Otto Preminger Centennial Tribute
by Andre Soares
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ "A Centennial Tribute to Otto Preminger" will be hosted by Peter Bogdanovich at 8 p.m. on November 2, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverly Hills. The tribute will include a selection of film clips and comments from Preminger’s colleagues and family, and in the following days it will continue with a retrospective featuring recent restorations and newly made prints, some of those from the Otto Preminger Collection at the Academy Film Archive.
When not driving his stars up the wall — Preminger did have a reputation for being, to put it mildly, more than a little difficult — the director spent his time giving Freudian nightmares to the reactionary prudes at the Production Code Administration.
In 1953, his independently-produced sex comedy The Moon Is Blue dared to have its characters utter words such as "virgin" (it was released without a Production Code seal of approval), while the 1955 melodrama The Man with the Golden Arm dealt with heroin addiction, and the 1959 courtroom comedy-drama Anatomy of a Murder revolved around a rape accusation. Preminger also caused consternation to the rabid right by hiring blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo to write the screenplay for Exodus, a whitewashed (and tedious) account of the founding of Israel.
Preminger started his career as an actor at Max Reinhardt’s Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna, the city of his birth (which took place either in 1905 or 1906, depending on the source — the Academy has opted for the latter date, as mentioned by the director in his autobiography). He directed his first film in 1931, Die Große Liebe / The Great Love, and came to Hollywood in 1935 at the invitation of 20th Century-Fox executive Joseph Schenck.
Clashes with studio head Darryl Zanuck kept Preminger away from the Fox lot until 1942, when he directed and acted in Margin for Error, from a Broadway play in which he had also played the dual role of actor-director. (At the time, Zanuck was conveniently caught up in World War II affairs.)
Among Preminger’s best-known American films are the 1944 romantic mystery thriller Laura, starring Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney (with both of whom Preminger would work again in Where the Sidewalk Ends in 1950); Angel Face, a 1952 film noir with Jean Simmons and Robert Mitchum; Carmen Jones, an all-black version of Carmen, starring Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte; and River of No Return, a romantic Western with Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe.
In Europe, Preminger directed two of his best films, Bonjour Tristesse, a 1958 family drama starring Deborah Kerr, David Niven, and Jean Seberg (all of whom are supposed to be French, but if one ignores that absurdity the film — based on Françoise Sagan’s novel — is quite remarkable), and the 1965 psychological thriller Bunny Lake Is Missing, starring Carol Lynley, Keir Dullea, and Laurence Olivier.
Throughout his uneven career — for about every Laura there was an Exodus — Preminger received two Academy Award nominations: for the aforementioned Laura in 1944 and for The Cardinal in 1963. He also helped nine performers receive Oscar nominations, including Clifton Webb in Laura, Maggie McNamara in The Moon Is Blue, Frank Sinatra in The Man with the Golden Arm, James Stewart in Anatomy of a Murder, and fellow director John Huston (playing a cardinal) in The Cardinal.
Preminger photo © AMPAS
"A Centennial Tribute to Otto Preminger" continues with a film series at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood:
Friday, November 3, at 7 p.m.
The Man with the Golden Arm (1955); 119 mins. Frank Sinatra, Eleanor Parker, Kim Novak
Premiering a new restoration by the Academy Film Archive.
Laura (1944); 85 mins. Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price
Featuring a new print by 20th Century Fox.
Saturday, November 4, at 7 p.m.
Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950); 95 mins. Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews
Premiering a new restoration by the Academy Film Archive and 20th Century Fox.
Daisy Kenyon (1947); 99 mins. Joan Crawford, Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews
Featuring a new print by 20th Century Fox.
Friday, November 10, at 7 p.m.
The Moon is Blue (1953); 99 mins. William Holden, Maggie McNamara, David Niven
Premiering a new restoration by the Academy Film Archive.
Bonjour Tristesse (1958); 94 mins. Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Jean Seberg
Featuring a recently restored print by Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Saturday, November 11, at 7 p.m.
Whirlpool (1950), 97 mins. Gene Tierney, Richard Conte, Jose Ferrer, Charles Bickford
Featuring a new print by 20th Century Fox.
Bunny Lake is Missing (1965); 107 mins. Carol Lynley, Keir Dullea, Laurence Olivier
Featuring a recently restored print by Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Sunday, November 12, at 7 p.m.
Anatomy of a Murder (1959), 160 mins. James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, George C. Scott, Arthur O’Connell, Eve Arden
Featuring a recently restored print by Sony Pictures Entertainment.
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