James Mitchell Leisen (October 6, 1898 – October 28, 1972) was an American director, art director, and costume designer.
Early life Leisen grew up in St. Louis with his mother, following her divorce from his father, a brewery owner. From an early age, he suffered the effects of a poorly performed foot operation, which left him with a permanent limp. This condition had a lasting impact on his life. He was sent to military school, believing it would strengthen his discipline. Leisen later attended Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied architecture, and subsequently worked in advertising art in Chicago. While there, he acted in local theatre productions before moving to Los Angeles in an effort to enter the film industry.
Although his attempts at acting were unsuccessful, Leisen found work designing sets for community theatre. He was soon hired as a costume designer by Cecil B. DeMille, beginning with Male and Female (1919). Over the next decade, he also worked as a set decorator and art director for DeMille and other filmmakers. His contributions included major productions such as Robin Hood (1922), The Thief of Bagdad (1924), The King of Kings (1927), and Dynamite (1929), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Art Direction.
Film career He directed his first film in 1933 with Cradle Song and became known for his keen sense of aesthetics in the glossy Hollywood melodramas and screwball comedies he turned out.
He was often described as a “woman’s director” because of his strong working relationships with actresses. In many of his films, made primarily at Paramount Pictures, female characters were central to the narrative, and their perspectives shaped the story. Actresses such as Barbara Stanwyck, Paulette Goddard, Olivia de Havilland, Claudette Colbert, and Carole Lombard frequently appeared in leading roles.
His best known films include Alberto Casella's adaptation of Death Takes a Holiday and Murder at the Vanities, a musical mystery story (both 1934), as well as Midnight (1939) and Hold Back the Dawn (1941), both co-scripted by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder. Easy Living (1937), written by Preston Sturges and starring Jean Arthur, was another hit for the director, who also directed Remember the Night (1940), the last film written by Sturges before he started directing his scripts as well.
Lady in the Dark (1944), To Each His Own (1946), and No Man of Her Own (1950) were later successes. Charles Brackett's comedy The Mating Season (1951) starring Gene Tierney, Miriam Hopkins and Thelma Ritter was an updated version of Leisen's earlier screwball comedies of the 1930s, and was also his last big movie success.
When his film career ended, Leisen directed episodes of such television series as Thriller, Shirley Temple's Storybook, The Twilight Zone, and The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.. He later became a nightclub owner.
Personal life Mitchell Leisen married opera singer Stella Yeager in 1927, though the couple lived separately for much of their marriage and remained in contact over the years. Leisen maintained a wide social circle in Hollywood and was known for hosting elaborate gatherings and pursuing artistic interests beyond filmmaking, including costume design, interior decoration, and nightclub staging.
Leisen had long-term relationships with both women and men, reflecting a bisexual orientation that was largely private during his lifetime. One of his most significant relationships was with costume designer Natalie Visart, with whom he shared a close personal and professional bond. He also had relationships with male companions. According to Carolyn Roos, Leisen's longtime business manager's daughter, he had a very long relationship with dancer/actor/choreographer Billy Daniel until the 1950s (Daniel died in 1962). Leisen, with Daniel and dancer/actor Mary Parker, formed Hollywood Presents Inc. as a means of promoting both Daniel and Parker off-screen. Leisen died of heart disease in 1972, aged 74. His grave is located in Chapel of the Pines Crematory.Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 27393). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Legacy Although Mitchell Leisen was well regarded during his career, his work received less attention in later decades. From the 1950s onward, changes in the film industry and interest in his personal life contributed to a decline in his professional visibility. However, his films have since been reappraised and continue to be valued by critics and enthusiasts of classic cinema.
Leisen is now best remembered for his ability to blend genres and for his emphasis on character-driven storytelling marked by elegance and visual sophistication. His influence on narrative style and screen characterization remains evident, and his work is often referenced in discussions of classic American cinema.
Awards He garnered his sole Academy Award nomination in 1930 for Art Direction for Cecil B. DeMille's Dynamite. He directed Hold Back the Dawn (1941), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. His screwball comedy film Midnight (1939), starring Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche, was inducted into the U.S. National Film Registry for its cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance.
