# John Cromwell (director)

John Cromwell (born Elwood Dager; December 23, 1886 – September 26, 1979) was an American film and stage director and actor. His films spanned the early days of sound to film noir in the early 1950s, by which time his directing career was almost terminated by the Hollywood blacklist.

## Early life and education

Born as Elwood Dager in Toledo, Ohio to an affluent Anglo-Scottish family, executives in the steel and iron industry, Cromwell graduated from private high school at Howe Military Academy in 1905, but never pursued higher education.

### Early acting career, 1905–1912

Upon leaving school, Cromwell immediately began his stage career touring with stock companies in Chicago, then made his way to New York City in his early 20s. Billed as Elwood Dager in his youth, he changed his name to John Cromwell at the age of 26 following a 1912 New York stage appearance.
Cromwell made his Broadway debut in the role of John Brooke in Little Women (1912), an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel. The production was an immediate hit and ran for 184 performances.
Throughout Cromwell's stage career, he worked in close collaboration with one of the outstanding Broadway producers of the day, William A. Brady. Indeed, virtually all of the stage productions Cromwell participated in before he began his film career were produced by Brady. The Painted Woman (1913) marked Cromwell's first assignment as stage director. Written by Frederic Arnold Kummer, the play closed in two days. By 1914, he was acting in and co-directing productions, including "Too Many Cooks" (1914), which ran for 223 performances.
In 1915, he joined the New York Repertory Company and performed in the American premieres of two George Bernard Shaw plays: Major Barbara in 1916, as character "Charles Lomax", and in a revival of Captain Brassbound's Conversion. Cromwell's stage career was interrupted by a brief stint in the U.S. Army during World War I.
By the 1920s, Cromwell had become a respected Broadway director, often in collaboration with co-directors Frank Craven or William Brady. Cromwell frequently performed on stage in this period which included works by future Pulitzer-Prize-winners Sidney Howard and Robert E. Sherwood. In 1927, Cromwell directed and played the lead in the gangster drama, The Racket, with newcomer Edward G. Robinson debuting in a tough guy role of the type for which Robinson became known throughout his film career.
In 1928, Cromwell moved to Hollywood to serve as a dialogue director during the movie industry's transition to films with sound. Although Cromwell returned to Broadway in later years, his primary occupation after 1928 was as a movie director.

## Early film career
### Paramount Famous Lasky, 1929

Paramount Famous Lasky film producer B. P. Schulberg signed the 42-year-old Cromwell as a screen actor in October 1928 at the time of the industry-wide transition from silent productions to the new sound technology. After a satisfactory début performance in the 1929 early talkie The Dummy which featured Ruth Chatterton, Fredric March, Jack Oakie and ZaSu Pitts, Cromwell was invited to share directorial duties with Edward Sutherland, an experienced filmmaker.
Though Cromwell had never worked behind a camera, Paramount was eager to hire experienced stage directors "because of their presumed knowledge in handling dialogue." However erroneous this assumption, Cromwell and Sutherland enjoyed a productive collaboration completing two early talkies, both in 1929: Close Harmony, a jazz-band romance, and The Dance of Life, based on the George Mankers Watters play Burlesque (Sutherland's co-direction went uncredited in The Dance of Death). Cromwell had a minor acting role in each of these productions.
In a 1973 interview with Leonard Maltin, Cromwell offered a frank assessment of his difficulties adapting to the new medium as a movie director:
   I never got accustomed to the terrific range of the camera and what the choice of a shot can do to a scene...[though] I was always very aware of composition. I had to rely enormously on my cameraman, especially at first. I was never able to learn much about lighting because it seems to me that every cameraman I had was so different from the last in his technique that it became almost impossible to learn unless you just took out time and devoted yourself to it. So I had to be completely at their mercy...But I was very lucky. I had some wonderful cameramen—wonderful in that they never let me down...men like Jimmy Howe, Charlie Lang, Arthur Miller.
During Cromwell's early films with Paramount, he was tasked with directing stage and film star George Bancroft, the studio's top property. Bancroft had performed in a number successful silent films with Paramount's rising director Josef von Sternberg, culminating in a Best Actor nomination for Bancroft in Thunderbolt (1930). The Mighty (1930) was Cromwell's first of four pairings with Bancroft, and his first solo debut as director.
On his next film The Street of Chance, Cromwell formed a personal and professional bond with producer David O. Selznick in his first production, then an assistant to B.P. Schulberg. The picture, starring William Powell, Kay Francis and Jean Arthur, was a success at the box office.

### Paramount-Publix, 1930–1931

In 1930, Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation changed its name to Paramount Publix Corporation because of the growing importance of the Publix Theater chain.
The Texan (1930) was Cromwell's adaptation of the O. Henry short story "A Double-Dyed Deceiver" and starring Paramount's rising star Gary Cooper.
Paramount again enlisted actors Powell and Francis in Cromwell's For the Defense (also 1930), a legal drama involving a lawyer and his criminal fiancée. He directed the second cinematic version of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer (also 1930) with Jackie Coogan starring as the eponymous Tom.
During 1931-1932, Cromwell fulfilled his commitments to direct Bancroft in three more films. Indeed, Cromwell had agreed to continue working with Bancroft only if Paramount arranged to let him direct Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes in an adaption of Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms, a project that eventually was directed by Frank Borzage.
The Bancroft films include Scandal Sheet, with co-star Clive Brook, Rich Man's Folly (both 1931), an adaption of Dickens' Dombey and Son and The World and the Flesh (also 1931), a romance set in revolutionary Russia. Cromwell's professional view of Bancroft's performance in Rich Man's Folly elicited these remarks:
   [The role] should have been absolutely splendid for Bancroft except it required a consciousness of the material—of which he had none! To him it was always just another part to play in the same old manner...
Cromwell made three more pictures for Paramount-Publix, all released in 1931: Scandal Sheet, with Bancroft, Unfaithful, with Ruth Chatterton and The Vice Squad with Paul Lukas and Kay Francis.
During pre-production of the 1932 The World and the Flesh, a tale of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Cromwell became disgusted with both the quality of the scenario, as well as the Paramount's sharp curtailment in rehearsal time. Cromwell's historical outlook and stage experience informed these following comments:
   The World and the Flesh was the high point of degradation from my point of view. It was such an asinine, concocted story! I had personally taken an interest in the Russian Revolution, and had heard a great deal from a journalist...Lincoln Steffens who had been in Moscow at the time it happened...And so I had an idea of what chances there were to do a real picture. Then to have this...this almost disgusting tale, the same old hash served up as a script! I made up my mind that would be the last of it, I would try to get away."
In the early sound films the studios, having experience only with dialogue-free (silent) pictures, deferred to the Broadway dialogue-savvy stage directors, like Cromwell, who they enlisted during the transition to "talkies". In early production of For the Defense, Cromwell reports he was informed about a change in policy concerning rehearsals:
   I set up the usual rehearsal schedule [of 2 1⁄2 weeks], but at the production meeting Schulberg said "We can't have anymore rehearsals, John." I asked him what he meant, and he continued: "It's a waste of time. The [film] directors don't know what to do with rehearsals..."
   I had noticed this too, but I had improved every minute of my time with rehearsals, so I said "Well, you know you don't have to do that with me, you know I don't waste my time." Schulberg replied "If I give you the privilege, they'll all want it, and that will just create a situation..."
Cromwell bargained with the producer, and they agreed to trade shooting days in exchange for rehearsal days. Cromwell recalled: "I think I ended up with four days rehearsal [by] cutting two days off the shooting schedule. Incredible! I couldn't believe it years afterwards."

## Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO): 1933–1935

Cromwell's disaffection from Paramount led him to "walk off the lot" after The World and the Flesh, and with the help of his agent Myron Selznick, he moved to RKO. At the time, David O. Selznick was running RKO, and Cromwell recalled his professional experience there fondly: "RKO was always an endearing place to me; it had a distinct feeling of independence and individuality it never lost."
Cromwell was initially assigned by RKO to direct "a series of soap operas and films about family strife". Among these were Sweepings (1933), starring Lionel Barrymore in an unusually "restrained" performance. Cromwell directed The Silver Cord, an adaptation of a play he directed in 1926. His 1933 film adaptation concerns a young wife, Irene Dunne, who battles with her interfering mother-in-law Laura Hope Crews. The picture, which disparaged "motherhood", was considered audacious in its day.
Cromwell finished off this series with Double Harness (1933), "a shrewd and sophisticated interior drama" with Ann Harding and William Powell.

