William Wyler

Filmmakers

William Wyler (July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Notable works include Mrs. Miniver (1942), with Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon; The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), with Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo and Harold Russell; and Ben-Hur (1959), with Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott, Cathy O’Donnell, and Sam Jaffe; all of which won Academy Awards for Best Director, as well as Best Picture in their respective years, making him the only director of three Best Picture winners. Wyler received his first Oscar nomination for directing Dodsworth (1936), starring Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton and Mary Astor, “sparking a 20-year run of almost unbroken greatness.”

Film historian Ian Freer calls Wyler a “bona fide perfectionist”, whose penchant for retakes and an attempt to hone every last nuance, “became the stuff of legend.” His ability to direct a string of classic literary adaptations into huge box-office and critical successes made him one of “Hollywood’s most bankable moviemakers” during the 1930s and 1940s and into the ’60s. Through his talent for staging, editing, and camera movement, he turned dynamic theatrical spaces into cinematic ones. Notable films during this period include Dodsworth (1936), with Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas, and Mary Astor; Dead End (1937), with Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea, Humphrey Bogart, Wendy Barrie, and Claire Trevor; and Jezebel (1938), with Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, George Brent, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Crisp, Richard Cromwell, and Fay Bainter; and The Westerner (1940), with Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, and Doris Davenport.

He helped propel a number of actors to stardom, finding and directing Audrey Hepburn in her Hollywood debut film, Roman Holiday (1953), and directing Barbra Streisand in her debut film, Funny Girl (1968), with Omar Sharif. Both of these performances won Academy Awards. He directed Olivia de Havilland to her second Oscar in The Heiress (1949) and Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights (1939), for his first Oscar nomination. Olivier credited Wyler with teaching him how to act for the screen. And Bette Davis, who received three Oscar nominations under his direction and won her second Oscar in Jezebel (1938), said Wyler made her a “far, far better actress” than she had ever been. Other notable films include Detective Story (1951), with Kirk Douglas, Eleanor Parker, William Bendix, Cathy O’Donnell, and George Macready; The Desperate Hours (1955), with Bogart and Fredric March; Friendly Persuasion (1956), with Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins, Richard Eyer, Robert Middleton and Phyllis Love; and The Big Country (1958), with Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Heston, and Burl Ives.

Later films include The Children’s Hour (1961), with Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, and James Garner; The Collector (1965), with Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar; How to Steal a Million (1966), with Hepburn, Peter O’Toole, Eli Wallach, Hugh Griffith and Charles Boyer; and his final film was The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970), with Roscoe Lee Browne, Lee J. Cobb, Lola Falana, Anthony Zerbe, Lee Majors, Arch Johnson, Yaphet Kotto, Eve McVeagh, Chill Wills, and Barbara Hershey.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(*seen rereleased in theaters)

Silent Films

  • The Crook Buster (1925) – short
  • The Gunless Bad Man (1926) – short
  • Ridin’ for Love (1926) – short
  • The Fire Barrier (1926) – short
  • Don’t Shoot (1926) – short
  • The Pinnacle Rider (1926) – short
  • Martin of the Mountain (1926) – short
  • Lazy Lightning (1926)
  • The Stolen Ranch (1926)
  • The Two Fister (1927) – short
  • Kelcy Gets His Man (1927) – short
  • Tenderfoot Courage (1927) – short
  • The Silent Partner (1927) – short
  • Blazing Days (1927)
  • Straight Shootin’ (1927)
  • Galloping Justice (1927) – short
  • The Haunted Homestead (1927) – short
  • Hard Fists (1927)
  • The Lone Stars (1927) – short
  • The Ore Riders (1927) – short
  • The Home Trail (1927) – short
  • Gun Justice (1927) – short
  • The Phantom Outlaw (1927) – short
  • The Square Shooter (1927) – short
  • The Horse Trader (1927) – short
  • Daze of the West (1927) – short
  • The Border Cavalier (1927)
  • Desert Dust (1927)
  • Anybody Here See Kelly? (1928) – lost
  • Thunder Riders (1928)
  • The Shakedown (1929) – partial sound
  • The Love Trap (1929) – partial sound

Sound Films

  • Hell’s Heroes (1929)
  • The Storm (1930)
  • A House Divided (1931)
  • Tom Brown of Culver (1932)
  • Her First Mate (1933)
  • Counsellor at Law (1933)
  • Glamour (1934)
  • The Good Fairy (1935)
  • The Gay Deception (1935)
  • These Three (1936)
  • Dodsworth (1936)
  • Come and Get It (1936) – co-directed with Howard Hawks
  • Dead End (1937)
  • Jezebel (1938)
  • Wuthering Heights (1939)
  • The Westerner (1940)
  • The Letter (1940)
  • The Little Foxes (1941)
  • Mrs. Miniver (1942)
  • The Memphis Belle (1944)
  • The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
  • Thunderbolt! (1947)
  • The Heiress (1949)
  • Detective Story (1951)
  • Carrie (1952)
  • Roman Holiday (1953)
  • The Desperate Hours (1955)
  • Friendly Persuasion (1956)
  • The Big Country (1958)
  • Ben-Hur (1959)
  • The Children’s Hour (1961)
  • The Collector (1965)
  • How to Steal a Million (1966)
  • Funny Girl (1968)
  • The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970)