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Michael Curtiz
[1886-1962]
![director Michael Curtiz [1886-1962] studio portrait](images/MichaelCurtiz-headshot.jpg "director Michael Curtiz [1886-1962] studio portrait") | short profile |
"The only things you regret are the things [that] you don't do.”
"The next time I want some dumb son of a bitch to do something, I'll do it myself."
— Michael Curtiz
B I O
h e r e
original spelling Michael Kertész
Michael Curtiz entry at Wikipedia
 ![won Best Director Oscar for "Casablanca" [1942]](images/oscar_sm.gif){kind=small} |
Michael Curtiz won the Best Director Oscar for "Casablanca" [1942]
— out of 5 Oscar nominations (1936-1944) |
a D.G.A. nomination for Best Diretor Award (1953)
and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Movies of Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz credits [1912-1961] at Internet Movie Database
Michael Curtiz Filmography [1912-1961] Page at Wikipedia
http://www.amazon.com/American-Films-Michael-Curtiz/dp/0810818833/
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"Casablanca and Other Major Films of Michael Curtiz" [1982] by Sidney Rosenzweig UMI Research Press hardcover [1982] out of print/scarce |
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"The Casablanca Man: The Cinema of Michael Curtiz" [1993] by James C. Robertson Routledge 9¼x6 pb [11/94] for $41.95 Routledge 9x6¼ hardcover [6/93] for $130.00 |
"Sodom und Gomorrha" [1922]
"Die Sklavenkönigin" silent feature
[U.F.A. Austria Oct 1924, F.B.O. USA June 1927]
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Plot unclear, but involves Moses, the Pharoah of Egypt, and an Israelite princess named Moon
Directed by Michael Curtiz; adapted by Ladislaus Vajda, from a 1918 novel by H. Rider Haggard; starring María Corda, Adelqui Migliar, Arlette Marchal, Ferdinand Onno, Oscar Beregi Sr., Henry Mar & Adolf Weisse DVD/Blu-ray not available • full credits at IMDb |
 | "The Moon of Israel: A Tale of The Exodus" novel [1918] by H. Rider Haggard BiblioBazaar 8x5 pb [6/2007] for $16.37 BiblioBazaar 8¾x5¾ pb [6/2007] for $21.99out of print/used BiblioBazaar 10x7½ pb [6/2007] for $23.99 |
"Under A Texas Moon" [Warner Bros. April 1930]
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The first sound Western filmed in color; one print exists, copied at the UCLA Archive.
Directed by Michael Curtiz; adapted by Gordon Rigby, from Stewart Edward White's novel "Two-Gun Man"; starring Frank Fay, Raquel Torres, Myrna Loy, Armida Vendrell & Noah Beery Sr. DVD/Blu-ray not available • full credits from IMDb |
"Mammy" [1930]
"The Mad Genius" [1931] with John Barrymore and Marian Marsh
"The Cabin In Ihe Cotton" [1932]
with Richard Barthelmess and Bette Davis
"Doctor X" [1932] with Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill
"The Strange Love of Molly Louvain" [1932]
"Mystery of The Wax Museum" [Feb 1933] /tt0024368/
with Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell
"Private Detective 62" [Warner Bros. June 1933]
 | A discredited diplomat finds a job as partner to an unscrupulius private detective; a gambling kingpin hires the detective to frame a lucky socialite for murder; the diplomat is assigned, but falls in love with her. The murder setup goes forward anyway, the gambler attacks the girl who shoots him with blanks and runs away; then an accomplice of the detective shoots the gambler with real bullets . . .
