Michael Curtiz Archives | Deep Focus Review

The Sea Wolf

Brian Eggert — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 14:07:25 +0000

Wolf Larsen, the barbarous, intelligent, and vengeful despot who clings to his authority with cruelty and violence, is the unforgettable villain of 1941’s The Sea Wolf. Edward G. Robinson delivers a combustible performance that dominates the film, just as Larsen dominates his ship, the Ghost. A distinguished entry in Warner Bros.’s many literary adaptations of the era, this film version of Jack London’s novel features a richly baroque visual aesthetic and Oscar-nominated special effects, overseen by the brilliant direction of Michael Curtiz, a taskmaster himself. However, the picture’s voice stems from the talented screenwriter and actors, mindful of how the events onscreen mirrored their contemporary political dynamics. Like many historical and literary adaptations made by Warner Bros. during this period, The Sea Wolf is an anti-Nazi film that never mentions Nazism and an anti-Hitler film that presents a fictional counterpart to Hitler. It supplies a passionate message against the fascist ideologies that fuel authoritarians, and at a time when it mattered most. The Sea Wolf is at once a sterling example of prestige filmmaking in the Golden Age of Hollywood and an impassioned work that demonstrates how even commercial art can have a perspective. The full 4,500-word essay is currently […]

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Captain Blood

Brian Eggert — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 14:10:37 +0000

(Note: This essay was originally published on April 7, 2009. It has been edited and expanded.) Captain Blood is a bold, swashbuckling adventure. Released in 1937, the film marshals the kind of effortless spirit and earnest joy only the Golden Age of Hollywood could produce. Michael Curtiz, the most prolific and estimable Warner Bros. director, delivers classical escapism of the highest order, without a shred of irony or cynicism toward the pirate genre. Under his direction, the film progresses with action and romance—a shining example of Hollywood entertainment during the studio heyday. A box-office hit, Captain Blood catapulted the careers of newcomers Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, and it presented a gold standard against which every swashbuckler would be judged. But even while the film represents a prototypical Warner Bros. “A” picture, made with a considerable budget and impressive production values, it’s also evidence of how Curtiz injected realism, energy, and distinct stylistic flourishes into his productions. Film scholars and critics continue to overlook Curtiz as the creative force behind his pictures; many deny him the designation of auteur and prefer to credit him as another workhorse beholden to his studio bosses. However, by considering Curtiz’s origins and views […]

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The Mystery of the Wax Museum

Brian Eggert — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 15:37:39 +0000

Recently restored to glorious effect, The Mystery of the Wax Museum belongs to a rare breed of horror from the early 1930s that tested the boundaries of representation. During these early decades of the motion-picture industry, studios quickly learned that sex and violence sells. The edgier and more tantalizing the material, the higher the box-office receipts. Although the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood would self-regulate by installing the Production Code in 1934, the brief Pre-Code era supplies rare treasures that question how we might think of classical cinema as safe and moralizing. Released in 1933, The Mystery of the Wax Museum features bootlegging and heroin addiction, corpse robbery and bizarre murders, repulsive faces and disturbing sights that haunt the brain. It’s all the more powerful because of the early form of Technicolor that was used to capture these images in an era where black-and-white photography was the standard. However shocking the film may have been at the time, it has grown not only as a cult object to be cherished by genre aficionados, but as a work that improves with the addition of contexts that underscore its distinct place in film history. A prologue in London introduces Ivan Igor (pronounced […]

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Casablanca

Brian Eggert — Sat, 02 May 2009 00:00:22 +0000

Movie Magic, however conceptual a notion, offers an understanding of how motion pictures converge from multiple points of artistic influence under the sometimes chaotic circumstances of their creation. Filmmaking remains one of the only collaborative artform where artists group together and combine their efforts to construct a single product. And though the director oftentimes receives sole credit for the final result of a film, the cast and crew contribute their individual influence into the harmonious gathering of technical and narrative composition. Casablanca is perhaps the most memorable film that, given its infamously frenzied production and now iconic status in the annals of film history and popular culture, fulfills all the possibilities inherent to Movie Magic. Made to be another cookie-cutter product of The Dream Factory, the production amassed top Warner Bros. talent working from a script that had no ending. That the film was ever completed is miraculous; writers rushed fresh pages to the set on the day they were being shot, while actors performed without knowing their motivations. But any number of Hollywood films released during The Golden Age, an era whose arguable timeline exists from the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, were assembled under similar conditions. And yet, only […]

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The Adventures of Robin Hood

Brian Eggert — Tue, 01 May 2007 00:00:08 +0000

For The Adventures of Robin Hood, Warner Bros. assembled its finest talent both on and offscreen to create their first grand Technicolor production in 1939. In turn, it produced one of the most iconic motion pictures ever put to celluloid. A swashbuckling costume epic blooming with primary colors, painted with an idyllic sense of romance and adventure, the film provides audiences with an experience as compelling and joyful as escapist entertainment can provide. It demands hyperbole with words like “perfect” and “masterpiece,” words often used to describe films without considering their meaning. But The Adventures of Robin Hood exemplifies those terms completely, even advances their implications in its universal appeal. This is a picture for everyone. Warner Bros. adapts the Robin Hood legend, an English tale known throughout the world, with full surrender to the dreamy narratives of children’s books, but in such a way that it appeals best to adults embracing their inner child. It’s an effortless and unaging delight, and its journey to the screen is the stuff of legend within the Golden Age of Hollywood. The studio’s production proved expensive and punishing for the filmmakers, led to career-making performances, and even saved lives. The ensuing history and appreciation […]

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