Jean Negulesco

Jean Negulesco (born February 26, 1900, Craiova, Romania—died July 18, 1993, Marbella, Spain) was a Romanian-born artist and director who first gained notice for his film noirs and later made such notable movies as Johnny Belinda (1948), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and Three Coins in the Fountain (1954).

Early life and films

While still a teenager, Negulesco left Romania and moved to Paris, where he made a reputation as a stage designer and painter in the 1920s. He arrived in the United States in 1927 to exhibit his work, and he eventually made his way to Hollywood, where he worked as a second-unit director on B-films. In 1936 Negulesco directed (with William Nigh) his first feature, Cash Donovan. He then made a series of short films before helming his first solo feature, Singapore Woman (1941), a lacklustre remake of Alfred E. Green’s hit Dangerous (1935). Negulesco also began penning stories and screenplays during that time; his most-notable writing credit was arguably the story for Swiss Miss (1938), a Laurel and Hardy comedy.

Film noirs and Johnny Belinda

Negulesco’s next directorial credit was the acclaimed film noir The Mask of Dimitrios (1944), starring Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, and Zachary Scott. The movie was a stylish adaptation of an Eric Ambler novel about a mystery writer who becomes involved in a murder investigation. Also from 1944 was The Conspirators, a spy thriller that starred Lorre, Greenstreet, Hedy Lamarr, and Paul Henreid. In 1946 Negulesco directed Nobody Lives Forever, a noir that featured John Garfield as a petty criminal who bilks, but then falls in love with, a rich widow (Geraldine Fitzgerald). His other credits that year were Three Strangers, an offbeat noir with Lorre, Greenstreet, and Fitzgerald as joint holders of a sweepstakes ticket, and Humoresque, a romantic drama that starred Garfield (as a violinist who hungers for success) and Joan Crawford (as the wealthy but unstable patron who falls for him).

In the melodrama Deep Valley (1947), Ida Lupino played an isolated woman who falls in love with a convict (Dane Clark) working in a chain gang and helps him escape. Negulesco’s next film, the 1948 drama Johnny Belinda, was perhaps his greatest triumph. It starred Jane Wyman in an Oscar-winning performance as a deaf Canadian farm girl who is raped, finds she is pregnant, and bonds with a sensitive doctor (Lew Ayres). A major box-office success, the film was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, including best picture, and Negulesco earned a nod for directing.

Negulesco returned to noirs with Road House (1948), which earned positive reviews, thanks in part to a strong cast, notably Richard Widmark as the vengeful owner of a roadhouse who becomes obsessed with a new singer (Lupino); Cornel Wilde and Celeste Holm also starred. The director’s last film of the decade was the British production The Forbidden Street (1949; also known as Britannia Mews), a Victorian melodrama with Maureen O’Hara and Dana Andrews.

Millionaire and Three Coins

Under My Skin (1950), based on the Ernest Hemingway story “My Old Man,” featured a strong performance by Garfield as a jockey who goes on the run with his son after double-crossing gangsters. Negulesco’s next film, Three Came Home (1950), was another triumph, easily the best of Claudette Colbert’s later work and a model of how to adapt a strong literary property. The moving drama, which was based on Agnes Newton Keith’s memoir, centres on a writer and her family who, while living in Borneo, are imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II. The Mudlark (1950) was also a well-received drama about an orphan (Andrew Ray) who sneaks into Windsor Castle to see Queen Victoria (Irene Dunne), who is still mourning the death of Prince Albert. The film featured strong performances, including Alec Guinness as Benjamin Disraeli. Take Care of My Little Girl (1951) was less effective, a harsh look at sorority life with a cast that included Jeanne Crain, Jeffrey Hunter, Dale Robertson, and Mitzi Gaynor.

Better received was the suspenseful Phone Call from a Stranger (1952), which follows a plane crash survivor as he visits the families of those who were killed; Bette Davis, Shelley Winters, Michael Rennie, and Gary Merrill headed a strong cast. After the historical adventure Lydia Bailey (1952), Negulesco made Lure of the Wilderness (1952), an uninspired remake of Jean Renoir’s Swamp Water (1941). Negulesco completed 1952 by directing the “The Last Leaf” episode of O. Henry’s Full House. The following year he made Titanic, a big-budget drama set aboard the doomed ocean liner; it starred Barbara Stanwyck, Clifton Webb, Robert Wagner, and Thelma Ritter.

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In 1953 Negulesco had his biggest hit in years with How to Marry a Millionaire. The comedy, which was shot in CinemaScope, centres on three women (Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, and Betty Grable) who scheme to land wealthy husbands, with varying degrees of success. Three Coins in the Fountain (1954) was also a hit, with its Rome locations, Oscar-winning theme song (by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn), and fine cast (Webb, Jean Peters, Dorothy McGuire, and Louis Jourdan). It was nominated for an Academy Award as best picture.

Woman’s World (1954) was another glossy production, with Webb as an automobile executive whose search for a new manager includes meeting the candidates’ wives; it starred June Allyson, Van Heflin, Fred MacMurray, and Lauren Bacall. Negulesco then directed Fred Astaire in the musical Daddy Long Legs (1955), about a rich playboy who secretly puts a French orphan (Leslie Caron) through school. Negulesco’s other notable films from the decade include The Rains of Ranchipur (1955)—an adaptation of a novel by Louis Bromfield, starring Lana Turner, Richard Burton, and MacMurray—and Boy on a Dolphin (1957), which starred Sophia Loren (in her first American film) as a sponge diver who discovers sunken treasure off the Greek isles. The Best of Everything (1959) was an entertaining drama about women working in New York City’s publishing world. It boasted a fine cast that included Joan Crawford, Suzy Parker, Martha Hyer, Hope Lange, and Robert Evans.

Later films

Negulesco’s subsequent films were largely forgettable. Jessica (1962) was a poorly conceived drama with Angie Dickinson as a widowed Italian midwife and Maurice Chevalier as the village priest. The Pleasure Seekers (1964), Negulesco’s musical remake of Three Coins in the Fountain, was set in Spain and featured Ann-Margret, Pamela Tiffin, and Carol Lynley. Negulesco later moved to Spain and resumed his long-deferred career as a painter. He came out of his unofficial retirement in 1970 to make two last films, Hello-Goodbye and The Invincible Six, the latter of which depicted a gang that helps harassed villagers defeat a bandit horde. Negulesco’s autobiography, Things I Did and Things I Think I Did, was published in 1984.