See Richard Schickel’s Classic, 1973 Documentary Series, The Men Who Made the Movies: George Cukor (deutsch untertitelt), for Free and Without Commercial Interruptions

Re-posted by N.S.

George Cukor (1899-1983) was known as a “woman’s director” who often helmed Katharine Hepburn (1907-2005) pictures.

At one point, “Zero” (David O. Selznick (1902-1965) hired Cukor to direct Gone with the Wind (1939), but star Clark Gable (1901-1960) disliked having a woman’s director in charge, as “the King” feared that Cukor would favor female lead Vivien Leigh (1913-1967). And so, Zero fired Cukor, as he hired and fired so many directors on that shoot. As many as 13 different directors, including “Zero” himself, as well as some men who had never directed before or since, shot GWTW.

Cukor was distinctive, among the directors Richard Schickel profiled, in that he had never directed a silent picture. He had learned his trade during the Silent Era on the stage.

Cukor’s greatest picture was The Philadelphia Story, (1940; Top 30). His other masterpieces were What Price Hollywood?, 1932, and his musical 1954 re-make of it, A Star is Born, both of which are Top 100 pictures, Pat and Mike, 1952; and My Fair Lady, 1964; the latter of which finally won Cukor a belated Best Director Oscar. Other notable Cukor pictures include Little Women, 1933; Dinner at Eight, 1933; David Copperfield, 1935; Camille, 1936; Romeo and Juliet, 1936; Holiday, 1938; The Women (1939); Gaslight, 1944; A Double Life, 1947; Born Yesterday, 1950; Bhowani Junction, 1956; Wild is the Wind and Les Girls (both in 1957).

Cukor was, to my knowledge, the only director to work on both Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz (also 1939).

Ingrid Bergman, Ronald Colman, Judy Holiday and Rex Harrison all won Oscars performing in Cukor movies, and many other performers were nominated for Oscars for roles in his pictures.