Search a film or person :
FacebookConnectionRegistration
Michael Curtiz is a Actor, Director, Scriptwriter, Producer, Co-Director and Costume Design Hongrois born on 24 december 1886 at Budapest (Hongrie)

Michael Curtiz

Michael Curtiz
If you like this person, let us know!
Birth name Manó Kertész Kaminer
Nationality Hongrie
Birth 24 december 1886 at Budapest (Hongrie)
Death 10 april 1962 (at 75 years) at Hollywood (USA)
Awards Academy Award for Best Director

Michael Curtiz (December 24, 1886 – April 10, 1962) was an Academy award winning Hungarian-American film director. He had early credits
as Mihály Kertész and Michael Kertész. He directed more than fifty films in Europe and more than one hundred in the United States, many of them cinema classics, including The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, Dodge City, The Sea Hawk, The Sea Wolf, Angels with Dirty Faces, Casablanca (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director), Yankee Doodle Dandy, Mildred Pierce, and White Christmas. He thrived in the heyday of the Warner Bros. studio in the 1930s and '40s.

He was less successful from the late 1940s onwards, when he attempted to move from studio direction into production and freelance work, but he continued working until shortly before his death.

Biography

Michael Curtiz naît dans une famille juive de Budapest, alors capitale du royaume de Hongrie. À 17 ans, il part de chez lui pour se joindre à un cirque, avant de s'inscrire à l'université Markoszy puis à l'Académie royale d'art dramatique — actuelle université d'art dramatique et cinématographique — dont il sort diplômé en 1906. En 1912, il commence sa carrière d'acteur et de metteur en scène sous le nom de Mihály Kertész. L'année suivante, il rejoint le studio Nordisk Film au Danemark et participe à Atlantis, un film d'August Blom, en tant qu'acteur et assistant directeur. Il exerce également comme opérateur d'actualités et assistant de Victor Sjöström et Mauritz Stiller en Suède. Il rentre au pays en 1914 où il contribue à la fondation du cinéma hongrois, réalisant notamment l'un des premiers succès nationaux, Bánk bán (1914). Après la guerre civile de 1919, il est contraint de quitter le pays à cause de la « terreur blanche » exercée sur les juifs, les intellectuels et les communistes par les armées de Miklós Horthy. Sa carrière cinématographique se divise en quatre périodes : hongroise (1912-1918), autrichienne (1919-1925), allemande (1925-1926) et américaine (1926-1961).

Il arrive à Hollywood en 1926, où il dirige notamment sa femme Lili Damita ou encore Errol Flynn dans des films devenus de très grands classiques du cinéma : Capitaine Blood (1935), La Charge de la brigade légère (1936), et Les Aventures de Robin des Bois (1938).

En 1940, il dirige un classique du film d'aventures de l'époque avec L'Aigle des mers. Mais c'est pour Casablanca (1942), avec Humphrey Bogart et Ingrid Bergman, que la signature de Curtiz appartient définitivement au panthéon du cinéma.

Michael Curtiz est mort en avril 1962 à Hollywood des suites d'un cancer. Il est enterré au Forest Lawn Memorial Park de Glendale (Californie).

Il a obtenu son étoile sur le Walk of Fame le 8 février 1960 au 6640, Hollywood Boulevard.

Best films

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
(Director)
Casablanca (1943)
(Director)
This Is the Army (1943)
(Director)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
(Director)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
(Director)
The Comancheros (1961)
(Director)

Usually with

Hal B. Wallis
Hal B. Wallis
(35 films)
Max Steiner
Max Steiner
(29 films)
Orry-Kelly
Orry-Kelly
(31 films)
Jack Warner
Jack Warner
(30 films)
Source : Wikidata

Filmography of Michael Curtiz (178 films)

Display filmography as list

Actor

It's a Great Feeling, 1h25
Directed by David Butler
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Musical theatre, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films
Actors Doris Day, Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Irving Bacon, Bill Goodwin, Claire Carleton
Roles Michael Curtiz (uncredited)
Rating63% 3.1961853.1961853.1961853.1961853.196185
The film begins with a succession of real-life film directors - including Michael Curtiz, King Vidor, and Raoul Walsh - refusing to helm a new Warner's flick, Mademoiselle Fifi, because Jack Carson has been signed to star in it. Frustrated, fictional studio head Arthur Trent (Bill Goodwin) finally decides to let Carson direct it. Seeking the perfect co-star for himself and fellow lead, frenemy Dennis Morgan, Carson finds her in the person of studio commissary waitress Judy Adams (Doris Day). Judy has been in Hollywood for three months without even one audition, and sneaks her way into Carson's office, where she forces him to give her a chance. A self-proclaimed liar, Carson advises her to pose as his secret bride to Morgan. He, however, does not fall for Judy's act and reveals Carson as the liar Judy did not know he was. Following an angry outburst, she leaves the studio, having felt used by the two actors for their entertainment.
Atlantis
Atlantis (1913)
, 1h53
Directed by Michael Curtiz, August Blom
Origin Danemark
Genres Drama
Actors Olaf Fønss, Michael Curtiz, Ida Orloff, Carl Lauritzen, Torben Meyer, Ebba Thomsen
Rating64% 3.237413.237413.237413.237413.23741
Dr. Friedrich von Kammacher (Olaf Fønss), a surgeon, is devastated after his wife develops a brain disorder and is institutionalized. On the advice of his parents, von Kammacher leaves Denmark to gain some respite from his wife's illness. Von Kammacher travels to Berlin, where he meets a young dancer named Ingigerd (Ida Orloff) and the doctor becomes fond of her and very interested in her. However she has a large amount of admirers and thus Von Kammacher gives up on her. However, while in Paris he sees an ad in the paper that she is going to New York with her father and decides to follow her. Von Kammacher buys a first ticket on the same liner as Ingigered, the SS Roland.
Today and Tomorrow
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Genres Drama
Actors Michael Curtiz
Roles Arisztid
Rating60% 3.045763.045763.045763.045763.04576

