Director: Otto Preminger
This is the first in what I hope will be a series of articles. Over the past few years, I’ve spent a good deal of time acquainting myself with the work of a handful of directors, some of whom I’ve come to admire greatly. One such director is Otto Preminger, a filmmaker who was truly ahead of his time.
My initial introduction to Otto Preminger was not as a director, but as an actor, playing the brutal Commandant of Billy Wilder’s STALAG 17. Recently, however, I’ve been reviewing his work behind the camera, and from what I’ve seen, this is where Preminger’s talent shined the brightest. His first big hit was the 1944 film-noir classic, LAURA, starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews, which he then followed up with a string of similarly-themed films, including FALLEN ANGEL in 1945 and WHIRLPOOL in 1949. Known for his sharp tongue (he once called Marilyn Monroe a “vacuum with nipples”) and even sharper temper (he supposedly terrorized Tom Tryon , the star of his 1963 film THE CARDINAL, to the point of despair), Preminger stormed into the 1950’s with a string of films that pushed the envelope, tackling subjects most other directors shied away from at that time. His 1959 classic, ANATOMY OF A MURDER, a courtroom drama that deals with the subject of rape, was originally banned in Chicago. Of course, having one of his films scrutinized by the censors was nothing new to Preminger. Years earlier, in 1953, he directed THE MOON IS BLUE, a comedy that’s notable for being the first mainstream Hollywood film in which the word “virgin” was uttered (an utterance that carried with it a slew of attacks from the moral majority). Even his excellent 1955 drama, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, in which Frank Sinatra stars as a recovering drug addict who falls off the wagon, was originally refused a seal of approval by the Motion Picture Association of America. Throughout his career, Preminger took on one ambitious project after another. In 1954, he directed CARMEN JONES, a musical update of Bizet’s opera, “Carmen”, which featured a cast made up entirely of African Americans. His finest film, however, was 1962’s ADVISE AND CONSENT, which takes us behind the scenes of the American political machine. Henry Fonda stars as Robert Leffingwell, a man who has been nominated by the President of the United States (played by Franchot Tone) to be the nation’s new Secretary of State. Unfortunately, Leffingwell has made a few enemies in the Senate, the most powerful of which is Seabright Cooley (Charles Laughton, in his final screen performance), who does everything he can to block Leffingwell’s appointment. ADVISE AND CONSENT is a fascinating look into the American political system, not to mention a film that stirred up it’s own bit of controversy by dealing openly with one Senator’s homosexual past.
Two of Otto Preminger’s films, LAURA and ADVISE AND CONSENT, appear on my list of the greatest movies ever made, and I have yet to see a film of his I didn’t enjoy. If you aren’t familiar with his work, then I strongly suggest you check out some of the titles I mentioned above (all of which, with the exception of THE MOON IS BLUE, are available on DVD). I’m sure you too will come to admire this visionary director, who tackled subject matter in the 1950’s most others wouldn’t touch until the 70’s or beyond.
(NOTE: on the Special Edition DVD of THE CARDINAL, the two-hour documentary OTTO PREMINGER: ANATOMY OF A FILMMAKER, is one of the extras. It is definitely worth a look.)
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