Mark Sandrich

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Mark Sandrich birth name Mark Rex Goldstein October 26 1900 March 4 1945 was a Jewish American film director writer and producer One of the most gifted and least heralded directors of the 1930s and early 1940s Sandrich was an engineering student at Columbia University when he started the movie business by accident When visiting a friend on a film set he saw that the director had a problem in setting up a shot Sandrich offered his advice It worked He then entered into the movies in the prop department and became a director specializing in several comedy shorts in 1927 He then made his first feature the next year but returned to shorts after the sound arrival In 1933 he directed the Academy Awardwinning short So This Is Harris He later returned to feature films most notably comedies starring the team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey in Hips Hips Hooray In 1934 Sandrich soon got his first directing assignment on the Fred AstaireGinger Rogers musical The Gay Divorcee which proved a success The following year he directed what is widely regarded as the best movie ever made by the legendary dance team Top Hat which excelled in every department including music and choreography It was all pulled together seamlessly by Sandrich After that several other movies such as Follow the Fleet Shall We Dance and Carefree followed In 1940 Sandrich left RKO for Paramount which offered him a chance to be not only a director but as well as a producer He made other several successful films in this capacity including two with Jack Benny Buck Benny Rides Again and Love Thy Neighbor both released in 1940 and the romantic comedy Skylark starring Claudette Colbert and Ray Milland However while all these were hits it was Holiday Inn in 1942 starring Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby with music by Irving Berlin that showed Sandrich at his best The musicalcomedy actually started on the eve of Americas entry into World War II It featured sufficient serious overtones to capture the mood of the time and showed Crosby and Astaire to brilliant advantage as performers who are rivals for the same woman and it introduced the song White Christmas highlighted by the crooner Crosby which remained the biggest selling popular song in history for fiftytwo years So Proudly We Hail was a Sandrichproduced and directed adaptation of the hit play It was extremely popular and successful and featured a pair of performers Adrian Booth and George Reeves whom Sandrich had intended to bring to stardom after the war However it wasnt to be In 1945 while in preproduction on a follow up to Holiday Inn called Blue Skies starring Bing Crosby and featuring Irving Berlins music and serving as president of the Directors Guild Sandrich died suddenly of heart failure He was at this time one of the most trusted and influential directors in Hollywood respected by his colleagues and the studio management His sons Mark Sandrich Jr and Jay Sandrich have gone onto successful careers as directors His interment was located at Home of Peace Cemetery Description above from the Wikipedia article Mark Sandrich licensed under CCBYSAfull list of contributors on Wikipedia