Editing Mervyn LeRoy (section)

== Warner Brothers: 1930–1939 ==

LeRoy embarked on a period of enormous productivity and inventiveness at Warner Studios, creating "some the most polished and ambitious" films of the Thirties. His only rival at Warner's was fellow director [[Michael Curtiz]]. Film historian John Baxter observes:

{{blockquote |Warners films were the most perfectly economical exercises in cinematic mechanics of which Hollywood was capable. There was no fat on them, either as art or entertainment...as a filmmaking tool, it functioned best in the hands of two great directors, Mervyn LeRoy and Michael Curtiz.<ref>Baxter, 1968 p. 71-72</ref>}}

In the studio's competitive crucible produced by the [[Great Depression]] demanding profitable entertainment, LeRoy directed 36 pictures during the decade (Curtiz filmed an astounding 44 features during the same period). Baxter adds: "No genius could function without variation under such pressure."<ref>Baxter, 1968 p. 10: "[[Michael Curtiz]] made 44 films between 1930 and 1939, Mervyn LeRoy 36, [[John Ford]] 26..."</ref><ref>Canham, 1976 p. 136: Warner Brothers "prolific output"</ref> The social perspective of films favored at Warner Brothers was distinct from those of its chief rivals: [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] (M-G-M), uncontested for its "technical virtuosity" aimed to serve "middle-class tastes" and [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount studios]] identified for its "sophisticated dialogue and baroque settings" that catered to European sensibilities.<ref>Baxter, 1970 p. 22: M-G-M "uncontested" in this regard. And p. 46: Paramount's European orientation discussed, re: sister studio UFA in Berlin And p. 69: Paramount "upper class" and M-G-M "middle class"<nr>Sarris: M-G-M's "middle-brow tastes" and "the timidity of the content" after 1934. And: Paramount's "tradition of elegance" and its "Europeanized sensibilities".</ref> In contrast, Warner Brothers films carried themes appealing to the working classes.<ref>Georgaris, 2020: quoted in TSPDT: "LeRoy did his best work at Warner Bros. in the 1930s, turning out a string of gritty realistic films which reflected the hardships of Depression-era America..."</ref>
LeRoy biographer Kingsley Canham writes:

{{blockquote |The topicality of Warner's material and its direct appeal to the working classes set it apart from other studios. What their films lacked in gloss in comparison to M-G-M or the sophistication of Paramount was more than adequately compensated for by their presentation of everyday material...the working classes could identify with people, the situations and surroundings...<ref>Canham, 1976 p. 139 And p. 149: "...the average Warner film ran seventy to eighty minutes..."</ref>}}

LeRoy's output in the early Thirties was prodigious. The director attests to the rate of film production at the studios:
{{quote box|width=30em|bgcolor=cornsilk|fontsize=100%|salign=center|quote="If the poorer [[Michael Curtiz|Curtiz]] films are disappointing, LeRoy's failures are impossible to watch. When his initial concept was faulty or failed through heavy-handed scripting he could be as banal as [[Henry King (director)|Henry King]] at his worst. It needed a firm central theme to sustain LeRoy, a solid anchor for his speculation, and it was when he had this that his films reached heights at least as lofty as those scaled by Curtiz." – Biographer John Baxter, from his ''Hollywood in the Thirties'' (1970)<ref>Baxter, 1970 p. 79:</ref>}}
{{blockquote| ...While the world was struggling out of [[the Depression]], I turned out film after film after film. It was a period of tremendous activity for me —- and for Hollywood in general...I threw myself into my work...we had to keep working to stay up with the demand. The public was voracious in its appetite for movies...Neighborhood theaters had double features, and the bill usually changed twice a week. That means they were showing four new pictures a week, 208 a year, and that's only one theater.<ref name="LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 115">LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 115</ref>}}

