'Maurice Tourneur: Weaver of Dreams' by Christine Leteux
No, the new biography is not about Jacques Tourneur—it’s on his father, Maurice. As the director of beloved psychological horror films such as Cat People (1942) and Night of the Demon (1957), as well as the film noir classic Out of the Past (1947), Jacques has left a deep impression on American cinephiles. However, his less-remembered father, Maurice, is also worthy of a deep look. He was a pioneer of French cinema in the decade after Georges Méliès, and in the filmography compiled in the new biography by Christine Leteux, nearly 100 movies are listed from a work life spanning 1913 through 1948.
In Maurice Tourneur: Weaver of Dreams, Leteux follows the director through his life. Born Maurice Thomas, he changed his name to Tourneur (after a shop sign he passed on the road) because “Thomas” was slang for “chamber pot.” Not a good name for someone who wanted to be on stage—he was a thespian who picked up a few francs moonlighting in movies. He viewed the new medium with skepticism, but “slowly he caught the movie bug” Leteux writes. Before long he was directing films, most of them lost or preserved in fragments.
Before World War I, France was a leader in world cinema, its studios operating branches in Fort Lee, NJ, America’s unlikely movie capital before the advent of Hollywood. In spring 1914, Maurice was sent by his studio, Éclair, to Fort Lee, arriving on these shores less than fluent in English but driven by determination.
When war broke out in August 1914, he ignored his draft notice and sent instead for his family, including 10-year-old Jacques, who joined him after a dangerous Atlantic crossing. Surviving films from the period display his command of the rapidly evolving silent medium. He moved to Los Angeles in 1920 and enjoyed his biggest hit that year, The Last of the Mohicans. Leteux calls it “a pantheistic ode to an America before the arrival of settlers.” Arguing with MGM (the details are sketchy), he returned to France with an American passport and evaded questions about what he didn’t do during the war. He escaped punishment, pleading his contributions to “the cause of the French film industry,” but a “suspension order” hung over his head. He faced the possibility of being deported back to the U.S.
What Maurice did or didn’t do during the next war because another topic of controversy. After France fell to the Nazis, he directed for Continental Films, a German-controlled studio. Sifting carefully through wartime archives with the same diligence she applies to his entire career, Leteux finds that Maurice enjoyed no special favors—the Germans even stole his car!—and was left with few choices. She discovers no trace of antisemitism in his personal correspondence and little taste for toadying to the new regime.
After the liberation of France, Tourneur was cleared to resume working in film but made few movies in the changing postwar climate. He worked for several years translating American hardboiled crime fiction for a French publisher and was largely forgotten by the time of his death in 1961. With Weaver of Dreams, Leteux restores him to his place in the story of 20th century film.
Maurice Tourneur: Weaver of Dreams is published by University of Wisconsin Press.