Directed by Michael Curtiz; written by Raoul Whitfield & Rian James; starring William Powell, Margaret Lindsay, Ruth Donnelly, Gordon Westcott, Arthur Hohl, Natalie Moorhead, James Bell & Hobart Cavanaugh video/DVD/Blu-ray not available 11"x17" poster from Amazon for $7.34 full credits at IMDb |
"The Mayor of Hell" [June 1933]
"Goodbye Again" [Sept 1933] /tt0024075/ with Warren William and Joan Blondell
"The Kennel Murder Case"
[Warner Bros./Vitaphone Oct 1933]
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The cops believe that the man found dead in a locked room was a suicide, but the coroner determines that the man was bludgeoned, stabbed and shot. Then evidence points to the victim's brother, who is found stabbed to death in a closet. Directed by Michael Curtiz; adapted from the book by S.S. Van Dine; starring William Powell {as Philo Vance}, Mary Astor, Eugene Pallette, Ralph Morgan, Robert McWade, Robert Barrat, Frank Conroy, Etienne Girardot, James Lee, Paul Cavanagh, Arthur Hohl, Helen Vinson & Jack La Rue
Alpha Video b&w DVD [7/2002] for $7.98 Alpha Video b&w VHS [7/2002] out of prodn/used full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia |
 | "The Kennel Murder Case: A Philo Vance Mystery" [1933] by S.S. Van Dine Scribner mass pb [8/84] out of print/used Gregg Press hardcover [1980] out of print/used book entry at Wikipedia |
"Female" [Nov 1933] /tt0024008/
"Jimmy The Gent" [1934] with James Cagney and Bette Davis
"Front Page Woman" [1935] with Bette Davis & George Brent
"Captain Blood" [Warner Bros. Dec 1935]
 | A British surgeon is wrongly condemned to slavery in the Caribbean; he escapes and steals a ship and becomes a pirate. Directed by Michael Curtiz; based on the 1922 Rafael Sabatini novel; starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Lionel Atwill, Basil Rathbone, Ross Alexander, Guy Kibbee & J. Carrol Naish; Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Script, Best Score
Warner b&w DVD [4/2005] for $14.98 Warner b&w VHS [5/2001] out of stock/used RCA filmscore by Korngold CD [6/91] for $10.99 Soundtrack Factory CD [7/2000] for $13.98 full credits from IMDb |
Magic Lantern's Pirate Film Festival
"Juggernaut" [1936] starring Boris Karloff
"The Charge of The Light Brigade" [1936]
with Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Patric Knowles, Henry Stephenson
"The Walking Dead" [1936]
"Anthony Adverse" [1936]
"Black Legion" [1937]
"Kid Galahad" [1937]
"Marked Woman" [1937]
"Four's A Crowd" [1938]
"Four Daughters" [1938]
"The Adventures of Robin Hood"
[Warner Bros. May 1938]
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Filmed in Technicolor; England's King Richard is away on a Crusade to the Holy Land, and when Richard is captured for ransom by Duke Leopold of Austria, Prince John seizes power, aided by Sir Guy and the High Sheriff. But loyal Saxon Robin Locksley gathers a band of resistance fighters, woos Lady Marian, and thwarts the bad guys by robbing from the rich to aid the overtaxed peasants.
Co-produced by Hal B. Wallis & Jack L. Warner; directed by Michael Curtiz & William Keighley; starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Patric Knowles, Eugene Pallette, Alan Hale, Melville Cooper, Ian Hunter & Howard Hill; nominated for Best Picture Oscar, won Oscars for Best Art Direction, Best Editing & Best Original Score (Erich Wolfgang Korngold); listed on the National Film Registry (1995)
Warner Home Video color Blu-ray [8/2008] for $19.49 Warner Home Video Special Edition color DVD [9/2003] 2 disks for $21.99 M.G.M. color VHS [12/93] out of prodn/many, many used Oscar-winning soundtrack by Erich Korngold: Soundtrack Factory audio CD [5/2000] for $16.99 27"x40" poster from Amazon for $19.99 full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia |
"Welcome To Sherwood! The Story of The Adventures of Robin Hood"
[Warner/T.C.M. video release 2003]
hour-long documentary co-produced, written & directed by Jeff Kurtti; available on DVD above;
full credits at IMDb
"Angels With Dirty Faces" [1938[
with James Cagney & Humphrey Bogart
"Dodge City" [1939]
starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Sheridan, Bruce Cabot & Alan Hale, Sr.
"The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex" [1939]
with Bette Davis & Errol Flynn + music
"Sons of Liberty" [1939]
"Santa Fe Trail" [1940] with Errol Flynn & Ronald Reagan
"Virginia City" [1940]
with Errol Flynn, Randolph Scott & Humphrey Bogart
"The Sea Hawk"
[Warner Bros. July 1940]
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A dashing British pirate who attacks Spanish ships captures a beautiful Spanish princess and then is captured by the Spanish.
