
Jean Negulesco
Directing
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jean Negulesco (26 February 1900 – 18 July 1993) was a Romanian-born American film director and screenwriter. Born in Craiova, he attended Carol I High School. In 1915 he moved to Vienna, in 1919 to Bucharest, where he worked as a painter, before becoming a stage decorator in Paris. In 1927 he went to New York City for an exhibition of his paintings, and settled there. In 1934 he entered the film industry, first as a sketch artist, then as an assistant producer, second unit director and in the late 1930s he became a director and screenwriter. He made a reputation at Warner Brothers by directing short subjects, particularly a series of band shorts featuring unusual camera angles and dramatic use of shadows and silhouettes. Negulesco's first feature film as director was Singapore Woman (1941). In 1948 he was nominated for an Academy Award for Directing for Johnny Belinda. In 1955, he won the BAFTA Award for Best Film for How to Marry a Millionaire. His 1959 movie The Best of Everything was on Entertainment Weekly's "Top 50 Cult Films of All-Time" list. From the late 1960s, he lived in Marbella, Spain. He died there at age 93, of heart failure. During his Hollywood career and in his 1984 autobiography, Negulesco claimed to have been born on 29 February 1900; he was apparently motivated to make this statement because birthdays on Leap Year Day are comparatively rare. In fact, 1900 was not a leap year, so there was no 29 February in 1900. Negulesco's autobiography (in which this claim appears) is appropriately titled Things I Did and Things I Think I Did. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jean Negulesco, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
Known For

Unhappily married, Julia Sturges decides to go to America with her two children on the Titanic. Her husband, Richard also arranges passage on the luxury liner so as to have custody of their two children. All this fades to insignificance once the ship hits an iceberg.
Titanic

From his birth in Bethlehem to his death and eventual resurrection, the life of Jesus Christ is given the all-star treatment in this epic retelling. Major aspects of Christ's life are touched upon, including the execution of all the newborn males in Egypt by King Herod; Christ's baptism by John the Baptist; and the betrayal by Judas after the Last Supper that eventually leads to Christ's crucifixion and miraculous return.
The Greatest Story Ever Told

Three women set out to find eligible millionaires to marry, but find true love in the process.
How to Marry a Millionaire

Dashing pirate Geoffrey Thorpe plunders Spanish ships for Queen Elizabeth I and falls in love with Dona Maria, a beautiful Spanish royal he captures.
The Sea Hawk

Three American roommates working in Italy wish for the man of their dreams after throwing coins into Rome's magnificent Trevi Fountain. Frances, a secretary at a government agency, sets out to win the heart of her smooth-talking novelist employer; Anita, her coworker, defies office regulations by romancing an Italian who works at the agency; and office newcomer Maria meets a real Italian Prince Charming and falls madly in love. The only thing the three hopeful ladies need to do is seal their fate.
Three Coins in the Fountain

Five O. Henry stories, each separate. The primary one from the critics' acclaim was "The Cop and the Anthem". Soapy tells fellow bum Horace that he is going to get arrested so he can spend the winter in a nice jail cell. He fails. He can't even accost a woman; she turns out to be a streetwalker. The other stories are "The Clarion Call", "The Last Leaf", "The Ransom of Red Chief", and "The Gift of the Magi".
O. Henry's Full House

Needing to fill the position of general manager of his company, and believing that an executive's wife is crucial to her husband's success, auto industry mogul Gifford brings three couples to New York to size up: Jerry and Carol: he hard-driven and self-reliant, she willing to use her beauty to further her husband's career; Sid and Elizabeth, he ulcer-ridden and torn between achieving success and restoring their troubled marriage, she positive that his job will kill him, but gamely agreeing to play the good wife for the duration; and down-to-earth Bill, whose good-natured Katie fears that his promotion would spell the end of their idyllic familiy existence.
Woman's World

Phaedra is a poor sponge diver on the lovely Greek isle of Hydra. While diving, she discovers an ancient brass and gold statue of a boy riding a dolphin, which is said to have the magical power to grant wishes. Her shiftless boyfriend wants to sell it to an unscrupulous art collector, but Phaedra wants to give it to anthropologist Jim Calder, who would return it to the Greek government.
Boy on a Dolphin

An exposé of the lives and loves of Madison Avenue working girls and their higher-ups.
The Best of Everything

The heartbreaking but hopeful tale of Danny Kenny and Peggy Nash, two sweethearts who meet and struggle through their impoverished lives in New York City. When Peggy, hoping for something better in life for both of them, breaks off her engagement to Danny, he sets out to be a championship boxer, while she becomes a dancer paired with a sleazy partner. Will tragedy reunite the former lovers?
City for Conquest

A classical musician from a working class background is sidetracked by his love for a wealthy, neurotic socialite.
Humoresque

Four strangers board a plane and become fast friends, but a catastrophic crash leaves only one survivor. He then sets off on a journey to discover who these people were, but ultimately discovers the devastating truth about himself.
Phone Call from a Stranger

Wealthy American, Jervis Pendleton has a chance encounter at a French orphanage with a cheerful 18-year-old resident, and anonymously pays for her education at a New England college. She writes letters to her mysterious benefactor regularly, but he never writes back. Several years later, he visits her at school, while still concealing his identity, and—despite their large age difference—they soon fall in love.
Daddy Long Legs

A trio of gorgeous American tourists hope to find love while vacationing in Spain. Secretary Maggie Williams falls hard for a married newsman named Paul Barton while fighting off the advances of one of his employees. Singer Fran Hobson sets her sights on a handsome European doctor. And coed Susie Higgins receives an unexpected proposal from smooth-talking womanizer Emilio Lacaya.
The Pleasure Seekers

A small-town doctor helps a deaf-mute farm girl learn to communicate.
Johnny Belinda

On the eve of the Chinese New Year, three strangers, Crystal Shackleford, married to a wealthy philanderer; Jerome Artbutny, an outwardly respectable judge; and Johnny West, a seedy sneak thief, make a pact before a small statue of the Chinese goddess of Destiny. The threesome agree to purchase a sweepstakes ticket and share whatever winnings might accrue.
Three Strangers

A pretty Parisian law student falls in love with her boyfriend's uncle.
A Certain Smile

When the men of a Sicilian village start obsessing over ravishing blonde midwife Jessica, angry females revolt by refusing to have sex with their husbands. As the local priest tries to encourage procreation, Jessica falls for a tricky recluse.
Jessica

India. The spoilt and stubborn Edwina Esketh, comes to a small town with her husband. She falls in love with an indian doctor, Dr. Safti. She also meets an old friend of hers, the alcoholic Tom Ransome. An awful earthquake is followed by days of rain.
The Rains of Ranchipur

A mystery writer is intrigued by the tale of notorious criminal Dimitrios Makropolous, whose dead body was found washed up on the shore in Istanbul. He decides to follow the career of Dimitrios around Europe, in order to learn more about the man. Along the way he is joined by the mysterious Mr. Peters, who has his own motivation.