Victor Fleming
- Born:
- February 23, 1889, near Pasadena, California, U.S.
- Died:
- January 6, 1949, near Cottonwood, Arizona
- Awards And Honors:
- Academy Award (1940)
Victor Fleming (born February 23, 1889, near Pasadena, California, U.S.—died January 6, 1949, near Cottonwood, Arizona) was an American filmmaker who was one of Hollywood’s most popular directors during the 1930s. He was best known for his work on the 1939 classics Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz.
Early work
Fleming started in the film industry as a stunt car driver in 1910. A year later he began working for Allan Dwan at the American Film Manufacturing Company, and by 1915 he was handling the camera for D.W. Griffith. During World War I he served as a photographer for the U.S. Army. Fleming’s first feature film, When the Clouds Roll By (1919), starred Douglas Fairbanks, and he directed several more movies before signing a contract with Paramount in 1922. Among the many prestigious silents he helmed were The Way of All Flesh (1927) with Emil Jannings, Hula (1927) with Clara Bow, and Abie’s Irish Rose (1928), an adaptation of the long-running Broadway show. In 1929 Fleming directed Gary Cooper in two westerns, The Wolf Song and The Virginian, an adaptation of Owen Wister’s popular novel. Although the latter was filmed several times, Fleming’s early talkie remains definitive, thanks to Cooper’s star-making turn as a charismatic ranch foreman and Walter Huston’s portrayal of a cattle rustler.
The 1930s
After The Wolf Song and The Virginian, Fleming left Paramount and subsequently directed (with Fairbanks) the travelogue Around the World in 80 Minutes with Douglas Fairbanks (1931). Fleming signed at MGM in 1932 and quickly became one of the studio’s top directors. The Wet Parade (1932), a well-received adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s book about Prohibition, featured Huston and Myrna Loy. More popular was Red Dust (1932), arguably the best of several teamings of Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. A major box-office hit, the steamy jungle romance was filmed before censorship rules were tightened, and it featured teasing sexual banter that soon vanished from the screen. Fleming reteamed with Harlow on another success, Bombshell (1933), a satire of Hollywood, in which Lee Tracy was especially funny as an unscrupulous press agent.
In 1934 Fleming turned to family fare with Treasure Island, a solid adaptation of the oft-filmed Robert Louis Stevensonnovel; it starred Wallace Beery as Long John Silver and Jackie Cooper as Jim Hawkins. Reckless (1935), however, was one of Fleming’s rare misfires at MGM. The musical featured Harlow—though her dancing scenes were performed by doubles and her singing was dubbed—and it proved controversial for a plotline that seemed to draw on the 1932 suicide of her husband, Paul Bern. Fleming rebounded with the hugely successful Captains Courageous (1937). The family drama was a sentimental but affecting version of the Rudyard Kipling novel about a spoiled rich boy (played by Freddie Bartholomew) who learns about life after falling from an ocean liner and being rescued by fishermen. Spencer Tracy won his first Academy Award for his performance as the Portuguese fisherman who befriends the boy, and the film was also nominated for a best picture Oscar. The snappy Test Pilot (1938) was almost as good, with Gable, Loy, and Tracy forming an atypical but interesting romantic triangle.
In 1939 Fleming helped make two of Hollywood’s all-time classics—though neither began with him as the director. The Wizard of Oz, a musical based on L. Frank Baum’s novel, was initially directed by Richard Thorpe, but he was fired soon after filming began. Several directors subsequently worked on the production, though Fleming was the only one to receive credit; King Vidor was responsible for the black-and-white Kansas scenes. A box-office disappointment when first released, it later became a family classic and an icon of pop culture, with numerous memorable songs, quotes, and characters. It also made a star of Judy Garland.
The Wizard of Oz was nominated for a best picture Oscar, but it lost to Fleming’s second 1939 classic, Gone with the Wind, an adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s romance saga of Scarlet O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) and Rhett Butler (Gable). Here again, Fleming was not the original director. He replaced George Cukor after, according to rumour, Gable threatened a work stoppage unless Cukor was fired. However, the production problems continued as Fleming suffered a nervous breakdown during the shoot, and Sam Wood was brought in to direct while he recovered. The final cut includes work by Cukor, Fleming, and Wood, but only Fleming was awarded an Oscar for best director. The film won a total of 10 Academy Awards (two of which were honorary), and it became one of the highest-grossing movies of all time.
The 1940s
Fleming began the decade with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), an adaptation of Stevenson’s short novel; it was widely considered inferior to Rouben Mamoulian’s acclaimed 1931 version. Fleming’s film featured a somewhat miscast Tracy alongside Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner. In 1942 Fleming paired Tracy with Hedy Lamarr in a solid adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat, but Tracy’s portrayal of a gruff fisherman was less effective there than in Captains Courageous. Tracy returned for A Guy Named Joe (1943), costarring with Irene Dunne in an overlong but often moving love story.
Fleming was absent from the screen until 1945, when he released the much-publicized Adventure, Gable’s first film following his service in World War II. However, few moviegoers were excited by the unlikely pairing of Gable and Greer Garson. The strained romantic comedy was a major box-office disappointment, and it ended Fleming’s long and illustrious tenure at MGM. His next—and final—movie was Joan of Arc (1948), a rather plodding adaptation of Maxwell Anderson’s stage epic, though Bergman and costar José Ferrer both received Oscar nominations.
Michael Barson