
Directing
Mervyn LeRoy
Born 1900-10-15 · San Francisco, California, USA
Mervyn LeRoy was an American film director, producer, and sometime actor. LeRoy worked in costumes, processing labs and as a camera assistant until he became a gag writer and actor in silent films, including The Ten Commandments in 1923. LeRoy credits Ten Commandments director, Cecil B. DeMille, for inspiring him to become a director: "As the top director of the era, DeMille had been the magnet that had drawn me to his set as often as I could go." LeRoy also credits DeMille for teaching him the directing techniques required to make his own films. His first directing job was with First National Pictures on 1927's No Place to Go. LeRoy ended up working at Warner Bros. after they took control of First National. When his movies made lots of money without costing too much, he became well received in the movie business. He directed two key films which launched Edward G. Robinson into major stardom, the Oscar-nominated critique of tabloid journalism Five Star Final, and the classic gangster film Little Caesar, which made his mark. From that point forward, LeRoy would be responsible for a diverse variety of films as a director and producer. The following year's I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang was also nominated for the Academy Award for Outstanding Production as was his Anthony Adverse. In 1938 he was chosen as head of production at MGM, where he was responsible for the decision to make The Wizard of Oz. He was responsible for discovering Clark Gable, Loretta Young, Robert Mitchum, and Lana Turner. His 1941 film Blossoms in the Dust was nominated for the Academy Award for Outstanding Motion Picture. His first big hit as a director with MGM was 1942's Random Harvest which was their biggest of the season earning worldwide rentals of $8 million and for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Directing. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Outstanding Motion Picture. He hit big again two years later with Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo with rentals of $6 million. In 1951, he scored his biggest hit with Quo Vadis earning worldwide rentals of $21 million as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture. In the early 1950s, LeRoy directed such musicals as Lovely to Look At, Million Dollar Mermaid, Latin Lovers and Rose Marie. He returned to Warner Brothers in 1955, where he took over from John Ford as director on Mister Roberts, another big hit, which was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture. He also directed films for Warners such as The Bad Seed, No Time for Sergeants, The FBI Story, and Gypsy. He received an honorary Oscar in 1946 for The House I Live In, "for tolerance short subject", and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1976. A total of eight movies Mervyn LeRoy directed or co-directed were nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, one of the highest numbers among all directors.
Acting credits
8.2This documentary revisits the making of Gone with the Wind via archival footage, screen tests, insightful interviews and rare film footage.
The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
1988
6.3This 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeches for films released in 1939 with recipients and presenters including Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Hattie McDaniel and more, with host Bob Hope.
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
1940
6.5Documentary about James Stewart's long career as an actor and positive personal life.
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
1987
7.0Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival footage make up this star-studded voyeuristic look at the Golden age of Hollywood during the 30s, 40, and 50.
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
1983
10.0Manuel La Tessa, son of a wealthy South American family, meets Natalie Chester, a young Kentucky woman whose horse has won a race at a South American track. Manuel gives a party in her honor, where she is insulted by one of the guests. Manuel knocks down the offender. The offender, whose father is a powerful figure in the country's politics, challenges Manuel to a duel, but also hires a man to hide in ambush and kill his opponent. Manuel is only wounded and Natalie nurses him back to health. Natalie loves Manuel and seeks to uncover the mystery of the bullet fired at him during the duel. A lost film.
My American Wife
1922
8.5Jack L. Warner, Harry Warner, Albert Warner and Sam Warner were siblings who were born in Poland and emigrated to Canada near the turn of the century. In 1903, the brothers entered the budding motion picture business. In time, the Warner Brothers moved into film production and would open their own studio in 1923.
You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story
2008
6.0An all-star tribute to Natalie Wood by some of her friends and co-workers.
Natalie - A Tribute to a Very Special Lady
1982
8.3Angela Lansbury hosts a celebration and anniversary tribute to the Wizard of Oz which includes the premiere of the restored, uncut print of the classic.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: 50 Years of Magic
1990
6.0Making-of documentary about the 1933 musical, 42nd Street.
