Oscar Profile #138: John M. Stahl

Born January 21, 1886 in New York, New York, John Malcolm Stahl began working in the city’s growing movie industry at an early age. He directed his first of forty-six films, A Boy and the Law in 1914. He wrote the first of his three screenplays for Wives of Men in 1918. He produced the first of fifty-six films, The Child Thou Gavest Me in 1921. In 1924 he signed with Louis B. Mayer Pictures, which became part of MGM. In 1927 he became the chief executive of Tiffany Pictures, a poverty row studio that would fall victim to the Great Depression in the early 1930s.

One of thirty-six founding members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927, Stahl himself never won an Oscar. In fact he was never even nominated for an Oscar, although several of his films were nominated in various categories over the years.

Stahl did his most prolific work for Universal in the 1930s and Twentieth Century-Fox in the 1940s.

He had his first major success at Universal directing Irene Dunne and John Boles in the classic 1932 tearjerker Back Street which was so successful Universal would remake it again in 1941 with Margaret Sullavan and Charles Boyer and yet again in 1961 with Susan Hayward and John Gavin.

In 1933 he directed Margaret Sullavan to great acclaim in 1933’s Only Yesterday opposite Boles. In 1934 he directed Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers in the first film version of Imitation of Life, the only one of his films to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. He followed that with 1935’s equally successful Magnificent Obsession with Dunne and Robert Taylor. Both Magnificent Obsession and Imitation of Life would be successfully remade by Douglas Sirk in the 1950s.

Stahl’s last film for Universal would be 1939’s When Tomorrow Comes with Dunne and Charles Boyer, which would also be remade in the 1950s by Sirk.
His films at Fox included the delightful 1943 comedy, Holy Matrimony with Monty Woolley and Gracie Fields; 1944’s The Keys of the Kingdom which brought Gregory Peck his first Oscar nomination; 1945’s Leave Her to Heaven which earned Gene Tierney her only Oscar nomination; the 1947 box office hit, The Foxes of Harrow with Rex Harrison and Maureen O’Hara and the 1949 football comedy, Father Was a Fullback with Fred MacMurray and O’Hara.

Stahl, who had been married to silent screen actress Roxana McGowan, died suddenly of a heart attack on January 12, 1950 at the age of 63. Ten years later he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

IMITATION OF LIFE (1934)

Stahl’s version of Fannie Hurst’s novel adheres more closely to the original work than the 1959 remake. A white woman (Claudette Colbert) and a black woman (Louise Beavers) meet through their daughters and become fast friends. Beavers offers to act as Colbert’s housekeeper in exchange for free room and board. Colbert, a pancake syrup salesperson markets Beavers recipe for pancakes and the two open a restaurant which leads to a successful business with an 80-20 split of the profits. Both have problems with their daughters, Colbert with Rochelle Hudson who falls for the same man Colbert does, and Beavers with Fredi Washington who wants to pass for white. The performances of all four actresses are excellent with the poignancy of the Beavers-Washington relationship the more interesting. Beavers’ character Deliah was clearly based on Aunt Jemima. With Warren William and Ned Sparks.

MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (1935)

The first version of Lloyd C. Douglas’ best-seller likewise adheres more closely to the original work than the remake. There is more emphasis on the spiritual pay-it-forward religious lesson imparted by mysterious Ralph Morgan on Robert Taylor’s playboy who becomes a surgeon to cure the blindness he causes on Irene Dunne. The plot is absurd, but the performances of Dunne and Taylor are not. Dunne gave one of her loveliest performances as the doctor’s widow who is blinded in an accident caused by the careless Taylor, and Taylor in his first starring role became an overnight sensation. It was filmed on location in the Lake Arrowhead-Big Bear section of Southern California. With Betty Furness and Charles Butterworth.

HOLY MATRIMONY (1943)

Arnold Bennett’s novel and play Buried Alive had been filmed three times before, most notably as His Double Life with Roland Young and Lillian Gish in 1933. It would later become the basis of the 1968 Broadway musical Darling of the Day with Vincent Price and Patricia Collinge. Stahl’s film, however, is the definitive version of the work about a reclusive artist who masquerades as his late butler in order to escape the attentions of the press whilst his butler is buried in his stead in Westminster Abbey, Monty Woolley and Gracie Fields who plays the butler’s mail order bride are at their delightful best. Stahl’s cast also includes such delightful farceurs as Laird Cregar, Una O’Connor, Alan Mobray, Melville Cooper, Franklin Pagnborn, George Zucco and Eric Blore.

THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM (1944)

A.J. Cronin’s best-selling novel was the basis for Stahl’s most ambitious film chronicling the life story of a Scottish missionary priest in China. Gregory Peck, in only his second film, rose to immediate screen prominence which lasted for the remainder of his lfie. Thomas Mitchell as the priest’s best friend, an atheist doctor; Rosa Stradner as a doubting nun; Benson Fong as a loyal servant; Vincent Price as a haughty bishop; Edmund Gwenn as Peck’s mentor; Roddy McDowall as Peck’s character as a boy and Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Price’s emissary also turn in fine performances. The film’s four Oscar nominations included Best Art Direction, ZCinematogrpahy and Score in addition to Peck’s.

LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (1945),

Most films noir were made in black and white and filmed in dark shadows. This one was filmed mostly in bright daylight. Stahl was once again overlooked for Oscar consideration, but master cinematographer Leon Shamroy won for his vivid cinematography which is so strong it almost qualifies for co-star billing. Gene Tierney may not have been a great actress, but she is the embodiment of a great character as a woman so obsessed with her new husband (Cornel Wilde) that she won’t let anyone come between them – not his handicapped little brother (Darryl Hickman; not even their unborn child. With Jeanne Crain and Vincent Price.