Charles Vidor

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945." Pages 1125-1130. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.

Hungarian-born Karoly Vidor spent the First World War as a lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian infantry. Following the armistice, he made his way to Berlin and worked for the German film company Ufa, as editor and assistant director. In 1924, he emigrated to the U. S. and, for several years, earned his living as a singer in Broadway choruses and (at one time) with a Wagnerian troupe.

While little detail is extant of this period in his career, it enabled him to accumulate the means with which to finance his own project: an experimental short film entitled The Bridge (1929).

On the strength of this, he was signed by MGM to co-direct his first feature film The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932).

For the remainder of the decade, Vidor worked with relatively undistinguished material at various studios, notably RKO (1935) and Paramount (1936-37).

In 1939, he joined Columbia, where he remained under contract until 1948. Vidor's career is something of an enigma. Never a particularly prolific filmmaker, his output has been variable.

Frequently worked with Rita Hayworth. He directed her in The Lady in Question (1940), Cover Girl (1944), Gilda (1946) and The Loves of Carmen (1948).

Other Vidor standouts are Ladies in Retirement (1941), a gothic Victorian thriller, tautly directed and maintaining its suspense, despite a relatively claustrophobic setting (among the cast, as Lucy the maid, was actress Evelyn Keyes, who became Vidor's third wife in 1944).

Finally, two Rita Hayworth vehicles, the breezy musical Cover Girl (1944), and Vidor's principal masterpiece, the archetypal film noir Gilda (1946). This cleverly plotted, morally ambiguous tale of intrigue and ménage-a-trois was one of Columbia's biggest money-earners to date. Some of the wittier dialogue in "Gilda" was voiced in re-takes, long after primary filming had been completed. The same applies to the two main musical numbers, the show-stopping "Put the Blame on Mame", and "Amado Mio". Yet, under Vidor's direction, all the dramatic and musical elements blended perfectly. The film has an undeniably electric atmosphere, largely due to the chemistry between the three leads.

Directed 3 actors to Oscar nominations: Cornel Wilde (Best Actor, A Song to Remember (1945)), James Cagney (Best Actor, Love Me or Leave Me (1955)), and Vittorio De Sica (Best Supporting Actor, A Farewell to Arms (1957)).

Vidor worked for many years at Columbia Pictures, although he did not get along particularly well with Harry Cohn, the studio owner. Cohn had a reputation as a crude and foul-mouthed man, in addition to being a vindictive one. Vidor tired of Cohn's constant swearing and profanity--much of it directed at him--and in 1946 he took Cohn to court in an attempt to get him to stop. He lost the case, and Cohn made his life a living hell until 1948, when Vidor bought out his contract for $75,000.

In 1948, Vidor fell out with studio boss Harry Cohn, taking him to court for alleged verbal abuse and exploitation. He wanted out of his contract. Having just married Doris Warner, daughter of Warner Brothers president Harry M. Warner, Vidor sensed opportunities in working at a more prestigious studio. Cohn wasn't going to let him go quietly. It was pretty much all over, when actor Steven Geray testified, that he had himself been on the receiving end of invective at the hands of Vidor on the set of "Gilda". Glenn Ford, who thought Vidor opportunistic, then went on the stand, relating, that Cohn routinely used foul language on everyone around him, rather than aiming at any individual in particular.

When the same material was later re-worked as Affair in Trinidad (1952) (with a bigger budget), that chemistry was notably absent.

On the other side of the ledger is the lavish showbiz biopic of singer Ruth Etting, Love Me or Leave Me (1955), for which Vidor elicited powerhouse performances from his stars Doris Day and James Cagney. Frank Sinatra, also, gave one of his best performances as nightclub entertainer Joe E.

It includes a good-looking, but decidedly stodgy romance, The Swan (1956) (starring Grace Kelly in her penultimate screen role); and the interminably dull remake of A Farewell to Arms (1957).

Lewis, descending into alcoholism in The Joker Is Wild (1957).

Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1958.