Albert Lewin (September 23, 1894 – May 9, 1968) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter.
Personal life
Lewin was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Harvard and taught English at the
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...
. During World War I, he served in the military and was afterwards appointed assistant national director of the American Jewish Relief Committee. He later became a drama and film critic for the '' Jewish Tribune'' until the early 1920s, when he went to Hollywood to become a reader for
Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn (born Szmuel Gelbfisz; yi, שמואל געלבפֿיש; August 27, 1882 (claimed) January 31, 1974), also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Polish-born American film producer. He was best known for being the founding contributor an ...
. Later he worked as a script clerk for directors
King Vidor
King Wallis Vidor (; February 8, 1894 – November 1, 1982) was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose 67-year film-making career successfully spanned the silent and sound eras. His works are distinguished by a vivid, ...
and
Victor Sjöström
Victor David Sjöström (; 20 September 1879 – 3 January 1960), also known in the United States as Victor Seastrom, was a pioneering Swedish film director, screenwriter, and actor. He began his career in Sweden, before moving to Hollywood in ...
before becoming a screenwriter at
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
in 1924.
Lewin was appointed head of the studio's script department and by the late 1920s was
Irving Thalberg
Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899 – September 14, 1936) was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and ability to select scripts, choose actors, gather productio ...
's personal assistant and closest associate. Nominally credited as an associate producer, he produced several of MGM's most important films of the 1930s. After Thalberg's death, he joined
Paramount
Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to:
Entertainment and music companies
* Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...
as a producer in 1937, where he remained until 1941. Notable producing credits during this period include ''
True Confession
''True Confession'' is a 1937 American screwball comedy film directed by Wesley Ruggles and starring Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, and John Barrymore. It was based on the 1934 play ''Mon Crime'', written by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil. I ...
'' (1937), ''
Spawn of the North
''Spawn of the North'' is a 1938 American adventure film about rival fishermen in Alaska starring George Raft and featuring Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, Akim Tamiroff and John Barrymore. The picture was directed by Henry Hathaway and was an ...
So Ends Our Night
''So Ends Our Night'' is a 1941 drama directed by John Cromwell (director), John Cromwell and starring Fredric March, Margaret Sullavan and Glenn Ford. The screenplay was adapted by Talbot Jennings from the novel ''Flotsam (novel), Flotsam'' by G ...
'' (1941).
In 1942, Lewin began to direct. He made six films, writing all of them and producing several himself. As a director and writer, he showed literary and cultural aspirations in the selection and treatment of his themes. In 1966, Lewin published a novel, ''The Unaltered Cat''.
Films
As director:
*''
The Moon and Sixpence
''The Moon and Sixpence'' is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, first published on 15 April 1919. It is told in episodic form by a first-person narrator providing a series of glimpses into the mind and soul of the central character, Charles Stric ...
'' (1942)
*''
The Picture of Dorian Gray
''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is a philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical '' Lippincott's Monthly Magazine''.''The Picture of Dorian G ...
'' (1945)
*''
The Private Affairs of Bel Ami
''The Private Affairs of Bel Ami'' is a 1947 American drama film directed by Albert Lewin. The film stars George Sanders as a ruthless cad who uses women to rise in Parisian society, co-starring Angela Lansbury and Ann Dvorak. It is based on the ...
'' (1947)
*''
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
''Pandora and the Flying Dutchman'' is a 1951 British Technicolor romantic fantasy drama film directed by Albert Lewin and produced by Lewin and Joseph Kaufman from Lewin's own screenplay, based on the legend of the ''Flying Dutchman''. It wa ...
'' (1951)
*''
Saadia
Saʻadiah ben Yosef Gaon ( ar, سعيد بن يوسف الفيومي ''Saʻīd bin Yūsuf al-Fayyūmi''; he, סַעֲדְיָה בֶּן יוֹסֵף אַלְפַיּוּמִי גָּאוֹן ''Saʿăḏyāh ben Yōsēf al-Fayyūmī Gāʾōn''; ...
The Fate of a Flirt
''The Fate of a Flirt'' is a 1925 silent romantic comedy directed by Frank R. Strayer, which stars Dorothy Revier, Forrest Stanley, and Thomas Ricketts. It was released by Columbia Pictures on November 15, 1925.Spring Fever
Spring fever is any of a number of mood, physical, or behavioral changes which may be experienced coinciding with the onset of spring, particularly restlessness, laziness, and amorousness.
Overview
The term ''spring fever'' may refer to an increa ...
'' (1927)
References
*''Botticelli in Hollywood: The Films of Albert Lewin'' by Susan Felleman (1997),