King Vidor

He specialized in stories of utopian men whose good intentions collide with harsh reality. He came to be in the Guinness Book of Records for the most prolific career as a filmmaker, since he was active for 67 years, although now he has been far surpassed by the Portuguese Manoel de Oliveira . His filmography, even full of memorable titles, is much smaller than that of other greats from the golden age of Hollywood.

Born in Galveston (Texas, USA) on February 8, 1894, King Wallis Vidor came from a wealthy family of Hungarian origin. When he was 6 years old, the worst hurricane to hit the United States to date devastated his hometown and killed a third of the population, although the future filmmaker’s family survived. His mother introduced him to the precepts of the Christian Science Church, a religion founded by Mary Baker Eddy, about which he would come to consider shooting a film.

He studied at the San Antonio Military Academy. Dazzled by cinema, which was invented shortly after his birth, Vidor started with a homemade camera built for him by his buddy Roy Clough. Thanks to her, he shot her first work, Hurricane in Galveston , at the age of 19, which inquired into the aftermath of the tragedy that he had experienced a decade earlier. The Mutual Weekly newsreel signed him to film The Grand Military Parade , another documentary about a massive parade of US troops.

In 1916 he married Florence Arto, an aspiring actress. Determined to make it big in Hollywood, he moved in with her and Clifford Vick, her partner, aboard a Ford T where he transported his camera and her luggage. To take advantage of the trip, he decided to film it to compose another documentary with the aim of being able to sell it to Ford. Interestingly, the company was quite impressed with his shots and bought the film from him.

As soon as he arrived in Hollywood, he got a job in the film industry, but not the one he wanted, since he ended up as an accountant. He practiced for three years until he was given the opportunity to direct The Turn of the Road , which was so successful that more work was commissioned. In 1920 he founded Vidor Village, his own studio, to try to boost his career, and his wife’s, who stars under him in The Family Honor, followed by other titles. “I convinced my father to sell his insurance business and take over building and running the studio,” recalls Vidor in “A Tree is a Tree,” his autobiography. Its title comes from when he tried to convince a producer to shoot a movie in the locations where the real story happened. But he told him that he had no budget for it, and that he should roll around nearby, because after all “a rock is a rock and a tree is a tree.”

Unfortunately, his company’s films did not get the desired public support. In this way, he is forced to work for MGM, which commissions Tin-Tin of my heart . Throughout the 1920s, he obtained great success with titles such as And the world marches or The great parade . After divorcing his wife, he joined Eleanord Boardman, a highly successful actress in the silent film era who did not make the transition to sound. He didn’t last long with her, joining the unrelated Elizabeth Hill, who would stay with him until her death.

The director took great advantage of the new sound film technique in Hallelujah , an important film from the transition to ‘talkies’ because it included noises from elements that did not appear on the screen. It was also somewhat novel in that the cast was made up entirely of African-Americans.

Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper starred under Champ , a tear-jerking story of a former boxing champion who has to take care of his son. Other of his big hits were Wedding Night , Stella Dallas , and especially The Citadel , with Robert Donat as a doctor who leaves behind his ideals as he begins to earn money. Much later, Vidor would take advantage of the same theme in The Spring , adaptation of Ayn Rand ‘s novel , with Gary Cooper as an architect capable of anything to remain faithful to his principles.

In And the World Marches On , utopian John and Mary have to give up their illusions because of the selfishness of their fellow New Yorkers. In El pan nuestro de cada día , a benchmark for social cinema, a young couple suffering from financial difficulties choose to return to the rural environment, where they will build a farm with the help of the locals. The film had financing problems because in one sequence the sheriff had to foreclose on a foreclosure, and the banks did not want to back the project.

He was also the filmmaker who finished the mythical The Wizard of Oz , as he shot the Kansas sequences when director Victor Fleming signed up to shoot Gone with the Wind , a project that Vidor had rejected. Even so, its producer, David O’Selznick, did not hold a grudge against Vidor. In fact, he put him in charge of his blockbuster Duel in the Sun , a mixture of western and melodrama that O’Selznick carried out for love, to show off his girlfriend, Jennifer Jones , a mixed-race woman for whom two brothers, played by Joseph , compete. Cotten and Gregory Peck .

The biggest challenge Vidor faced was War and Peace (1956) , an impossible translation to the screen of Leo Tolstoy ‘s novel, which was the most expensive production shot to date. Up to six screenwriters, including Vidor himself, were necessary to try to condense the extensive book into a film. And although it was a good attempt, perhaps a mere illustration of the great work, the truth is that it accumulates memorable moments, the battles are very showy, and it accumulates excellent performances, in which its original characters are recognized, thanks to the efforts of Audrey Hepburn , Henry Fonda , Vittorio Gassman , or even Mel Ferrer, whose prince Andrei was heavily criticized.

The filming of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba was not easy either , especially since Tyrone Power , the protagonist, died halfway through and had to be replaced by Yul Brynner . Exhausted from so much movement, at the age of 65, the director retired, and dedicated himself to writing his excellent memoir, but also to philosophy, painting, and teaching film. In 1979 he received an Honorary Oscar, for his body of work, after five unsuccessful nominations. A year later he shot the medium-length documentary The Metaphor , about the painting. He died at the age of 88 on November 1, 1982 in El Paso (California).

After his death, one of his biographers, Sidney D. Kirkpatrick, who examined his notes, discovered that he had solved the murder of William Desmond Taylor, an actor and director who was one of Hollywood’s first stars, and whose death caused rivers of grief to flow. ink in tabloid newspapers back in the day. It was a cold case, but Vidor knew that actress Ella Margaret had confessed that she shot him. Apparently, the director investigated the subject to shoot a movie, but he never made his conclusions public while he was alive.