MITCHELL LEISEN

'Mitchell Leisen' (b. October 6 1898, Menominee, Michigan – d. October 28 1972, Los Angeles) was an American director, art director, and costume designer. He entered the film industry in the 1920s, beginning in the art and costume departments.
He garnered his sole Academy Award nomination in 1930, for Art Direction, for Cecil B. DeMille's ''Dynamite''. He directed his first film in 1933 and became known for his keen sense for aesthetics and glossy Hollywood melodramas and screwball comedies.
His best known films include the Alberto Casella adaptation ''Death Takes a Holiday'' (1934), as well as ''Midnight'' (1939) and ''Hold Back the Dawn'' (1941), both scripted by Billy Wilder. ''Easy Living'' (1937), starring Jean Arthur was another hit for the director, was written by Preston Sturges. His comeback classic comedy '' The Mating Season'' was produced by Charles Brackett and written by Charles Brackett, Richard Breen and Walter Reisch based on the play Maggie by Ceaser Dunn (1951), starring Gene Tierney, John Lund, Miriam Hopkins, and Thelma Ritter, was an updated version of his earlier screwball comedies of the 1930's.The Mating Season was his last big movie success.
Later in his career, he directed episodes of ''The Twilight Zone'' and ''Shirley Temple's Storybook''.
Though married, Leisen was reported to be gay. Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood From Edison To Stonewall, , Richard, Barrios, Routledge, 2005, He died of heart disease in 1972, aged 74.

Contents

Selected filmography

References

External links

Selected filmography

★ ''Death Takes a Holiday'' (1934)

★ ''Murder at the Vanities'' (1934)

★ ''Hands Across the Table'' (1935)

★ ''Easy Living'' (1937)

★ ''Swing High, Swing Low'' (1937)

★ ''The Big Broadcast of 1937'' (1937)

★ ''The Big Broadcast of 1938'' (1938)

★ ''Midnight'' (1939)

★ ''Remember the Night'' (1940)

★ ''Arise, My Love'' (1940)

★ ''Hold Back the Dawn'' (1941)

★ ''The Lady Is Willing'' (1942)

★ ''No Time for Love'' (1943)

★ ''Frenchman's Creek'' (1944)

★ ''Practically Yours'' (1944)

★ ''To Each His Own'' (1946)

★ ''Golden Earrings'' (1947)

★ ''No Man of Her Own'' (1950)

★ ''The Mating Season'' (1951)

References

External links

★ Senses of Cinema: Mitchell Leisen

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