Directed by Michael Curtiz; written by Howard Koch & Seton I. Miller, based on the 1922 Raphael Sabatini novel; starring Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Claude Rains, Donald Crisp, Flora Robson, Alan Hale Sr., Henry Daniell & Gilbert Roland
Warner color DVD [4/2005] for $13.99 Warner color VHS [7/91] out of stock/used Varese filmscore by Korngold CD [10/90] out of stock/used full credits from IMDb |
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"The Sea-Hawk" novel [1915] by Raphael Sabatini [1875-1950] House of Stratus pb [7/2001] for $9.95 W.W. Norton 8½x5¾ pb [7/2002] for $11.16 Wildside Press hardcover [5/2002] for $29.95 Tantor Media UNABR audio CD [6/2002] for $30.24 |
"The Sea Wolf" (1941)
with Edward G. Robinson & John Garfield
"Dive Bomber" [1941]
starring Errol Flynn, Fred MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Herbert Anderson
 | | "Casablanca" [Warner Bros. Nov 1942] "Of all the websites in the world, you had to wander into this one." |
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Produced by Hal B. Wallis; directed by Michael Curtiz; starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, S.Z. Sakall & Dooley Wilson; won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director & Best Screenplay; Oscar noms for Best B&W Cinematography, Best Actor [HB], Best Supporting Actor [CR], Best Music Score [Max Steiner] & Best Film Editing; listed on the National Film Registry (1989); named the Best Screenplay of All Time by the Writers Guild of America (2006);
full credits from IMDb
Warner Home Video Special Edition b&w DVD [8/2003] 2 disks for $20.99
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more details (synopses, videos & DVDs, books, posters, music, links) on
Magic Lantern's "Casablanca" 1942 Movie Page
"Captains of The Clouds" [1942]
starring James Cagney, Dennis Morgan, Brenda Marshall & Alan Hale, Sr.
"Yankee Doodle Dandy" [1942]
with James Cagney & Walter Huston
"This Is The Army" [Warner Bros. Aug 1943]
Irving Berlin musical starring George Murphy & Ronald Reagan
"Passage To Marseille" [1944] with Humphrey Bogart
"Mildred Pierce" [Warner Bros. Oct 1945]
 | Set in Depression-era Glendale, California. A housewife gets rid of her unemployed, cheating husband and fends for herself and her two daughters, all the while worrying that people - and especially her oldest daughter - will see Mildred as settling below her station in life. Mildred's job as a waitress leads to success with several restaurants and a pie factory, but the daughter still acts out her contempt for people who work for a living. Directed by Michael Curtiz; based on the novel by James M. Cain; starring Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Zachary Scott, Jack Carson, Eve Arden, Bruce Bennett & Lee Patrick; Crawford won Best Actress Oscar •
full credits at IMDb
Warner Home Video keepcase b&w DVD [6/2005] for $16.99 Warner Home Video snapcase b&w DVD [2/2003] out of prodn/used both DVDs include T.C.M. documentary "Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star" M.G.M. Video b&w VHS [11/94] for $9.74 |
 | 1941 novel Kindle Edition from Random House Digital [12/2010] for $10.99 Vintage/Black Lizard movie tie-in 7¾x5 pb [3/2011] for $9.95 Impress Mystery 8½x5½ hardcover [2003] out of print/used book entry at Wikipedia |
"Night and Day" (1946) with Cary Grant as Cole Porter
"Life With Father" [1947]
"The Unsuspected" [1947]
Warner Bros., 103 min. Dir. Michael Curtiz. Noir favorite Audrey Totter is only one of the standout performers in this stylish and sophisticated mystery. A dead woman in the mansion of a famous radio personality (Claude Rains) sets in motion a complex web of deceit and murder, all enacted in grand style among inky shadows courtesy of camera virtuoso Woody Bredell (THE KILLERS). Brooding meditation on the evil of art? Or just smart and sinister fun?
