director.{{efn|Some sources state that Jack L. Warner, Harry's younger brother, was who offered Curtiz a contract. In either case, Curtiz initially wanted to throw him off the set while he was working, since visitors made him nervous.<ref name=Courier>Graham, Sheilah. "Hollywood Today," ''The Courier-Journal'' (Louisville, Kentucky) September 29, 1946, p. 31</ref>}}

The Warners were impressed that Curtiz had developed a unique visual style which was strongly influenced by [[German Expressionism]], with high crane shots and unusual camera angles. The film also showed that Curtiz was fond of including romantic melodrama "against events of vast historical importance, for driving his characters to crises and forcing them to make moral decisions," according to Rosenzweig.<ref name=Pontuso />{{rp|136}} He offered Curtiz a contract to be a director at his new film studio in Hollywood, [[Warner Bros.]], where he would direct a similar epic that had been planned, ''[[Noah's Ark (1928 film)|Noah's Ark]]'' (1928).<ref name=Britannica /><ref name=arkvid>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2XmHBnwmss ''Noah's Ark'' movie trailer (1928)]</ref> By the time Curtiz accepted Warner's offer, he was already a prolific director, having made 64 films in countries including Hungary, Austria, and Denmark.<ref name=Leonard>Leonard, Suzanne; [[Tasker, Yvonne]], ''Fifty Hollywood Directors'', Routledge (2015)</ref>{{rp|3}}