Frank Lloyd, Henry King, John Ford, Frank Borzage
Among them, these four filmmakers share eight Oscar wins and four additional nominations
First of all, why Frank Lloyd?
An obvious response might be "why not?" While large, trade publishers are suffering from diminishing sales, it seems that "small" publishers and similar entities, including the "vanity press" and the self-publishing brigade, are expanding their activities and concentrating on many obscure figures from Hollywood history. As a result, a number of prominent "names" have fallen by the wayside. With the relatively recent publication of Michael Sragow's biography of Victor Fleming, the man responsible for Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, it seems only appropriate to devote some space to another director from Hollywood's "golden age," namely Frank Lloyd.
Michael Sragow's book is very, very long — some critics have argued that it is too long. I didn't want to devote the same amount of space to Frank Lloyd, not because he does not deserve it, but because there is little to say about his private life — unlike Fleming he did not make a habit of having affairs with his leading ladies. Also, to be purely selfish, I didn't want to devote the next few years of my life to researching this one man.
I had already gathered together a fair amount of original research on Frank Lloyd, and I felt the time was opportune to put together a small, hopefully useful, book, which will provide an introduction to Frank Lloyd's life and career, and will concentrate on a handful of what I consider to be his most important directorial achievements.
Now, who was Frank Lloyd?
Frank Lloyd was a prominent member of a hard-working group of Hollywood filmmakers, who began during the pioneering days of the motion picture and continued to make film after film, almost effortlessly, through the 1950s — and sometimes beyond. You can speak the name of Frank Lloyd in the same breath as the aforementioned Victor Fleming, Henry King, Allan Dwan, and Frank Borzage. Lloyd began his career in the industry in 1913 as an actor at Universal, becoming a director (also at Universal) the following year. He worked for all of the major studios, including Fox, Goldwyn, Paramount, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He ended his days, sadly as did quite a few other directors of his ilk, at Republic.
Frank Lloyd, Corinne Griffith while filming The Divine Lady
In your view, why isn't Frank Lloyd, the winner of two Academy Awards (The Divine Lady, Cavalcade) and the director of two Best Picture Oscar winners (Cavalcade, Mutiny on the Bounty), better remembered today?
In the book, I put the blame in part on Andrew Sarris and his "auteur" theory. The "auteur" theory is not necessarily one in which I wholeheartedly believe, but if I did I would argue that Lloyd, who also served as actor (at least in the early years), screenwriter and producer on many of his films is deserving of the title. Andrew Sarris would disagree, and in his seminal work, The American Cinema: Directors and Directions1929-1968, published in that last year and still widely used by academics and students, he fails to list Frank Lloyd in any of his categories. In fact, what is worse, he compares Lloyd to Cecil B. DeMille and finds him wanting. I would argue that DeMille, at least in the sound era, is pretentious, while Lloyd is not.
Another reason why Lloyd is perhaps largely unrecognized today is because he was what is best described as a studio director. His style is as much the style of the studio as it is his own. He did not make waves; he did not overly publicize and promote himself. What he did was for the good of the studio — not for his own ego.