LeRoy admits in retrospect that "I shot them so often and so fast that they tend to blend together in my memory."<ref name="LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 115" /><ref>Sarris, 1998:"A Warners [[B picture]] seldom ran more than seventy minutes. MGM and Paramount production values padded their Bs to the eighty- and ninety-minute mark without adding anything of substance or originality."</ref>

LeRoy's social realism mocked corrupt politicians, bankers and the idle rich, while celebrating the [[Depression Era]] experiences of "hard-working chorus girls...taxi-drivers and bell-hops struggling to make ends meet in the brawl of New York...gloss and polish were considered useless affectation."<ref>Baxter, 1968 p. 69<br />Canham, 1976 p. 139</ref><ref>Weil, 1987: "Through the 1930s, he directed many of the fast-paced melodramas that gave the Warner Bros. studio a reputation for films embodying hard-grained social realism."<br />Sarris, 1998: "Not for Warners were the longueurs of MGM and the polish of Paramount. A Warners' B picture seldom ran more than seventy minutes. MGM and Paramount production values padded their Bs to the eighty- and ninety-minute mark without adding anything of substance or originality.<br />Flint, 1987: "Mr. LeRoy was a keen, adaptable director who made mostly taut, punchy, socially critical films at Warner Brothers for a decade..."</ref>

=== Gangster genre: ''Little Caesar'', 1930 ===

{{quote box|width=30em|bgcolor=cornsilk|fontsize=100%|salign=center|quote="'''Mother of mercy—Is this the last of Rico?''' <br />—Iconic last words of fictional mob boss Enrico Bandello in "Little Caesar"<ref>Baxter, 1968 p. 79-80</ref><ref>LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 93-94</ref>}}
LeRoy first departed from his comedy-romance themed films with his drama ''[[Numbered Men]]'' (1930), a character study of convicts shot on location at [[San Quentin State Prison|San Quentin]] prison. The depiction of criminal elements had enjoyed popularity with [[Josef von Sternberg]]'s silent classic [[Underworld (1927 film)|''Underworld'']] (1927), a fantasy treatment of his lone [[Byronic hero|Byronic]] gangster "Bull" Weed.<ref>Kutner, 2011: "Josef von Sternberg's Underworld (1927)... with its light-hearted gangster protagonist, is a veritable romp" compared to LeRoy's subsequent film noir efforts.</ref><ref>Flint, 1987: LeRoy "became a director to watch when he filmed ''Little Caesar,'' a riveting 1930 expose of a vicious mobster (Edward G. Robinson). The movie rocked the nation and spawned a spate of gangster films. "<br />Sarris, 1966 p. 15</ref> The gangster film as a genre was not achieved until LeRoy's 1930 [[Little Caesar (film)|''Little Caesar'']], starring [[Edward G. Robinson]], the first time that "any real attempt was made by Hollywood to describe the brutal reality of the criminal world."<ref>Baxter, 1971. p. 39: "...it was not until Little Caesar and The Big House (1931) that any real attempt was made by Hollywood to describe the brutal reality of the criminal world."<br />Sarris, 1966. p. 15-16: Sternberg's Underworld "...&nbsp;steers clear of sociological implications of his material. ... " and "law and order ... never related to society but rather to an implacable Fate ..."</ref>

LeRoy's ''Little Caesar'' established the iconography of subsequent films on organized crime, emphasizing the hierarchy of family loyalties and the function of violence in advancing criminal careers.<ref>Barson, 2020: " then came ''Little Caesar'' (1931), the film that made LeRoy's reputation, with Edward G. Robinson as a Capone-like crime czar. It stands as one of the seminal gangster pictures, along with [[William Wellman]]'s ''[[The Public Enemy]]'' (1931) and [[Howard Hawks]]'s [[Scarface (932 film)|''Scarface'']]).<br />Whiteley, 2020: "In 1931 he confirmed his rising star status with two important films, the Oscar-nominated 'Five Star Final' and the influential gangster classic 'Little Caesar', starring Edward G Robinson, which marked the start of a succession of gangster films made by the Warner Bros studio."</ref> LeRoy's adroit cinematic handling of Robinson's Rico incrementally shifts initial audience response from revulsion at the character's homicidal acts to a "grudging admiration" that provides for a measure of sympathy when the gangster meets his sordid death in a back alley.<ref>Baxter, 1976 p. 79-80: "...begins as criticism and modulates to grudging admiration...until we find ourselves distressed by his death in a back alley...moved by his final bemused words 'My God [sic], is this the end of Rico?'"</ref> LeRoy recalled the topicality of his subject in 1930: "[[Al Capone]] was a household word and the [[Saint Valentine's Day Massacre]] had happened only a year before."<ref>LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 97</ref>

