William Wyler had one of those blessed lives and careers: born in Europe to a well off family, he received a strong education, then a passage to America and Hollywood not through hard craft and conniving but through his relative, Carl Laemmle of Universal Studios. Once he got there, though, he worked hard, becoming a director, cutting his teeth on Westerns, moving up the Universal ranks, then going to work for Goldwyn. His films more than any were responsible for the Goldwyn touch (its easier to list classic Goldwyn films that he didn't direct).
Wyler seemed to have it all: he earned piles of money and kept it, he got to have affairs with lots of good looking women (including Margaret Sullavan whom he briefly married and Bette Davis) then settling down to an extremely happy marriage, happy family life, success directing all sorts of genres, lots of prizes and admiration in his lifetime, very worthy war service, bravery during time of the HUAC hearings, got a little bit old but died before he went ga-ga or anything like that.
There was some sadness - one of his children died young, he became partially deaf in the war, he was never embraced by auteur critics, smoking made him wheeze... but honestly in the grand scheme of things he got a very good deal. Very few flops: if the critics didn't like them the public did or vice versa but usually both liked his movies (even The Liberation of LB Jones has its admirers - no one seems to like The Children's Hours) No thwarted hopes and dreams and bankruptcy like Von Stroheim, Welles, DW Griffith, Sturges, etc - his personal vision was harder to ascertain, his life lacked a tragic romance... which perhaps why he is not so well remembered today. There's no real "if only" about Wyler - his was a happy, fulfilled life.
Jan Herman's biography is excellent - well written, strongly researched, balances behind the scenes making of film stories with contexts of the time and plenty of personal touches. Most people say nice things about him - there are a few dissenters - Sylvia Sidney hated what she saw as his sadism, ditto Carroll Baker, but most actors seemed to have loved [I'm guessing in retrospect] the way he made them do take after take; some writers whined eg Michael Wilson and his supporters - but again most writers seem to respect him highly - perhaps not so surprising when Terence Stamp quotes Wyler as saying the key to directing was 80% script and 20% casting - I think casting can be more important in some cases, eg star vehicles, but those two things I think are the key.) Wyler deserved an excellent biography and he gets one.
No comments:
Post a Comment