To say Preminger has a variable reputation is putting it mildly - before I'd seen any of his movies I was familiar with several stories: a harsh bully on set, a brave fighter of censorship, capable of making classics and an inability to direct comedy.
All the stories turned out to be true. There were many fine things about Preminger: the man had guts; he was a fighter; he had some admirable progressive politics (I stress the word "some" - Robert Mitchum called him a "Jewish Nazi"); he took on the censor board; he made some great movies; he had a surprisingly large amount of success on Broadway; he was a decent actor.
Other things were less admirable - he was a horrid bully - not for the benefit of the work, he clearly did it for his own sadistic enjoyment, especially to tyro actors (Jean Seberg, Tom Tyron, John Philip Law); he couldn't direct comedy; his last batch of movies were stinkers; he was possibly a better producer than director.
He's a flawed, fascinating figure and he gets a very good book from Chris Fujiwara. It focuses on Preminger's art as director - there's lots of discussion how scenes are framed and camera movement and so on which to be honest I wasn't that interested in; I was more into the biographical stuff.
I didn't realise how many financially unsuccessful films Preminger made at Fox - Zanuck seemed to like him though (he'd fired him earlier but rehired him and enjoyed success with Laura); he was the ing of the noirs for a while but his great days were from the early 50s to early 60s where he seemed to hit the zeitgeist: The Moon is Blue was just sexy enough, The Man with the Golden Arm was just gritty enough, Advise and Consent just political enough, Anatomy of a Murder was just legal enough etc etc. He tried to keep up with changing times but ultimately didn't get the new liberation - also he was old.
Interesting bloke, interesting book.
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