### Ann Vickers (1933)

Cromwell filmed a then-controversial adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel Ann Vickers (1933). Irene Dunne played the eponymous character, a social reformer who exposes the degrading conditions in American prisons and has an affair with a jurist Walter Huston. Jane Murfin's screenplay reflected the characterizations in the Lewis novel, where Vickers is a "birth control advocate" who engages in an extramarital affair. The script drew the ire of the Production Code Administration and the Catholic Church. The Studio Relations Committee (SRC) chairman James Wingate called the script "vulgarly offensive". The SRC, overseeing the MPPDA, demanded an overhaul of the Murfin's script. RKO managers protested, and a compromise was reached when Dunne's character was relieved of adultery charges by a change in her marital status. Although awarded approval, the film helped spur the formation of the Production Code Administration, which later rigorously censored films for almost 25 years, largely under Catholic moral crusader Joseph Ignatius Breen.

### Spitfire and This Man Is Mine (1934)

Cromwell's first two pictures of 1934 are considered "largely forgettable" according to author Michael Barson, beginning with a "miscast" Katharine Hepburn in Spitfire.
RKO's 26-year-old Hepburn as "Spitfire" (her pejorative sobriquet) was conceived as a "character study" rather than a genuine narrative, to showcase the rising young star. Based on the play Trigger by Lula Vollmer, Hepburn is improbably tasked with portraying an anti-social hillbilly-tomboy and faith healer in a rural backcountry community. Cromwell admitted that he was skeptical as to Hepburn's suitability for the part and objected to her contrived country accent. Hepburn herself tried unsuccessfully to get out of the film.
Cromwell, struggling with setting up his shots and conscious of avoiding cost overruns, disputed with Hepburn as to re-shooting of a key scene. The contretemps led to Cromwell's emphatic rejection of her requests and the director, "who did not like the film much", recalled that "I think those [disputes] were reflected in the picture." Nonetheless, Cromwell's visual compositions, along with the work of his cinematographer Edward Cronjager showcase Hepburn's "exuberant" performance, in which "her physical celebrations of the joys of life make this an eccentric and likeable film." Surprisingly, the film was successful at the box office.
Cromwell completed another soap opera with Irene Dunne and Ralph Bellamy, This Man is Mine (1934).

### Of Human Bondage (1934)

Cromwell embarked on a film that proved to be highly offensive to the censors, but immensely popular among moviegoers: Of Human Bondage.
Although film historian John Baxter considers Cromwell's adaption of W. Somerset Maugham's novel Of Human Bondage "overrated", critic Jon Hopwood posited that the director "made his name" in Hollywood with this picture.
The film dramatizes forms of personal tyranny and obsession, in which an unsophisticated and heartless waitress, Mildred (Bette Davis) employs low-cunning to win the affection of a club-footed and self-effacing young medical student, Philip (Leslie Howard). The scenes are shot with great efficiency and effect in which "the camera movement seems to represent the emotional state of the characters." Cromwell adapted to studio budget limitations, employing the spartan interior sets to good effect in emphasizing the "unreality" of medical student's daily routines.
Bette Davis' Mildred saw the emergence of the actress in a "breakthrough" performance and "her first truly great film role." Davis' rendition fully conveys "the vulgarity and venality" of the character, impressing studios executives and audiences.
Like Cromwell's 1933 Ann Vickers, Of Human Bondage was received the disapproval of the Production Code Administration (PCA), led by Catholic activist Joseph Breen. The PCA demanded a number of alterations to the scenario, among them that Mildred's diagnosis of syphilis be changed to tuberculosis, and that the coarseness of Davis' interpretation of the "slatternly waitress" be toned down. RKO readily complied under threat of a $25,000 fine per violation.
Despite studio executives' submitting to the censorship, Of Human Bondage was picketed in the major cities in the Midwestern United States by the Catholic National Legion of Decency. Perhaps in response to the reputation the film acquired by these demonstrations, the picture broke attendance records at Chicago's Hippodrome Theater with hundreds of moviegoers turned away. Nationwide, the movie enjoyed a tremendous box-office success.
As to Cromwell's successful handling of Davis' role, he was never labelled a "woman's director" (as were directors such as George Cukor). Nevertheless, his extensive experience as a stage performer endowed him a sympathy which elicited fine performances from his players, especially the women. Davis' performance was an early manifestation of this salutary influence.
   "Whether by luck or design, Cromwell's eclectic career has been redeemed by the iconographical contributions of Irene Dunne, Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Madeleine Carroll, Mary Astor, Carole Lombard... Fortunately, his formal deficiencies seldom obscure the beautiful drivers of Cromwell's vehicles."—Andrew Sarris (The American Cinema, 1968)
The last film released in 1934 directed by Cromwell was a post-WWI romantic drama The Fountain concerning an Englishwoman who must tell her devoted German husband returning from the war that she has fallen in love with her childhood sweetheart.
Film historian Kingsley Canham considers this a "key" film in Cromwell's oeuvre, showcasing the director's "elegance" and "assurance" in his handling of the décor and its relationship to performances.
The "restlessness and soul searching" of the expatriate wife Julie (Ann Harding) and her lover interned British flyer Lewis (Brian Aherne) is conveyed through camera movements, and with a minimum of dialogue. The "metaphysical" nature of this romance is made explicit by Cromwell's insertion of an excerpt from the English poet Coleridge's poem "Dejection". Canham praises The Fountain as "undoubtedly one of Cromwell's most outstanding achievements..."
After finishing Of Human Bondage, Cromwell enjoyed a pleasant interlude making Village Tale (1935), "one of Cromwell's favorite projects." Comprising a series of character studies, the picture features Guinn "Big Boy" Williams and Ann Dvorak. Jalna and I Dream Too Much(both 1935), represent a return to Cromwell's "soap opera" depictions of familial relations and marital strife. The director's wife Kay Johnson was featured in Jalna, and Henry Fonda starred in I Dream too Much.

## United Artists and 20th Century Fox, 1936–1939

After his recent collaborations with Pandro S. Berman and other producers, Cromwell reunited with David O. Selznick, following him to United Artists and 20th Century Fox to make five films: Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936), To Mary – with Love (1936), Banjo on My Knee (1936), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) and Algiers (1938).
David O. Selznick enlisted Cromwell to make a heavily invested re-make of the silent era film Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921)
The casting of child actor Freddy Bartholomew in the title role, according to Canham, was a masterstroke by Selznick and Cromwell's direction showcases the "sheer professionalism" of Bartholomew's acting abilities. Cromwell wisely selected his supporting cast from Hollywood's renowned "English Colony" of British expatriates. A film that emphasizes characterization over incident, Cromwell's handling of the camera endows the picture with a cinematic quality that avoids the impression of "filmed literature."
The first film created under Selznick International Pictures, Little Lord Fauntleroy was his most profitable production until Gone With the Wind (1939).

### Banjo on My Knee (1936)

   "To Cromwell, the work of the director was not to throw off individual sparks of creaitivity, but to fuse the efforts of the entire creative team for the best interests of the finished work. Such selflessness has always been rare in film-making, and Cromwell has long been overlooked by critics and historians alike. But recent assessments of his work, notably such bitter late films as Caged and The Goddess, have established him as a director of substance as well as style, not merely the hired litteratuer of Paramount, RKO, or Selznick." – Biographer Richard Koszarski from Hollywood Directors: 1914-1940
Selznick tasked Cromwell with filming "another marital drama" released by 20th Century Fox studios with Claire Trevor the interloper and Myrna Loy and Warner Baxter as the happy couple. Banjo on My Knee (1936), set in the New Orleans and a comedy-of-errors interspersed with musical productions, included a fulsome rendition of W. C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues". The film bears similarities in setting and staging to director James Whale's Show Boat released the same year.
Cromwell, according to Canham, fails to cinematically develop the characters of co-stars Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea and reduces the plebeian denizens of the Mississippi River Delta to caricatures.
Walter Brennan, was cast as the rural patriarch Newt Holley, who emerges as welcome comedy relief in a picture writes Canham where "nothing ever comes easily to the people in Cromwell's films and ambition often cloaks failure or death for commoners or even Ruritanian royalty."

