Mitchell Leisen

Directing

Mitchell Leisen

Born 1898-10-06 · Menominee, Michigan, USA

Mitchell Leisen (October 6, 1898 – October 28, 1972) was an American director, art director, and costume designer. He is known for directing the films Remember the Night, Midnight, and Easy Living.

Acting credits

Variety Girl poster
6.5

Dozens of star and character-actor cameos and a message about the Variety Club (a show-business charity) are woven into a framework about two hopeful young ladies who come to Hollywood, exchange identities, and cause comic confusion (with slapstick interludes) throughout the Paramount studio.

Variety Girl

1947

Hold Back the Dawn poster
6.7

Romanian-French gigolo Georges Iscovescu wishes to enter the USA. Stopped in Mexico by the quota system, he decides to marry an American, then desert her and join his old partner Anita, who's done likewise. But after sweeping teacher Emmy Brown off her feet, he finds her so sweet that love and jealousy endanger his plans.

Hold Back the Dawn

1941

Murder at the Vanities poster
5.6

Shortly before the curtain goes up the first time at the latest performance of Earl Carroll's Vanities, someone is attempting to injure the leading lady Ann Ware, who wants to marry leading man Eric Lander. Stage manager Jack Ellery calls in his friend, policeman Bill Murdock, to help him investigate. Bill thinks Jack is offering to let him see the show from an unusual viewpoint after he forgot to get him tickets for the performance, but then they find the corpse of a murdered woman and Bill immediately suspects Eric of the crime.

Murder at the Vanities

1934

Hollywood on Parade No. B-10 poster
NR

Essentially an advertisement for Murder at the Vanities (1934). Features Chico Marx, W.C. Fields, Duke Ellington and many others.

Hollywood on Parade No. B-10

1934

Miss Tatlock's Millions poster
6.3

After the accidental death of an idiot heir, a stunt man is hired to impersonate him while the family gathers to determine the dispersment of the estate of Miss Tatlock's millions.

Miss Tatlock's Millions

1948

The Big Broadcast of 1937 poster
6.2

The employees of a failing radio station must put on a huge ratings winner to have any chance of continued operation.

The Big Broadcast of 1937

1936

Behind the camera

Hands Across the Table poster
7.0

A manicurist and an engaged loafer, both planning to marry money, meet and fall in love.

Hands Across the Table

1935

Arise, My Love poster
6.3

A dashing pilot and a vivacious reporter have romantic and dramatic adventures in Europe as World War II begins.

Arise, My Love

1940

Midnight poster
7.4

An unemployed American showgirl poses as Hungarian royalty to infiltrate Parisian high society.

Midnight

1939

Remember the Night poster
7.3

Unexpected love blossoms when an assistant district attorney agrees to take a recidivist shoplifter home so she doesn't have to spend Christmas alone in jail.

Remember the Night

1940

Remember the Night poster
7.3

Unexpected love blossoms when an assistant district attorney agrees to take a recidivist shoplifter home so she doesn't have to spend Christmas alone in jail.

Remember the Night

1940

Bedevilled poster
6.0

A seminary student helps a nightclub singer sought by Paris police for killing her married lover.

Bedevilled

1955

No Time for Love poster
7.0

An upper-class female reporter is (despite herself) attracted to a hulking laborer digging a tunnel under the Hudson River.

No Time for Love

1943

No Time for Love poster
7.0

An upper-class female reporter is (despite herself) attracted to a hulking laborer digging a tunnel under the Hudson River.

No Time for Love

1943

The Lady Is Willing poster
6.5

Bold, eccentric Broadway performer Elizabeth Madden befuddles her handlers by coming home with a baby she picked up on the street. She wants to keep the baby but has to find a husband to make adoption viable. She offers her new obstetrician Dr. McBain help with his research on rabbits in exchange for marriage - and he accepts. The marriage of convenience turns into a marriage of real love until Dr. McBain's ex-wife comes looking for money.

The Lady Is Willing

1942

Easy Living poster
7.2

J.B. Ball, a rich financier, gets fed up with his free-spending family. He takes his wife's just-bought (very expensive) sable coat and throws it out the window, it lands on poor hard-working girl Mary Smith. But it isn't so easy to just give away something so valuable, as he soon learns.

Easy Living

1937

No Man of Her Own poster
6.9

A penniless pregnant woman adopts the identity of a rich woman killed in a train crash.

No Man of Her Own

1950

No Man of Her Own poster
6.9

A penniless pregnant woman adopts the identity of a rich woman killed in a train crash.