LeRoy further demonstrated his talent for delivering fast-paced and competently executed social commentary and entertainment with ''[[Five Star Final]]'' (1931), an exposé of tabloid journalism, and ''[[Two Seconds]]'' (1932), a "vicious and disenchanted" [[cautionary tale]] of a death row inmate, each starring Robinson.<ref>Canham, 1974 p. 142-143: Robinson's "''tour-de-force''" performance in ''Two Seconds''..."<br />Weil, 1987: "Through the 1930s, he directed many of the fast-paced melodramas that gave the Warner Bros. studio a reputation for films embodying hard-grained social realism.</ref><ref>Baxter, 1970 p. 80: Notes on Two Seconds: "Warners...provided LeRoy with a strongly biased towards social comment. The premise is disturbing." And p. 81: "...vicious and disenchanted..."<br />Safford, 2005 TMC: "Five Star Final (1931)...addressed a different type of social problem – tabloid journalism...[an] exploitative mix of personal tragedies, prurient interest and rumors as facts, often destroying lives and careers in the process..."<br />Wood, 2009 TMC: In Two Seconds " a condemned criminal [former construction worker] whose life unfolds in flashback at the moment of his electrocution."<br />Baxter, 1970: "...Vicious...unrelieved in its dark mood..."</ref>

=== ''I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang'' (1932) ===

Warner Brothers' most explosive social critique of the 1930s appeared with LeRoy's ''[[I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang]]'', dramatizing the harsh penal codes in [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] and starring [[Paul Muni]] as the hunted fugitive James Allen.<ref>Flint, 1987: The film an "explosive drama"..." <br />Baxter, 1968: "a ruthless attack on social injustice..."</ref><ref>LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 pp. 111=112: LeRoy on film's condemnation of the Georgia penal system: "I was just the instrument through which the [film] industry acted..."</ref><ref>Whiteley, 2020: "His new fame was secured by {{'}}''I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang''{{'}}, in 1932, a compelling movie based on a true story, starring Paul Muni, and which created a political storm when it came out, leading to major legal and penal reforms" [in Georgia].</ref>

Historian John Baxter observes that "no director has managed to close his film on so cold a note as LeRoy." Muni's escaped convict, falsely condemned to hard labor, is reduced to furtive prey: Asked by his estranged sweetheart "how do you get along, how do you live?" he hisses "I steal" and retreats into the night.<ref>Baxter, 1970 p. 80: Baxter describes the "hissed" exchange between Muni and actress [[Glenda Farrell]].<br />Barson, 2020: "One of LeRoy's most notable films was I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), a blistering adaptation of [[Robert E. Burns]]'s account of his horrible experiences in a Georgia prison camp. The film and Paul Muni's harrowing portrayal of the unjustly imprisoned convict were nominated for Academy Awards.</ref>
Muni continued to work effectively with LeRoy in ''[[The World Changes]]'' (1933) with [[Aline MacMahon]] and in ''[[Hi, Nellie!]]'' (1934) with [[Glenda Farrell]].<ref>Canham, 1976 p. 143: "Muni's...outstanding performances under LeRoy's direction..."</ref><ref>Baxter, 1970 p. 84: The World Changes "tedious in the extreme, but competently executed [despite the] wretched script...a feeble story."<br />Carr, 2014 TMC<br />Axmaker, 2014 TMC</ref><ref>Landazuri, 2008 TMC</ref>

