Edmund Goulding

Edmund Goulding (born March 20, 1891, Feltham, Middlesex, England—died December 24, 1959, Los Angeles, California, U.S.) British-born American director and screenwriter who first gained notice for films aimed at a female audience but proved adept at a wide range of genres.

Early life and work

Goulding began acting onstage when he was 12, gradually transitioning to playwriting and directing over the next 10 years. He made his New York stage debut in 1915 and acted in a handful of silent films before joining the British army to serve during World War I. After the war he resumed his career and soon moved to Hollywood. As a screenwriter, his silent-film credits included Tol’able David (1921) and Dante’s Inferno (1924). He also wrote the novel Fury (1922), which he adapted for a 1923 film.

At MGM, Goulding directed his first film, Sun-Up (1925). His next movies included Paris (1926) with Joan Crawford, and in 1927 he worked with Greta Garbo on Love, an adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. In 1929 he made his first talking picture, The Trespasser, a melodrama starring Gloria Swanson. Goulding also penned the screenplay, and throughout his career he would often write stories and scripts for the screen. In addition, he became involved with other facets of filmmaking, composing incidental music, overseeing costuming and makeup, setting lights, and producing; much of this work, however, was uncredited.

The 1930s

Goulding was one of 11 directors who received credit for Paramount on Parade (1930). He then made The Devil’s Holiday (1930) and Reaching for the Moon (1930), the latter an ur-screwball comedy starring Douglas Fairbanks as a Wall Street millionaire who courts an aviator (Bebe Daniels) during an ocean voyage. The Night Angel (1931) came next, but it was Grand Hotel (1932) that established Goulding as one of the screen’s top directors. The archetypal all-star melodrama, based on Vicki Baum’s novel, featured some of the most luminous work of Garbo, John Barrymore, and especially Crawford. It was a huge hit for MGM and won an Academy Award for best picture, although neither Goulding nor any of the actors were nominated. (Goulding never received an Oscar nomination during his lengthy career.) That triumph was followed by the comedy Blondie of the Follies (1932), starring Marion Davies, and Riptide (1934), a romantic drama featuring Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, and Herbert Marshall.

After directing The Flame Within (1935), Goulding moved to Warner Brothers for That Certain Woman (1937), a remake of The Trespasser. It was a showcase for Bette Davis, whom Goulding would direct in several other films. White Banners (1938), with Claude Rains as an exploited inventor, did not make much of a splash, but Goulding’s remake of The Dawn Patrol (1938) was a major hit. Errol Flynn gave one of his best performances as the squadron leader who cannot bear to see inexperienced pilots sent on dangerous missions; Basil Rathbone and David Niven provided fine support. Goulding’s version of the film, which included memorable aerial sequences, is superior to that of the 1930 original version, directed by Howard Hawks.

Returning to the more familiar terrain of the soap opera, Goulding made two pictures starring Davis in 1939. Dark Victory was a tearjerker about a haughty socialite who learns humility as she starts to go blind from a fatal illness; both Davis and the picture earned Oscar nominations. The period melodrama The Old Maid benefited from the palpable dislike Davis and costar Miriam Hopkins had for each other. Almost as fine was We Are Not Alone (1939), starring Paul Muni as a man accused of murdering his wife to be with a governess (Jane Bryan).

The 1940s

Goulding had less success with ’Til We Meet Again (1940), a melodrama featuring George Brent and Merle Oberon. However, The Great Lie (1941) showed Davis to sublime effect again. (Except for William Wyler, arguably no director served her as well as Goulding.) This acclaimed drama centres on a socialite (Davis) and a concert pianist (Mary Astor) who are in love with the same man (Brent). After codirecting Forever and a Day (1943), Goulding made The Constant Nymph (1943), a solid soap opera in which Charles Boyer played a composer whose greatest work is inspired by the love of a smitten young girl (Joan Fontaine). Just as emotional, if less grand, was Claudia (1943), a marital comedy with Robert Young and Dorothy McGuire. Goulding then spent several years away from Hollywood to write, produce, and direct the play The Ryan Girl. He returned to the big screen in 1946 with an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage. Although the drama paled in comparison with the acclaimed 1934 version, it was generally considered an entertaining production.

Goulding subsequently moved to Twentieth Century-Fox, where he would finish his career. His first project there was an adaptation of another Maugham novel, The Razor’s Edge. The 1946 drama was nominated for an Academy Award as best picture, and it was one of Goulding’s finest films. A hardened Tyrone Power was surprisingly convincing as the hero on a spiritual quest, and he was well supported by Gene Tierney, Anne Baxter, Elsa Lanchester, and Clifton Webb. Nightmare Alley (1947) was a radical departure for Goulding. The film noir featured Power as a carnival con man whose scheming leads to a horrendous end. Everybody Does It (1949) was based on a comic story by James M. Cain; Paul Douglas, Linda Darnell, and Celeste Holm played the bickering aspiring singers.

The 1950s

Gouldings’s first films of the 1950s were comedies. Mister 880 (1950) starred Burt Lancaster as a treasury agent on the trail of a benign elderly counterfeiter (Edmund Gwenn), and We’re Not Married (1952) was a Nunnally Johnson-penned concoction about five couples who discover that their wedding ceremonies were not performed legally; the cast included Eve Arden, Fred Allen, Eddie Bracken, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Marilyn Monroe. After directing the musical Down Among the Sheltering Palms, he made Teenage Rebel (1956), which, despite its exploitative title, was a cogent drama about a mother (Ginger Rogers) who reconnects with her estranged teenage daughter. Goulding’s last film was Mardi Gras (1958), a musical starring Pat Boone. After suffering several years of declining health, Goulding died in 1959.

During his lengthy career, Goulding developed a reputation as an accomplished technician. He was comfortable crossing genres and directed almost any assignment that came to him. However, he never developed a unique, recognizable style, visual or otherwise, that helped viewers know they were seeing a Goulding film, and as a result he has often been overlooked by critics and audiences.