Michael Curtiz Filmography

Born:: December 24, 1888 in Budapest, Hungary
Occupation:: Director
Birth name:: Mihály Kertész
Biography:: Michael Curtiz was one of Hollywood's most prolific and colorful directors. Born to a well-to-do Jewish family in Budapest, he ran away from home at age 17 to join a circus, then trained for an acting career at the Royal Academy for Theater and Art. He worked as a leading man at the Hungarian...Read More

Current News:: Highlights of Hollywood's fall, holiday schedule
Aug. 25, 2008 11:26 AM ET (AP)

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Francis of Assisi

Crew: Director

Actors: Bradford Dillman, Dolores Hart, Stuart Whitman, Pedro Armendáriz, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: This penultimate film by director Michael Curtiz, perhaps best known for his 1942 Casablanca, is a verbose, routine religious drama on the life of St. Francis of Assisi. After quickly passing over St. Francis' early life as the son of a wealthy cloth merchant in Assisi, the story notes his talents Read More

1961
The Comancheros

Crew: Director

Actors: John Wayne, Stuart Whitman, Ina Balin, Nehemiah Persoff, Lee Marvin

Synopsis: Michael Curtiz's The Comancheros was a deceptively complex movie -- so enjoyable, that it masked some of the best character development seen in a John Wayne vehicle that was not directed by John Ford or Howard Hawks, and so well made that it got by with some of the most violent action seen in a Read More

1961
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Crew: Director

Actors: Tony Randall, Eddie Hodges, Archie Moore, Patty McCormack, Neville Brand

Synopsis: MGM's all-star 1960 filmization of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn surgically removes the sociological subtext of Mark Twain's novel in the interests of "entertainment for the whole family." The emphasis is on the adventuresome escapades of Huck (Eddie Hodges) and fugitive slave Jim (played by Read More

6/17/60
A Breath of Scandal

Crew: Director

Actors: Sophia Loren, Maurice Chevalier, John Gavin, Angela Lansbury, Milly Vitale

Synopsis: Based on the Ferenc Molnar play Olympia, A Breath of Scandal serves as an elegant vehicle for a ravishing Sophia Loren. The star plays Princess Olympia, who despite her station in life cannot resist the urge to satisfy her sexual appetites. Exiled to the countryside, Olympia falls in love with Read More

1960
The Hangman

Crew: Director

Actors: Robert Taylor, Fess Parker, Jack Lord, Gene Evans

Synopsis: The Hangman is a stock western with a thin plot and cardboard characters, about a rigid, U.S. Marshal. Mackenzie Bovard (Robert Taylor) takes his job working for the federal government very seriously, and when he goes out to get the riff-raff that defy the laws of the land, he finds them and hangs Read More

1959
The Man in the Net

Crew: Director

Actors: Alan Ladd, Carolyn Jones, Diane Brewster, John Lupton, Charles McGraw

Synopsis: This undistinguished murder muddle by director Michael Curtis involves an artist and his alcoholic psychologically disturbed wife -- who disappears one day. John Hamilton (Alan Ladd) has retreated to the New England countryside to pursue a potential career as an artist, but his wife Linda (Carolyn Jones Read More

1959
King Creole

Crew: Director

Actors: Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, Walter Matthau, Dolores Hart, Dean Jagger

Synopsis: Elvis Presley delivers one of his finest early performances in King Creole. Elvis plays a teenager named Danny Fisher, who is forced to drop out of school to help support his ineffective father (Dean Jagger). Drawn to trouble like a magnet, Danny is saved from a jail term by New Orleans Read More

1958
The Proud Rebel

Crew: Director

Actors: Alan Ladd, Olivia de Havilland, Dean Jagger, David Ladd, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: A gentler but no less resourceful Alan Ladd stars in The Proud Rebel. Ladd is cast as civil war veteran John Chandler, while the star's son David (who grew up to become a powerful Hollywood producer) plays Chandler's emotionally disturbed son David. Since suffering a traumatic shock during the Read More

