Robert Z. Leonard

Auteur theory advocate Andrew Sarris once cited the prolific director Robert Z. Leonard as one of the few refutations of auteurism, pointing out that the success of Leonard's films was due more to the stars and screenwriters than the director, concluding that "the weak director allows the personalities of others to run rampant." It might be true that Leonard's films were usually only as good as their stars and scripts, but any man who could turn out such tightly-controlled entertainments as The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Pride and Prejudice (1940), The Bribe (1948) and In the Good Old Summertime (1949) cannot be dismissed as "weak." An actor since the age of 14, Leonard was in his younger days strictly matinee-idol material, invoking female swoons in both his stage work and in such films as Robinson Crusoe (1911). He began his four-decade directing career with 1914's The Master Key, a serial in which he also starred. Many of his best early directorial works starred his first wife, the irrepressible Mae Murray; Leonard and Murray eventually opened their own studio, Tiffany Productions. In 1924 Leonard came to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to direct his wife in Mademoiselle Midnight, thereby kicking off an association with MGM that would endure until Leonard's last film for the studio in 1955, The King's Thief. During the late silent era, Leonard and Murray parted company, whereupon the director married MGM-starlet Gertrude Olmstead. After closing out his 31-year stay at MGM, Robert Z. Leonard directed two more films before retiring in 1957.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide