The Directors: Henry Koster

I have seen most of Henry Koster's movies.  He made no westerns or film noirs but he did a number of lesser musicals and more importantly he worked with many people whose films usually found me sitting in the audience... Jimmy Stewart, Betty Grable, Jean Simmons, Richard Burton, among them.  Most of his career was spent at 20th Century Fox as a second-tier director.

He was part of the crowd that were German directors who immigrated to America as Hitler took over.  The family was Jewish and Koster(litz) was born in Berlin in 1905.  His father ditched the family when Henry was still very young.  His uncle opened a movie theater and his mother played the piano there.  The youngster spent most days there watching movies, frequently over and over again.

He was still in high school went he began working as a short story writer and a cartoonist.  That got him hired by a movie company as a writer.  He became an assistant to Curtis Bernhardt who would one day be a director in the States as well.  Bernhardt fell ill and Koster took over the directing chores.  He felt he'd found his true calling and went on to direct a few German films.

One day Koster was in a bank and was ridiculed by a young Nazi and Koster knocked him out.  He knew he had to leave which he did that very day.  He went to France where Bernhardt was now located.  He made a few French films and other European ones.  He also spent some time in Hungary where he met actress Kato Kiraly whom he married.  He also met producer Joe Pasternak, who represented Universal Pictures in Europe, and he made a couple of films for him.

In 1936 Pasternak, Koster and his wife moved to Los Angeles.  Though he spoke little English at the time, his first assignment was to get Canadian lyric soprano Deanna Durbin's movie career off the ground.  It has been said that the Koster-Durbin pairing saved Universal from extinction. 

He directed her debut in Three Smart Girls (1936).  Universal hoped the 14-year old would be a serious threat to Fox's Shirley Temple but despite Durbin's glorious voice, that never happened.  Koster and Durbin followed up with One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937),Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939), First Love (1940) where Robert Stack provided her first screen kiss, Spring Parade (1940) and It Started with Eve (1941).

I don't think you want to read the synopsis of those six movies any more than I want to write about them... so let's not.  Run your eyes over those titles again and let's agree they tell you all you need to know.  Koster's career is punctuated with musicals.  

Koster would work with no actor more than Durbin but he paired up or tripled up with several others.  Big-name actors (in some of their lesser roles) might ask for him on the next assignment.  Koster was easy to get along with and cared about actors and was sympathetic to their needs.

If you enjoyed the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, you can thank Koster.  He spotted them in a New York nightclub and recommended that Universal hire them.

Despite his escape from Nazi Germany, when the U..S. entered WWII, Koster was considered an enemy agent and was confined to his home in the evenings.  Everyone knows enemy agents only work at night.

When Pasternak left Universal in 1941 for greener pastures at the mighty MGM, Koster went with him.  In 1942 he and Kiraly were divorced and the same year he married actress Peggy Moran who was featured in Abbott and Costello's first film.  They would remain married until Koster's death. 

With wife Peggy Moran

His stay at MGM was brief and he worked on three musicals, two of them working with an even younger child actress than Durbin.  Music for Millions (1944) which essentially recycled the Durbin formula with 7-year old Margaret O'Brien being adopted by Jose Iturbi's orchestra with the help of June Allyson and Jimmy Durante.

O'Brien stayed home while Durante and Allyson joined up with Kathryn Grayson and Peter Lawford for the  popular Two Sisters from Boston (1946).  The routine story concerns Grayson's stay in New York and accepting family money to take opera lessons.  She goes to great lengths to keep visiting sister Allyson from knowing she works at a saloon.  Grayson and Allyson as sisters is a stretch but I paid little mind as I was crazy about both of them..

Three years older, O'Brien was back for The Unfinished Dance (1947) and I find it her best role.  As a ballet student O'Brien finds that the school's top ballerina, Cyd Charisse, whom she idolizes, will not dance in the school's production of Swan Lake.  She sets out to sabotage the work of Karin Booth (a B actress in her best role) who got the role. There can be no doubt Koster had an expertise handling child actors.  Danny Thomas and Lola Albright made their film debuts.

Koster went to Samuel Goldwyn Studios to replace William Seiter as the director of The Bishop's Wife (1947).  Goldwyn didn't like Seiter's work when he saw it and fired him.  Teresa Wright had started filming as the wife but the interruption caused by different directors and her pregnancy resulted in her departure.  When Koster joined so did Loretta Young.  Cary Grant and David Niven remained.

When Koster then saw the Seiter footage, he didn't like Grant as the bishop and Niven as the angel and insisted they switch roles, much to Grant's chagrin.  Regardless, The Bishop's Wife turned out to be one of the films for which Koster would be remembered and it seems to be on television every Christmas season.  (Shhhhh, I've never seen it.)  It would garner Koster his only Oscar nomination.

Koster with his boss, Darryl Zanuck

This ends the first part of Koster's American career and the second and larger part would commence with his being hired as a contract director at Fox.  I mentioned he was second tier earlier.  It's not for lack of talent but more a lack of opportunity.  At Fox he had to contend with Henry King (with whom he was often confused), Walter Lang, Jean Negulesco and others who made similar types of films but they got the plum assignments.   

After helming the saccharine romance The Luck of the Irish (1948) with Anne Baxter and Tyrone Power, Koster made the second of the films for which he would be most remembered, Come to the Stable (1949).  Reunited with Young and joined by Celeste Holm, they play transplanted French nuns who arrive in Bethlehem, Connecticut to help raise funds for a children's hospital.  I suspect some religious folks were noticing he was behind some of their favorite movies.  

Two Betty Grable films, Wabash Avenue and My Blue Heaven, were a waste of time except for Grable's singing and dancing.  She was known for turning down roles.  Why didn't she turn these down?  Wabash was a remake of Coney Island, a movie she'd done seven years earlier.  Koster didn't enjoy the luxury Grable enjoyed.  She was the #1 American movie star for some time running and he was the second-tier director who did as Darryl Zanuck ordered.

Then comes Harvey, also 1950, Koster's first film with Jimmy Stewart, surely the most treasured film of the director's career.  I've said before that the story of an odd man and his invisible six-foot rabbit friend whom he talks to is not my cup of tea.  Guess I was just never let in on the joke.  It's popularity, however, cannot be in dispute.  The reviews were kind, the public enthusiastic and Stewart said it was his favorite film.  Koster said working with Stewart was one of the most enjoyable experiences of his work life.

Harvey and friend

After two box office bombs with Clifton Webb, Koster's Stars and Stripes Forever (1952), the hyper, fictionalized story of the famous military march king, John Philip Sousa, made some money.  Webb is perfection in the role (his favorite) and I loved the made-up characters played enthusiastically by Robert Wagner and Debra Paget.

Koster took a new direction with My Cousin Rachel (1952).  It was and out-and-out drama and a mystery to boot.  Nobody sang, nobody laughed really and there were no little brats.  There was, however, Richard Burton in his American film debut, suspecting that Olivia deHavilland has snuffed his uncle and then he meets her and... well, everyone knows how horny Richard Burton was.

Koster (and Fox) surprised us again when he was given the ultra-plum assignment of directing The Robe (1953).  I think folks were surprised that he was going to steer one of their premier showcase presentations that year.  What, was Henry King visiting the jungles of Borneo?  Was Walter Lang booked?  Borrow George Stevens.  He liked spectacle.  Did no one have DeMille's phone number?  

Zanuck pulled technicians off other projects to give their all to the magnificence that would become The Robe.  There wasn't going to be a premiere, there was going to be an event... certainly by 1953 standards.

It would star Burton as an arrogant Roman tribune who has command of the crucifixion of Christ and who becomes a passionate convert through an obsession over Jesus's robe.  Burton hated the role (not exactly a surprise) and thought he was awful.  A few critics agreed.

I am not fond of biblical epics or spectacles in general but I saw this because one of my favorite actresses and beauties is its lead actress, Jean Simmons.  Victor Mature is muscular and moody as Demetrius (there would be a sequel based on this character).  There was the stately Michael Rennie, the wonderful Dean Jagger, the peculiar Jay Robinson playing the peculiar Caligula.  It was a cast that turned me on.

Adding to all this was Fox was premiering its brand new widescreen process called Cinemascope.  The Robe would be the first film presented in this process.  (I believe How to Marry a Millionaire, another Fox film, was actually the first one filmed in the new look but The Robe beat it to the screen.)  

Unfortunately all the pomp and circumstance, the spectacle, the killing, the cast of thousands, the blaring horns and pounding of drums combine to make the story  get a little lost.  Maybe a little less pageantry and a little more heart would have been the ticket.  Regardless, the public showed up.

Even for the actors I had a little criticism.  I thought they were all vying for an Oscar.  This was their chance.  Everyone will see it.  See Me.  Emote.  Emote.  Or maybe they were trying so hard because they felt competitive and in awe of Burton.  He certainly was.   

Koster adored his two stars

   

When Koster got wind of the criticism, it must have hurt but he was proud of what they did.  The actors generally loved working with him as much as he loved working with them.  He said Burton was a wonderful man who was always seeking perfection in his work.  He said he loved Simmons when he worked with her and later in life he still did.

Fox thought the coins would come rolling in again for Désirée (1954), the story of Napoleon's love for the beautiful seamstress of the title while being married to the shrew Josephine.  Koster would direct, Simmons and Rennie were excited about more fun and Brando (what could be more fun?) would join in.  He was embarrassing as Napoleon and so is the film.  (Jean, it grieves me to talk this way.)  