1958
The Helen Morgan Story

Crew: Director

Actors: Ann Blyth, Paul Newman, Richard Carlson, Gene Evans, Alan King

Synopsis: Ann Blyth plays famed "torch singer" Helen Morgan, from her humble beginnings as a carnival dancer to the height of her nightclub fame in the 1920s. Helen spends most of her spare time anguishing over the on-and-off affections of her boorish boyfriend (Paul Newman), who had discovered Helen during Read More

1957
The Best Things in Life Are Free

Crew: Director

Actors: Gordon MacRae, Don Dailey, Sheree North, Ernest Borgnine, Tommy Noonan

Synopsis: The Best Things in Life are Free is the tuneful if uninspired life story of popular composers DeSylva (Gordon MacRae), Brown (Ernest Borgnine) and Henderson (Dan Dailey). Pooling their talents, the trio rises from Tin Pan Alley to fame and fortune. The team's future is threatened when Buddy Read More

1956
The Scarlet Hour

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Carol Ohmart, Tom Tryon, James Gregory, Elaine Stritch

Synopsis: The Scarlet Hour was a relatively bold experiment for a mid-1950s Paramount release. The studio expended a great deal of money on the project and enlisted the services of top-flight director Michael Curtiz -- then populated the cast with young unknowns. Carol Ohmart and Tom Tryon (yes, the future Read More

1956
The Vagabond King

Crew: Director

Actors: Vincent Price, Kathryn Grayson, Oreste, Rita Moreno, Cedric Hardwicke, Walter Hampden

Synopsis: The Rudolf Friml operetta The Vagabond King was first filmed in 1930, with Dennis King in the lead. On both sides of this adaptation, audiences were treated to non-singing versions of the story, bearing titles like The Beloved Rogue and If I Were King. In all instances, the plot remained the same Read More

1956
We're No Angels

Crew: Director

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, Peter Ustinov, Joan Bennett, Basil Rathbone

Synopsis: Samuel and Bella Spewack's English adaptation of French playwright Albert Husson's morbidly humorous stage piece My Three Angels was brought to the screen as the heavily laundered but still wickedly funny We're No Angels. The scene is French Guiana, a few days before Christmas. Humphrey Bogart Read More

1955
White Christmas

Crew: Director

Actors: Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen, Dean Jagger

Synopsis: White Christmas, Paramount's belated follow-up to the 1942 hit Holiday Inn, was the studio's first VistaVision production. A veritable warehouse full of oldie-but-goodie Irving Berlin tunes are woven into the film's simplistic plotline, along with a handful of new songs, of which "What Can You Do Read More

1954
The Egyptian

Crew: Director

Actors: Edmund Purdom, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Gene Tierney, Michael Wilding, Sr.

Synopsis:
Based on the novel by Mika Waltari and helmed by Casablanca director Michael Curtiz, The Egyptian, a lavish period soaper, is set several centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ. Young Egyptian healer Sinuhe Edmund Purdom (ere accompanied by his servant, Kaptah, played by Peter Ustinov) Read More

1954
The Boy from Oklahoma

Crew: Director

Actors: Will Rogers, Jr., Nancy Olson, Lon Chaney, Jr., Anthony Caruso, Wallace Ford

Synopsis: Reminiscent of Destry Rides Again, this feature is about peaceable young lawyer Tom Brewster (Will Rogers Jr.), who sets up shop in a rowdy western town. Though perfectly able to wield a six-gun, Brewster refuses to use brawn when brain will do. He is galvanized into action when his old pal Wallace Ford Read More

1954
Trouble Along the Way

Crew: Director

Actors: John Wayne, Donna Reed, Charles Coburn, Tom Tully, Sherry Jackson

Synopsis: "Winning isn't everything -- it's the only thing." These words were spoken not by Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi but by Steve Williams, the fictional college athletics instructor played by John Wayne in Trouble Along the Way. Recently divorced, Williams has trouble finding a job due to his Read More

