Matinee Classics - Otto Preminger Biography & Filmography

Otto Preminger DIRECTOR

PHOTOS

OTTO PREMINGER BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Otto Ludwig Preminger was born December 5, 1905 in Vienna, Austria. As a teenager, Preminger acted in Vienna, working his way up to become a theater manager by the age of nineteen. By twenty, he had also accumulated a law degree. However, he was more interested in the dramatic arts than following in his father’s footsteps to become an attorney. Preminger worked with German stage producer Max Reinhardt before directing his first movie, “Die Grosse Liebe” or “The Great Love” (1931). However, he was Jewish, and in 1935 he thought it smart to flee from Austria to escape Nazi threat. He relocated to New York where he took up an invitation to direct Broadway plays.

The next year, he elected to move to Hollywood to direct motion pictures. Preminger made the films “Under Your Spell” (1936) and “Danger: Love at Work” (1937) for Daryl F. Zanuck’s 20th Century Fox. Clashes with Zanuck led the director to return to New York for Broadway at the end of the decade. He came back to Hollywood in the early forties to a contract with Fox that would last until 1952. Many times he depicted Nazi characters in films like “The Pied Piper” (1942) and “They Got Me Covered” (1943), even though he was Jewish. Preminger got into directing again with an adaptation of one of the plays he had directed on Broadway, “Margin for Error” (1943), which he also had an acting part in. Next came “In the Meantime, Darling” (1944), a film that marked the beginning of his production career. Directly following, Preminger directed and produced the thriller “Laura” (1944). It became a commercial success, even earning an Academy Award nomination.

During the rest of his stay at Fox, he produced nothing of much acclaim. Not until the early fifties, when he started his own independent directing/producing company, Carlyle Productions, did he turn out work of any merit. Preminger began to break several taboos by defying Hollywood’s Production Code and relaxing censorship laws. His first work, “The Moon is Blue” (1953), was a light sexual comedy that used words like “virgin”, “pregnant”, and “seduce”, which were unheard of at the time to employ. It became the first commercial feature to be released without the seal of approval from the Motion Picture Association of America. He departed from directing and producing with the comedic war drama “Stalag 17” (1953), in which he actually had the title role. In 1954 he went back behind the camera and showed some variety in his filmmaking, directing the westerner “River of No Return” and musical “Carmen Jones”. However, he returned to the touchy subjects when he directed and produced “The Man with the Golden Arm” (1955), in which Frank Sinatra portrayed a drug addict. The film was banned in many cities, although the director went up against the courts and beat the censors to get it released. His next taboo feature was “Bonjour Tristesse” (1958), a picture that focused on a teenage girl’s entanglement in her father’s womanizing ways. He once again returned to the musical genre with George and Ira Gershwin’s operetta “Porgy and Bess” (1959). The production company was Samuel Goldwyn’s Columbia Pictures, and Preminger argued with Goldwyn about almost every detail. However, this occurrence was not unheard of, as the director was seen by many as strict and tyrannical. On one set, he even told a group of children: “Cry, you little monsters!” Additionally, he was scornful and boorish to his actors, once saying “I do not accept advice from actors, they are here to act.” Nevertheless, he continued on to construct a handful of popular films.

One such example was the murder/rape courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Murder” (1959) starring James Stewart, which was nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award. In 1960 Preminger unveiled his epic “Exodus”, although the buildup he created was far more impressive the actual movie itself. He released the homosexual sub themed political drama “Advise and Consent” in 1962 and it became extremely popular. Unfortunately, this film seemed to mark the downward slope of Preminger’s vigor and vitality. In 1963 he unleashed “The Cardinal”, a drama based centered on the Vatican hierarchy and one priest’s rise to power. Soon after, he played the villainous character Mr. Freeze on “Batman” (1966), a popular television series.

By the late 1960s, it became more obvious that Preminger’s Hollywood power was fading. He directed the race melodrama “Hurry Sundown” (1967), followed by “Skidoo” (1968) and “Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon” (1970), all of which were flips. The seventies also saw two futile thrillers, “Rosebud” (1975) and “The Human Factor” (1979), both of which were completely ignored by the public. Additionally, he played the voice of a cartoon character on the TV movie “The Hobbit” in 1977. On April 23, 1986, in New York City, Preminger died from lung cancer, although he had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for quite some time. He was eighty years of age. For his contributions to the motion picture industry, he was awarded with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Filmography

1986 Cinéma cinémas

1979 The Human Factor

1977 The Hobbit

1975 Rosebud

1971 Such Good Friends

1970 Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon

1968 Skidoo

1967 Hurry Sundown

1966 Batman

1965 Bunny Lake Is Missing

1965 In Harm's Way

1963 The Cardinal