42nd Street: From Book to Screen to Stage
2006
9.0Going Up (1923)
Going Up
1923
8.0Jockey Johnny Jones is hired to ride The Earl of Bloomsburg's horse at the English Derby. Crooked gambler Robert Anstead frames Johnny as a thief and kidnaps his sweetheart in order to make Johnny throw the race. Will he succeed?
Little Johnny Jones
1923
10.0Ralph Norton, man-about-town and wealthy favorite in Broadway society circles, is attracted to Helen Tremaine, but her flirtatious behavior causes him to reject the superficial life of his set.
Broadway After Dark
1924
7.0When her latest show closes, Pat O'Brien returns home. The stable owned by her fiancé, Dan Mallory, catches fire, and Pat helps save his prize horse, Lady Belle, who is blinded. Because of the fire, Pat and Dan have to put their wedding plans on hold, and Pat returns to the stage.
The Chorus Lady
1924
7.0Returning from World War I, Glenn Kilbourne travels to Arizona to regain his health. He meets a local girl, Flo Hutler, who helps him recover. His fiancee, Carley Burch, follows him to Arizona but soon decides she'd rather go back to New York. When Flo is badly hurt in an accident, Glenn decides to repay her for her help in bringing him back to health by proposing marriage.
The Call of the Canyon
1923
6.7Narrated documentary of the making of Anthony Adverse (1936), featuring many clips from the actual film.
The Making of a Great Motion Picture
1936
3.3Elinor "Swifty" Forbes and her younger sister Marjory are the carefree daughters of wealthy J. D. Forbes. Their mother shows no restraint over her daughters, so they live among the flapper set. Lester Hodges, a songwriter, is enamored of Marjory, while Garside, who runs a card room, is interested in Swifty. While gambling at Garside's place, Swifty meets Roger Corbin, who works as an engineer at her father's business. Corbin falls in love with Swifty. When Mr. Forbes protests against both his daughters' behavior, they move out. Marjory marries Hodges, but eventually leaves him and returns to her parents. Swifty, who has gambled herself into debt, agrees to marry Garside. But when the couple are together in a café, prohibition agents raid the place.
Prodigal Daughters
1923
7.5The time was 1938. The place, Hollywood. This is the story of one of the 456 films made that year, how it was made, and why it has endured.
The Making of the Wizard of Oz
1979
NRA Traveltalk style documentary look at Rome.
Rome, the Eternal City
1951
This short starts out as a documentary. In a dramatization, Eadward Muybridge's photographic experiments prove that when a horse gallops, there are times when all four of the animal's feet are off the ground. We are then brought to the present, where MGM directors and their cinematographers are shown working on current productions. The film closes with closeups of the studio's major stars and a tribute to the studio's actors who have joined the armed forces.
You Can't Fool a Camera
1941
Behind the camera
7.6Young Dorothy finds herself in a magical world where she makes friends with a lion, a scarecrow and a tin man as they make their way along the yellow brick road to talk with the Wizard and ask for the things they miss most in their lives. The Wicked Witch of the West is the only thing that could stop them.
The Wizard of Oz
1939
7.4Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Little Women
1949
7.4Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Little Women
1949
7.1Air Force Colonel Kenneth Penmark and his wife, Christine, adore their daughter Rhoda, despite her secret tendency for selfishness. Christine keeps her knowledge of her daughter's darker side to herself, but when a schoolmate of Rhoda's dies mysteriously, her self-deception unravels.
The Bad Seed
1956
7.1Air Force Colonel Kenneth Penmark and his wife, Christine, adore their daughter Rhoda, despite her secret tendency for selfishness. Christine keeps her knowledge of her daughter's darker side to herself, but when a schoolmate of Rhoda's dies mysteriously, her self-deception unravels.
The Bad Seed
1956
7.2When all Broadway shows are shut down during the Depression, a trio of desperate showgirls scheme to bilk a repugnant high society man of his money to keep their show going.
Gold Diggers of 1933
1933
7.5On the eve of World War II, a British officer revisits Waterloo Bridge and recalls the young man he was at the beginning of World War I and the young ballerina he met just before he left for the front.
Waterloo Bridge
1940
7.1After fierce Roman commander Marcus Vinicius becomes infatuated with beautiful Christian hostage Lygia, he begins to question the tyrannical leadership of the despotic emperor Nero.