1953
The Jazz Singer

Crew: Director

Actors: Danny Thomas, Peggy Lee, Mildred Dunnock, Eduard Franz, Tom Tully

Synopsis: This second screen adaptation of the Samson Rafaelson play The Jazz Singer is better than the first, though not as historically important (the early Jazz Singer, it will be recalled, sparked the "talkie revolution" way back in 1927). Danny Thomas assumes the old Al Jolson role as the cantor's Read More

1953
The Story of Will Rogers

Crew: Director

Actors: Will Rogers, Jr., Jane Wyman, Carl Benton Reid, Eve Miller, James Gleason

Synopsis: Will Rogers Jr. stars as his own father in this slow, sentimental biopic. The film begins with Rogers' days on his father's ranch in Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). We see Will court his future wife, Betty (Jane Wyman), just before he strikes out on his own as a rodeo performer. Attempting to Read More

1952
Force of Arms

Crew: Director

Actors: William Holden, Nancy Olson, Frank Lovejoy, Gene Evans, Dick Wesson

Synopsis: A Girl for Joe was the reissue title for the 1951 WWII romantic drama Force of Arms. William Holden and Nancy Olson, previously teamed in Sunset Boulevard and Union Station, co-star once more as, respectively, an Army sergeant and a WAC officer. While on leave, Holden and Olson fall in love, but Read More

1951
Jim Thorpe - All American

Crew: Director

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Charles Bickford, Steve Cochran, Phyllis Thaxter, Dick Wesson

Synopsis: Burt Lancaster stars as Jim Thorpe, the Native American sports whiz whom many consider the greatest athlete of the 20th century. We first see Thorpe as a child on the reservation, highly resistant to the notion of going to school. He proves to be an excellent student, eventually attending the Read More

1951
I'll See You in My Dreams

Crew: Director

Actors: Doris Day, Danny Thomas, Frank Lovejoy, Patrice Wymore, James Gleason

Synopsis: The ultra-sentimental I'll See You in My Dreams is based on the life and work of composer Gus Kahn. The story is told from the point of view of Kahn' wife Grace, who was still alive when the film was made (Kahn died some ten years earlier). Danny Thomas stars as the prolific tunesmith, whose Read More

1951
Young Man With a Horn

Crew: Director

Actors: Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Doris Day, Hoagy Carmichael, Juano Hernandez

Synopsis: The life of tragic jazz great Bix Beiderbecke is given the "a clef" treatment in Warner Bros. Young Man With a Horn. Kirk Douglas plays the Beiderbecke character, here named Rick Martin. An ace trumpter player, Martin is one of the few white musicians to flourish in the black-dominated jazz scene Read More

1950
Bright Leaf

Crew: Director

Actors: Gary Cooper, Lauren Bacall, Jack Carson, Patricia Neal, Donald Crisp

Synopsis: Bright Leaf, a sprawling saga of the tobacco industry in North Carolina, began as a novel by Foster Fitzsimmons, a native Carolinian who for many years taught at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's theatre department. The film version of Bright Leaf has been simplified and reshaped to Read More

1950
The Breaking Point

Crew: Director

Actors: John Garfield, Phyllis Thaxter, Patricia Neal, Juano Hernandez, Wallace Ford

Synopsis: This second screen version of Ernest Hemingway's To Have and Have Not is closer in spirit to the original than the first version, though it still is far from faithful to its source. John Garfield stars as Harry Morgan, who has metamorphosed from Hemingway's gun-runner to an ex-PT boat captain, now Read More

1950
The Lady Takes a Sailor

Crew: Director

Actors: Jane Wyman, Dennis Morgan, Eve Arden, Robert Douglas, Allyn Joslyn

Synopsis: Though she may have won an Oscar in 1948, Jane Wyman still had a Warner Bros. contract to fulfill, even if it meant appearing in frivolities like The Lady Takes a Sailor. It all begins when Jennifer (Wyman), the head of an oceanographic research institute, claims to have made a fascinating Read More

