Edward H. Griffith

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Edward H. Griffith (1921)

Edward H. Griffith (born August 23, 1888 in Lynchburg , Virginia , † March 3, 1975 in South Laguna , California ) was an American director and film producer .

Life

After a career as a reporter for various newspapers, Edward H. Griffith joined Edison Film Company as a screenwriter in 1915, where he soon directed several short films. His breakthrough came with the rise of talkies when he directed the screen debut of Ann Harding , a popular Broadway actress , for Pathe . The light comedy was a hit with both critics and the box office, making Griffith the in-house director of the studio alongside Paul L. Stein, which soon merged into the RKO .

The greatest successes of the time included two film adaptations of Philip Barry plays, each with Ann Harding in the leading roles: Holiday and The Animal Kingdom , for which producer David O. Selznick arranged the gala premiere of the newly opened Roxy in New York City , at the time the largest and most magnificent movie theater in the US. Griffith later moved to MGM with Selznick , where he gave Helen Hayes one of her best roles in Another Language and perhaps created the typical example of the studio look with the Joan Crawford melodrama No More Ladies : bright lighting and sliding camera pans by Oliver T. Marsh, glamorous costumes by Gilbert Adrian , perfect star staging and opulent backdrops by Cedric Gibbons . He was less successful in trying to revitalize Ann Harding's stagnant career through Biography of a Bachelor Girl . The strict censorship regulations took the slightly frivolous story of any bite and after the failure Griffith had to move to 20th Century Fox , where he was commissioned by studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck to make a dream couple out of Loretta Young and Tyrone Power . The two stars shot three films under the direction of Griffith, all of them elegantly staged romances with partly polished dialogues. The critics particularly liked Café Metropole and sometimes praised Griffith's work enthusiastically. Louella O. Parsons even wrote on May 27, 1937:

Edward H. Griffith, who directed Café Metropole, should feel well pleased with himself for having out-Lubitsched Ernst himself.
Edward H. Griffith, the director of Café Metropole, should be proud of himself to have surpassed Ernst Lubitsch.

Griffith, who at the time was considered one of the city's leading women directors in the same breath as George Cukor and Robert Z. Leonard , moved to Paramount after the Grace Moore romance I'll Take Romance in 1939, where he made no less than six films with Madeleine Carroll and screenwriter Virginia Van Upp realized in the team. Carroll was considered lethargic and difficult in the studio, so most of the other contract directors refused to work with her. The two initially shot romantic comedies with Fred MacMurray as a partner, only with Virginia , the story of a young woman who has to choose between false friends and real love, Griffith tried her hand at more dramatic stories. The film was shot in Technicolor and was a passable success at the box office. Since Carroll began an affair with supporting actor Sterling Hayden , then announced as Stirling Hayden , during the filming, Hayden replaced the originally planned MacMurray in the next production Bahama Passage . The film tells the adventure of a young woman who has to fight against voodoo and other horrors in order to find true happiness.

Bahama Passage was to be the last success for Griffith, who soon after retired from the film business and died almost forgotten in 1975 at the age of 86. He was married to the actress America Chedister (1895–1975).

Filmography (selection)

  • 1917: The Law of the North
  • 1922: The Sea Raiders
  • 1929: Paris Bound
  • 1929: Rich People
  • 1930: Holiday
  • 1931: rebound
  • 1933: Lady with a Past
  • 1933: The Animal Kingdom
  • 1933: Another Language
  • 1935: Biography of a Bachelor Girl
  • 1935: No More Ladies
  • 1936: Next Time We Love
  • 1936: Ladies in Love
  • 1937: Café Metropole
  • 1937: I'll Take Romance
  • 1939: Café Society
  • 1939: Honeymoon in Bali
  • 1940: Safari
  • 1941: Virginia
  • 1941: One Night in Lisbon
  • 1941: Bahama Passage
  • 1943: Young and Willing
  • 1943: The Sky's the Limit
  • 1946: Perilious Holiday

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Griffith, Edward H.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American director and film producer
DATE OF BIRTH 23 August 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Lynchburg , Virginia
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 1975
Place of death South Laguna , California