Sidney Franklin

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Sidney Franklin (born March 21, 1893 in San Francisco , † May 18, 1972 in Santa Monica ) was an American director and film producer .

life and career

Sidney Franklin was one of the most distinguished directors and producers. His interest in film led to various jobs as an actor and screenwriter from 1913. In the early years he often worked with his brother, Chester M. Franklin, and the two of them co-directed short comedies called one-reelers . By the mid-1920s, Sidney Franklin had earned a reputation as an excellent director, especially for soulful melodramas and romantic love stories. Especially his films with the sisters Constance Talmadge , for which he directed the comedies The Twin Sister and Highness incognito , and Norma Talmadge , which he leads through Beverly of Graustark , earned him the reputation of an outspoken woman director. In 1925 he moved to MGM , where he quickly won the trust of Irving Thalberg , who entrusted him, among other things, with the task of making Norma Shearer a top star in the studio. Movies like The Comedian helped the Shearer quickly gain popularity. Franklin also worked with Marion Davies on Quality Street and Greta Garbo , although the cooperation between the two was far from problem-free during the filming of Wild Orchids .

With the advent of talkies, Franklin was responsible for The Guardsman in 1931 , the lavishly produced and highly publicized adaptation of a frivolous play by Ferenc Molnár with Broadway legends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne . The film was fairly successful, and later that year he had better luck filming Noël Coward's Private Lives , which starred Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery . Three years later he led Shearer to one of her greatest successes: The Barretts of Wimpole Street , the elegant and opulent film adaptation of a Broadway play in which Katharine Cornell had celebrated triumphs. Franklin was responsible for the remake starring Jennifer Jones in 1957 , his last directorial work. Before that, in 1937, after Die gute Erde , he turned from directing to producing. Subsequently, he was responsible for some of MGM's opulent prestige productions: Her first husband from 1940, Found Years, and especially Mrs. Miniver , both with Greer Garson , both from 1942. The White Cliffs of Dover , two years later in came to the distribution, was almost even more lavishly and patriotically staged and showed Irene Dunne as an American who lost her English husband in World War I and her son in World War II. In 1957, immediately after the completion of The Barretts of Whimpole Street , Franklin left the studio in anger and consequently withdrew into private life.

Sidney Franklin was married three times: his first marriage, which resulted in a child, was divorced in 1933. He was then married to Ruth Helms from 1937 until her death in 1960. In 1963 he married the actress Enid Bennett , with whom he remained married until her death in 1969.

Appreciation

In his International Film Encyclopedia , Ephraim Katz calls Franklin "a stylish director rather than one with a singular style" ("a stylish director rather than one with his own style"). You will therefore miss an independent signature in his films, something that only distinguishes his productions. That may also have something to do with the manufacturing methods at MGM, where three or four previews before the final rental were more the rule than the exception. Nevertheless, alongside Robert Z. Leonard and Clarence Brown, he is one of the in- house directors who were responsible for the unmistakable look of an MGM period from the classic era under Louis B. Mayer : extravagant yet restrained furnishings, opulent costumes, flawless lighting with a lot Skylight and relatively little importance of the background music, the so-called score .

Franklin's first nomination as a producer in the Oscar for Best Picture was for Ninotchka . He won the award for Mrs. Miniver . He received further nominations for his films Found Years , Madame Curie and The Crying of the Wild . He received the only nomination as a director for The Good Earth . In 1942, Franklin received an Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for the consistent high quality of production achievments , as the reason stated. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame .

Filmography (selection)

as a director

as a producer

Web links