William Wyler
William Wyler
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
RANKED:
8. The Letter (1940)
William Wyler and frequent acting collaborator Bette Davis teamed up once again for an adaptation of the 1927 stage play, "The Letter," written by W. Somerset Maugham. The story, based on the true events of the Ethel Proudluck case, in which the Eurasian wife of the headmaster of a school in Kuala Lumpur was convicted in a murder trial after shooting a male friend in April of 1911. This story is slightly altered for the stage and film version, but the main crux of the story remains the same. While Davis' protagonist declares the murder to be in self-defense, a mysterious letter threatens her innocence.
7. Jezebel (1938)
Perhaps the biggest reason to go back and watch William Wyler's 1938 film "Jezebel" is Bette Davis' Academy Award winning performance. Being awarded the role as compensation for not securing "Gone with the Wind," Davis' role as a spoiled, Southern belle in the Antebellum south seems to remains forever paired with Vivien Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara. It seems to have worked out well for both actresses, as both won the golden statue in the end. Regardless, "Jezebel" remains an iconic Davis performance and a great picture in the filmography of Hollywood director William Wyler.
6. Dodsworth (1936)
By 1935, William Wyler's contract had expired at Universal. By then, he had made 40 feature-length films. But, it wasn't until his new collaboration with Samuel Goldwyn Pictures and his film adaptation of the 1929 Sinclair Lewis novel "Dodsworth" where he finally made something substantial. Nominated for 7 Academy Awards, winning 1 for Best Art Direction, "Dodsworth" tells the story of a couple's trip to Europe where they end up realizing they want different things out of life. It's frank depiction of a marriage in trouble created a great dramatic work that is still remembered today as a Hollywood gem from the 1930s.
5. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
At the time of its release in 1946, "The Best Years of Our Lives" was considered William Wyler's masterpiece. It was also beloved and hailed by critics as one of Hollywood's greatest contributions to cinema in that decade. It even won every Academy Award it was nominated for, save one. It even won two additional honorary Academy Awards. Audiences loved it just as much as critics, making it the highest grossing box office success in America since 1939's "Gone with the Wind." The love for the film centered around the film's subject matter: a group of veterans returning home to the changing landscape of post-war America. It was a film that revealed the difficulties that veterans face, from a changing culture, to re-establishing yourself into the family unit that's forgotten about you, to newfound trauma and disabilities. It was an important Hollywood film that resonated deeply with an American public attempting to leave the war behind, and even its men that served.
4. Mrs. Miniver (1942)
William Wyler's 1942 melodrama "Mrs. Miniver" is largely forgotten about in film history. However, it was this film that sparked such an emotional and political response during the second World War that many global leaders made comment of it. Although it was made in Hollywood by Americans, the film's subject is that of an English family as they struggle with the realities of the ongoing global conflict. US President Roosevelt even used the speech from the end of the film for one of his own speeches and had leaflets made of the speech to be dropped in enemy and occupied territory. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill even once said that the film had done more for the war effort than a flotilla of destroyers. Like many propaganda films at the time, its intent was to get the American populace ready for conflict (although the US had entered the war by the time of the film's release) and to keep the Allied forces inspired and remember what they're fighting for. "Mrs. Miniver" was a huge success at the box office and an even more impactful success in the hearts and minds of the Allied.
3. The Little Foxes (1941)
Although infighting and creative differences would ultimately lead 1941's "The Little Foxes" to be the last collaboration between director William Wyler and actress Bette Davis, the film went on to be their greatest result of their union. The film, based on the 1939 stage play of the same name, was written by its own playwright, Lillian Hellman. The story is a cynical one of a family willing to eat each other to grab hold of a stake in a cotton mill business coming to their small town. Davis' lead character, Regina Hubbard Giddens, encapsulates both the film and the human spirit the film exposes, with her cold, calculating, and conniving vileness. The film is a portrait of human greed, full of characters willing to devour everything for the chance of wealth and prosperity. It is a perfect film that encapsulates the horror and evilness of the human spirit that was on display during the Second World War, and it makes for a bleak outlook on humanity.
2. Wuthering Heights (1939)
Adapting such an iconic piece of literature like Emily Bronte's 1847 novel "Wuthering Heights" is no small task. However, William Wyler's direction of this adaptation was able to capture the hopeless, bitter, and tragic story of Bronte's characters. Centering on Cathy and Heathcliff as they grow together and eventually come apart, "Wuthering Heights" tries to attain the feats of its source material. No such film could ever achieve these feats, but Wyler's film certainly comes close. The profound sense of suffering, unrealized hopes, and bitterness towards a lack of love all give this story the bones it needs to transcend any medium.
1. The Heiress (1949)
So much emotional complexity and internal drama can be found in William Wyler's greatest film, 1949's "The Heiress." On top of this, it contains the greatest performance of Olivia de Havilland's career. In the film, de Havilland plays Catherine Sloper, a shy and awkward girl who is the disdain of her wealthy and widowed father. When a slick young man begins a quick romance with Catherine, her father becomes suspicious that he is a fortune hunter. As the film progresses, you see Catherine and her well-being being used and manipulated by everyone around her, as each are only using her to secure her wealthy inheritance for their own intended purposes. Through his process, she becomes fatigued and emotionally hardened by the lack of love and genuine affection for her by anyone in her life. As she learns to stand up and protect herself, the double-edged downfall of this is a hollow and empty existence. The wealth becomes her sole purpose, the sole interest by others, and the mechanism that keeps her alone and unloved. It's a film that twists and turns emotionally through the frustration and devastation of its protagonist. That is what makes "The Heiress" not only Wyler's greatest work of his career, but makes for one of the best Hollywood films of the 1940s.
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