### The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)

In reviving novelist Anthony Hope's swashbuckler The Prisoner of Zenda, David O. Selznick took a calculated risk as to popular taste. That leading man Ronald Colman was under contract to Selznick was the key factor in proceeding with the project. The decision to pick John Cromwell as director was based on his demonstrated ability to handle actors, and his disciplined observance of budgetary restraints.
Despite Cromwell's skill with both male and female actors, an amusing contretemps arose during script and storyboard development. Ronald Colman (like screen actor John Barrymore) favored presenting just one facial profile to the camera to conceal his "bad side". Co-star Madeleine Carroll soon approached Cromwell, claiming a facial defect on the same side as Colman, meaning any face-to-face on-screen close-up would put one actor at disadvantage.
As director Cromwell remembered:
   I called on Jimmy Howe [the cameraman] and asked him if [Carroll] had a bad side, and he said: "You couldn't fault her if you stood her on her head!" So I went back to her, pointing out how ridiculous it was and that we wouldn't be able to shoot the picture if she had the same [bad] side as Colman. After that, she would not speak to me for the rest of the picture.
Despite the generally "fluid style of the finished work" the authorship of several of the action scenes remain in question. Selznick was adamant about engaging directors George Cukor and Woody van Dyke to instill a sharper expressive element into the acting or to provide a more graphic presentation of the action episodes. Cromwell's widely recognized "visual elegance" may have influenced Selznick's "poor opinion of him as an action director." Both Cukor and Van Dyke went uncredited as was customary under Director's Guild rules.
Film critic Michael Barson considers Cromwell's The Prisoner of Zenda as the beginning of his "golden age" among Hollywood directors, and a production that deserves designation as a "classic".

### Algiers (1938)

Algiers (1938), Cromwell's re-make of director Julien Duvivier's French thriller Pepe Le Moko (1936), launched the Hollywood careers of two European actors: Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr. Cromwell elicited a fine performance from Boyer as an international thief who matches wits with the local police inspector played by Joseph Calleia, attempting to lure the French fugitive from his refuge in the "Casbah", the native quarter of Algiers. The dialogue, "tight and logical", was crafted by John Howard Lawson, with contributions from novelist-screenwriter James M. Cain. Cromwell and his cinematographer James Wong Howe successfully manufactured a "polished" facsimile of Duvivier's original for producer Walter Wanger.
Cromwell strained to extract an impressive American acting debut from the Austrian Lamarr, whom Wanger wished to mold into a "second Garbo". Cromwell recalled:
   I could sense her inadequacy [as an actor], Wanger could sense it, and I could see Boyer getting worried...Sometimes the word personality is interchangeable with presence although they aren't the same thing. But the principle applies, and Hedy also had no personality. How could they think she could become a second Garbo?...Well, we got the picture going, and we did all right. The critics saw she couldn't act, but she got by, and they sold the picture by gushing how beautiful she was. I'll take some credit for making her acting passable but can only share credit with Boyer fifty-fifty.
Cromwell made an aborted attempt to direct producer Sam Goldwyn's The Adventures of Marco Polo (ultimately completed by director Archie Mayo and John Ford in 1938), followed briefly by a return to the stage to direct Fredric March and Florence Eldridge.

### Made for Each Other and In Name Only: Carole Lombard, 1939

While Selznick was deeply immersed in pre-production for Gone with the Wind (1939), he engaged Cromwell to direct Carole Lombard and James Stewart in the romantic comedy Made for Each Other (1939). The simple narrative of young newlyweds struggling with both "the trivial and the traumatic" provided a platform to showcase Cromwell's adept handling of the cast.
Lombard was eager for a role with dramatic potential (she had been designated as "The Queen of the Screwball comedy" in her earlier roles). She benefited from the straightforward script "that allowed for a great deal of insight into the characters, and for an unusual amount of flexibility in the cast's playing." Lombard's dramatic interpretation of wife Jane Mason emerges as "casual and very human." Stewart is perfectly suited to the role of the unassertive yet endearing young husband in need of the tactful guidance of his more mature spouse.
A distinct critical success, but undistinguished at the box-office, Cromwell was delighted to have the opportunity to direct Lombard in his next feature film: In Name Only (1939). Another production in a genre that Cromwell was well-equipped to present—the marital melodrama—Lombard plays "the other woman" to the wealthy Cary Grant, trapped in an unhappy marriage with the possessive Kay Francis.
Lombard's Julie, a widow, suffering from "shattered illusions" of ever possessing Grant, must first abandon all hope before Fate intervenes on her behalf. Grant retains his "natural flippancy" to deliver a number of comic scenes which avoids undermining his character's credibility, and Kay Francis' obsessive matron agrees to give Grant a divorce with this malignant invective: "I hope you'll both be miserable!" Cromwell's overall grasp of the dramatic atmosphere serves to blend the performances and "nearly brings it off."
Historian Kingley Canham offers an insight into Cromwell's handling of "romantic illusions" inherent to melodramatic narratives:
   Reality is ever present in Cromwell's work, surfacing even in his lightest offerings...the director's attitude to his 'soap opera' material differs from other artists [such as] Cukor, Borzage and Stahl...in that he is basically anti-romantic, playing down sentimentality and opting for realism and practicality instead.

### Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940)

RKO executives tasked Cromwell with adapting playwright Robert Sherwood's play Abe Lincoln in Illinois, which had been produced to great acclaim on Broadway in 1938. The Pulitzer Prize-winning stage production concerned the early career of US President Abraham Lincoln, who led the Union forces to victory in the American Civil War. The unfolding war in Europe and the Far East gave special resonance to the subject matter.
Despite the fact that 20th Century Fox was well-advanced in producing a John Ford picture starring Henry Fonda that dramatized the same events in Lincoln's life, this did not deter bids for the film rights to the Sherwood's historical drama and independent producer Max Gordon financed its purchase for $250,000, to be filmed by RKO studios. Stage actor Raymond Massey, who played the role of Lincoln in the Broadway production was selected, with Sherwood's fulsome approval, to perform in the screen role of Abe Lincoln in Illinois.
Cromwell's characterization of Lincoln is distinct from that of the Ford's in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939). Whereas Ford presents a mythological figure who rises from a humble rural lawyer to the most exalted position in the nation, Cromwell's relies less on iconography and emphasizes historic details which reveal Lincoln's early character as less exalted: "Raymond Massey [emerges] as a far less confident Lincoln than Henry Fonda."
The presentation of Lincoln's historical relationship with Ann Rutledge (played by May Howard) is used by Cromwell to establish aspects of Lincoln's essential character and avoids Ford's romantization of Rutledge in Young Abe Lincoln, which features a sentimental graveside eulogy.
Actor Ruth Gordon, in her debut screen appearance as the future Mrs. Lincoln, provides a key antidote to Cromwell's callow Lincoln who is lazy, skeptical and lacking in ambition. Gordon's Mary Todd forthrightly sets about preparing Lincoln to face his destiny in anticipation of marrying him, providing "a remarkably astute cinematic interpretation." Cinematographer James Wong Howe's lighting and camera work effectively documents the transformation in Lincoln that earned Howe an Oscar nomination.