Director

The Comancheros, 1h47
Directed by John Wayne, Michael Curtiz
Origin USA
Genres Action, Adventure, Romance, Western
Themes Children's films
Actors John Wayne, Stuart Whitman, Ina Balin, Lee Marvin, Nehemiah Persoff, Bruce Cabot
Rating67% 3.3987353.3987353.3987353.3987353.398735
In 1843 roguish gambler Paul Regret (Stuart Whitman) escapes a death penalty after killing in a duel Emil Bouvier (Gregg Palmer), the son of a Louisiana judge. Regret claimed that he would have only wounded Bouvier if he hadn't sidestepped. He is captured by Texas Ranger Jake Cutter (John Wayne) after a tryst with a mysterious lady, Pilar Graile (Ina Balin). Regret manages to escape, but is subsequently recaptured after a chance encounter with Cutter in a saloon.
Francis of Assisi, 1h45
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Biography, Historical
Themes Films about religion
Actors Bradford Dillman, Dolores Hart, Stuart Whitman, Pedro Armendáriz, Eduard Franz, Cecil Kellaway
Rating63% 3.1612453.1612453.1612453.1612453.161245
Francis Bernardone (Bradford Dillman) is the son of a wealthy cloth merchant in Assisi, who gives up all his worldly goods to dedicate himself to God. Clare (Dolores Hart) is a young aristocratic woman who, according to the film, is so taken with St. Francis that she leaves her family and becomes a nun. By this time (1212 A.D.), St. Francis has a well-established reputation for his vows of poverty. The movie goes on to note miracles (such as the appearance of the stigmata on Francis's hands and feet) and other aspects of his life, up to and including his death on October 3, 1226. The funeral befitted a man loved by man and beast alike, and ended with the birds he loved doing a flyby.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1h47
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Adventure
Actors Eddie Hodges, Tony Randall, Neville Brand, Patty McCormack, Mickey Shaughnessy, Andy Devine
Rating61% 3.0962053.0962053.0962053.0962053.096205
In the pre-Civil War South Huck escapes his brutal, criminal father by taking to the Mississippi River with a fugitive slave Jim. They have several adventures on their way to attempt to gain Jim's freedom.
A Breath of Scandal, 1h37
Directed by Vittorio De Sica, Michael Curtiz
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Romantic comedy, Romance
Themes Théâtre, Films based on plays
Actors Sophia Loren, Maurice Chevalier, John Gavin, Angela Lansbury, Isabel Jeans, Tullio Carminati
Rating55% 2.7530352.7530352.7530352.7530352.753035
La princesse Olympia, une jeune et jolie veuve exilée loin de la cour de Vienne par l'empereur, vit dans son château, avec ses fusils et ses chevaux. Galopant dans la campagne, elle est désarçonnée par son cheval alors qu'elle croise la voiture d'un jeune américain, Charlie Foster.
The Man in the Net, 1h38
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime
Actors Alan Ladd, Carolyn Jones, John Rollin Lupton, Diane Brewster, Charles McGraw, Tom Helmore
Rating61% 3.0924453.0924453.0924453.0924453.092445
Commercial artist John Hamilton (Alan Ladd) and wife Linda (Carolyn Jones) leave New York and move to Stoneville, Connecticut, in the New England countryside, to escape the bustle of the city and because of John's growing concern about Linda's alcoholism.
The Hangman, 1h27
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Action, Adventure, Western
Actors Robert Taylor, Tina Louise, Fess Parker, Jack Lord, Mickey Shaughnessy, Gene Evans
Rating65% 3.2920253.2920253.2920253.2920253.292025
Marshal Mac Bovard, known as the Hangman for his success at seeing guilty men die for their crimes, rounds up three of four outlaws suspected in a robbery that resulted in the murder of his brother. Two are hanged. The third is needed to identify John Butterfield, whose face Mac has never seen.
King Creole, 1h56
Directed by Michael Curtiz, Michael Vincenzo Gazzo, Hal B. Wallis, Herbert Baker
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Action, Musical, Crime, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films
Actors Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, Walter Matthau, Dolores Hart, Dean Jagger, Vic Morrow
Rating69% 3.4946253.4946253.4946253.4946253.494625
Nineteen-year-old high school student Danny Fisher (Elvis Presley) works before and after school in order to support his father (Dean Jagger) and sister Mimi (Jan Shepard). After Danny's mother died, his grieving father lost his job as a pharmacist, and moved his impoverished family to the French Quarter in New Orleans.
The Proud Rebel, 1h39
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Romance, Western
Actors Alan Ladd, Olivia de Havilland, Dean Jagger, David Ladd, Cecil Kellaway, Harry Dean Stanton
Rating68% 3.4405153.4405153.4405153.4405153.440515
A former Confederate soldier, John Chandler (Alan Ladd) has come to an Illinois town with his 10-year-old son David (David Ladd) to see Dr. Enos Davis (Cecil Kellaway). The boy was struck mute after witnessing his mother's death in a fire, and hasn't spoken a word since. Davis recommends a doctor he knows in Minnesota.