The versatile LeRoy portrayed both hard-boiled and clownish characters at Warner Brothers. His [[Hard to Handle (film)|''Hard to Handle'']] (1933), [[James Cagney]] plays a fast-talking and remorselessly unscrupulous con-man, often to comic effect. His 1933 pictures ''[[Tugboat Annie]]'' (with LeRoy on loan to M-G-M), with [[Marie Dressler]] and ''[[Elmer, the Great]]'', the final of three pictures that LeRoy made with comic [[Joe E. Brown]], stand in contrast with the director's gangster melodramas.<ref>Canham, 1974 p. 143: a "wildly paced" ''Hard to Handle'', "a Cagney vehicle..."</ref><ref>Weil, 1987: "[LeRoy] was a success with comedy and romance, musical and melodrama."</ref>

LeRoy's socially-themed narrative is evident in his ''[[Three on a Match]]'' (1932) which follows the fates of three young women: a stenographer, a showgirl and a socialite played by [[Bette Davis]], [[Joan Blondell]] and [[Ann Dvorak]], respectively. His adroit transitions and cross-cutting provide quick and effective insights into his characters' social rise and fall. The "pitiless ''mileau'' of grimy backstreets and cheap motels" serve as an implicit social critique without making this the theme of the picture.<ref>Canham, 1974 pp. 145-146: The film quickly establishes "social and historical context...cross-cutting increases suspense...camera movements and dialogue in neat transitions enforce intelligent points without any need for elaboration...the climax [Dvorak's suicide] is brilliantly handled..." And p. 147: "...the reality and exactness of the atmosphere lend themselves to a framework of social criticism without making this the motivating factor."<br />Baxter, 1970 p. 82: The film employs "some neat transitions" with which Leroy makes his points ``quickly and with intelligence."</ref>

=== ''The Gold Diggers of 1933'' (1933) ===

The musical ''[[Gold Diggers of 1933]]'' is one of the outstanding examples of the [[musical film|genre]] that Warner Brothers released in the thirties.<ref>Baxter, 1970 pp. 82-83: "the great Warner musicals of the Thirties..."<br />Canham, 1974 pp. 145-146</ref> While the "surreal, geometric, often erotically charged" dance stagings by choreographer [[Busby Berkeley]] dominate the picture, Warner's musicals were distinguished enough, according to historian John Baxter, "to be worth considering outside any discussion of Berkeley's dance direction. ''The Gold Diggers of 1933'' certainly deserves such attention."<ref>Baxter, 1970 p. 83<br />Barson, 2020: "it was the musical Gold Diggers of 1933 that became a classic. A follow-up to [[42nd Street (film)|''42nd Street'']] (1933), directed by [[Lloyd Bacon]], LeRoy's musical had essentially the same cast and dance director Busby Berkeley, who staged such memorable production numbers as "We're in the Money", " "Remember My Forgotten Man," and "Pettin' in the Park." <br />Nixon, 2013 TMC: quote on "surreal" etc.</ref> Offering more than mere [[Great Depression in the United States|depression era]] escapism, the musical depicts the mass unemployment of veterans of [[World War I]] and alludes to the then-recent [[Bonus Army]] protests in Washington, D.C., that were suppressed by police and U.S. Army units. The movie closes with the "dark and pessimistic" number "Remember My [[Forgotten man|Forgotten Man]]."<ref>Nixon, 2013: "...the frivolous story was steeped in a conflict between haves and have-nots...a musical that was specifically about the country's economic hard times...the movie concludes with the most downbeat ending of any musical before... inspired by the recent disastrous Bonus March, in which downtrodden veterans of World War I were brutally rebuffed in their attempt to claim their government pensions."</ref>