1949
Flamingo Road

Crew: Director

Actors: Joan Crawford, Zachary Scott, Sydney Greenstreet, David Brian, Gertrude Michael, Gladys George

Synopsis: The fourth of Joan Crawford's Warner Bros. vehicles, Flamingo Road doesn't hold up as well as her earlier Mildred Pierce or Humoresque, but there's plenty to please the eye and ear. Sideshow kootch-dancer Lane Bellamy (Crawford), stranded in a backwater town, gets a job as a waitress. Lane begins Read More

1949
It's a Great Feeling

Actors: Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Bill Goodwin, Irving Bacon

Synopsis: Billy Wilder's future partner I.A.L. Diamond concocted the storyline for this Dennis Morgan/Jack Carson/Doris Day tunefest. Morgan and Carson, Warner Bros.' answer to Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, appear as themselves. Attempting to line up a director for their next picture, the boys find themselves Read More

1949
My Dream Is Yours

Crew: Director

Actors: Doris Day, Jack Carson, Lee Bowman, Adolphe Menjou, Eve Arden

Synopsis: My Dream Is Yours is a Technicolor remake of the jaunty 1934 Warner Bros. musical Twenty Million Sweethearts. But there's a significant difference here: whereas in the earlier film singing-waiter Dick Powell was turned into a crooning idol, in the remake it is Doris Day who is catapulted to Read More

1949
Romance on the High Seas

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Doris Day, Jack Carson, Janis Paige, Don DeFore, Oscar Levant

Synopsis: This cute film is Doris Day's film debut and in it she plays Georgia Garrett, a substitute traveller on an ocean cruise. Her friend Elvira Kent (Janis Paige) had scheduled the cruise but at the last minute cancels when she suspects that her husband is cheating on her and she decides to stay at Read More

1948
Life With Father

Crew: Director

Actors: William Powell, Irene Dunne, Monte Blue, ZaSu Pitts, Clara Blandick, Johnny Calkins, Emma Dunn, Edmund Gwenn, Elizabeth Taylor

Synopsis: The longest-running non-musical play in Broadway history, Life With Father was faithfully filmed by Warner Bros. in 1947. William Powell is a tower of comic strength as Clarence Day, the benevolent despot of his 1880s New York City household. Irene Dunne co-stars as Day's wife Vinnie, who Read More

1947
The Unsuspected

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Joan Caulfield, Claude Rains, Audrey Totter, Constance Bennett, Fred Clark, Hurd Hatfield

Synopsis: Director Michael Curtiz masterfully tells the fictional story of radio host Alexander Grandison (Claude Rains) as derived from a novel by Charlotte Armstrong. Grandison spookily recites murder mysteries on his radio show, with intimate and excruciating details. The reason he's so good and popular Read More

1947
Night and Day

Crew: Director

Actors: Cary Grant, John Alvin, Eve Arden, Alexis Smith, Monty Woolley, Herman Bing, Paul Cavanagh, Jane Wyman, Tom D'Andrea, Dorothy Malone

Synopsis: Faced with the challenge of writing a screenplay based on the life of fabulously wealthy, fabulously successful composer Cole Porter, one Hollywood wag came up with a potential story angle: "How does the S.O.B. make his second million dollars?" By the time the Porter biopic Night and Day was Read More

1946
Mildred Pierce

Crew: Director

Actors: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth

Synopsis: Joan Crawford won an Academy Award for her bravura portrayal of the titular heroine in Mildred Pierce. The original James M. Cain novel concerned a tawdry waitress who slept her way to financial security so as to provide a rosy future for her beloved daughter, only to be rewarded by having her Read More

1945
Roughly Speaking

Crew: Director

Actors: Ray Collins, Kathleen Lockhart, Ann E. Todd, Andy Clyde, Rosalind Russell, Robert Hutton

