French emigre William Wyler (1902-1981) secured his reputation as Samuel Goldwyn's house director with These Three (1936) from Lillian Hellman's highly controversial play The Children's Hour which depicted teachers besmirched by a child's wild accusations, Dodsworth (1936) from the Sinclair Lewis work Dead End (1937) Jezebel dazzled them in 1938, the Bronte classic came to cinematic life with Wuthering Heights (1939), The Little Foxes (1941) and Mrs. Miniver (1942) that starred Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon and several more culminating in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).
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| The Best Years of their Lives - don't let the pensiveness fool ye |
One couldn't ask for a more consummate professional and perfectionist than William Wyler on set; though famously butted heads with actress Bette Davis (well who wasn't I ask you) and a host of other difficult stars while collaborating closely with deep-focus lens-smith Gregg Toland. His particular breed of realism would be championed by the famed French critic Andre Bazin albeit his ponderous and literary sensibilities made him decreasingly fashionable by the 1960's despite or in spite of his third Oscar achieved for Ben-Hur in 1959 and the Barbara Streisand musical Funny Girl (1968) proved his direction was decidedly less anachronistic.
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| Wee Willie Wyler |