Overview

Academy Award-winning director Michael Curtiz (1886-1962) - whose best-known films include Casablanca (1942), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Mildred Pierce (1945) and White Christmas (1954) - was in many ways the anti-auteur. During his unprecedented twenty-seven year tenure at Warner Bros., he directed swashbuckling adventures, westerns, musicals, war epics, romances, historical dramas, horror films, tearjerkers, melodramas, comedies, and film noir masterpieces. The director's staggering output of 180 films surpasses that of the legendary John Ford and exceeds the combined total of films directed by George Cukor, Victor Fleming, and Howard Hawks. In the first biography of this colorful, instinctual artist, Alan K. Rode illuminates the life and work of one of the film industry's most complex figures. He begins by exploring the director's early life and career in his native Hungary, revealing how Curtiz shaped the earliest days of silent cinema in Europe as he acted in, produced, and directed scores of films before immigrating to the United States in 1926. In Hollywood, Curtiz earned a reputation for his explosive tantrums, his difficulty communicating in English, and his disregard for the well-being of others. However, few directors elicited more memorable portrayals from their casts, and ten different actors delivered Oscar-nominated performances under his direction. In addition to his study of the director's remarkable legacy, Rode investigates Curtiz's dramatic personal life, discussing his enduring creative partnership with his wife, screenwriter Bess Meredyth, as well as his numerous affairs and children born of his extramarital relationships. This meticulously researched biography provides a nuanced understanding of one of the most talented filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age.

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Reviews

Michael Curtiz is a meticulously researched, clear-eyed, and comprehensive look at the director's career.... Rode's style is highly readable and easily captures the quirks and humor as well as the drama and antagonism of many behind-the-scenes moments. It is an enlightening assessment of a life spent entirely thinking about and making movies. -- Betsy McLane, CineMontage Rode's book is entertaining and informative as it takes measure of a director who has received less credit than he deserves. -- Shepherd Express A magnificent biography. -- New York Review of Books Michael Curtiz: A Life In Film is the definitive, comprehensive story of one of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers. This effortless read is full of rich details about Curtiz's career in Europe before Warner Brothers brought him to the US in the mid-1920s. There is never a dull moment in the 600-plus pages. -- Times Quotidian [The book is] spry and confident, pulsing with tasty quotes and catchy prose...anecdotes, side-shots, insights, ironies. An abundant, 698-page, six-course meal. -- Hollywood Elsewhere A treat for classic film buffs who have waited a long time for a book-length biography on this director. -- Ann Blyth blog After years of neglect and even scorn, [director] Michael Curtiz is finally getting some respect. Michael Curtiz: A Life in Films [is] a thoroughly researched biography by Alan K. Rode. -- Los Angeles Times Alan K. Rode's Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film is engaging from the start and doesn't let up. With a sure hand, good research and a knack for amusing ironies, author Rode really brings Curtiz to life. Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film puts Alan K. Rode in with today's best writers on film. The book is a keeper that will go on the read again soon shelf. -- CineSavant Film historian Alan K. Rode, in his massive and hugely enjoyable biography, describes the decisive role his subject played in a host of much-loved films -- Captain Blood (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Mildred Pierce (1945) -- and lets Curtiz's work do most of the arguing. -- Sight & Sound I have never read a more interesting, thoroughly researched study of a director, ever. Never once does the author get bogged down by his meticulous research. Rode is such a good writer that his narrative flows and his very readable style makes all the information easy to absorb. He has written a terrific biography that should be a model for film historians. His impeccable research is coupled with fine knowledge and writing ability. He really sets the bar high and I am in awe of his achievement. -- Classic Images In the impressive and entertaining new book Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film, author Alan K. Rode illustrates why Curtiz has been undervalued for so many years. I can't imagine a more thorough account of any director's life and work. I devoured this book and give it my highest recommendation. -- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy It's a serious, critically acclaimed survey of the director's long career. Some in Hollywood loved [Curtiz]; some hated him. But one thing's for sure -- without him, Hollywood would have been a much less interesting place. -- Beverly in Movieland blog Michael Curtiz is the best director most people have never heard of. Yet until now nobody has taken up the case for Curtiz in a soup-to-nuts biography. The good news is that Alan Rode's massive book is exhaustively researched, well written and frequently witty. [Curtiz] amassed a body of work without parallel at a great movie studio [Warner Bros.]. His films are his best advocate of that, but Alan Rode's book is a close second. -- Wall Street Journal Rode isn't here to bury Curtiz or to unconditionally praise him but to convey a fully rounded portrait of a highly complex -- even contradictory -- personality who made his mark. To that end, he has succeeded admirably. A Life in Film is so thoroughly, assiduously researched that it's hard to fathom a more comprehensive, or compelling, biography of Michael Curtiz than this. -- YES! Weekly Rode's evenhanded, impressively researched, engrossing book amply conveys its subject's incandescent mania for filmmaking. -- Film Comment Rode's research into the director's films is quite impressive. -- History News Network Rode's 600-page biography on Curtiz is a must-read for anyone who enjoys great books and Hollywood history.[This] book is a masterwork. Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film isn't just one of the best biographies, it's one of the best books about Old Hollywood. -- Journeys in Classic Film This biography (the first about Curtiz) is thorough and vastly entertaining. -- Roundup Magazine With thorough knowledge of film history, telling anecdotes, and interviews, the author illuminates Curtiz's colorful career while also providing insightful portraits of actors, writers, and studio heads. Highly recommended. -- Library Journal