Synopsis: This odd combination of roughneck comedy and serious domestic drama was adapted by Louise Randall Pierson from her own autobiographical novel. Rosalind Russell is cast as young Louise Randall, the headstrong daughter of a New England merchant. Inheriting her father's business, Louise intends to Read More

1945
Janie

Crew: Director

Actors: Robert Hutton, Edward Arnold, Ann Harding, Robert Benchley, Alan Hale

Synopsis: Janie, adapted from the Broadway play by Josephine Bentham and Herschel Williams, was one of a 1940s cycle of stage-to-film comedies about teenagers. Joyce Reynolds stars as Janie, a typical teen whose life is turned topsy turvy by the installation of a military base near her home town. Edward Arnold Read More

1944
Passage to Marseilles

Crew: Director

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Michèle Morgan, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Philip Dorn

Synopsis: Designed as a followup to the enormously successful Casablanca, Passage to Marseille utilizes the talents of many of the on- and off-screen personnel of the earlier Warner Bros. classic. Unfolded in a complex flashback-within-flashback structure, this is the story of Matrac (Humphrey Bogart), a Read More

1944
Mission to Moscow

Crew: Director

Actors: Walter Huston, Ann Harding, Oscar Homolka, Gene Lockhart, George Tobias, Eleanor Parker

Synopsis: More so than most wartime films, Mission to Moscow must be viewed within the context of its times. Requested by President Roosevelt to make a film supportive of America's Russian allies, Warner Bros. turned to the memoirs of Ambassador Joseph H. Davies, who spent several years prior to WWII in the Read More

1943
Show Business at War

1943
This Is the Army

Crew: Director

Actors: George Murphy, Joan Leslie, Ronald Reagan, George Tobias, Alan Hale, Charles Butterworth, Julie Oshins

Synopsis: The splashy, star-studded This is the Army is based on the Irving Berlin Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was a reworking of Berlin's WW1 "barracks musical" Yip Yip Yaphank. In both instances, the cast was largely comprised of genuine servicemen, many of them either recently Read More

1943
Casablanca

Crew: Director

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre

Synopsis: One of the most beloved American films, this captivating wartime adventure of romance and intrigue from director Michael Curtiz defies standard categorization. Simply put, it is the story of Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a world-weary ex-freedom fighter who runs a nightclub in Casablanca during Read More

1942
Captains of the Clouds

Crew: Director

Actors: James Cagney, Dennis Morgan, Brenda Marshall, Alan Hale, George Tobias

Synopsis: James Cagney made his first Technicolor appearance in the morale-boosting aviation flick Captains of the Clouds. Cagney plays Brian MacLean, a hotshot Canadian bush pilot who delights in stealing jobs-and women-away from his competitors. Brian is forced to shape up in a hurry when he's assigned to Read More

1942
Yankee Doodle Dandy

Crew: Director

Actors: James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, Richard Whorf, Irene Manning

Synopsis: Yankee Doodle Dandy is no more the true-life story of George M. Cohan than The Jolson Story was the unvarnished truth about Al Jolson -- but who the heck cares? Dandy has song, dance, pathos, pageantry, uproarious comedy, and, best of all, James Cagney at his Oscar-winning best. After several Read More

1942
The Sea Wolf

Crew: Director

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Ida Lupino, John Garfield, Alexander Knox, Gene Lockhart

Synopsis: The fifth film version of Jack London's The Sea Wolf stars Edward G. Robinson as "premature fascist" Wolf Larsen. The captain of the scavenger ship Ghost, Larsen is a heartless tyrant who can tolerate no sign of weakness in anyone. "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" is Larsen's Read More

1941
Dive Bomber

Crew: Director

Actors: Errol Flynn, Fred MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Herbert Anderson

Synopsis: Lieutenant Commander Joe Blake (Fred MacMurray), Lt. Tim Griffin (Regis Toomey), and Lt. Swede Larson (Louis Jean Heydt) are longtime US Navy flying buddies, about to be transferred to different posts when Larson suffers a blackout during high-altitude maneuvers and cracks up. Navy doctor Douglas Read More

