John Cromwell (born Elwood Dager; December 23, 1886 – September 26, 1979) was an American film and stage director and actor. His films spanned the early days of sound to film noir in the early 1950s, by which time his directing career was almost terminated by the Hollywood blacklist.Canham, 1976 p. 60: Given name, stage nameBarson, Britannica: Barson reports that Cronwell's "original name [was] Elwood Dager Cromwell"LoBianco, TCM: LoBianco lists his birth name as Elwood Dager John Cromwell.
Early life and education Cromwell was born as Elwood Dager in Toledo, Ohio, to an affluent Anglo-Scottish family, executives in the steel and iron industry. Cromwell graduated from private high school at Howe Military Academy in 1905, but never pursued higher education.Canham, 1976 p. 60: Graduated from "Howe School in 1905."
Early acting career, 1905–1912
Upon leaving school, Cromwell immediately began his stage career touring with stock companies in Chicago, then made his way to New York City in his early 20s. Billed as Elwood Dager in his youth, he changed his name to John Cromwell at the age of 26 following a 1912 New York stage appearance.Canham, 1976 p. 60: "changed his name to John Cromwell…"
Cromwell made his Broadway debut in the role of John Brooke in Little Women (1912), an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel. The production was an immediate hit and ran for 184 performances.See IMDb
Throughout Cromwell's stage career, he worked in close collaboration with one of the outstanding Broadway producers of the day, William A. Brady. Indeed, virtually all of the stage productions Cromwell participated in before he began his film career were produced by Brady.LoBianco, TCM: Cromwell "worked as a theater director for the great William Brady."Imdb Cromwell: Other Works The Painted Woman (1913) marked Cromwell's first assignment as stage director. Written by Frederic Arnold Kummer, the play closed in two days.Imdb, Other Works: The work was adapted to film in 1917 as The Slave Market By 1914, he was acting in and co-directing productions, including Too Many Cooks (1914), which ran for 223 performances.LoBianco, TCM
In 1915, he joined the New York Repertory Company and performed in the American premieres of two George Bernard Shaw plays: Major Barbara in 1916, as the character Charles Lomax, and in a revival of Captain Brassbound's Conversion. Cromwell's stage career was interrupted by a brief stint in the U.S. Army during World War I.Canham, 1976, pp. 60–61LoBianco, TCM: "Cromwell made history by starring as Charles Lomax in the first Broadway performance of George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara (1915)."
By the 1920s, Cromwell had become a respected Broadway director, often in collaboration with co-directors Frank Craven or William Brady. Cromwell frequently performed on stage in this period which included works by future Pulitzer-Prize-winners Sidney Howard and Robert E. Sherwood. In 1927, Cromwell directed and played the lead in the gangster drama, The Racket, with newcomer Edward G. Robinson debuting in a tough-guy role of the type for which Robinson became known throughout his film career.Canham, 1976 pp. 60–61
In 1928, Cromwell moved to Hollywood to serve as a dialogue director during the movie industry's transition to films with sound. Although Cromwell returned to Broadway in later years, his primary occupation after 1928 was as a movie director.Canham, 1976 p. 61
Early film career
Paramount Famous Lasky, 1929 Paramount Famous Lasky film producer B.P. Schulberg signed the 42-year-old Cromwell as a screen actor in October 1928 at the time of the industry-wide transition from silent productions to the new sound technology. After a satisfactory début performance in the 1929 early talkie The Dummy which featured Ruth Chatterton, Fredric March, Jack Oakie and ZaSu Pitts, Cromwell was invited to share directorial duties with Edward Sutherland, an experienced filmmaker.
Though Cromwell had never worked behind a camera, Paramount was eager to hire experienced stage directors "because of their presumed knowledge in handling dialogue." However erroneous this assumption, Cromwell and Sutherland enjoyed a productive collaboration completing two early talkies, both in 1929: Close Harmony, a jazz-band romance, and The Dance of Life, based on the George Mankers Watters play Burlesque (Sutherland's co-direction went uncredited in The Dance of Death). Cromwell had a minor acting role in each of these productions.Baxter, 1968 p. 8: "The studios were hiring "playwrights...directors from New York ...all brought in to satisfy the demand for sophisticated feeling of the stage which [movie] producers imagined" film audiences would demand."Canham, 1976, pp. 58–59: During the conversion to sound films "studios hired stage directors" to direct sound films, however "many [of these] new directors turned out static stage-[influenced] material that soured audiences." And p. 116: See Cromwell roles in these films. Sutherland uncredited.
