James Cruze (born Jens Cruz Bosen;Sadoul, Georges (1972). Dictionary of Films. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p. 53. . See also: Parish, James Robert; Pitts, Michael R. (1974). Film Directors: A Guide to Their American Films. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press. p. 84. . Katchmer, George (July 1, 1981). "More Forgotten Cowboys and Cowgirls". Classic Images, No. 76. p. 17. Retrieved June 13, 2023.Tully, Jim (January 29, 1929). "James Cruze, Erstwhile Hobo: Director of The Covered Wagon' Was in Turn Roustabout, Waiter and Ham Actor". Hartford Courant. p. E3. "He is heavily muscled, broad-shouldered and leonine. As simple as a child, he is as deep as the riddle of life. His real name is Jens Cruze Bosen. He is the son of a Mormon Danish immigrant—a fanatic who settled in Utah as a follower of Brigham Young." Retrieved June 13, 2023."Veteran Thespian in Capital City; Luke Cosgrave Will Appear Before Footlights". The Idaho Statesman. June 1, 1930. p. 9. Retrieved June 13, 2023. March 27, 1884 – August 3, 1942) was an American silent film actor and film director.
James Cruze is best known today among film buffs as the director of the epic silent Western The Covered Wagon.
Personal life Born Jens Cruz Bosen in Ogden, Utah of Mormon parents, Cruze acquired his middle name solely by virtue of his birth date. As Cruze's longtime friend and colleague, actor Luke Cosgrave, explained in a 1930 interview: Did you hear how Jimmy and I came together? I was playing in Boise with Charley Murray and we needed a young fellow for the good looking hero parts and I wired for Chester Stevens, who was in San Francisco, sending him a ticket to Boise. He got a job right then and handed the ticket to another young fellow. I met the train two days after I had expected Chester and thought how young he seemed. He soon informed me that he was not Chester but Jens Bosen of Ogden. You see, young Jens was born on March 27 and his mother wanted to name him after some famous man born on the same day, so she looked in the almanac, but no great man had a birthday on that date. But she did find it was the anniversary of the battle of Vera Cruze [sic], so she called him Jens Cruze Bosen. Birth name notwithstanding, Bosen and/or his parents decided well before his professional stage debut to anglicize at least his given name, as evidenced by the impassioned 8th grade commencement speech he delivered, as James Bosen, at Ogden's Central School in June 1898."Eight Grade Commencement". The Salt Lake Herald. June 4, 1898. p. 7. Retrieved June 13, 2023.
Cruze was first married to a fellow Latter Day Saint, identity unknown, circa 1901 until her death in 1907; they had five children."A Worthy Successor; 'Something New Under the Sun'". The Ephraim Enterprise. October 31, 1901. p. 5. Retrieved June 14, 2023."Dies Very Suddenly". The Salt Lake Tribune. May 19, 1907. p. 20. Retrieved June 14, 2023. By no later than 1914, he had married actress Marguerite Snow, and they had a daughter, Julie Jane. They divorced in 1923. He married actress Betty Compson on October 14, 1924; they were divorced in 1930. He married Alberta Beatrice McCoy in June 1941, and they were still wed when he died.
Career Cruze acted in, directed and or produced over 100 films, mainly during the silent era. His first known acting job was at Lubin Manufacturing Company in 1910. He started at Thanhouser Company in 1911 with She (1911), which is where the majority of his body of work was produced, much of it as the leading man.
After leaving Thanhouser in 1916, he worked for several other companies as director and producer. He became a major director when his 1923 Paramount Pictures production The Covered Wagon became a smash success. This expensive Western was filmed under rugged outdoor conditions, lending Cruze's scenes a realism and stature not seen in routine Saturday-matinee Westerns. Cruze became one of Paramount's top directors, and in 1926 he scored another success with the seagoing saga Old Ironsides, with large-scale action scenes filmed in an experimental widescreen process.
