Edmund Goulding(1891-1959)
- Writer
- Director
- Actor
London-born Edmund Goulding was an actor/playwright/director on the
London stage, and entered the British army when WWI broke out. Mustered
out of the service because of wounds suffered in battle, he emigrated
to the U.S. in 1921. He obtained assignments as a screenwriter in
Hollywood, wrote a novel, "Fury," in 1922 and directed the film version
of it (Fury (1923)). Hired as a screenwriter/director by MGM in 1925,
Goulding quickly developed a reputation for turning out tasteful,
cultured dramas and drawing-room comedies. His films typified the
elegance and refinement with which MGM was identified, the best example
of this being Grand Hotel (1932). He was entrusted with the pictures of some of
MGM's biggest stars, such as Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford. However, one of his
best-known films, and probably the one most atypical of his work, was
Nightmare Alley (1947), a dark, brooding drama of greed and corruption among high and
low society involving phony mentalists and a conniving
psychiatrist.
