
Maurice Tourneur
Directing
Biography
Maurice Félix Thomas (1876 – 1961), known as Maurice Tourneur, was a French film director and screenwriter. His son, Jacques (1904–1977), would follow his father into the film industry, establishing his own reputation as a director of American films in the 1940s and 1950s.
Known For

An aristocratic woman is coerced by her impoverished family into marrying a wealthy business tycoon.
Samson

In 17th-century England, an outlaw clan kidnaps a young girl, who grows up among them. The farm boy who met her just before the kidnapping eventually rescues her, and they fall in love.
Lorna Doone

Volpone, an elderly Venetian, connives with his money-crazed servant to convince his greedy friends that he is dying, knowing that each will try to curry favor with him in order to be named his heir. He is inundated with valuable gifts, and soon finds himself entangled deeper and deeper in a web of lies.
Volpone

Stage actress Marianne has decided to give up her career to marry wealthy nobleman Marquis Antoine de Fontaines. As a wedding present, Antoine gives his future wife a precious diamond necklace, which is coveted by a gang of crooks. Jean, one of them, is given the mission to approach Marianne and steal the necklace from her. The only trouble is that when he meets her, she recognizes him as the man she once loved.
Impasse of Two Angels

The hypnotic Svengali controls the singing voice of a young starlet, but he cannot control her heart.
Trilby

On a volcanic island near the Kingdom of Hetvia rules Count Dakkar, a benevolent leader and scientist who has eliminated class distinction among the island's inhabitants. Dakkar, his sister Sonia and her fiance, engineer Nicolai Roget have designed a submarine which Roget pilots on its initial voyage just before the island is overrun by Baron Falon, despotic ruler of Hetvia. Falon sets out after Roget in a second submarine and the two craft, diving to the ocean's floor, discover a strange land populated by dragons, giant squid and an eerie undiscovered humanoid race.
The Mysterious Island

As Alice and Cora Munro attempt to find their father, a British officer in the French and Indian War, they are set upon by French soldiers and their cohorts, Huron tribesmen led by the evil Magua. Fighting to rescue the women are Chingachgook and his son Uncas, the last of the Mohican tribe, and their white ally, the frontiersman Natty Bumppo, known as Hawkeye.
The Last of the Mohicans

Vincento Perez, the governor of the Portuguese colony of Exile, is an unscrupulous and brutal man who is hated by the natives. Furthering his schemes, Perez tries to force silk dealers out of business, and reveals his plans to government engineer Richmond Harvey in a letter appealing for the American's help.
Exile

"The County Fair" begins with a nasty rich guy threatening to turn an old lady onto the street--unless her niece (who lives with her) marries this man's son. While she's dead set against it, the niece is a sweet thing and would do anything to help her aunt--even marry the rich jerk. However, a possible way out is presented. When a poor young man is taken in and fed, he turns out (naturally) to be a jockey and thinks he can win the $3000 prize at the fair and save the farm.
The County Fair

A young doctor gets stuck on a ship after treating an injured first mate. Later, he rescues a woman from plane wreckage, and with the help of the cook, he hides her away from the rowdy and dangerous crew.
The Ship of Lost Men

Gwen's family is rich, but her parents ignore her and most of the servants push her around, so she is lonely and unhappy. Her father is concerned only with making money, and her mother cares only about her social position. But one day a servant's irresponsibility creates a crisis that causes everyone to rethink what is important to them.
The Poor Little Rich Girl

A woman in Canada abused by her aunt falls in love with a foreign composer looking for inspiration, who comes to find it in her and the star-crossed romance that develops between them.
The Broken Butterfly

A struggling artist buys a talisman that gives him love, fame and wealth. The talisman is a severed left hand, and it works perfectly, in fact, magically. But of course there is nothing free in this world, and after one year the devil comes and asks for his due.
Carnival of Sinners

A tramp learns that even honesty won't help him overcome his struggles to prosper. After a man tells him that he needs to smile in order to succeed, he turns his attitude around and he becomes successful.
With a Smile

Adaptation of Joseph Conrad novel about lust and violence on a South Seas Island.
Victory

Cecile, a young girl who goes to the offices of the Judicial Police several times in a row to complain about nightly visits to the apartment she occupies with her aunt, is not taken seriously by the police until she the day she is found murdered.
Cecile Is Dead

Mary's kid brother needs an operation and, in order to pay for it, Mary goes to a Hollywood studio and applies for a job as an actress. Mary is given a job as a waitress in the commissary, and gets to meet 40 actors, actresses and directors, none of whom tip big enough to enable Mary to earn enough money to pay for an operation. Will Mary become an actress and make some big money?
Mary of the Movies

When a sculptor falls in love with his model but finds his love unrequited, he plans to kill his love rival with the help of the owner of a Horror Wax museum. The film is considered lost.
While Paris Sleeps

A young British nobleman, impoverished and desperate, clings to the hope that either a prizefighter or a racehorse in which he holds interests can save his fortunes.
Sporting Life

Horace Ventimore, a young London architect, stumbles across an old brass bottle. When he picks it up a genie suddenly appears and promises Horace that he will grant every wish Horace wants in exchange for his freedom. Horace accepts the genie's offer but finds out that things aren't working out quite as well as he thought they would.