Turning point When the new sound films replaced silent films, Cruze—then an important enough name to command respect in the industry—became a partner in an ambitious independent film company, Sono Art-World Wide Pictures. Its first production, produced and directed by Cruze, was a musical, The Great Gabbo (1929). In typical Cruze fashion it was an epic musical, with elaborate musical pageants filmed in color. The storyline was much too heavy and macabre for a light musical, however: a crazed ventriloquist (Erich von Stroheim) falls in love with a dancer who loves another, and the ventriloquist's dummy takes on a life of its own, advising and taunting his master.
The Great Gabbo fell far short of expectations at the boxoffice and Cruze, now on the Sono Art staff, found himself directing the company's routine, low-budget melodramas.
Cruze left Sono Art when the company reorganized in 1932, and sought work at his former home studio, Paramount. He was given a chance to direct one sequence in the omnibus feature If I Had a Million (1932). Cruze was battling a problem with alcohol abuse, and the assignment did not lead to further employment. Will Rogers offered him work directing two of the Rogers features at Fox, and the association might have continued had Rogers not died in a plane crash in 1935.
Carl Laemmle, president of Universal Pictures, loved action Westerns and he wanted to make a big outdoor spectacle, along the lines of the well remembered The Covered Wagon. Laemmle hired Cruze (who directed that film) for a new film, Sutter's Gold (1936), chronicling the California gold rush of 1849. The studio assembled a "name" cast of popular character players including Edward Arnold, Lee Tracy, Harry Carey, and Binnie Barnes. Unfortunately neither the studio nor the film had any big "star" names to attract moviegoers, and—dooming the project—Laemmle had given director Cruze carte blanche to make the film and Cruze spent money lavishly, as was his custom in the silent days. The expenditure was too lavish for the budget-conscious Universal, and the no-star spectacle failed disastrously. Sutter's Gold damaged James Cruze's standing irreparably and it ruined Universal. A consortium of investors ousted Carl Laemmle and took over the company (now known as "the NEW Universal"). The only real benefit Universal derived from Sutter's Gold was its value as stock footage; Cruze's carefully staged outdoor scenes were often edited into the studio's low-budget adventures, Westerns, and serials.
Cruze, with the notoriety of the Sutter's Gold fiasco haunting his career, found work at Republic Pictures, a "budget" independent studio specializing in action and Western fare. Cruze directed four undistinguished features there in 1937 and 1938. His Republic contract was not renewed, which brought an end to James Cruze's career. During his decline he descended further into alcoholism, and he spent the last four years of his life unemployed. His fortunes had a temporary lift when he remarried in 1941, but his happiness was short-lived and he died by his own hand on August 3, 1942, at his home in Hollywood, California, aged 58. His cremated remains are interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.West, Alice Pardoe (August 9, 1942). "Ogdenites Mourn Passing of Famed Film Character". The Ogden Standard-Examiner. p.14. Retrieved June 13, 2023.
Filmography