{{quote box|width=30em|bgcolor=cornsilk|fontsize=100%|salign=center|quote="From ''Little Caesar'' to [[Gypsy (1962 film)|''Gypsy'']], Le Roy has converted his innate vulgarity into a personal style. As long as he is not mistaken for a serious artist, LeRoy can be delightfully entertaining."—[[Andrew Sarris]] (''The American Cinema'', 1968)<ref>Georgaris, 2020: Sarris quoted in TSPDT</ref>}}

LeRoy's control of the comedic elements and his direction of a cast endowed with "hard-boiled" heroines [[Ruby Keeler]], [[Joan Blondell]], [[Aline MacMahon]] and [[Ginger Rogers]], would provide stand-alone entertainment even if unencumbered by Berkeley's choreographed numbers.<ref>Canham, 1976 p. 147: "...the spectacular staging of the Busby Berkeley routines tends to divorce the plot and LeRoy's skillful direction from the mass of material written about the film." And: Canham singles out Aline MacMahon as "Trixie" for special mention "outstanding performance."</ref><ref>Baxter, 1970 p. 83: Comments on "heroines", Trixie "ruthless." And p. 84: "In the end, Berkeley's dance numbers seem an imposition on LeRoy's skillful comic pattern; without them ''Gold Diggers'' might well be an even more entertaining film than it is now."</ref> MacMahon, who plays the "ruthless" Trixie, was later cast as a murderess in the lead for LeRoy's dramatic [[Heat Lightning (film)|''Heat Lightning'']] (1934), a picture which prefigures director [[Archie Mayo]]'s ''[[The Petrified Forest]]'' (1936).<ref>Canham, 1974 p. 147-148: MacMahon in "an arresting dramatic character study..."</ref><ref>Baxter, 1970 p. 83: Trixie "ruthless" and "delightfully opportunist"<br />Nixon, 2013: "The comedic center of the film was still the [romantic] efforts of a group of showgirls [and] pushed the limits of censorship with an eroticism unprecedented for the genre."</ref><ref>Stafford, 2011 TMC: "highlighted by versatile supporting actress Aline MacMahon in her first top billed film role. The movie also prefigures ''The Petrified Forest'' (1936) by two years with a similar setting and plot."</ref>

LeRoy followed with a ''[[Happiness Ahead (1934 film)|Happiness Ahead]],'' a musical-like comedy for Warners in 1934 starring [[Josephine Hutchinson]], a society heiress who woos a window washer, played by [[Dick Powell]].<ref name="Miller, 2014 TMC">Miller, 2014 TMC</ref>

=== 1935: ''Oil for the Lamps of China,'' ''Sweet Adeline,'' ''Page Miss Glory,'' and ''I Found Stella Parish'' ===

[[Oil for the Lamps of China (film)|''Oil for the Lamps of China'']], an adaptation of the [[Alice Tisdale Hobart]] novel, is an examination of an American oil company in China, centering on its paternalistic and humiliating treatment of an ambitious company man, played by [[Pat O'Brien (actor)|Pat O'Brien]]. [[Josephine Hutchinson]] portrays his long-suffering wife. LeRoy effectively employed cinematic techniques of montage, structural parallels in settings, chiaroscuro lighting and musical leitmotifs to develop atmosphere and convey O'Brien's struggle, ending in his vindication.<ref>Canham, 1976 p. 149: LeRoy presents a "...paternalistic [oil] 'Company'..." rather than the "ruthless" organization that author Hobart described in her novel [and] a happy ending tacked on..." And p. 150: filming methods and effects discussed.</ref><ref>Baxter. 1970: p. 84-85: "A tough and complex study [of the] Company's all pervading influence" in the life of its employees. And: His spouse's "wifely pride and despair" at her husband's struggle: "The film pulls few punches."</ref><ref>Miller, 2007 TMC: "Alice Tisdale Hobart's book had spent more than a year on the best-seller list while also attracting attention for its attack on the heartless management policies of U.S. oil companies. Some of that spirit was retained in Warner Bros.'s film version..."</ref>

