Charles Vidor

Vidor was an American director, born in Hungary. At his best,Vidor could take extremely slight material and work magic with it. Cases in point: The Great Gambini (1937), Ladies in Retirement (1941), The Tuttles of Tahiti (1942), and in particular, Together Again (1944), a delightful comedy with Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. Vidor was a busy director, although the majority of his films were routine. He was adept at getting good performances out of many ingratiating players, including Irene Dunne, Charles Coburn, Brian Aherne, Louis Hayward, Akim Tamiroff, Rita Hayworth, and Glenn Ford. Remarkably, considering that Vidor served as an infantry lieutenant for the Germans in WW I, he directed Over 21 (1945), a comedy with Alexander Knox about a middle-aged man adjusting to the rigors of service life. Probably the most memorable scene Vidor directed is the one in Gilda (1946) in which Rita Hayworth sings "Put the Blame on Mame." Vidor supervised Love Me or Leave Me (1955), a remarkable biopic of torch singer Ruth Etting and the only film in which James Cagney was ever truly frightening. Vidor seems also to have had an interest in classical music--he directed two composer-biopics: A Song To Remember (1945) with Cornel Wilde as Chopin and Liszt with Dirk Bogarde. Vidor died during the filming of the latter.

~ All Movie Guide

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