With thorough knowledge of film history, telling anecdotes, and interviews, the author illuminates Curtiz's colorful career while also providing insightful portraits of actors, writers, and studio heads. Highly recommended. -- Library Journal This biography (the first about Curtiz) is thorough and vastly entertaining. -- Roundup Magazine Rode's 600-page biography on Curtiz is a must-read for anyone who enjoys great books and Hollywood history.[This] book is a masterwork. Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film isn't just one of the best biographies, it's one of the best books about Old Hollywood. -- Journeys in Classic Film Rode's research into the director's films is quite impressive. -- History News Network Rode's evenhanded, impressively researched, engrossing book amply conveys its subject's incandescent mania for filmmaking. -- Film Comment Rode's book is entertaining and informative as it takes measure of a director who has received less credit than he deserves. -- Milwaukee Express Rode isn't here to bury Curtiz or to unconditionally praise him but to convey a fully rounded portrait of a highly complex -- even contradictory -- personality who made his mark. To that end, he has succeeded admirably. A Life in Film is so thoroughly, assiduously researched that it's hard to fathom a more comprehensive, or compelling, biography of Michael Curtiz than this. -- YES! Weekly Michael Curtiz is the best director most people have never heard of. Yet until now nobody has taken up the case for Curtiz in a soup-to-nuts biography. The good news is that Alan Rode's massive book is exhaustively researched, well written and frequently witty. [Curtiz] amassed a body of work without parallel at a great movie studio [Warner Bros.]. His films are his best advocate of that, but Alan Rode's book is a close second. -- Wall Street Journal It's a serious, critically acclaimed survey of the director's long career. Some in Hollywood loved [Curtiz]; some hated him. But one thing's for sure -- without him, Hollywood would have been a much less interesting place. -- Beverly in Movieland blog In the impressive and entertaining new book Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film, author Alan K. Rode illustrates why Curtiz has been undervalued for so many years. I can't imagine a more thorough account of any director's life and work. I devoured this book and give it my highest recommendation. -- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy I have never read a more interesting, thoroughly researched study of a director, ever. Never once does the author get bogged down by his meticulous research. Rode is such a good writer that his narrative flows and his very readable style makes all the information easy to absorb. He has written a terrific biography that should be a model for film historians. His impeccable research is coupled with fine knowledge and writing ability. He really sets the bar high and I am in awe of his achievement. -- Classic Images Film historian Alan K. Rode, in his massive and hugely enjoyable biography, describes the decisive role his subject played in a host of much-loved films -- Captain Blood (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Mildred Pierce (1945) -- and lets Curtiz's work do most of the arguing. -- Sight & Sound Alan K. Rode's Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film is engaging from the start and doesn't let up. With a sure hand, good research and a knack for amusing ironies, author Rode really brings Curtiz to life. Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film puts Alan K. Rode in with today's best writers on film. The book is a keeper that will go on the read again soon shelf. -- CineSavant After years of neglect and even scorn, [director] Michael Curtiz is finally getting some respect. Michael Curtiz: A Life in Films [is] a thoroughly researched biography by Alan K. Rode. -- Los Angeles Times A treat for classic film buffs who have waited a long time for a book-length biography on this director. -- Ann Blyth blog [The book is] spry and confident, pulsing with tasty quotes and catchy prose...anecdotes, side-shots, insights, ironies. An abundant, 698-page, six-course meal. -- Hollywood Elsewhere [A] magnificent biography. -- New York Review of Books Michael Curtiz: A Life In Film is the definitive, comprehensive story of one of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers. This effortless read is full of rich details about Curtiz's career in Europe before Warner Brothers brought him to the US in the mid-1920s. There is never a dull moment in the 600-plus pages. -- Times Quotidian

Author Information

Writer and film scholar Alan K. Rode is the author of Charles McGraw: Film Noir Tough Guy. He is the host and producer of the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Palm Springs, California, and director-treasurer of the Film Noir Foundation.

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