Quo Vadis
1951
5.9Tortured into a false confession while a POW in Korea, Major Lincoln Bond returns to active service as a test pilot. Determined to clear his name, Bond battles a hard-nosed base commander, prejudiced officers and his own insecurities.
Toward the Unknown
1956
5.9Tortured into a false confession while a POW in Korea, Major Lincoln Bond returns to active service as a test pilot. Determined to clear his name, Bond battles a hard-nosed base commander, prejudiced officers and his own insecurities.
Toward the Unknown
1956
6.5A war widow falls in love with the man who informed her of her husband's death.
Desire Me
1947
6.7Managing Editor Brad Bradshaw refuses to run a story linking the disappearance of Frank Canfield with embezzlement of the bank. He considers Frank a straight shooter and he goes easy on the story. Every other paper goes with the story that Frank took the money and Brad is demoted, by the publisher, to the Heartthrob column - writing advice to the lovelorn. After feeling sorry for himself for two months, he takes the column seriously and makes it the talk of the town. But Brad still wants his old job back so he will have to find Canfield and the missing money.
Hi, Nellie!
1934
7.8A World War I veteran’s dreams of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Things get even worse when he’s falsely convicted of a crime and sent to work on a chain gang.
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
1932
6.9A small-time hood shoots his way to the top, but how long can he stay there?
Little Caesar
1931
6.7In the wake of Pearl Harbor, a young lieutenant leaves his expectant wife to volunteer for a secret bombing mission which will take the war to the Japanese homeland.
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
1944
7.3Wandered away from his asylum, an amnesiac World War I veteran falls in love with a music hall star but his amnesia makes it difficult to last.
Random Harvest
1942
7.0Mr. Roberts is a Navy officer who's yearning for battle but is stuck in the backwaters of World War II on a non-commissioned ship run by the bullying Captain Morton.
Mister Roberts
1955
6.3Gypsy's mother Rose dreams of a life in show business for her daughters, but Louise becomes a huge burlesque star. Stage musical loosely based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee.
Gypsy
1962
6.3Gypsy's mother Rose dreams of a life in show business for her daughters, but Louise becomes a huge burlesque star. Stage musical loosely based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee.
Gypsy
1962
5.9A southern town is rocked by scandal when teenager Mary Clay is murdered on Confederate Decoration Day. Andrew Griffin, a small-time lawyer with political ambitions, sees the crime as his ticket to the Senate if he can find the right victim to finger for the crime. He sets out to convict Robert Hale, a transplanted northerner who was Mary's teacher at the business school where she was killed. Despite the fact that all the evidence against Hale is circumstantial, Griffin works with a ruthless reporter to create a media frenzy of prejudice and hate against the teacher.
They Won't Forget
1937
6.3A condemned murderer, in the process of being executed, relives the events that led to his being sentenced to die in the electric chair. Told in flashback, we witness a sleazy dancehall girl dupe a high rise riveter into marriage so she can live off of him. But when he loses his job and his marbles, she ends up supporting him with money from her side man--and misses no opportunity to rub it in his face that she's now supporting him in his emasculated state. As the animosity grows and things get more and more unbearable, he is eventually driven to desperate measures.
Two Seconds
1932
7.1Self-absorbed Dr. Lee Johnson enlists with the Army medical corps during World War II, more out of a feeling that it's "the thing to do" rather than deep-seated patriotism. On his first day, he's put into place by 'Snapshot', a sassy and attractive nurse. Their initial antagonism blossoms into romance. Lee then finds himself torn with guilt over being unfaithful to his wife, Penny, who's waiting for him back home.
Homecoming
1948
6.4Jeff Wilson, the owner of a small circus, owes his partner Carter $10,000. Before Jeff can pay, Carter's accomplices steal the money so he can take over the circus. Antonio Pirelli and Punchy, who work at the circus, together with lawyer Loophole try to find the thief and get the money back.
At the Circus
1939
6.2A dedicated FBI agent recalls the agency's battles against the Klan, organized crime and Communist spies.
The FBI Story
1959