Oscar Profile #572: Robert Z. Leonard

Born October 7, 1889 in Chicago, Illinois to a theatrical family, Robert Z(igler) Leonard was the second cousin of the legendary actress and singer Lillian Russell.

Although he studied law at the University of Colorado, his first love was the theatre. An accomplished singer, he settled in Hollywood in 1907 after singing in 100 light operas. He began as actor in one-reelers the following year and a director in 1913.

Leonard married silent screen star Mae Murray in 1918. They divorced in 1925. He married second wife Gertrude Olmstead in 1926, a marriage that would last until his death.

Most famous during the silent era for having directed Greta Garbo in her unsuccessful 1924 MGM screen test, Leonard became one of the top directors of early talkies for the studio. He directed Norma Shearer to an Oscar in 1930’s The Divorcee, for which he was himself nominated for Best Director.

Leonard’s early 1930s successes included Garbo and Clark Gable in Susan Lenox, Shearer and Gable in Strange Interlude, Joan Crawford, Gable, and Fred Astaire in Dancing Lady, and Constance Bennett and Gable in After Office Hours. After acting as a fill-in director for Jack Conway on A Tale of Two Cities with Ronald Colman, he directed the Oscar-winning The Great Ziegfeld with William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Luise Rainer, for which he was nominated for the second time for Best Director. Rainer’s win for Best Actress made her the second actress he directed to an Oscar.

The now veteran director won acclaim for MGM’s 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice with Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier. Other 1940s successes included Ziegfeld Girl with James Stewart, Judy Garland, Lana Turner and Hedy Lamarr; When Ladies Meet with Crawford, Garson, and Robert Taylor; Week-End at the Waldorf with Ginger Rogers, Turner, Walter Pidgeon and Van Johnson; The Secret Heart with Claudette Colbert, Pidgeon, and June Allyson; B.F.’s Daughter with Barbara Stanwyck and Van Heflin; The Bribe with Taylor, Ava Gardner, and Charles Laughton; and In the Good Old Summertime with Garland and Johnson.

In the 1950s, Leonard gave us Nancy Goes to Rio with Ann Southern, Jane Powell, and Carmen Miranda; Duchess of Idaho with Esther Williams and Johnson; Too Young to Kiss with Allyson and Johnson; The Clown with Red Skelton and Jane Greer; Her Twelve Men with Garson, Robert Ryan, and Barry Sullivan; and The King’s Thief with Ann Blyth, Edmund Purdom, and David Niven after which he retired from MGM.

Leonard made two more films, the Italian Beautiful but Dangerous with Gina Lollobrigida and Vittorio Gassman; and Universal’s Kelly and Me with Johnson, Piper Laurie, and Martha Hyer. He died on August 27, 1968.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE GREAT ZIEGFELD (1936)

The second of 11 musicals to date to win the Best Picture Oscar, this three-hour musical biography of the life of showman Flo Ziegfeld was purchased by Universal from his widow, Billie Burke, in 1933. Universal borrowed William Powell from MGM for the lead, but when Universal decided to make 1936’s Show Boat instead, they sold the rights to MGM which added Myrna Loy as Burke and Luise Rainer as Ziegfeld’s first wife, Anna Held, to the cast, bringing in Leonard to direct them. Powell then made My Man Godfrey for Universal instead, for which he received a Best Actor nomination the same year.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1940)

This acclaimed production of Jane Austen’s classic novel won the only Oscar it was nominated for, that of Best Art Direction – Black-and-White. Leonard’s direction, as well as the performances of Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennett, Laurence Olivier as Mr. Darcy, Mary Boland as Mrs. Bennett, Edna May Oliver as Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Edmund Gwenn as Mr. Bennett, Maureen O’Sullivan as Jane Bennett, Heather Angel as Kitty Bennett, Marsha Hunt as Mary Bennett, Ann Rutherford as Lydia Bennett, Frieda Inescort as Miss Bingley, Karen Morley as Mrs. Collins, and Melville Cooper as Mr. Collins, were all ignored.

WEEK-END AT THE WALDORF (1945)

This box-office hit about the misadventures of a diverse group of guests at New York’s famed Waldorf Astoria Hotel, was a quasi-remake of the 1931-32 Oscar winner, Grand Hotel. Although the original plot is substantially reworked, you can still see remnants of Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, and Wallace Beery’s characters from the earlier film as played by Ginger Rogers, Walter Pidegon, Lana Turner, and Edward Arnold, respectively. Van Johnson as a G.I. who falls for Turner is a replacement for Lional Barrymore’s dying bookkeeper in the earlier film.

IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME (1949)

Another remake for Leonard, this time a musical one of 1940’s The Shop Around the Corner with Judy Garland, Van Johnson, and S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall substituting for Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, and Frank Morgan in the classic tale of feuding co-workers who are secret pen pal lovers, and their boss. Spring Byington, Clinton Sundberg and Buster Keaton also work in the shop, while Marcia Henderson provides additional charm as a violin virtuoso. Based on a Hungarian stage play, the material was later turned into the Broadway musical, She Loves Me and the 1993 film, You’ve Got Mail.

HER TWELVE MEN (1954)

Greer Garson’s last film under her contract for MGM was also one of the last for Leonard who would retire from the studio the following year. Garson began her career at MGM as the wife of beloved schoolteacher Robert Donat in Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Here she is a teacher herself, attending to the needs as well as the education of her students in all-boys school. She is pursued by teachers Robert Ryan and James Arness, as well as Barry Sullivan as the well-to-do father of student Tim Considine. Rex Thompson and Donald McDonald as other students and Richard Haydn as the headmaster, round out the major cast members.