No Man of Her Own

1950

Bride of Vengeance poster
5.4

The tiny independent duchy of Ferrara is located between Casare Borgia's Rome and Venice, and Borgia has plans to conquer Venice via Ferrara. He murders his sister's husband and makes it appear that Alfonso D'Este of Ferrara was behind the killing. To avenge herself against Ferrara and D'Este, Lucretia Borgia marries D'Este and intends to poison him. But...she falls in love with him.

Bride of Vengeance

1949

Death Takes a Holiday poster
6.3

After years of questioning why people fear him, Death takes on human form so he can mingle among the mortals and find an answer. However, events soon spiral out of control as he falls in love with the beautiful young Grazia, the only woman not afraid of him. As he falls in love with her, her father sees him for what he is and begs him to return to his duties. Death must decide whether or not to seek his own happiness or sacrifice it so that Grazia may live.

Death Takes a Holiday

1934

I Wanted Wings poster
5.6

Told in flashback, this drama follows the training and personal lives of three recruits in the Army Air Corps: a wealthy playboy, a college jock, and an auto mechanic. Love interest is supplied by a female photographer and a sultry blonde.

I Wanted Wings

1941

To Each His Own poster
7.0

During World War I, small-town girl Josephine Norris has an illegitimate son by an itinerant pilot. After a scheme to adopt him ends up giving him to another family, she devotes her life to loving him from afar.

To Each His Own

1946

Hold Back the Dawn poster
6.7

Romanian-French gigolo Georges Iscovescu wishes to enter the USA. Stopped in Mexico by the quota system, he decides to marry an American, then desert her and join his old partner Anita, who's done likewise. But after sweeping teacher Emmy Brown off her feet, he finds her so sweet that love and jealousy endanger his plans.

Hold Back the Dawn

1941

Practically Yours poster
7.0

In this screwball comedy a WW2 US pilot bombs a Japanese aircraft carrier, is assumed to be dead, and then is misquoted in the press as fondly remembering his days back home walking his dog Piggy. Instead of his dog Piggy he is thought to be in love with Peggy, a girl he worked with. The usual farce ensues after he returns home alive and tries to play along with the mistake to save embarrassment for all.

Practically Yours

1944

Murder at the Vanities poster
5.6

Shortly before the curtain goes up the first time at the latest performance of Earl Carroll's Vanities, someone is attempting to injure the leading lady Ann Ware, who wants to marry leading man Eric Lander. Stage manager Jack Ellery calls in his friend, policeman Bill Murdock, to help him investigate. Bill thinks Jack is offering to let him see the show from an unusual viewpoint after he forgot to get him tickets for the performance, but then they find the corpse of a murdered woman and Bill immediately suspects Eric of the crime.

Murder at the Vanities

1934

Young Man with Ideas poster
5.2

A Montana lawyer gets distracted after moving to California with his wife and children.

Young Man with Ideas

1952

The Mating Season poster
6.6

Ellen McNulty leaves her New Jersey hamburger stand and heads west to pay a surprise visit to her son and his new bride. When Ellen arrives, her daughter-in-law mistakes her for the maid she has hired for a big party they are throwing. Rather than cause any embarrassment, Ellen goes along with the charade, which leads to many complications.

The Mating Season

1951

Captain Carey, U.S.A. poster
5.8

Near the end of World War II, a secret American raid on an enemy transportation hub goes very wrong when a turncoat warns the enemy. Led by Capt. Webster Carey, the mission causes the deaths of many bystanders -- among them, Carey believes, his Italian girlfriend, Giulia de Graffi. Back home, Carey stumbles across evidence that might uncover the identity of the informant. But, when he returns to Italy to get even, Carey is stunned by what he finds.

Captain Carey, U.S.A.

1950

Behold My Wife! poster
8.0

After Michael Carter's fiancée commits suicide, Michael vows to seek revenge on his wealthy family, who sabotaged their marriage. He drives across the country angrily, and lands up at a saloon, where he is shot by an Indian, Pete. Pete's girlfriend, Tonita nurses Michael's wound and falls in love with him. Michael realizes this, proposes marriage to Tonita - a perfect revenge for his prejudice family. They marry and he takes her to New York, in full Indian dress hoping to embarrass the family.

Behold My Wife!

1934

Swing High, Swing Low poster
5.3

In Panama, Maggie King meets soldier Skid Johnson on his last day in the army and reluctantly agrees to a date to celebrate. The two become involved in a nightclub brawl which causes Maggie to miss her ship back to the States. Now stranded, she's forced to move in with Skid and his pal Harry. She soon falls in love with Skid. Skid gets a job playing the trumpet at a local club and becomes a big success. Fame and fortune go to his head which eventually destroys his relationship with Maggie and his career.

Swing High, Swing Low

1937