Jack Conway(1887-1952)
- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Born Hugh Ryan Conway of Irish ancestry, Jack Conway was one of a team of MGM
contract directors (others included
Sam Wood and
Robert Z. Leonard), who forsook any
pretense to a specific individual style in favor of working within the
strictures set forth by studio management--as embodied by
Irving Thalberg and his production
supervisors. The overall MGM strategy was to streamline efficiency and
achieve tighter fiscal control by curbing the power of the director.
Deeply suspicious of creative, individualistic filmmakers who would
jeopardize the
"studio look", Thalberg and MGM chief Louis B. Mayer
hoped to prevent such budgetary excesses as had been perpetrated by
directors like Erich von Stroheim
during the 1920s. Conway contented himself with working under
these guidelines. A thoroughly competent craftsman, he delivered
commercially successful entertainments on time and within budget.
Conway had started out in the industry as an actor, joining a repertory theatre group straight out of high school. He segued into film acting in 1909. Two years later he became a member of D.W. Griffith's stock company, appearing primarily as a leading man in westerns. In 1913 he made his mark as a director and gained valuable experience at Universal (1916-17, 1921-23) before moving on to MGM in 1925. He directed the studio's first sound picture, Alias Jimmy Valentine (1928). He remained under contract until 1948, often in charge of prestige assignments featuring the studio's top male star, Clark Gable: Boom Town (1940), Honky Tonk (1941), The Hucksters (1947)--all solid box-office gold. For his most famous film, A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Conway utilized 17,000 extras in the Paris mob scenes alone. This spectacular adaptation of the classic novel by Charles Dickens is still regarded by many as the definitive screen version.
Another popular hit was the sophisticated all-star comedy Libeled Lady (1936), the "New York Times" reviewer commenting on Conway's "agile direction" (Oct. 31, 1936). The journeyman director may not have achieved fame as a creative genius, yet the majority of his films remain eminently entertaining to this day. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Vine Street.
Conway had started out in the industry as an actor, joining a repertory theatre group straight out of high school. He segued into film acting in 1909. Two years later he became a member of D.W. Griffith's stock company, appearing primarily as a leading man in westerns. In 1913 he made his mark as a director and gained valuable experience at Universal (1916-17, 1921-23) before moving on to MGM in 1925. He directed the studio's first sound picture, Alias Jimmy Valentine (1928). He remained under contract until 1948, often in charge of prestige assignments featuring the studio's top male star, Clark Gable: Boom Town (1940), Honky Tonk (1941), The Hucksters (1947)--all solid box-office gold. For his most famous film, A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Conway utilized 17,000 extras in the Paris mob scenes alone. This spectacular adaptation of the classic novel by Charles Dickens is still regarded by many as the definitive screen version.
Another popular hit was the sophisticated all-star comedy Libeled Lady (1936), the "New York Times" reviewer commenting on Conway's "agile direction" (Oct. 31, 1936). The journeyman director may not have achieved fame as a creative genius, yet the majority of his films remain eminently entertaining to this day. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Vine Street.
