Jean Negulesco

Jean Negulesco (born Ioan Negulescu; 13 March [O.S. 29 February] 1900 – 18 July 1993) was a Romanian-American film director and screenwriter.[1] He first gained notice for his film noirs and later made such notable films as Johnny Belinda (1948), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), Titanic (1953), and Three Coins in the Fountain (1954).[2]

Jean Negulesco
Jean Negulesco in 1986
Born
Ioan Negulescu

13 March [O.S. 29 February] 1900
Craiova, Dolj, Romania
Died18 July 1993 (aged 93)
Marbella, Andalusia, Spain
Occupation(s)Artist, film director, screenwriter, film producer
Years active1918–1970
Spouses
Winifred Havlicek
​
​
(m. 1926; div. 1938)​
    ​
    (m. 1946)​
    Children2

    He was called "the first real master of CinemaScope".[3]

    Biography

    Early life

    Born in Craiova, Negulesco was the son of a hotel keeper and attended Carol I High School.

    When he was 15, he was working in a military hospital during World War I. George Enescu, the Romanian composer, came to play the violin to the war wounded; Negulesco drew a portrait of him, and Enesco bought it. Negulesco decided to be a painter and studied art in Bucharest.[4]

    Negulesco went to Paris in 1920, and enrolled in the Académie Julian. He sold one of his paintings to Rex Ingram.[5]

    America

    In 1927, he visited New York City for an exhibition of his paintings and settled there.[4]

    He then made his way to California, at first working as a portraitist.[6]

    He became interested in movies and made an experimental feature film, financed as well as written and directed by himself, called Three and a Day. Through his contact with the film's star, Mischa Auer, he managed to get a job at Paramount.[7]

    Paramount

    He did the opening montage for the film musical Tonight We Sing and worked on The Story of Temple Drake and A Farewell to Arms (1932).[7]

    He worked his way to assistant producer, second unit director.[1]

    Warner Brothers

    Negulesco went to Warner Brothers in 1940. He made his reputation at Warner Bros by directing short subjects, particularly a series of band shorts featuring unusual camera angles and dramatic use of shadows and silhouettes.

    Negulesco's first feature film as director was Singapore Woman (1941). In 1948, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Directing for Johnny Belinda.

    20th Century Fox

    In 1948 Negulesco went to work for 20th Century Fox. He was the first director to make two films in Fox's CinemaScope - How to Marry a Millionaire and Three Coins in the Fountain;[8] the former receiving a nomination for a BAFTA Award for Best Film.[9]

    His 1959 movie The Best of Everything was on Entertainment Weekly's Top 50 Cult Films of All-Time.

    During his Hollywood career and in his 1984 autobiography Things I Did and Things I Think I Did, Negulesco claimed to have been born on 29 February 1900; he apparently was motivated to make this statement because birthdays on leap year day are comparatively rare (and even though 1900 was not a leap year in the Gregorian calendar, it was under the Julian calendar, which applied in Romania at that time).

    He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6212 Hollywood Blvd.

    Death

    From the late 1960s Negulesco lived in Marbella, Spain, where he died, at age 93, of heart failure. He is buried in the Virgen del Carmen cemetery in Marbella.[10]

    Filmography

    Shorts
    • Alice in Movieland (1940)
    • The Flag of Humanity (1940)
    • Joe Reichman and His Orchestra (1940)
    • Henry Busse and His Orchestra (1940)
    • Skinnay Ennis and His Orchestra (1941)
    • The Dog in the Orchard (1941)
    • Jan Garber and His Orchestra (1941)
    • Cliff Edwards and His Buckaroos (1941)
    • Freddie Martin and His Orchestra (1941)
    • Marie Green and Her Merry Men (1941)
    • Hal Kemp and His Orchestra (1941)
    • Those Good Old Days (1941)
    • University of Southern California Band and Glee Club (1941)
    • Carioca Serenaders (1941)
    • At the Stroke of Twelve (1941)
    • The Gay Parisian (1941)
    • Carl Hoff and His Orchestra (1942)
    • Calling All Girls (1942)
    • The Playgirls (1942)
    • Spanish Fiesta (1942)
    • The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (1942)
    • Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra (1942)
    • The Spirit of Annapolis (1942)
    • Six Hits and a Miss (1942)
    • United States Marine Band (1942)
    • Borrah Minevitch and His Harmonica School (1942)
    • The United States Army Air Force Band (1942)
    • A Ship Is Born (1942)
    • Army Show (1942)
    • Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra (1943)
    • Three Cheers for the Girls (1943)
    • The All American Bands (1943)
    • All Star Melody Masters (1943)
    • Childhood Days (1943)
    • Hit Parade of the Gay Nineties (1943)
    • Women at War (1943)
    • Cavalcade of Dance (1943)
    • Sweetheart Serenade (1943)
    • Food and Magic (1943)
    • Over the Wall (1943)
    • The Voice That Thrilled the World (1943)
    • The United States Service Bands (1943)
    • The United States Army Band (1944)
    • Roaring Guns (1944)
    • Grandfather's Follies (1944)
    • South American Sway (1944)
    • Listen to the Bands (1944)
    • The Dark Wave (1956)

    Feature films

    Archive

    Many of Negulesco's home movies are held by the Academy Film Archive; the archive has preserved a number of them, including behind-the-scenes footage of Negulesco's films.[11]

    Notes
    1. Oliver, Myrna, "Jean Negulesco 1900–1993, The Los Angeles Times, 22 July 1993.
    2. Chaillet, Jean-Paul (9 August 2018). "Filmmaker Autobiography: Jean Negulesco, From Romania to Hollywood". The Golden Globes. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
    3. Capua, Michelangelo (2017). Jean Negulesco: The Life and Films. McFarland & Company. p. 2. ISBN 978-1-47666-653-2.
    4. "Jean Negulesco's Work". The New York Times. 6 November 1927. p. X.11.
    5. Houseman, John (24 February 1985). "Royal Rumanian Movie Maker". The New York Times.
    6. "Jean and Dusty Negulesco papers". Margaret Herrick Library. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
    7. "Jean Negulesco, 93, Director of '3 Coins ' Who Began as Artist". The New York Times. 22 July 1993. p. D.24.
    8. "Inside Pictures". Variety. 7 October 1953. p. 16. Retrieved 12 October 2019 – via Archive.org.
    9. Bergan, Ronald (23 July 1993). "The glory that was Rome in CinemaScope Obituary: Jean Negulesco". The Guardian. London.
    10. Capua, Michelangelo (2017). Jean Negulesco: The Life and Films. McFarland & Company. p. 131. ISBN 978-1-47666-653-2.
    11. "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.

    References
    • Michelangelo Capua, "Jean Negulesco. The Life and the Films," McFarland, Jefferson, N.C., 2017 ISBN 978-1476666532
    • Leff, Leonard J. "What in the World Interests Women? Hollywood, Postwar America, and 'Johnny Belinda.'" Journal of American Studies 31#32 (1997), pp. 385–405. online
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