Adam Feinstein on Michael Curtiz
Sunday 19th 1pm, Studio
Michael Curtiz was not just the
man who directed Casablanca. He
made some of Hollywood's greatest
swashbucklers, gangster films,
musicals and melodramas, including
The Adventures of Robin Hood,
Angels with Dirty Faces, Mystery of
the Wax Museum, Yankee Doodle
Dandy and Mildred Pierce. Yet despite
his mastery of so many cinematic
genres, Curtiz remains a neglected
figure. This presentation by Adam
Feinstein aims to redress the balance.
It will first trace Curtiz's fascinating life:
his mysterious beginnings in Budapest;
the early, formative silents in Europe;
his arrival in Hollywood and his tangled
emotional life. Feinstein will go on to
identify several little-acknowledged, but
crucial, themes and styles in Curtiz's
cinema, with illustrative sequences
from some of his classic films.
Finally, he will attempt to demonstrate
why the reputation of the later,
under-valued movies deserves serious
reassessment, using clips from, among
others, The Breaking Point (one
of the finest of all Curtiz's films); The
Proud Rebel and The Hangman
(two very different and highly unusual
Westerns) and King Creole (Elvis
Presley's best screen performance).
Michael Curtiz films over the
Festival weekend are: