Henry Koster

Henry Koster (born May 1, 1905, Berlin, Germany—died September 21, 1988, Camarillo, California, U.S.) was a German-born American director and screenwriter who turned out a series of popular films, which included numerous musicals as well as The Bishop’s Wife (1947) and Harvey (1950).

Early work

Koster spent his youth in Berlin, and his early interests included painting and cartooning. In 1925 he began his film career as a screenwriter, and he eventually contributed to nearly 50 movies. In 1932 he made his directorial debut with the comedy Thea Roland. After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Koster, who was Jewish, left Germany and made several European films before moving to the United States in 1936. He signed with Universal Studios and, with producer Joe Pasternak, immediately went to work on a series of musicals starring Deanna Durbin, a teenager who Universal hoped would compete with Twentieth Century-Fox’s star Shirley Temple. The frothy films—which included Three Smart Girls (1936); One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), recipient of an Academy Award nomination for best picture; and First Love (1939)—proved highly popular and were credited with saving the studio from bankruptcy. It Started with Eve (1941) was the sixth and last of Koster’s films to star Durbin. It was arguably the actress’s finest movie.

Films of the 1940s

After the romantic comedy Between Us Girls (1942), Koster and Pasternak moved to MGM, where Koster recycled the Durbin formula for Music for Millions (1944), in which Margaret O’Brien was cast as the young sister of a musician (played by June Allyson) with José Iturbi’s orchestra. Two more musicals followed: Two Sisters from Boston (1946), with Allyson, Kathryn Grayson, and Jimmy Durante, and The Unfinished Dance (1947), starring O’Brien as a dance student who idolizes a ballerina (Cyd Charisse); the latter marked the last time Koster worked with Pasternak. Leaving behind the light musicals that had thus far defined his career, Koster then made The Bishop’s Wife (1947). The Christmas classic starred Cary Grant as an angel who comes to earth to help a bishop (David Niven) and his wife (Loretta Young) raise money for their church. It received an Academy Award nomination for best picture, and Koster earned his only Oscar nod for directing.

Koster then moved to Twentieth Century-Fox, where he would work for most of his remaining career. His first film for the studio was the fantasy The Luck of the Irish (1948), in which a reporter (Tyrone Power) encounters a leprechaun (Cecil Kellaway). The sentimental comedy Come to the Stable (1949), adapted from a Clare Boothe Luce story, cast Young and Celeste Holm as transplanted French nuns trying to raise money for a children’s hospital in the New England town of Bethlehem. The popular The Inspector General (1949) featured Danny Kaye in a musical interpretation of Nikolay Gogol’s play.

The 1950s

Koster began the decade with Wabash Avenue (1950), a musical about a producer (Victor Mature) and a saloon owner (Phil Harris) competing for a chanteuse (Betty Grable) in 1890s Chicago. Grable returned for the sentimental My Blue Heaven (1950), about a husband-and-wife radio team who want to adopt a child. Koster then made the much-anticipated Harvey (1950), with James Stewart in one of his best-remembered roles as Elwood P. Dowd, a man who has a fondness for alcohol and whose best friend is an invisible giant rabbit. Mary Chase helped adapt her Pulitzer Prize-winning play, and Josephine Hull reprised her Broadway role as Dowd’s sister.

No Highway in the Sky (1951) was a departure for Koster. The thriller (adapted from the Nevil Shute novel) starred Stewart as an engineer who discovers a fatal flaw in a new model of aircraft but has trouble convincing others of his theory; Marlene Dietrich portrayed a passenger who believes him. Koster then directed Clifton Webb in the comedies Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell (1951) and Elopement (1951) and in Stars and Stripes Forever (1952), a sentimental but colourful biopic about the composer John Philip Sousa. My Cousin Rachel (1952) was a suspenseful adaptation of the Daphne du Maurier period mystery; Richard Burton portrayed a man whose investigation into the death of his cousin leads him to suspect the dead man’s wife (Olivia de Havilland).

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In 1953 Koster directed the groundbreaking The Robe, the first feature film made in CinemaScope. The biblical epic starred Burton as the Roman tribune who presides over the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The film was a blockbuster hit and received an Oscar nomination for best picture. But Koster’s next costume drama, Désirée (1954), was less successful. The lavish production, which largely eschewed historical accuracy, featured Marlon Brando as Napoleon, Jean Simmons as his seamstress lover Désirée, and Merle Oberon as his wife, Josephine. A Man Called Peter (1955) was better, a stately biopic about Peter Marshall (Richard Todd), the Scottish minister who became chaplain of the U.S. Senate; Jean Peters portrayed his devoted wife, Catherine. Koster’s other films from 1955 were The Virgin Queen, with Todd as Sir Walter Raleigh and Bette Davis as Elizabeth I, and Good Morning, Miss Dove, a drama that offered Jennifer Jones as a devoted schoolteacher whose life is recounted in flashbacks.

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D-Day the Sixth of June (1956) was an anomaly in Koster’s career, a war movie with soap-opera overtones. While waiting for the Normandy invasion to begin, two soldiers (Robert Taylor and Todd) muse over their competing desire for the same woman (Dana Wynter). My Man Godfrey (1957) was a remake of Gregory La Cava’s 1936 screwball comedy. Koster closed out the decade with The Naked Maja (1959), a historical drama about Francisco de Goya (Anthony Franciosa) and the model (Ava Gardner) for the eponymous painting.

The 1960s

After several disappointing films—including Flower Drum Song (1961), an adaptation of the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein Broadway musical—Koster reteamed with Stewart on a series of popular light comedies: Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962), which also starred Maureen O’Hara; Take Her, She’s Mine (1963), a farce about a father’s efforts to control his teenage daughter (Sandra Dee) while she is studying art in Paris; and Dear Brigitte (1965), in which Brigitte Bardot made a brief appearance as herself. Last for Koster was The Singing Nun (1966), a musical starring Debbie Reynolds as a Belgian nun whose songs become pop hits.