"Romance On The High Seas" [1948]
"My Dream Is Yours" [1949]
"It's A Great Feeling" [1949]
"Flamingo Road" [1949]
starring Joan Crawford, Zachary Scott & Sydney Greenstreet
"The Breaking Point" [1950] with John Garfield & Patricia Neal
"Young Man With A Horn" [1950]
starring Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Doris Day, Hoagy Carmichael
"I'll See You In My Dreams" (1951)
a biopic of composer and lyricist Gus Kahn, with Doris Day & Danny Thomas
"Jim Thorpe, All-American" [1951]
"Force of Arms" [1951]
"The Jazz Singer" [1952]
"The Story of Will Rogers" [Warner Bros. July 1952]
 | 109-minute biopic in Technicolor™; about the homespun Oklahoma humorist and social critic who started as a cowboy and went on to vaudeville, radio, and movies • Produced by Robert Arthur; directed by Michael Curtiz; co-written by Frank Davis, Stanley Roberts & Jack Moffitt, based on a magazine story by widow Betty Blake Rogers; music by Victor Young; starring Will Rogers Jr., Jane Wyman, Carl Benton Reid, Eve Miller, James Gleason, Slim Pickens, Noah Beery Jr. {as Wiley Post}, Mary Wickes, Steve Brodie, Margaret Field, Pinky Tomlin, Eddie Cantor, William Forrest {as Florenz Ziegfeld}, Montie Montana (trick roping double), Larry J. Blake, Earl Lee {as President Woodrow Wilson}, J. Carrol Naish {opening scene narrator}, Jimmie Dodd, Art Gilmore & Jay Silverheels; with archive footage of Fanny Brice & Al Jolson {clip from 'Rhapsody In Blue' [1945]}
Warner Archive Collection widescreen color DVD [5/2010] for $11.18 full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia watch full color movie [45/2018 upload; 1:49:02] online at YouTube |
"Trouble Along The Way" [1953] starring John Wayne /tt0046463/
"The Boy From Oklahoma" [Warner Bros. Feb 1954]
 | Tom Brewster, handy with a rope but not a gun, rides into town and mails off his lawyer's exam, but when the mail is robbed he is left without a job to ride to. When Tom's lack of ability with a gun is exposed, town boss Turlock offers him the job of sheriff but Turlock has misjudged Tom and Tom without a gun is soon on the trail of the former sheriff's killer and that will lead directly to Turlock. The film became the basis for the 1957 Warner Bros. TV series "Sugarfoot" [1967-71] starring Will Hutchins; DVD release in 2013, but nothing found on Amazon (2019) • Produced by David Weisbart; directed by Michael Curtiz; written by Frank Davis & Winston Miller, based on the short story "The Sheriff Was Scared" by Michael Fessier; music by Max Steiner; starring Will Rogers Jr., Nancy Olson, Lon Chaney Jr., Anthony Caruso, Wallace Ford, Clem Bevans, Merv Griffin, Louis Jean Heydt, Sheb Wooley, Slim Pickens, Tyler MacDuff {as Billy the Kid}, James Griffith, Monte Blue, Danny Borzage, George Chesebro, Harry Lauter, roper Montie Mon-tana, Denver Pyle, Skip Torgerson, Charles Wagenheim, Joan Weldon
VHS/DVD/Blu-ray not available • full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia |
"White Christmas" (1954) with Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney
"The Egyptian" (1954)
with Jean Simmons, Victor Mature and Gene Tierney
"We're No Angels" [Paramount July 1955]
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A rare Bogart comedy! Three convicts escape from the prison on Devil's Island and hide out in town on Christmas Eve 1895; their plan to rob a shopkeeper and his family goes awry when they are treated kindly.
Filmed in Technicolor & VistaVision; directed by Michael Curtiz; adapted by Ranald MacDougall from a stageplay by Samuel & Bella Spewack; starring Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, Peter Ustinov, Joan Bennett, Leo G. Carroll, Basil Rathbone, Gloria Talbott, John Baer, Lea Penman & John Smith
Paramount color DVD [9/2005] out of prodn/used Paramount color VHS [1998] out of prodn/used 27"x40" poster from Amazon for $19.99 full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia |
"The Helen Morgan Story" [1957]
"King Creole" [1958] with Elvis Presley and Walter Matthau
"The Proud Rebel" [1958]
starring Alan Ladd, Olivia de Havilland, Dean Jagger, David Ladd
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (M.G.M. Aug 1960)
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Directed by Michael Curtiz; starring Eddie Hodges, Tony Randall, Patty McCormick & Buster Keaton
Turner Home Video VHS [8/94] for $14.99 full credits from IMDb |
"A Breath of Scandal" [1960]
"Francis of Assisi" [1961]
"The Comancheros" [1961]
with John Wayne and Stuart Whitman
Works About Michael Curtiz
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"Casablanca and Other Major Films of Michael Curtiz" [1982] by Sidney Rosenzweig UMI Research Press hardcover [1982] out of print/scarce |
| | "The Casablanca Man: The Cinema of Michael Curtiz" [1993] by James C. Robertson Routledge 9¼x6 pb [11/94] for $41.95 Routledge 9x6¼ hardcover [6/93] for $130.00 |
L i n k s
Michael Curtiz entry at Wikipedia
Michael Curtiz credits [1912-1961] at Internet Movie Database
browse Michael Curtiz on DVD at Amazon
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