# Mitchell Leisen

James Mitchell Leisen (October 6, 1898 – October 28, 1972) was an American director, art director, and costume designer.

## Film career

He entered the film industry in the 1920s, beginning in the art and costume departments. He directed his first film in 1933 with Cradle Song and became known for his keen sense of aesthetics in the glossy Hollywood melodramas and screwball comedies he turned out.
His best known films include Alberto Casella's adaptation of Death Takes a Holiday and Murder at the Vanities, a musical mystery story (both 1934), as well as Midnight (1939) and Hold Back the Dawn (1941), both scripted by Billy Wilder. Easy Living (1937), written by Preston Sturges and starring Jean Arthur, was another hit for the director, who also directed Remember the Night (1940), the last film written by Sturges before he started directing his scripts as well.
Lady in the Dark (1944), To Each His Own (1946), and No Man of Her Own (1950) were later successes. Charles Brackett's comedy The Mating Season (1951) starring Gene Tierney, Miriam Hopkins and Thelma Ritter was an updated version of Leisen's earlier screwball comedies of the 1930s, and was also his last big movie success.
When his film career ended, Leisen directed episodes of such television series as Thriller, Shirley Temple's Storybook, The Twilight Zone, and The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.. He later became a nightclub owner.

## Personal life

Though married, Leisen was reported to be gay or bisexual. According to Carolyn Roos, Leisen's longtime business manager's daughter, he had a very long relationship with dancer/actor/choreographer Billy Daniel until the 1950s (Daniel died in 1962). Leisen, with Daniel and dancer/actor Mary Parker, formed Hollywood Presents Inc. as a means of promoting both Daniel and Parker off-screen. Leisen died of heart disease in 1972, aged 74. His grave is located in Chapel of the Pines Crematory.

## Awards

He garnered his sole Academy Award nomination in 1930 for Art Direction for Cecil B. DeMille's Dynamite. He directed Hold Back the Dawn (1941), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

## Filmography (as director)

| Year | Title | Production Co. | Cast | Notes |
| 1933 | Cradle Song | Paramount | Dorothea Wieck / Evelyn Venable | |
| 1934 | Bolero | Paramount | George Raft / Carole Lombard | Co-directed with Wesley Ruggles |
| 1934 | Death Takes a Holiday | Paramount | Fredric March / Evelyn Venable | Released to DVD |
| 1934 | Murder at the Vanities | Paramount | Victor McLaglen / Jack Oakie / Carl Brisson | |
| 1934 | Behold My Wife | Paramount | Gene Raymond / Ann Sheridan / Sylvia Sidney | |
| 1935 | Four Hours to Kill! | Paramount | Richard Barthelmess / Ray Milland / Gertrude Michael | |
| 1935 | Hands Across the Table | Paramount | Carole Lombard / Fred MacMurray | |
| 1936 | 13 Hours by Air | Paramount | Fred MacMurray / Joan Bennett / ZaSu Pitts | |
| 1936 | The Big Broadcast of 1937 | Paramount | Jack Benny / George Burns / Gracie Allen / Ray Milland | |
| 1937 | Swing High, Swing Low | Paramount | Carole Lombard / Fred MacMurray / Dorothy Lamour | Released to DVD |
| 1937 | Easy Living | Paramount | Jean Arthur / Edward Arnold / Ray Milland | Released to DVD |
| 1938 | The Big Broadcast of 1938 | Paramount | W. C. Fields / Martha Raye / Bob Hope / Dorothy Lamour | Released to DVD |
| 1938 | Artists and Models Abroad | Paramount | Jack Benny / Joan Bennett | Released to DVD |
| 1939 | Midnight | Paramount | Claudette Colbert / Don Ameche / John Barrymore / Mary Astor | Released to DVD |
| 1940 | Remember the Night | Paramount | Barbara Stanwyck / Fred MacMurray | Released to DVD |
| 1940 | Arise, My Love | Paramount | Claudette Colbert / Ray Milland | |
| 1941 | I Wanted Wings | Paramount | Ray Milland / William Holden / Wayne Morris / Veronica Lake | WON Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. |
| 1941 | Hold Back the Dawn | Paramount | Charles Boyer / Olivia de Havilland / Paulette Goddard | Nominated for Academy Award for Best Picture. Released to DVD (region 2). |
| 1942 | The Lady Is Willing | Paramount | Marlene Dietrich / Fred MacMurray | |
| 1942 | Take a Letter, Darling | Paramount | Rosalind Russell / Fred MacMurray | |
| 1943 | No Time for Love | Paramount | Claudette Colbert / Fred MacMurray | |
| 1944 | Lady in the Dark | Paramount | Ginger Rogers / Ray Milland | Technicolor film |
| 1944 | Frenchman's Creek | Paramount | Joan Fontaine / Arturo de Córdova / Basil Rathbone / Nigel Bruce | Technicolor film |
| 1944 | Practically Yours | Paramount | Claudette Colbert / Fred MacMurray | |
| 1945 | Kitty | Paramount | Paulette Goddard / Ray Milland | |
| 1945 | Masquerade in Mexico | Paramount | Dorothy Lamour / Arturo de Córdova | |
| 1946 | To Each His Own | Paramount | Olivia de Havilland / John Lund | Academy Award for Best Actress. Released to VHS. |
| 1947 | Suddenly, It's Spring | Paramount | Paulette Goddard / Fred MacMurray | |
| 1947 | Golden Earrings | Paramount | Marlene Dietrich / Ray Milland | |
| 1948 | Dream Girl | Paramount | Betty Hutton / Macdonald Carey | |
| 1949 | Bride of Vengeance | Paramount | Paulette Goddard / Macdonald Carey / John Lund | |
| 1949 | Song of Surrender | Paramount | Claude Rains / Wanda Hendrix / Macdonald Carey | |
| 1950 | No Man of Her Own | Paramount | Barbara Stanwyck / John Lund | |
| 1950 | Captain Carey, U.S.A. | Paramount | Alan Ladd / Wanda Hendrix | |
| 1951 | The Mating Season | Paramount | Gene Tierney / John Lund / Miriam Hopkins / Thelma Ritter | Nominated Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Thelma Ritter |
| 1951 | Darling, How Could You! | Paramount | Joan Fontaine / John Lund | |
| 1952 | Young Man with Ideas | MGM | Glenn Ford | |
| 1953 | Tonight We Sing | 20th Century Fox | David Wayne / Ezio Pinza / Roberta Peters / Tamara Toumanova | Technicolor film |
| 1955 | Bedevilled | MGM | Anne Baxter / Steve Forrest | Co-directed with Richard Thorpe / Eastmancolor film |
| 1958 | The Girl Most Likely | RKO Radio Pictures | Jane Powell / Cliff Robertson | Technicolor film |
| 1967 | Spree | Trans American | — | Co-directed with Walon Green / documentary / color film |