Filmography (as director) YearTitleProduction Co.CastNotes1933 Cradle Song Paramount Dorothea Wieck / Evelyn Venable 1934 Bolero Paramount George Raft / Carole Lombard Co-directed with Wesley Ruggles1934 Death Takes a Holiday Paramount Fredric March / Evelyn Venable 1934 Murder at the Vanities Paramount Victor McLaglen / Jack Oakie / Carl Brisson 1934 Behold My Wife Paramount Gene Raymond / Ann Sheridan / Sylvia Sidney 1935 Four Hours to Kill! Paramount Richard Barthelmess / Ray Milland / Gertrude Michael 1935 Hands Across the Table Paramount Carole Lombard / Fred MacMurray 1936 13 Hours by Air Paramount Fred MacMurray / Joan Bennett / ZaSu Pitts 1936 The Big Broadcast of 1937 Paramount Jack Benny / George Burns / Gracie Allen / Ray Milland 1937 Swing High, Swing Low Paramount Carole Lombard / Fred MacMurray / Dorothy Lamour 1937 Easy Living Paramount Jean Arthur / Edward Arnold / Ray Milland 1938 The Big Broadcast of 1938 Paramount W. C. Fields / Martha Raye / Bob Hope / Dorothy Lamour 1938 Artists and Models Abroad Paramount Jack Benny / Joan Bennett 1939 Midnight Paramount Claudette Colbert / Don Ameche / John Barrymore / Mary Astor 1940 Remember the Night Paramount Barbara Stanwyck / Fred MacMurray 1940 Arise, My Love Paramount Claudette Colbert / Ray Milland 1941 I Wanted Wings Paramount Ray Milland / William Holden / Wayne Morris / Veronica Lake WON Academy Award for Best Visual Effects1941 Hold Back the Dawn Paramount Charles Boyer / Olivia de Havilland / Paulette Goddard Nominated for Academy Award for Best Picture1942 The Lady Is Willing Columbia Marlene Dietrich / Fred MacMurray 1942 Take a Letter, Darling Paramount Rosalind Russell / Fred MacMurray 1943 No Time for Love Paramount Claudette Colbert / Fred MacMurray 1944 Lady in the Dark Paramount Ginger Rogers / Ray Milland Technicolor film1944 Frenchman's Creek Paramount Joan Fontaine / Arturo de Córdova / Basil Rathbone / Nigel Bruce Technicolor film1944 Practically Yours Paramount Claudette Colbert / Fred MacMurray 1945 Kitty Paramount Paulette Goddard / Ray Milland 1945 Masquerade in Mexico Paramount Dorothy Lamour / Arturo de Córdova 1946 To Each His Own Paramount Olivia de Havilland / John LundAcademy Award for Best Actress1947 Suddenly, It's Spring Paramount Paulette Goddard / Fred MacMurray 1947 Golden Earrings Paramount Marlene Dietrich / Ray Milland 1948 Dream Girl Paramount Betty Hutton / Macdonald Carey 1949 Bride of Vengeance Paramount Paulette Goddard / Macdonald Carey / John Lund 1949 Song of Surrender Paramount Claude Rains / Wanda Hendrix / Macdonald Carey 1950 No Man of Her Own Paramount Barbara Stanwyck / John Lund 1950 Captain Carey, U.S.A. Paramount Alan Ladd / Wanda Hendrix 1951 The Mating Season Paramount Gene Tierney / John Lund / Miriam Hopkins / Thelma Ritter Nominated Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Thelma Ritter1951 Darling, How Could You! Paramount Joan Fontaine / John Lund 1952 Young Man with Ideas MGM Glenn Ford 1953 Tonight We Sing 20th Century Fox David Wayne / Ezio Pinza / Roberta Peters / Tamara Toumanova Technicolor film1955 Bedevilled MGM Anne Baxter / Steve Forrest Co-directed with Richard Thorpe / Eastmancolor film1958 The Girl Most Likely RKO Radio Pictures Jane Powell / Cliff Robertson Technicolor film1967 Spree Trans American — Co-directed with Walon Green; documentary
References
Further reading Revised version of a 1973 biography. Kehr's review of the DVD releases of Easy Living (1937) and Midnight (1939). Melville is one of several critics who have been reassessing Leisen's contributions to cinema; he writes, "Leisen, glimpsed in this new light, is no longer a swishy hack. He's a subtle and stylish auteur who could add heart and humanity to the brittle sophistication of Billy Wilder, lend grace and elegance to the boisterous Americana of Preston Sturges. In his Biographical Dictionary of Film, David Thomson hails Leisen as "an expert at witty romantic comedies, too reliant on feeling to be screwball, too pleased with glamour to be satires – and thus less likely to attract critical attention."" This essay was written as an introduction to a retrospective series of showings of Leisen's films in 2008 at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris, France. As does Melville, Rappaport speculates on how some of Billy Wilder's and Preston Sturges' scripts that Leisen directed would have fared if their writers had directed them instead. Shadoian is a film scholar who wrote the monograph Dreams and Dead Ends: The American Gangster Film (1978, 2003).
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