As director Year Films Notes 1914 From Wash to Washington Short Film 1914 The Cat's Paw Short Film 1918 Too Many Millions Lost Film 1919 The Dub Lost Film 1919 Alias Mike Moran Lost Film 1919 The Roaring Road 1919 You're Fired 1919 The Love Burglar Lost Film 1919 The Valley of the Giants Lost Film 1919 The Lottery Man Lost Film 1919 Hawthorne of the U.S.A. 1919 An Adventure in Hearts Lost Film 1920 Terror Island 5 of 7 reels are extant 1920 Mrs. Temple's Telegram 1920 The Sins of St. Anthony Lost Film 1920 What Happened to Jones Lost Film 1920 Food for Scandal Lost Film 1920 A Full House Lost Film 1920 Always Audacious Lost Film 1921 The Charm School Lost Film 1921 The Dollar-a-Year Man Lost Film 1921 Gasoline Gus 1921 Crazy to Marry 1922 One Glorious Day Lost Film 1922 Is Matrimony a Failure? Lost Film 1922 The Fast Freight Lost Film 1922 The Dictator Lost Film 1922 The Old Homestead 1922 Thirty Days Lost Film 1923 The Covered Wagon 1923 Hollywood Lost Film 1923 Ruggles of Red Gap Lost Film 1923 To the Ladies Lost Film 1924 Leap Year 1924 The Fighting Coward 1924 The Enemy Sex 1924 Merton of the Movies Lost Film based on the novel by Harry Leon Wilson and the play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly 1924 The City That Never Sleeps Lost Film 1924 The Garden of Weeds Lost Film 1925 The Goose Hangs High Lost Film 1925 Waking Up the Town 1925 Welcome Home based on a play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber 1925 Beggar on Horseback Only 3 of 7 reels are extant based on the play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly 1925 Marry Me Lost Film 1925 The Pony Express 1926 Mannequin 1926 Old Ironsides partly filmed in experimental widescreen process called "Magnascope" 1926 The Waiter from the Ritz unreleased 1927 We're All Gamblers Lost Film 1927 The City Gone Wild Lost Film 1928 On to Reno 1928 The Mating Call 1928 The Red Mark 1928 Excess Baggage Lost Film 1929 The Duke Steps Out Lost Film 1929 A Man's Man Lost Film 1929 The Great Gabbo 1930 Once a Gentleman 1930 She Got What She Wanted 1931 Salvation Nell based on the play by Edward Sheldon 1932 Washington Merry-Go-Round 1932 If I Had a Million segment "Death Cell" 1933 Best of Enemies re-shoots and additional scenes 1933 Racetrack 1933 Sailor Be Good 1933 I Cover the Waterfront 1933 Mr. Skitch 1934 David Harum 1934 Their Big Moment 1934 Helldorado 1935 Two-Fisted 1936 Sutter's Gold 1937 The Wrong Road 1938 Prison Nurse 1938 Gangs of New York 1938 Come On, Leathernecks!
As actor
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1912) The Covered Wagon (1923) (scenes deleted) .... Indian (Cruze was also director) The Slave Market (1921) Johnny Get Your Gun (1919) .... The Duke of Bullconia Under the Top (1919) .... 'Foxy' Stillmore The Source (1918) .... Langlois Less Than Kin (1918) .... Jinx The City of Dim Faces (1918) .... Wing Lung Believe Me, Xantippe (1918) .... Simp Calloway Wild Youth (1918) .... Li Choo The Hidden Pearls (1918) .... Koro Leon Nan of Music Mountain (1917) .... Gale Morgan The Call of the East (1917) .... Janzo On the Level (1917) .... Ozmun What Money Can't Buy (1917) .... Ferdinand Vaslof The Web of Life (1917) .... Tom Wilson Her Temptation (1917) .... Walton Maynard The Snowbird (1916) .... Bruce Mitchell Armstrong's Wife (1915) .... Harvey Arnold His Guardian Auto (1915) The Patriot and the Spy (1915) .... Pietro The Heart of the Princess Marsari (1915) Zudora (1914) .... Hassam Ali/Jim Baird, Reporter (film was retitled The Twenty Million Dollar Mystery) From Wash to Washington (1914) The Million Dollar Mystery (1914) .... Jim Norton Rivalry (1914) A Dog of Flanders (1914) A Debut in the Secret Service (1914) The Cat's Paw (1914) The Desert Tribesman (1914) Cardinal Richelieu's Ward (1914) .... Richelieu A Leak in the Foreign Office (1914) Joseph in the Land of Egypt (1914) .... Joseph Why Reginald Reformed (1914) The Woman Pays (1914) The Adventures of a Diplomatic Freelance (1914) Frou Frou (1914) .... Comte Paul de Valreas The Legend of Provence (1913) .... Sir Henry The Silver-Tongued Orator (1913) The Plot Against the Governor (1913) A Daughter Worth While (1913) Moths (1913) .... Undetermined Name, villain Robin Hood (1913) (uncredited) The Message to Headquarters (1913) The Ward of the King (1913) An Unromantic Maiden (1913) Tannhäuser (1913) The Lost Combination (1913) The Snare of Fate (1913) Marble Heart (1913) .... Raphael Her Sister's Secret (1913) Rosie's Revenge (1913) The Woman Who Did Not Care (1913)