Curtis Bernhardt, a relatively unknown figure in the film industry, did not direct his first Hollywood feature until the age of 41 in 1940. Prior to this, he had spent years working in Germany, where his Jewish heritage made it impossible for him to continue living after 1933. Arrested by the Gestapo and forced to make a harrowing underground escape to France, Bernhardt left for America in 1939, bringing with him a limited grasp of the English language.
Despite this, he was offered seven-year contracts at both Warner Bros. and MGM, largely due to the success of his 1938 film "Carrefour," which was later remade in the UK as "Dead Man's Shoes" and in the US as "Crossroads" by MGM. Most émigrés would have jumped at the opportunity to work at MGM, considered the "Tiffany" of film studios, but Bernhardt opted for Warner Bros., attracted by the studio's reputation for hard-boiled realism.
His career in Hollywood began with a false start, as he fell ill and was reassigned to work on the Olivia de Havilland vehicle "My Love Came Back" (1940),which received good notices. Bernhardt quickly established himself as a woman's director, occasionally venturing into suspense with varying results. He directed one of Humphrey Bogart's least popular films, "Conflict" (1945),which was burdened by ludicrous plot contrivances, but bounced back the following year with the successful melodrama "My Reputation" (1946),starring Barbara Stanwyck.
However, Bernhardt's next film, the critically panned "Devotion" (1946),was a misfire, and he would go on to direct three more films for Warner Bros. before ending his contract in 1947. He briefly moved to MGM, where he felt compelled to cater to the whims of its stars and the demands of studio chief Louis B. Mayer. During his short stay at Metro, Bernhardt managed to produce two above-average films, the suspenseful "High Wall" (1947) starring Robert Taylor, and the melodrama "The Doctor and the Girl" (1949),starring Glenn Ford.
Bernhardt soon moved to RKO, where he directed the suspenseful "The Blue Veil" (1951),a remake of a French film. He did a one-shot gig at Columbia, directing Bogart once again in the hopelessly set-bound "Sirocco" (1951),and spent the remainder of the 1950s back at MGM, concluding his Hollywood career with the middling comedy "Kisses for My President" (1964) at Warner Bros.
He retired from directing due to illness in the mid-1960s and passed away in 1981 at the age of 81 at his home in Pacific Palisades, California.
