Clarence Brown

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Clarence Brown (1921)

Clarence Brown (born May 10, 1890 in Clinton , Massachusetts , † August 17, 1987 in Santa Monica , California ) was an American film director and film producer , who was best known for his seven films with Greta Garbo .

life and work

Clarence Brown was born the son of a cotton manufacturer and graduated from the University of Tennessee . After initially working in the auto industry, Brown began his Hollywood career in 1915 as a film editor and assistant to French director Maurice Tourneur . When Tourneur fell ill in 1920 while filming The Last of the Mohicans , Brown took over the direction and finished the film. Since then he has worked as an independent director. Clarence Brown was considered a talented craftsman with a flair for film stars, but who never found recognition as an author filmmaker.

Brown became known for the innovative use of close-up after he switched from long shot to so-called close-up in Der Adler in 1925 in a love scene between Rudolph Valentino and Vilma Bánky . The ability to project emotions and moods directly onto the screen was perfected by him in his first collaboration with Greta Garbo in 1927 in It Was . Together with John Gilbert , the actress was shown in sometimes extreme close-ups. In the many other collaborations with Garbo, which earned him the nickname "Garbo's director", Brown made it a rule to put the Swede's face prominently at the center of the dramaturgy. Over the next few years at MGM, Brown established himself as a popular women director who shot numerous love films and romantic melodramas with established stars such as Norma Shearer . He worked with Joan Crawford between 1931 and 1936 on a total of six films. But the collaboration with male actors also proved successful: Lionel Barrymore said that he owed the Oscar for best actor for his performance in The Courage of Happiness entirely to the direction of Brown.

Despite the move from George Cukor and Mervyn LeRoy to MGM, his star in the studio did not decline and he has mainly focused on well-made, high-budget films since the mid-1930s. Maria Walewska with Greta Garbo, Idiot's Delight with Clark Gable and The White Cliffs of Dover from 1944, a home front epic with Irene Dunne as the long-suffering war bride, brought the studio prestige and in some cases considerable profit. Brown also made MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer's personal favorite film : And Life Goes On , a 1943 drama about the home front. The diverse fates of the residents of a small town are all interwoven via the telegram messenger played by Mickey Rooney . His 1944 film Little Girl, Big Heart , which turned Elizabeth Taylor, chosen by Brown from dozens of girls, into a child star and gave Anne Revere the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress , was highly acclaimed by critics . Brown brought perhaps his best artistic achievements towards the end of the 1940s. Firstly, The Wilderness Calls from 1946, an elaborate coming-of-age film based on the bestseller Spring of Life . The film had begun a good five years earlier, directed by Victor Fleming , but was never completed due to difficulties in filming. Brown re-cast all roles on The Wilderness Is Calling , starting over, and receiving high praise from critics upon completion. His film Griff in den Staub , which in 1949 gave a shocking insight into everyday racism in the USA , is still very topical . Claude Jarman junior , a well-known child actor at the time, took part in both films .

Clarence Brown was nominated five times for the Oscar for best director between 1930 and 1946 , including a double nomination at the 1930 Academy Awards (November) , but without receiving the coveted trophy. From In Golden Chains in 1934 to Schiff ohne Heimat in 1952, Brown often worked with film editor Robert Kern . In the early 1950s he slowly withdrew from the film business, most recently in 1953 as a producer of It Began in Moscow . After that, the director - who has since become rich through real estate deals - spent three and a half decades in retirement, during which he was involved in charities and gave numerous lectures on the subject of film.

Clarence Brown died of kidney failure in 1987 at the age of 97. He was married five times, including the actress Alice Joyce and from 1946 until his death with Marian Spies. From his first marriage he had the daughter Adrienne Brown (1917-2013). A star on the Walk of Fame at 1752 Vine Street commemorates Clarence Brown. The University of Tennessee's Clarence Brown Theater was named after him in honor of his generous financial support.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

Oscar for best director

With six nominations, Brown holds the record for having been nominated for Best Director most often without ever winning. Alfred Hitchcock , Robert Altman and King Vidor , who were unsuccessfully nominated five times in this category, later received honorary Oscar , which Brown was denied.

Venice Film Festival

  • 1935: Best director for Anna Karenina

literature

  • Kevin Brownlow : pioneers of film. From silent films to Hollywood (OT: The Parade's Gone by ... ). Stroemfeld, Basel and Frankfurt am Main 1997. ISBN 3-87877-386-2 .
  • Gwenda Young: Clarence Brown: Hollywood's Forgotten Master . University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, 2018. ISBN 978-0813175959 . (English, with a foreword by Kevin Brownlow)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Latimes article on Clarence Brown
  2. ↑ Latimes article on Clarence Brown
  3. ↑ obituary in the mirror 35/1987
  4. ↑ obituary in the mirror 35/1987
  5. ^ Obituary for the Los Angeles Times
  6. ↑ Clarence Brown at Allmovie
  7. ^ Obituary for the Los Angeles Times
  8. ↑ Cinema column Top Five - The five most frequent Oscar non-winners. Retrieved on June 23, 2020 (German).
personal data
SURNAME Brown, Clarence
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film director and film producer
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Clinton , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH 17th August 1987
Place of death Santa Monica , California