Michael Curtiz left an indelible mark on Hollywood and popular culture for directing Casablanca, yet the filmmaker never entirely received his due. The French critics who conveived the auteur theory of film and erected a canon of old Hollywood considered Curtiz a secondary figure at best and at worst, a hack. In their terms, a great director had a signature style—like a literary author—visible through his oeuvre despite the collaborative nature of filmmaking. However, Curtiz was a generalist who took many assignments and worked with good results in half a dozen genres.
Film historians have lately reevaluated the Hungarian-born director who arrived in Hollywood before movies could talk and worked into the rock and roll era. Curtiz received an appreciative biography in 2017 by Alan K. Rode and 2018 brings an aptly titled essay collection, The Many Cinemas of Michael Curtiz (University of Texas Press). The editors, R. Barton Palmer and Murray Pomerance, preface the collection by remarking that Curtiz “specialized in not specializing.” He had an immigrant’s work ethic and appreciation for the value of a penny. He could deliver his jobs on time and within budget and possessed “a truly catholic breadth of interest in different forms of narrative and spectacle.” By one count, the prolific Curtiz already made 70 films before landing in America and went on to make a hundred more in Hollywood.
Perhaps pointedly, none of the essayists focus on Casablanca (1942). Instead, The Many Cinemas examine genres Curtiz worked in, his handling of political messages and his relations with actors (Bette Davis called him “a monster” but added, “he knew how to shoot a film well”). Many Cinemas also focuses on several notable films, including the spirited musical Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and the wonderfully-realized film noir Mildred Pierce (1945). Curtiz became the director who drew the best on camera performance from Elvis Presley’s otherwise desultory career in Hollywood. That alone is a measure of his sensitivity and the scope of his abilities.