### Victory (1940)

As early as 1919, Cromwell had taken a keen interest in novelist Joseph Conrad's psychological drama Victory: An Island Tale (1915), concerning an English expatriate who attempts to withdraw as a recluse to a small Indonesian island. His solitary existence is undone when he rescues a young woman, leading to the infiltration of his sanctuary by a gang of sociopaths, with tragic results. Cromwell personally contacted Conrad shortly after publication of Victory to obtain production and dramatic rights to the work, only to discover that permission had been bestowed on producer Laurence Irving and McDonald Hastings, respectively. Cromwell directed a version of their adaptation in the United States in the 1920s that quickly folded.
Twenty years later, Cromwell filmed his screen version, Victory (1940), for Paramount with Fredrick March as the recluse Hendrik Heyst and Betty Field as Alma, and Cedric Hardwicke as the pathological Mr. Jones (also serving as narrator). Cromwell's professional relationship with March had commenced on Broadway in 1925 when he directed March in Kay Horton's Harvest.
Cromwell was dissatisfied with some of the casting in Victory, particularly with that of British actor Cedric Hardwicke :
   Then [there was] Mr. Hardwicke, whom I knew—or thought I knew—pretty well. I don't know what the hell happened to him. He just conked out on me entirely, and I felt he gave no indication what the part was about…there seemed to be no effort on his part.
Cromwell considered his next project more satisfactory. In Cromwell's film adaptation, So Ends Our Night (1941), an adaption of the Erich Maria Remarque novel Flotsam (1939), Fredrick March plays an anti-Nazi fugitive pursued by fascist Austrian authorities. In his flight he encounters other exiles, played by Glenn Ford and Margaret Sullavan, and his freedom is only achieved through an ultimate sacrifice. Erich von Stroheim appears in a supporting role as Nazi SS officer Brenner.
Cromwell was particularly pleased with the script by Talbot Jennings, and although the picture was not a commercial success, Cromwell considered So Ends the Night "one of my best."

### Son of Fury (1942)

Cromwell's disparaged his next assignment, Son of Fury, as strictly "a studio project." Financed generously by 20th Century Fox but controlled at every phase to ensure its commercial success, Cromwell was limited to using its "lavish sets" by Darryl F. Zanuck to manufacture "a stock 20th Century Fox costume" period-piece.
The protagonist, Benjamin Blake, heir to a baronetcy, is played by child actor Roddy McDowell as a youth, then by Tyrone Power in adulthood. Curiously, although a time lapse shows the juvenile Blake's transformation from boy to man, his uncle Sir Arthur Blake George Sanders shows no discernible signs of aging.
Cromwell recalled enjoying his work with leading man Tyrone Power "and particularly with [co-star] Gene Tierney" as he "never saw her in a film I liked until Son or Fury and I think that was because I worked so hard to get her to stop acting and be simple."
Historian Kingsley Canham issued this judgement on Cromwell's direction of the picture:
   Son of Fury contains the two extremes of Cromwell's career, [and] unfortunately, in the confrontation between good taste, a lavish budget and atmospheric characterization on the one hand and subservience to studio influence on the other, the latter proves to be the stronger factor.

### Since You Went Away (1944)

As part of his promotion of his protégé, 25-year-old Jennifer Jones, Selznick enlisted Cromwell to direct a paean to the American family during wartime, Since You Went Away (1944).
Film historian Kingley Canham describes Since You Went Away as "undoubtedly one of the most superior, polished and effective wartime propaganda works to emerge from the cinema during the Second World War." Selznick, dissatisfied with the screenplay written by author Margaret Buell Wilder, overhauled it to create a celebration of the American homefront as an “impregnable fortress” sustaining the US war effort.
The cast features Claudette Colbert, Shirley Temple, Joseph Cotten, Lionel Barrymore, Robert Walker and Agnes Moorehead. Cromwell's handling of the scenes establish, writes Canham "a warmth and conviction" that surpasses perfunctory performances. Despite Selznick's usual heavy involvement in the production, Cromwell's deployment of the cast and technicians was such that "his reputation as a Hollywood professional could have survived entirely on the strength of Since You Went Away."
A commercial as well as critical success, the film received nine Oscar nominations - including Best Picture, virtually the entire cast and all technical credits - but winning only one, for Max Steiner's score.

### The Enchanted Cottage (1945) and Anna and the King of Siam (1946)

Cromwell returned to RKO to make one of his most personally gratifying pictures, The Enchanted Cottage (1945), a remake of director John S. Robertson's 1924 silent film production, both based on Arthur Wing Pinero's 1921 play of the same name.
A romantic fantasy, “handled with perception and feeling” by Cromwell, tells the story (presented in flashbacks) of a disfigured combat veteran Robert Young returning from the Second World War and an "ugly duckling" maiden Dorothy McGuire, who marry and together discover the transformative power of love. Pianist and composer Herbert Marshall, blinded in the war, contributes to their personal triumph.
Returning to 20th Century Fox, Cromwell embarked on another satisfying project, Anna and the King of Siam (1947), "a demonstration of Cromwell's craftsmanship" earning Oscars for cinematography and art direction. The 1944 story by author Margaret Landon is based on the memoirs of Anglo-Indian Anna Leonowens, who served as governess for King Mongkut of Siam (now Thailand) in the 1860s. The King is played by Rex Harrison and the governess by Irene Dunne. Her task is to tutor his numerous children sired with his harem, and "guide the King in matters of state and household" informed by her petty bourgeois sensibilities. Cromwell avoids both minor comedy relief and spectacle, concentrating on character development of the King and Anna.
A success at the box-office and the Academy Awards, the Leonowens tale appeared as a Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical in 1951 and on film in The King and I (1956).
RKO assigned Cromwell the drama Night Song (1948) starring Dana Andrews and Merle Oberon concerning a wealthy society woman who strives to advance the career of a blind pianist. Termed “a disaster [and] an unbelievable film” the picture's only saving grace is a cameo appearance by Arthur Rubinstein performing at the piano.
During the post-World War II period, Cromwell's created a number of films that are considered film noir and reflect the director's frame-up as a Fellow-traveler accused of Communist sympathies by the House Un-American Activities Committee investigators and Hollywood executives during the emerging McCarthyite era. Cromwell claimed that "I was never anything that suggested a Red, and there never was the slightest evidence with which to accuse me of being one." Nevertheless, Cromwell was blacklisted by the Hollywood film industry from 1952 to 1958.

### Dead Reckoning (1947): Columbia Pictures

Warner Bros. studios, with top film star Humphrey Bogart under contract, reluctantly agreed to an actor exchange with Harry Cohn's Columbia Pictures, making Bogart available for a limited period of time to the rival studio. Bogart had the option of picking his director and screenplay, and settled on Cromwell. Cromwell recalled his earliest encounter with the actor in the 1922 Broadway production of Drifting in which Bogart was cast in the roles of Ernie Crockett and The Third Husband:
   I had put Humphrey Bogart on stage when he was a kid; he used to hang around the Playhouse Theater [and] sat in on rehearsals…[once when a featured player failed to show] somebody thought of Bogart, who was at the time the most responsible, the most charming [of the young player prospects]. He was, of course, goggled-eyed to do it, and I think he said to me once: "Mr. Cromwell...Do I face the audience when I speak my lines or do I talk to the characters?" I went through all these things with him, but the play was an awful flop.
In Dead Reckoning (1947), Bogart portrays a hardened WWII veteran who engages in a deadly pursuit to locate the murderer of a comrade-in-arms. Lizabeth Scott serves as the noir femme-fatale. The often incoherent narrative reflects Cromwell's struggle to make sense of the disconcerting script. Cromwell recalled:
   We had no story. [The screenwriters] provided the usual pile of stuff they always had handy to see whom they could pass it off on...I finally got this one, a noxious sort of thing, but I felt perhaps that [Bogart and I] could make something of it.
Despite these conceptual limitations, Cromwell achieves a level of coherency that delivers a vigorous film in the noir style.