1941
Santa Fe Trail

Crew: Director

Actors: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Raymond Massey, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale

Synopsis: Santa Fe Trail, Errol Flynn's third western, has precisely nothing to do with the titular trail. Instead, the film is a simplistic retelling of the John Brown legend, with Raymond Massey playing the famed abolitionist. The events leading up to the bloody confrontation between Brown and the US Read More

1940
The Sea Hawk

Crew: Director

Actors: Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Claude Rains, Flora Robson, Donald Crisp

Synopsis: In the 1580s, the Sea Hawks -- the name given to the bold privateers who prowl the oceans taking ships and treasure on behalf the British crown -- are the most dedicated defenders of British interests in the face of the expanding power of Philip of Spain. And Captain Geoffrey Thorpe (Errol Flynn) Read More

1940
Virginia City

Crew: Director

Actors: Errol Flynn, Miriam Hopkins, Randolph Scott, Humphrey Bogart, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: Promoted as a follow-up to the popular 1939 western Dodge City (which, indeed, was left wide open for a sequel in its closing scenes), Virginia City bears only surface resemblance to the earlier film. Indeed, the only discerning links between the two pictures are the western setting and the Read More

1940
Dodge City

Crew: Director

Actors: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Sheridan, Bruce Cabot, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: This landmark western -- which, along with Stagecoach, has often been credited with revitalizing what had become a stagnant genre -- stars Errol Flynn as Wade Hatton, a cattle man who arrives in the frontier community of Dodge City, which is overrun by footloose cowboys and outlaws. When Hatton Read More

1939
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex

Crew: Director

Actors: Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Vincent Price, Donald Crisp, Alan Hale

Synopsis: It is no secret that Bette Davis and Errol Flynn were at each other's throats throughout the filming of The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex. Boiled down to essentials: Davis felt that Flynn was unprofessional, while Flynn thought that Davis took herself too damn seriously. Besides, Davis had Read More

1939
Four Wives

Crew: Director

Actors: Claude Rains, Jeffrey Lynn, John Garfield, Frank McHugh, May Robson, Eddie Albert, Priscilla Lane

Synopsis: In this drama, the sequel to Four Daughters, the daughters are now adults. Three of the sisters rally together to find a new love for the fourth sister whose husband recently committed suicide. The widowed woman then discovers that she is pregnant with her deceased husband's child and this causes Read More

1939
Daughters Courageous

Crew: Director

Actors: John Garfield, Claude Rains, Fay Bainter, Donald Crisp, May Robson

Synopsis: This family drama features the same cast and crew from the highly successful Four Daughters, but it isn't actually a sequel. Whereas the first film was a chronicle of the Lemp family, this one centers on the Masters family. This film is also characterized by a much happier ending than its Read More

1939
Elizabeth, the Queen

Crew: Director

1939
Gold Is Where You Find It

Crew: Director

Actors: George Brent, Olivia de Havilland, Claude Rains, John Litel

Synopsis: Michael Curtiz directs this Technicolor Western based on the familiar story by Clements Ripley about the rivalry between farmers and miners in the Sacramento valley during the years following the California Gold Rush. Handsome engineer Jared Whitney (George Brent) from the Golden Moon mining Read More

1938
Angels With Dirty Faces

Crew: Director

Actors: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, George Bancroft

Synopsis: Childhood chums Rocky Sullivan (James Cagney) and Jerry Connelly (Pat O'Brien) grow up on opposite sides of the fence: Rocky matures into a prominent gangster, while Jerry becomes a priest, tending to the needs of his old tenement neighborhood. Rocky becomes a hero to a gang of teenaged boys Read More

1938
Four's a Crowd

Crew: Director

Actors: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Rosalind Russell, Patric Knowles, Walter Connolly

Synopsis: A standard-issue "screwball comedy" of the 1930s, Four's a Crowd starred a quartet of Warner Bros' biggest stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia DeHavilland, Rosalind Russell and