Otto Preminger — Films are International (1950) 🇺🇸

With a European background as part of his experience, Otto Preminger has come far in the Hollywood scene

by Paul Manning

Otto Preminger, producer-director, recently returned from Canada, where he produced and directed The Scarlet Pen for 20th-Fox. He tells me that the organization of this film is typical of what is going on in the industry today. In a single day, players poured into Montreal, Canada, where headquarters had been established, from England, from France, from Hollywood, and from New York. “Truly,” says Otto, “it reminds one forcibly indeed that ‘all the world’s a stage’.”

Preminger is singularly qualified to talk on the subject of international angle of show business. Before his first visit to this country in 1936, he was the head producer and director at the Theatre in der Josephstadt in Vienna. In Europe, a producer must not only be a producer but must also serve as script writer, direct, design sets, set lights, and do all casting. Also he must arrange for a long term lease on the theatre. This places rather a large burden on the abilities of the producer to make the venture pay. Preminger made it pay, as his international reputation will attest. Along the way, he also built up no mean reputation as an actor. More than once, he had to pitch in with the grease paint to salvage some show.

When it comes to politics, Preminger offers the opinion that in the theatre, the real theatre, and not the crackpots who sometimes infiltrate this institution, there is no world politics. An actor is an actor whether he be French, English, American or what have you. “Look at the bunch we got together for The Scarlet Pen,” he says. “Even though all admitted that the world was in terrible shape, for the moment their world was bounded by the mental limits of the script. During the entire shooting time, all politics was forgotten, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable location.”

Preminger agrees with the popular school of thought that this world has rapidly shrunk in size. This is fine, he thinks, if we can exploit these bits of progress for peaceful and educational matters. He will go to Israel soon to do “A Candle for Ruth.” Johnny Garfield [John Garfield] or Kirk Douglas may do the lead but from that point on he will pick the remainder of the large cast from the people of Israel. The backgrounds will be shot all over the new republic of Israel.

At 17, in Vienna, Preminger made his stage debut as Lysander, in the Max Reinhardt production, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The theatre was the Theatre in der Josephstadt, where, in five short years, he was to become producer and jack-of-all-duties. By the time he was 20, he had trouped in other stock companies in Zurich and Prague, and was achieving a rather enviable reputation. Direction came naturally to him, and his fellow actors were inspired by Preminger’s enthusiasm and ability to impart to each role the subtleties and nuances which made the plays so highly successful. Players who acted under Preminger’s direction in Vienna, and who later became internationally famous, included Hedy Lamarr, Luise Rainer, Albert Bassermann, and Oscar Homolka.

When Nazism began to threaten the freedom of the theatre, Preminger accepted the offer of 20th-Fox to come to Hollywood to direct pictures. Other offers had been made previously but Preminger was reluctant to leave his native hearth. He directed two minor pictures, and then decided that he must come to our largest city. New York, and give himself a chance to America and Americans. Here he directed several plays, among them the revival of Outward Bound. The revival ran for a solid year, longer than the original success. He also produced and took the lead in Clare Boothe Luce’s Margin for Error [Transcriber’s Note: Preminger also directed and starred in the film version, Margin for Error (1943)]. When he returned to Hollywood in 1941, he was ready for a three-way career, as a producer, director, and actor.

In Laura, he hit his stride as a producer-director. As a favor to his good friend, the late Ernst Lubitsch, he directed A Royal Scandal. Following this, he produced and directed Fallen Angel and Centennial Summer.

Today, on the eve of his departure for Israel, Preminger admits that he is not entertaining any further acting ambitions. Producing and directing are “more satisfying at the moment,” says he with a smile. — P. M.

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Preminger checks over a script with Dana Andrews and Clifton Webb on the set of 20th-Fox’s Laura, a memorable drama of a few seasons back.

Henry Fonda, Joan Crawford, and Preminger take time out from shooting on the Daisy Kenyon set at 20th-Fox to talk over details of a sequence.

Collection: Exhibitor Magazine (Studio Survey), December 1950