Perhaps my favorite of all of Koster's films is A Man Called Peter (1955).  Before you cry out... hey, you don't like religious films... it's more religious spectacles that don't rock my foundation.  This is a quiet, little, based-on-a-true-story film of a young Scottish minister, Peter Marshall, who comes to America where in short time winds up as pastor at the Church of the Presidents in Washington, D.C. and then as chaplain of the U.S. Senate.

The film and story are greatly enhanced by the winning performances of Richard Todd and another of my favorite Fox Jeans... Peters... as his devoted wife.  I think most folks, whether religious or not, will find this a heart-warming story about a most charming couple.  As it turns out, it was Peters' last big screen role.  

Todd was back and most effective as Sir Walter Raleigh with Bette Davis as The Virgin Queen (1955).  She was playing Elizabeth I for the second time.  The story concerns all the court intrigue of Raleigh and the Queen's relationship as he tries to get financing for a trip to the New World.  It's an entertaining movie and Koster was purportedly thrilled to be working with Davis and didn't seem to change his mind when she became not so fun.

Koster was the right director for the sentimental tale of a stern but beloved teacher in Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955).  He wanted to work with Jennifer Jones and touted her for the role of the teacher who is hospitalized and as she is visited by her students, past and present, we see through flashbacks the kind of teacher and person she is.  It's a lovely little film.

Love affairs are at the heart of two films Koster made with one of his favorite actors, Robert Taylor.  In D-Day the Sixth of June (1956), Taylor and Todd, en route to Normandy, reminisce about their relationships with the same woman (Dana Wynter).  In The Power and the Prize (1956) Taylor is an American businessman in London who receives opposition from his superiors when he announces plans to marry an Austrian refugee.  I enjoyed this film far more than I thought I would.

Koster in bed with June Allyson

My Man Godfrey (1957) was an unnecessary remake of a superior William Powell-Carole Lombard film about a rich girl on a scavenger hunt who brings home a vagrant (she thinks) and employs him as the family butler.  June Allyson and David Niven acquit themselves well and Martha Hyer and Allyson are great fun as feuding sisters.  This was one of Koster's favorite films to make.

The Naked Maja (1958), a story of the Spanish painter Goya and an aloof duchess, did not do well and critics raked Ava Gardner and Anthony Franciosa over the coals.

The following year it was announced that Koster would direct Stephen Boyd in the film version of Mary Renault's tale of ancient Greece, The King Must Die, but it was deemed too expensive and a financial risk and was shelved.

It was back to musicals for Flower Drum Song (1961) which was perhaps difficult for Koster because of his dealings with producer Ross Hunter and Universal.  It is the least financially successful of Rodgers and Hammerstein's filmed musicals and perhaps my least favorite as well although I liked the two leads.

James Shigeta and Nancy Kwan

It has a virtually all-Asian cast playing Chinese characters although interestingly only Nancy Kwan was part-Chinese while James Shigeta, Miyoshi Umeki and Jack Soo were Japanese and Juanita Hall was African-American.

Koster and his buddy Jimmy Stewart hadn't worked together for years.  I guess both men likely thought three collaborations in a row would be a good thing but unfortunately it was not.  They were all comedies and rehashed, silly stuff.  And Stewart was too old for all of them.  They did neither actor nor director any good at all.

Maureen O'Hara, in the first of two pairings with the actor, was a good match but the story of a family vacation gone wrong was so tired and corny in 1962's Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (damn I hate titles like that).  Worse was playing Sandra Dee's father (instead of grandfather) in Take Her, She's Mine (1963) with my answer being Just Take Her... Away.   Dear Brigitte (1965) with Bardot in a don't-blink cameo appearance has Stewart as Billy Mumy's father (instead of great-grandfather) living on a houseboat.  None of these films did anything to raise Koster's stock.

Happiness is Debbie Reynolds as The Singing Nun (1966) appeared on the artwork and if you believe that, I have some swamp land I want to show you.  It is a gooey type of happiness loosely based on the exploits of a real life nun who made the song Dominique popular in 1963.  It didn't turn out so well for the real nun but one would never believe it by watching this.

After the nun sang, Koster decided it was time to retire.  Perhaps there had been too many duds and semi-duds,  He parked it in Camarillo, California where he indulged in his love of painting.  Many were portraits of some of the people with whom he had worked.  

All in all, his work in the sixties couldn't have turned out the way he would have wanted.  Even in the fifties most of his films, while containing some definite crowd-pleasers, were also likely not what he wanted.  Let's agree there are reasons why directors like Henry King or Walter Lang would have turned down some of these assignments.

Koster is largely unknown because that's the way he wanted it.  He wasn't fond of showing off or making himself the center of attention.  He just wanted to go to work and come home to a wife he adored and their children.  He will primarily be remembered for his work on Harvey, The Robe and The Bishop's Wife.  I remember him for A Man Called Peter, The Unfinished Dance and Stars and Stripes Forever.

Henry Koster died in Camarillo in 1988 from liver cancer.  He was 83 years old.

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