LeRoy returned to light comedy and romance in 1935 with a film adaptation of [[Sweet Adeline (musical)|stage production]], the 1929 [[Jerome Kern]] and [[Oscar Hammerstein II]] play, starring [[Irene Dunne]], followed by a [[Marion Davies]] vehicle [[Page Miss Glory (1935 film)|''Page Miss Glory'']], (filmed for [[William Randolph Hearst|Hearst's]] [[Cosmopolitan Pictures]]), and ''[[I Found Stella Parish]],'', with [[Kay Francis]] in a sentimental, "''tour-de-force''" performance.<ref>Thames, 2007 TMC: "...based on a stage musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein that debuted on Broadway September 3, 1929."</ref><ref>Canham, 1976 p. 150: See here for films with Davies and Francis</ref><ref>Baxter, 1970: Baxter makes no mention of these films in his overview of Thirties films.<br />Miller, 2004 TMC: On Hearst and Davies<br />LoBianco, 2014 TMC: "...a story so perfectly suited to her talents..."</ref>

=== ''Anthony Adverse'' (1936) ===

Based on the popular twelve-hundred page [[historical romance]] by [[Hervey Allen]], Warner's ''[[Anthony Adverse]]'' (1936) was LeRoy's most prestigious undertaking to date. Only two-thirds of the vast and unwieldy [[Picaresque novel|picaresque]] tale, set during the [[Napoleonic Era|Napoleonic era]], is depicted onscreen (a sequel was planned but abandoned).<ref>Barson, 2020: "LeRoy was finally given a prestige property with Anthony Adverse (1936), a hugely successful costume drama set in the 18th century and based on the Hervey Allen best seller."<br />Canham, 1976 p. 151: "...a story that had ''too many'' possibilities [for film adaptation]...it is a sprawling but ''busy'' picture..." (italics in original)</ref><ref>Baxter, 1970 p. 85: "...the sprawling Hervey Allen novel of Napoleonic Europe..."<br />LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 128: LeRoy: "...a romantic adventure film..."</ref> The sheer scale of the project remains impressive, and LeRoy's ability to handle a film with high production values that possessed a "Metro-like glossiness" elevated him to becoming a protective executive producer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.<ref>Canham, 1976 p. 150: LeRoy's "most ambitious film of the Thirties..."<br />Steinberg, 2009 TMC: "...very much a prestige project of its era...the impressive production values..." And: The studio was "eager to demonstrate that they could mount a lush [costume drama] as well as the next studio."</ref><ref>Baxter, 1970 p. 85-86: LeRoy endowing the picture with "Metro-like glossiness...suggesting a taste" for the M-G-M style "which may explain his decision to change studios." And: shortly after competing Anthony Adverse in 1938 LeRoy "went to Metro to become executive producer on ''The Wizard of Oz'' (1939)."</ref>

The "lively performances" from a large cast, which included [[Fredric March]], [[Olivia de Havilland]], [[Claude Rains]], [[Anita Louise]] and [[Gale Sondergaard]], as well as LeRoy's "technical excellence," led to five Academy Award nominations.<ref>Canham, 1976 p. 151: "lively" and "excellence" quotes<br />Steinberg, 2009: "...problems of scale in distilling the 1,200+ page book into two hours and twenty minutes of screen time, problems that were apparent even to critics of its day. Still, the impressive production values and the efforts of a uniformly fine cast make any kind of offhanded dismissal unwarranted."</ref><ref>Baxter, 1970 p. 86: "...successful for historical pageant and personal drama, especially interesting for Fredric March [in the title role]."</ref>

LeRoy reported in his 1974 memoir that "by the time 1936 arrived, I was slowing my pace somewhat. Gone were the assembly-line tactics, the grinding-them-out methods of a few years before...I was working slower, trying to achieve more beauty on film, looking for cinematic perfection."<ref>LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 126</ref>