## Hollywood and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

During the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) 1947 investigations into the film industry, John Cromwell was identified as a person of interest linked to supposed Communist subversion in Hollywood. Cromwell described himself as "a 'liberal' Democrat" and avers he did not become politically active until the re-election campaign for US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's third run for the White House in 1940. Most of this, according to Cromwell, was limited to collecting membership dues for the Hollywood Democratic Committee which consisted of "3,000 members". In a 1973 interview with film historian Leonard Maltin for Action magazine, Cromwell recounted studio efforts to undermine his work during the anti-Communist witch-hunts:
   I began to feel the pressure alright...I had asked my agent to find out whether I was on a list of 200 names [of suspected Communists] which was supposed to be universally circulated in all the big studios, and he did what he could to find out, and said: "Absolutely not!" And I felt this was virtually a clearance because my name was on the local state [of California] list and had cropped up very often. So I got the contract from RKO.
Cromwell's agent had negotiated an excellent film contract, but within weeks RKO was purchased by film producer and anti-Communist Howard Hughes. As Cromwell remembered, "the complete freedom from inter-studio politics went up in smoke." He said that the change in ownership caused an exodus of screenwriters and technicians from the studios whose "reputations" were perceived by Hollywood executives as "tinged" with sympathies for Communism: the writers "knew it was useless to stay there".
Remaining under contract, Cromwell decided to persevere at RKO, confident that "they could not harm me much". On the contrary, Cromwell discerned a conscious effort to force him out when RKO executives presented him with an ultimatum: accept studio dictated screenplays and scripts, or violate his contract. Cromwell was convinced that a screenwriter had approached Hughes, urging him to buy the rights of a story that was so repellent to Cromwell the director would be compelled to reject it—providing RKO grounds for terminating his lucrative agreement. Cromwell describes his dilemma:
   They just sent me a script and said ‘this will be your next assignment. I looked at the script and the name was I Married a Communist and I thought this was kind of funny...I never read such a bad script in my life; the more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that it could never be made...[but] I decided to stick it out.
Cromwell reports that the studio immediately assigned a screenwriter to the pre-production team who was "one of the worst [anti-Communist] 'witch-hunters' in Hollywood, and I saw that this was pretty deliberate". Multiple screenwriters were tasked with developing a workable script from the flawed story. They came to loggerheads with Cromwell, finally convincing RKO management that it was "logically" impossible to make the picture. When delays in production threatened to trigger the "triple-salary" provision in Cromwell's contract, RKO loaned Cromwell to Warner Bros. to make Caged. The final film, eventually released in 1949, had to be retitled The Woman on Pier 13.

### Caged (1950)

Cromwell's noir picture Caged (1950) is an indictment of an American social and sexual hierarchy set in the microcosm of a woman's prison. Among Cromwell's "bitterest films", historian Kingsley Canham describes its formulation:
   It builds up in a progression of accusations structured in terms of their importance. Men are seen as woman's downfall; harsh treatment in prison brutalizes them; official indifference and chicanery prevents liberal aid; and their corruption is completed by their contact with the hardened criminals who are themselves victims.
A Warner Brothers production, Cromwell adopted the visual effects, subject matter and dramatic music characteristic of the studio's pictures, including its “hard-boiled” dialogue.
At the center of Cromwell's work—and “casting against type”—are the strong performances by Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead, Hope Emerson, Betty Garde and Lee Patrick, through whom he “makes his case”.
Cromwell returned to RKO (with John Houseman producing) in the studios’ bid to duplicate the success of Caged, again a crime drama, where Dennis O'Keefe is the love object of Jane Greer and Lizabeth Scott: The Company She Keeps (1951). Cromwell failed to fully make use of the talented cast and to effectively dramatize the confusing script.

### The Racket (1951)

Cromwell's last film before his expulsion by the Hollywood studios under the anti-Communist blacklist was The Racket (1951). The play by Bartlett Cormack had been produced on Broadway in 1927, with Cromwell in the leading role of Capt. McQuigg (with future film star Edward G. Robinson in a bit part). In the 1928 silent film adaption of the play directed by Lewis Milestone and produced by the 22-year-old Howard Hughes, Robinson is elevated to the role of gangster Nick Scanlon for this silent film version. Robert Mitchum reprises the role of the honest police Captain Thomas McQuigg, the same character director Cromwell had performed on Broadway in 1927.
Cromwell's film version is a dark and pessimistic noir that parades the gangsterism of "the business corporation structure…the brainless thugs...the crooked bail bondsmen and cops and corrupt judges to the unseen 'Man' at the top." The film, which includes suspenseful and effective fight scenes delivers "capable entertainment".
As familiar with the material as Cromwell was, RKO's Howard Hughes rejected his final cut and enlisted director Nicholas Ray to shoot additional scenes. Cromwell is reported to have walked off the set in disgust. Due to his blacklisting by the Hollywood studios, Cromwell did not work in the film industry again until later in the decade.

### The Goddess (1958)

During the years of forced studio inactivity beginning in 1952, Cromwell's only engagement in Hollywood was a small acting role in Top Secret Affair (1957), directed by H.C. Potter and starring Kirk Douglas and Susan Hayward. Historian Kingsley Canham reports that the erstwhile director was "active in the theater" during these intervening years. Cromwell was enticed to return to film directing when Columbia Pictures promised him the option make "first cut" on the proposed feature. The Goddess (1958) was his last major cinematic work, and "in many respects one of his best films."
The story and script by dramatist Paddy Chayefsky details the tragic rise and fall of a fictitious Hollywood actress, Emily Ann Faulkner/Rita Shawn. Cromwell chose to present the saga in three chronological and dramatic episodes: "Portrait of a Young Girl, Maryland 1930" (Faulkner played by the 9-year-old Patty Duke), "Portrait of a Young Woman," and "Portrait of a Goddess” (the later two performed by Kim Stanley).
Cromwell uses the film as a platform on which to "bitterly parody the emotionalism of his earlier films", linking the episodes together by the repetition of fragments of dialogue from the characters that "echo" throughout the film.
The Goddess emerges as Cromwell's reckoning with the Hollywood film industry. The characterization of Emily Ann Faulkner and Rita Shawn emerge as an indictment of the Hollywood system. Film historian Kingsley Canham observes:
   Cromwell's heroine is both victim and monster; she is allowed an ambiguity of character that many of his villainesses share, but he shows no mercy or pity for the mechanics of the film industry whom he indicts for her downfall. The film offers him an opportunity to vent his love/hate relationship for a lifetime in the film industry.
Cromwell discovered that his “first cut” rights were inadequate to preserve his work, and in subsequent editing effected through the efforts of writer Chayefsky, The Goddess was reduced to half its original length. Cromwell ultimately walked off the project.
Cromwell's film career closed with two lackluster films: The Scavengers (1959) starring Vince Edwards and Carol Ohmart, made in the Philippines, and a low-budget drama, A Matter of Morals (1961), made in Swede with Maj-Britt Nilsson and Patrick O’Neal.

## Life after Hollywood

Cromwell devoted the rest of his career primarily to the theater where he had begun. He wrote three plays, all staged in New York; starred opposite Helen Hayes in a revival of What Every Woman Knows, directed the original Broadway company of Desk Set, and eventually found artistic satisfaction in four seasons at the Tyrone Guthrie theater in Minneapolis, founded by the expatriate British director in 1963 when he, like Cromwell, had grown disenchanted with Broadway's increasing commercialism.
Cromwell was cast by Robert Altman in the role of Mr. Rose for the film 3 Women (1977) starring Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek, and as Bishop Martin in A Wedding (1978) starring Desi Arnaz, Jr., Carol Burnett, Geraldine Chaplin, Mia Farrow, Vittorio Gassman and Lillian Gish. His wife Ruth Nelson also appeared in both Altman films.

## Personal life

Cromwell married four times. His first wife, stage actress Alice Lindahl died of influenza in 1918. He and stage actress Marie Goff divorced. Cromwell next married actress Kay Johnson in 1928, divorcing in 1946. His final marriage, to actress Ruth Nelson in 1947, lasted until his death in 1979. Cromwell and Johnson had two sons; one is actor James Cromwell.

## Death

He died at age 92 in Santa Barbara, California of a pulmonary embolism.

