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William Wyler: Films
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In 1947 Wyler assisted in the founding of the Committee for the First Amendment in response to Congress's House Un-American Activities Committee investigation of suspected communists in Hollywood. In 1953 he used a script written by blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo to film Roman Holiday, starring Gregory Peck and marking the starring debut of Audrey Hepburn, who won an Academy award for best actress. In 1955 Wyler adapted Joseph Hayes's novel and play The Desperate Hours for a film noir reuniting him with his Dead End star Humphrey Bogart. In 1956, he adapted Jessamyn West's novel about Quakers during the U.S. Civil War, Friendly Persuasion, into a film that reunited him with his The Westerner star, Gary Cooper. He employed Peck and Charlton Heston for his next film, The Big Country, which resulted in an Academy award for best supporting actor for folksinger Burl Ives.
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The Heiress was the top of the line in production values for early 1950s studio films, from William Wyler's sharp direction to the costumes of Edith Head. The entire cast is excellent, particularly Olivia de Havilland, who makes believable the transition of her title character from weak-willed spinster to a much stronger person at the story's conclusion. World War II had forever changed the role of women in U.S. society, and The Heiress, in the guise of a period drama, carried the theme of women's increasing power in the postwar years. This is just one of several films from the era that were ... both excellent dramas and interesting allegories. The film won four Oscars, including de Havilland and Head, a team of set designers, and composer Aaron Copland. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide
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Born Willi Wyler on July 1, 1902, in Mulhouse in the province of Alsace, then a possession of Germany, to a Swiss father and a German mother, Wyler used his family connections to establish himself in the film industry. Upon being offered a job by his mother's first cousin, Universal Studios head Carl Laemmle, Wyler emigrated to the US in 1920 at the age of 18. After starting in Universal's New York offices as an errand boy, he moved his way up through the organization, ending up in the California operation in 1922.
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With the advent of sound, Wyler became one of Universal's top directors of "talkies," beginning with 1929's Love Trap. He continued his string of popular films for Universal with 1930's Hell's Heroes and the 1933 John Barrymore film, Counsellor-at-Law. In 1935, he employed a script from Preston Sturges for The Good Fairy, starring his first wife Margaret Sullivan.
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Once you've seen the opening moments of William Wyler's superb "The Letter" you aren't apt to forget what great Hollywood film making is all about for a very, VERY long time. Bette Davis stars in this potent, diabolically delicious melodrama as Leslie Crosbie; the unscrupulous wife of a Malaysian rubber plantation owner. After packing six slugs into a man exiting her boudoir...not her husband...Leslie embarks on a deeply disturbing odyssey to vindicate her murder. To this end, Leslie is ably aided by the naiveté of her husband, Robert (Herbert Marshall) and by her popular following of fair weather friends, helmed by Mrs. Hammond (Gale Sondergaard).
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In 1965, Wyler won the Irving Thalberg Award for career achievement. Eleven years later, he received the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. In addition to his Best Picture and Best Director Oscar wins, ten of Wyler's films earned Best Picture nominations. He received twelve Oscar nominations for Best Director, winning three times, while three dozen of his actors won Oscars or were nominated.
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