In a 1973 interview with Leonard Maltin, Cromwell offered a frank assessment of his difficulties adapting to the new medium as a movie director:
During Cromwell's early films with Paramount, he was tasked with directing stage and film star George Bancroft, the studio's top property. Bancroft had performed in a number of successful silent films with Paramount's rising director Josef von Sternberg, culminating in a Best Actor nomination for Bancroft in Thunderbolt (1930). The Mighty (1930) was Cromwell's first of four pairings with Bancroft, and his first solo debut as director.Canham, 1976, p. 62
On his next film The Street of Chance, Cromwell formed a personal and professional bond with producer David O. Selznick in his first production, then an assistant to B.P. Schulberg. The picture, starring William Powell, Kay Francis and Jean Arthur, was a success at the box office.Canham, 1976, p. 61: Cromwell: "David and I found we hit it off very well together. I was always a great admirer of David..." And p. 62-63: Film was a success according to Cromwell, causing "quite a stir" And Selznick's first project.
Paramount-Publix, 1930–1931
In 1930, Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation changed its name to Paramount Publix Corporation because of the growing importance of the Publix Theater chain.
The Texan (1930) was Cromwell's adaptation of the O. Henry short story "A Double-Dyed Deceiver" and starring Paramount's rising star Gary Cooper.Canham, 1976, p.62
Paramount again enlisted actors Powell and Francis in Cromwell's For the Defense (also 1930), a legal drama involving a lawyer and his criminal fiancée. He directed the second cinematic version of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer (also 1930) with Jackie Coogan starring as the eponymous Tom.
During 1931-1932, Cromwell fulfilled his commitments to direct Bancroft in three more films. Indeed, Cromwell had agreed to continue working with Bancroft only if Paramount arranged to let him direct Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes in an adaption of Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms, a project that eventually was directed by Frank Borzage.
The Bancroft films include Scandal Sheet, with co-star Clive Brook, Rich Man's Folly (both 1931), an adaption of Dickens' Dombey and Son and The World and the Flesh (also 1931), a romance set in revolutionary Russia. Cromwell's professional view of Bancroft's performance in Rich Man's Folly elicited these remarks:
Cromwell made three more pictures for Paramount-Publix, all released in 1931: Scandal Sheet, with Bancroft, Unfaithful, with Ruth Chatterton and The Vice Squad with Paul Lukas and Kay Francis.Canham, 1976, p.118
During pre-production of the 1932 The World and the Flesh, a tale of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Cromwell became disgusted with both the quality of the scenario, as well as the Paramount's sharp curtailment in rehearsal time. Cromwell's historical outlook and stage experience informed these following comments:
In the early sound films the studios, having experience only with dialogue-free (silent) pictures, deferred to the Broadway dialogue-savvy stage directors, like Cromwell, who they enlisted during the transition to "talkies". In early production of For the Defense, Cromwell reports he was informed about a change in policy concerning rehearsals:
Cromwell bargained with the producer, and they agreed to trade shooting days in exchange for rehearsal days. Cromwell recalled: "I think I ended up with four days rehearsal [by] cutting two days off the shooting schedule. Incredible! I couldn't believe it years afterwards."Canham, 1976, p. 64LoBianco, TCM: "As DeWitt Bodeen wrote in his profile of Cromwell, 'He believed in full rehearsals with camera before any shooting took place. "For every day of full rehearsal you give me,' he was fond of saying 'I'll knock off a day on the shooting schedule.' At RKO they gave him three days for rehearsal, and he obligingly came in three days early."
Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO): 1933–1935 Cromwell's disaffection from Paramount led him to "walk off the lot" after The World and the Flesh, and with the help of his agent Myron Selznick, he moved to RKO. At the time, David O. Selznick was running RKO, and Cromwell recalled his professional experience there fondly: "RKO was always an endearing place to me; it had a distinct feeling of independence and individuality it never lost."
Cromwell was initially assigned by RKO to direct "a series of soap operas and films about family strife". Among these were Sweepings (1933), starring Lionel Barrymore in an unusually "restrained" performance. Cromwell directed The Silver Cord, an adaptation of a play he directed in 1926. His 1933 film adaptation concerns a young wife, Irene Dunne, who battles with her interfering mother-in-law Laura Hope Crews. The picture, which disparaged "motherhood", was considered audacious in its day.Canham, 1976, p. 65: The film version, The Silver Cord. "...the dialogue is forceful, but not pedantic, and while one is aware of the stage origin of the material, it is not distracting…Cromwell welcomed the assignment...and felt he could pull it off better than any other director." And: "...attacked one of the sacred cows: motherhood."
Cromwell finished off this series with Double Harness (1933), "a shrewd and sophisticated interior drama" with Ann Harding and William Powell.Canham, 1976, p. 65
Ann Vickers (1933)