## Filmography

| Year | Title | Credited as | Credited as | Credited as |
| Year | Title | Director | Actor | Role |
| 1929 | The Dummy | | Yes | Walter Babbing |
| 1929 | Close Harmony | Yes | | |
| 1929 | The Dance of Life | Yes | Yes | Doorkeeper |
| 1929 | The Mighty | Yes | Yes | Mr. Jamieson |
| 1930 | Street of Chance | Yes | Yes | Imbrie |
| 1930 | The Texan | Yes | | |
| 1930 | For the Defense | Yes | Yes | Second Reporter at Trial |
| 1930 | Tom Sawyer | Yes | | |
| 1931 | Scandal Sheet | Yes | | |
| 1931 | Unfaithful | Yes | | |
| 1931 | The Vice Squad | Yes | | |
| 1931 | Rich Man's Folly | Yes | | |
| 1932 | The World and the Flesh | Yes | | |
| 1932 | Hell's Highway | Yes | | |
| 1933 | Sweepings | Yes | | |
| 1933 | The Silver Cord | Yes | | |
| 1933 | Double Harness | Yes | | |
| 1933 | Ann Vickers | Yes | Yes | Sad-Faced Doughboy |
| 1934 | Spitfire | Yes | | |
| 1934 | This Man Is Mine | Yes | | |
| 1934 | Of Human Bondage | Yes | | |
| 1934 | The Fountain | Yes | | |
| 1935 | Village Tale | Yes | | |
| 1935 | Jalna | Yes | | |
| 1935 | I Dream Too Much | Yes | | |
| 1936 | Little Lord Fauntleroy | Yes | | |
| 1936 | To Mary - with Love | Yes | | |
| 1936 | Banjo on My Knee | Yes | | |
| 1937 | The Prisoner of Zenda | Yes | | |
| 1938 | Algiers | Yes | | |
| 1939 | Made for Each Other | Yes | | |
| 1939 | In Name Only | Yes | | |
| 1940 | Abe Lincoln in Illinois | Yes | Yes | John Brown |
| 1940 | Victory | Yes | | |
| 1941 | So Ends Our Night | Yes | | |
| 1942 | Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake | Yes | | |
| 1944 | Since You Went Away | Yes | | |
| 1945 | The Enchanted Cottage | Yes | | |
| 1945 | Watchtower Over Tomorrow | Yes | | |
| 1946 | Anna and the King of Siam | Yes | | |
| 1947 | Dead Reckoning | Yes | | |
| 1948 | Night Song | Yes | | |
| 1950 | Caged | Yes | | |
| 1951 | The Company She Keeps | Yes | Yes | Policeman |
| 1951 | The Racket | Yes | | |
| 1954 | Producers' Showcase | | Yes | Jim Conover |
| 1955 | Ponds Theater | | Yes | Mr. Lattimer |
| 1956 | Studio One in Hollywood | | Yes | Senator Harvey Rogers |
| 1957 | Top Secret Affair | | Yes | General Daniel A. Grimshaw |
| 1958 | The Goddess | Yes | | |
| 1959 | The Scavengers | Yes | | |
| 1961 | A Matter of Morals | Yes | | |
| 1977 | 3 Women | | Yes | Mr. Rose |
| 1978 | A Wedding | | Yes | Bishop Martin |

## Stage career

From 1912 to 1928.
| Year | Title | Credited as | Credited as | Credited as |
| Year | Title | Director | Actor | Role |
| 1912 | Little Women | | Yes | John Brooke (Broadway debut) |
| 1913 | The Painted Woman | Yes | | |
| 1914 | Too Many Cooks | Yes w/Frank Craven | Yes | Mr. Jamieson |
| 1914 | LIfe | Yes w/William A. Brady | | |
| 1915 | Sinners | Yes | | |
| 1915 | The New York Idea | Yes | Yes | William Ludley |
| 1915 | Major Barbara | | Yes | Charles Lomax |
| 1916 | The Earth | Yes | | |
| 1916 | Captain Brassbound's Conversion | | Yes | Captain Kearney, USN |
| 1917 | The Land of the Free | Yes w/Frank Craven | | |
| 1919 | At 9:45 | Yes | | |
| 1919 | She Would and She Did | Yes | Yes | Frank Groward |
| 1920 | Immodest Violet | | Yes | Mr. Tackaberry |
| 1920 | Young Visitors | Yes | | |
| 1921 | The Teaser | Yes | Yes | Ruddy Caswell |
| 1921 | Personality | | Yes | Simpson |
| 1921 | Marie Antoinette | Yes w/Grace George | Yes | Maillard |
| 1921 | Bought and Paid For | Yes | | |
| 1922 | Drifting | Yes | | |
| 1922 | The Lawbreaker | | Yes | Walter Homer |
| 1922 | Manhattan | Unk | | |
| 1922 | The World We Live In | Yes | | |
| 1923 | Tarnish | Yes | | |
| 1924 | Bewitched | Producer only | | |
| 1925 | She Had To Know | Yes | | |
| 1925 | It All Depends | Producer w/William A. Brady | | |
| 1925 | Harvest | Yes | | |
| 1925 | Sam McCarver | Producer w/William A. Brady | Yes | Sam McCarver |
| 1926 | Little Eyolf | | Yes | Engineer Borgheim |
| 1926 | Devils | Yes | Yes | Matthew Dibble |
| 1926 | Kitty's Kisses | Yes | | |
| 1926 | Fanny | | Yes | Gyp Gradyear |
| 1926 | The Silver Cord | Yes | | |
| 1927 | Women Go On For Ever | Producer w/William A. Brady | | |
| 1927 | The Racket | | Yes | Capt. McQuigg |
| 1928 | The Queen's Husband | Yes | | |
| 1928 | Gentlemen of the Press | | Yes | Wick Snell |

## Footnotes

* 1 2 Walling, Paula (September 7, 1946). "Sweden Can Keep Sex Films Clean". The Brisbane Sunday Mail. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 60: Given name, stage name Barson, Britannica: Barson reports that Cronwell's "original name [was] Elwood Dager Cromwell" LoBianco, TCM: LoBianco lists his birth name as Elwood Dager John Cromwell.
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 60: Graduated from "Howe School in 1905."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 60: "changed his name to John Cromwell…"
* ↑ See IMDb
* ↑ LoBianco, TCM: Cromwell "worked as a theater director for the great William Brady."
* ↑ Imdb Cromwell: Other Works
* ↑ Imdb, Other Works: The work was adapted to film in 1917 as The Slave Market
* ↑ LoBianco, TCM
* ↑ Canham, 1976, pp. 60–61
* ↑ LoBianco, TCM: "Cromwell made history by starring as Charles Lomax in the first Broadway performance of George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara (1915)."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 pp. 60–61
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 61
* ↑ Baxter, 1968 p. 8: "The studios were hiring "playwrights...directors from New York ...all brought in to satisfy the demand for sophisticated feeling of the stage which [movie] producers imagined" film audiences would demand."
* ↑ Canham, 1976, pp. 58–59: During the conversion to sound films "studios hired stage directors" to direct sound films, however "many [of these] new directors turned out static stage-[influenced] material that soured audiences." And p. 116: See Cromwell roles in these films. Sutherland uncredited.
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p. 60
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p. 62
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p. 61: Cromwell: "David and I found we hit it off very well together. I was always a great admirer of David..." And p. 62-63: Film was a success according to Cromwell, causing "quite a stir" And Selznick's first project.
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p.62
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p.63
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p.118
* ↑ Canham, 1976, pp. 63–64
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p. 64
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p. 64
* ↑ LoBianco, TCM: "As DeWitt Bodeen wrote in his profile of Cromwell, 'He believed in full rehearsals with camera before any shooting took place. "For every day of full rehearsal you give me,' he was fond of saying 'I'll knock off a day on the shooting schedule.' At RKO they gave him three days for rehearsal, and he obligingly came in three days early."
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p.62
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p. 65: The film version, The Silver Cord. "...the dialogue is forceful, but not pedantic, and while one is aware of the stage origin of the material, it is not distracting…Cromwell welcomed the assignment...and felt he could pull it off better than any other director." And: "...attacked one of the sacred cows: motherhood."
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p. 65
* ↑ Hopwood: Ann Vickers "ran into censorship trouble... [the film] featured Irene Dunne as a reformer and birth control advocate who has a torrid extramarital affair. The novel had been condemned by the Catholic Church, and the proposed movie adaptation proved controversial. The Studio Relations Committee, headed by James Wingate (whose deputy was future Production Code Administration head Joseph Breen, a Roman Catholic intellectual), condemned the script as 'vulgarly offensive' before production began. The SRC, which oversaw the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association's Production Code, refused to approve the script without major modifications, but RKO production chief Merian C. Cooper balked over its excessive demands. Although studio head B. B. Kahane protested the SRC's actions to MPPDA President Will Hays, the studio agreed to make Ann Vickers an unmarried woman at the time of her affair, thus eliminating adultery as an issue, and the film received a Seal of Approval. The battle over Ann Vickers was one of the reasons the more powerful PCA was created in 1934 to take the place of the SRC."
* ↑ Barson, 2019
* ↑ Canham, 1976, pp. 65–66: Canham's description of her screen character. And: Cromwell started with the conviction that "Hepburn was totally unsuited to the part." And: Hepburn plays a "witch-healer cum outcast." And: p. 67 "The narrative is unimportant."
* ↑ Canham, 1976, pp. 65-68: See thumbnail sketch on Spitfire regarding Hepburn character and Cromwell. And: "...an eccentric and likeable film."
* ↑ Barson, 2019: This Man of Mine "...a soap opera…" Canham, 1976, p. 121: This Man Is Mine "a romantic comedy-drama with [Dunne] winning back philandering husband [Bellamy] from seductress." Hopwood, IMDb: Ann Vickers and Of Human Bondage controversy and success discussed at length by Hopwood. See link in Sources
* ↑ Baxter, 1970
* ↑ Hopwood, IMDb
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p. 68: ..."various forms of tyranny..." And pp. 72–73: On film technique. And p. 74: Philip's "obsession with Mildred…"
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p. 73
* ↑ Barston, 2019: "The acclaimed drama was especially notable for a breakthrough performance by Bette Davis." LoBianca, TCM "Of Human Bondage gave Bette Davis her first truly great film role and cemented her reputation as a powerful actress. Canham, 1976, p. 75: On "vulgarity" And p. 122: "...one of Bette Davis' first important roles…" TSPDT: "It was [Cromwell] who gave Bette Davis her first meaty part in Of Human Bondage…" Quoting Ronald Bergan (A-Z of Movie Directors, 1983)
* ↑ Hopwood, IMDb: "Joseph Breen, now head of the PCA, warned that the script for W. Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage was "highly offensive" because the prostitute "Mildred"... comes down with syphilis. Breen demanded that Mildred be turned into less of a tramp, that she be afflicted with tuberculosis rather than syphilis and that she be married to Carey's friend whom she cheats on him with. RKO gave in on every point, as the PCA, unlike the SRC, had the ability to levy a $25,000 fine for violations of the Production Code.
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p. 122: "slatternly waitress"
* ↑ Hopwood, IMDb: "chapters of the Catholic Church's Legion of Decency condemned the film in Chicago, Detroit, Omaha and Pittsburgh. Despite a picket line manned by local priests in Chicago, Cromwell's film broke all records at the [Chicago] Hippodrome Theater when it played there in August 1934. Five hundred people had to be turned away opening night. It seemed that wherever the Legion of Decency had condemned the film, it played to capacity crowds."
* ↑ LoBianca, TCM: "The film was a smash at the box office, which was helped by Davis' performance, the censors who objected to the risqué storyline and the priests who picketed the film outside the theaters where it was shown.
* ↑ LoBianco, TCM: "Unlike many directors who worked well with women, he was not stereotyped as a 'woman's director...[d]uring the 1930s Cromwell's films were highly successful in part because of his ability to get great performances out of actresses."
* ↑ TSPDT: "...as an actor himself, [Cromwell] developed a reputation in the 1930s as one of Hollywood's finest and most sympathetic women's directors."
* ↑ TSPDT, Date Unk.
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p. 122
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p. 68–69: "The sensitivity and low-keyed nature of the direction and the leading performances are aided by some beautifully composed soft-focus photography and a surprisingly non-verbal script..."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 72
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p. 122
* ↑ Canham, 1976, pp. 75-76, p. 122
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p. 76, pp. 123–125
* ↑ Canham, 1976, p. 76
* ↑ Barson, 2019: "David O. Selznick, who had formed his own production company, hired Cromwell to direct Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936), a tasteful treatment of the popular novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett; the family drama starred Freddie Bartholomew and Mickey Rooney."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 pp. 76–77: Cromwell's "eye for correct casting" and the English Colony" providing a "strong presence" in the film. And: "Cromwell's...success in obtaining such a winning and confident performance from young Freddie Bartholomew…" And p. 78: "...a well-balanced, unsophisticated work [with] a fluid camera style…"
* ↑ Koszarski, 1976 p. 299
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 123
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 78: The film "...displaying a strong visual likeness to several number in Show Boat with the staging…"
* ↑ Canham, 1976 pp. 79–80: "The river people are caricatures in the scenes depicting their distrust of land folk, and their cabaret appearances come over as freak shows rather than an expression of any genuine feeling for them. Camera movement is inhibited apart from an occasional pan or tracking shot...Pearl [Stanwyck] is confined to suffering [and her acting] falls in line with other Cromwell heroines who are losers...Ernie [McCrea] [expresses] a strong bull-headed male chauvinism…"
* ↑ Canham, 1976 pp. 78–79: "The leisurely plot development offers ample scope to the comic antics of Walter Brennan." And p. 80: "...Brennan steals the honors.." in the film.
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 80: Selznick would not have made the film without Colman.
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 80: That Cromwell worked within budget "endeared him to Selznick."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 80: The conflict exacerbated as already "strained" relationship between Cromwell and Carroll.
* ↑ Canham, 1976 pp. 80–81
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 82: "The action scenes raise the question of authorship." And: See Cukor's handling of Carroll that "not in keeping with her gentle tone" under Cromwell's direction. And see p. 82-84 on descriptions of Cromwell's scenes that belie Selznick's view, and more on Cromwell's "elegance and style…"
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 125: "George Cukor and Woody van Dyke uncredited..."
* ↑ Behlmer, Rudy, ed. (1972). Memo From David O. Selznick. New York: Viking Press. p. 115.
* ↑ Barson, 2019
* ↑ LoBianca, TCM
* ↑ LoBianco, TCM: "The film was a remake of Julien Duvivier's acclaimed French film Pepe le Moko, starring France's biggest star, Jean Gabin. Boyer justifiably complained, 'An actor never likes to copy another's style, and here I was copying Jean Gabin, one of the best.' Director John Cromwell used sequences of the Casbah from the original picture and much of the French musical score. Canham, 1976 p. 84: A "copy job" performed by Cromwell at Wanger's request. And p. 125: James M. Cain provided "additional dialogue."
* ↑ LoBianco, TCM
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 84: Goldwyn fired Cromwell after a week "for not informing Goldwyn of his intended shooting schedule." And March and Eldridge play title not provided.
* ↑ LoBianco, TCM: "a simple story of a young, newlywed couple struggling with money, baby, and in-law problems."And: "David Selznick was so busy with Gone With the Wind at this time that he left Cromwell largely unsupervised." Canham, 1976 p. 87: "The honors for the polished momentum of the film belong as much to John Cromwell as to the players for it is he who tied all the loose ends..."
* ↑ Quin, TCM: " Lombard's star was flying high ever since Twentieth Century (1934), her breakthrough film that established her as "The Queen of Screwball Comedy." She successfully negotiated the terms of her contract for In Name Only with RKO by herself."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 86
* ↑ LoBianco, TCM: "After a string of hugely popular and successful comedies, Carole Lombard was eager in 1938 to find a pure drama...eager to show off her dramatic acting chops. And: "In his advertising campaign for the film, Selznick played up the "new" Carole Lombard: 'CAROLE CRIES! It's a David O. Selznick stroke of showmanship to make Lombard go dramatic!'"
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 87: "The role perfectly tailored for Stewart [who exhibits] a mixture of innocence, naivete and perhaps immaturity."
* ↑ Thomas, Bob (1970). Selznick. Garden City NY: Doubleday & Company. p. 112.
* ↑ LoBianco, TCM: "Director Cromwell praised Lombard as "just a joy" to work with, "a wonderful gal," and soon directed her again in In Name Only (1939), another drama. Quin, TCM: "Carole [asked Cromwell], 'If I played the girl [In Name Only] would you direct?' Cromwell's reply was "Oh my, yes...then I'm sure we could also get Cary [Grant]."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 88: "demonstrates Cromwell's skill in welding together his material...He controls the performances, modulating them to the tone of the scenes."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 90-91: "Lombard is her unique self...[alternating] between gay charm and noble, dignified self-sacrifice..." And: "Grant if believable...and works in some good comedy routines." And Kay Francis' character resembles the "stubborn, obsessive women" who appeared in Cromwell's Caged and The Goddess. And p. 90: "Cromwell's perfect judging of mood and his skill at blending contrasting performances nearly brings it off."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 pp. 88–89
* ↑ Passafiume, TCM: "The positive values that Lincoln represented lent optimism to Americans, as the threats of Hitler and Totalitarianism were very much in the public consciousness." Arnold, TCM: "The play had special resonance in Depression-era America; Lincoln's determination to fight for the moral principles upon which the United States was founded felt urgent and timely."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 91
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 91: "Cromwell plays down [Rutledge's] role, using it as a foil to establish qualities of Lincoln's nature."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 pp. 86, 91–92; Canham emphasizes these scenes as central to Cromwell's narrative and "...one of the highlights of the film..."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 pp. 92–94: Canham presents the unsuccessful efforts of Cromwell to acquire production rights to the literary work.
* ↑ IMDb, Other Works
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p, 94, p. 127: Hardwicke as narrator.
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 94
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 94-95, p. 127
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p, 95: Cromwell: “...the film was not a success...”
* ↑ Canham, 1976 pp. 95–96
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 96
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 96
* ↑ Canham, 1976 pp. 95–96
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 7: Selznick “launching his new protégé Jennifer Jones.” And: formation of Selznick's new production company.
* ↑ Canham, 1976 pp. 97–98
* ↑ Miller, TCM: "He brought Wilder to Hollywood to write the screenplay...he decided he could do it better himself...On his own, Selznick had turned her series of incidents, in which the wife was the only fully defined character, into a contemporary version of a Dickens novel, filled with compelling characters and incidents that re-created the day-to-day life of a family keeping the home fires burning."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 97: Selznick re-wrote the screenplay to create "a broad canvas of America at war...Dedicated to the bastion of the American Dream...the family." And p. 99: see caption on production photo.
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 98: "the Selznick/Cromwell collaboration...is so slickly welded that one hardly notices the device during viewing. The direction, the camera movements and to a great extent, Max Steiner's score are understated, allowing the performances fluidity, natural warmth and conviction that belies acting—a quality that is seldom achieved with such a starry cast."
* ↑ Miller, TCM: Selznick “set out to assemble an all-name cast...”
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 102: Canham warns that "over-credit[ing]" Selznick would be an “injustice” to Cromwell's “succinct” handling of the cast and crew.
* ↑ Miller, TCM: Selznick “ hired John Cromwell; the latter was an expert at directing women who had worked for Selznick on The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) and In Name Only (1939). Still, everybody knew that Selznick was the real power on the picture. For the first time, he insisted that no scene be shot until he had seen it rehearsed...”
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 102: Cromwell “very fond” of the movie. And p. 128: A “sensitively handled fantasy...”
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 102
* ↑ LoBianco, TCM : Cromwell said "...the only way to treat a fantasy” is to treat it realistically; “It always works."
* ↑ Landazuri, TCM: “The real Mongkut was an educated and remarkably progressive ruler, and it was his own inspiration to open up his country to modernization and Western ideas and customs.”
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 102-103: “The narrative is presented as a series of incidents...notable for its non-reliance on spectacle and light relief.”
* ↑ Camham, 1976 p. 128
* ↑ Landazuri, TCM: “Anna and the King of Siam won two Academy Awards for cinematography and art direction, and nominations for supporting actress Gale Sondergaard, for Talbot Jennings and Sally Benson's screenplay, and Bernard Herrmann's musical score...In 1951, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway musical version of the Leonowen's story, The King and I, became a huge hit.”
* ↑ Barson, 2019: “Cromwell had gone more than 10 years without a misfire, an incredible streak that even the greatest directors would be hard pressed to match, but Night Song (1947), with Dana Andrews as a blind pianist, ended his run.” Canham, 1976 p. 103: "the musical [interludes] are often more interesting" than the movie.
* ↑ "John Cromwell - Director - Films as Director:, Other Films:, Publications". filmreference.com.
* ↑ Sterritt, TCM: "Warner Bros. owed Columbia for various star loan-outs and Bogart was available to repay the debt". And: "Dead Reckoning was pushed into production quickly, because Warner Bros. owed Columbia for various star loan-outs and Bogart was available to repay the debt." And: "Cromwell had given Bogart his very first role on the Broadway stage, and since director approval was in the star's contract, Cohn accepted his request for Cromwell to direct."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 pp. 103–104: Cromwell: "Harry Cohn had to lend a couple [actors] to Warner Brothers, and [Cohn] was smart enough to do an exchange for a picture with Bogart." And: Cromwell: Warners "stalled...'O.K. you can have Bogart from this date to this date...' Bogart had the right to pick the director and the story...out of curiosity on his part and when my name was mentioned, he agreed."
* ↑ IMDb Other Works
* ↑ Canham, 1976 pp. 103–104
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 104
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 104
* ↑ Sterritt, TCM: "a story with a flashback structure and constant voice overs" by Bogart5's character "that sometimes obscure more than they clarify. To his credit, Cromwell makes the convoluted tale reasonably coherent and occasionally quite surprising. ...There's plenty of darkness in Dead Reckoning, too, which is natural for a 1947 mystery thriller from film noir's golden age."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 104: Cromwell's name was "mentioned several times during the hearings."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 105
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 105
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 105
* ↑ LoBianco, TCM: "Cromwell's own life took a dark turn in the early 1950s when he was falsely accused of being a Communist by producer Howard Hughes."
* ↑ Barson, 2019: "Amid the House Un-American Activities Committee's Hollywood witch hunts, Cromwell's career soured. Howard Hughes accused him of being a communist, and although the charge was false, Cromwell was blacklisted."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 106
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 106
* ↑ Canham, 1976 pp. 106–107
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 107
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 107-108: "Cromwell pulls no punches...using [Warners] visual effects and hard-boiled dialogue [and] a hard, flat visual influence and a hyper-evident musical background...a minimum of sets to make his case."
* ↑ Baxter, 1970 p. 69: Warners "made films for and about the working class." And p. 94: Warners "realism and devotion to sexual and social detail."
* ↑ Barson, 2019: "one of the best (and most harrowing) of the women's prison pictures; Eleanor Parker was cast against type as the new inmate who must learn the ropes."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 108: "stressing character in the individual performance to make his case…his skillful handling of a strong cast...without allowing [Warners] to interfere," p. 129
* ↑ Barson, 2019: "Returning to RKO, Cromwell made The Company She Keeps (1951), with Scott as a parole officer and Jane Greer as an ex-convict, both of whom have set their sights on a newspaper columnist (Dennis O’Keefe)." Canham, 1976, p. 110
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 61: Cromwell: “I had gone to Hollywood in the spring of [1928] to play the leading role with [Edward G.] Robinson [in a stage production] of The Racket...the play was quite a hit and I was offered a [film] contract” by Schulberg of Paramount Pictures.
* ↑ IMDb, Other Works: See cast list. Robinson plays only “An Unidentified Man.” in the 1927–28 stage production on Broadway.
* ↑ IMDb, Other Works
* ↑ Tatara. TCM: "Cromwell may have been exceptionally familiar with the material, but Hughes wasn't pleased with his cut of the film. After Cromwell (who Ryan described as 'very old and sick') left Hollywood in disgust, Hughes called in Nicholas Ray to shoot a few more scenes..It's amazing the picture holds together as well as it does."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 111: Cromwell was offered "complete freedom with the editing" of a future picture. And: role in "Douglas/Hayward vehicle." And: "best films" comment.
* ↑ Brottman and Sterritt, TCM: Sections of film listed here.
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 112: The films ends with Stanley "a broken woman, lacking purpose or direction."
* ↑ Canham, 1976 pp. 111–114: Canham offer multiple examples of these repetitions that connect the scenes from episode to episode.
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 114
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 111
* ↑ Canham, 1976 p. 130:
* ↑ "Ban Is Lifted - - Theaters Re-Open This Week in Dayton to Stay Open". Dayton Daily News. November 3, 1918. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
* ↑ "Obituaries: John Cromwell". Variety. October 3, 1979. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
* ↑ Moore, Charles R. (October 9, 1941). "Hollywood Film Shop". The Clinton Journal and Public. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
* ↑ Pelley, Rich (January 7, 2021). "James Cromwell: 'My father told me: "Don't be an actor, you're too damn tall"'". The Guardian. Retrieved June 23, 2024.
* ↑ "John Cromwell - Hollywood Star Walk - Los Angeles Times".
* ↑ Internet Movie Database (IMDb)