Robert Z. Leonard
1889 - 1968Robert Zigler Leonard (October 7, 1889, Chicago, Illinois - August 27, 1968, Beverly Hills, California) was an American film director, actor, producer and screenwriter.
At one time he was married to silent superstar Mae Murray, with the two forming Tiffany Pictures to film eight motion pictures that were released by MGM.
He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for The Divorcee and The Great Ziegfeld. Both were also nominated for Best Picture, and the latter won. One of the most odd credits in his filmography is the film noir thriller The Bribe (1949) with its sleazy settings, slippery characters and steamy atmosphere.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Robert Z. Leonard has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6368 Hollywood Blvd.
Mademoiselle Modiste
Robert Z. Leonard
Corinne Griffith, Norman Kerry
Robert Z. Leonard directed Griffith in a story based on a popular 1905 Victor Herbert operetta on Broadway, Mlle. Modiste, with a libretto by Henry Martyn Blossom, which was similar to the MGM film The Merry Widow. The film is now considered a lost film. The story was refilmed in 1930 as the talkie Kiss Me Again.
Mademoiselle Modiste
Cheaper to Marry
Robert Z. Leonard
Conrad Nagel, Lewis Stone
Dick Tyler is the junior partner in the law firm of Knight and Tyler. He tries to convince his partner, Jim Tyler, than it's cheaper to be married than to continually "play the field". The main reason he's doing that is because Jim is obsessed with the beautiful Evelyn, a gold-digger on whom Jim is spending prodigious amounts of money. Things take a turn for the worse when his spending on her gets to the point where it's placing the firm dangerously close to bankruptcy. Something has to be done.
Cheaper to Marry
Heritage
Robert Z. Leonard
Ella Hall, Robert Z. Leonard
Kate, whose father, a university graduate, died when she was very young, is adopted by her tenement neighbor, Mrs. McMahon, after her mother, a woman of refinement, dies. At ten, the ill-nourished girl, who has grown up watching her drunken foster father fight with her overworked foster mother, goes to work in a factory after Mr. McMahon loses his job. During the next eight years, Kate's stepbrother, Big Bill McMahon, becomes her friend, sweetheart and protector.
Heritage
Judge Not; or The Woman of Mona Diggings
Robert Z. Leonard
Julia Dean, Harry Carter
Impoverished Molly Hanlon is befriended by crooked gambler Lee Kirk, she marries him in a phony ceremony. While frequenting Kirk's gambling den, Molly meets Miles Rand, the dissolute son of Judge Rand, whose obvious attraction for her encourages Kirk to swindle him out of his money. Penniless, Miles accepts a loan from Molly and returns East to study law. On the day that Molly learns that her marriage is not legal, the gambling den burns down and Kirk is presumed dead. After escaping with Kirk's money, Molly goes East where she encounters Miles, now a district attorney. In spite of the objections of Judge Rand, Molly accepts Miles's proposal, but after Kirk arrives in town, she calls off the engagement. When Kirk enters her apartment through a window, Molly kills him in a panic and is arrested for murder. The still faithful Miles defends her in court, and after her acquittal, she confesses her past and reunites with her old love.
Judge Not; or The Woman of Mona Diggings
The Silent Command
Robert Z. Leonard
Robert Z. Leonard, Ella Hall
Unable to pay for the operation that cured his daughter, a man promises to surrender her to the doctor on her eighteenth birthday. Knowing that the physician wishes to make her the subject of his experiments with hypnotism, the distressed father ultimately reneges on his promise, whereupon the doctor attempts to hypnotize the girl from afar.
The Silent Command
Pride and Prejudice
Robert Z. Leonard
Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier
Mr. and Mrs. Bennet have five unmarried daughters, and Mrs. Bennet is especially eager to find suitable husbands for them. When the rich single gentlemen Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy come to live nearby, the Bennets have high hopes. But pride, prejudice and misunderstandings all combine to complicate their relationships and to make happiness difficult.
Pride and Prejudice
Her Body in Bond
Robert Z. Leonard
Mae Murray, Kenneth Harlan
The cabaret act of husband-and-wife dancing team Peggy and Joe Blondin is broken up when Joe becomes consumptive and is ordered West to recuperate. Peggy remains in New York to maintain the couple's income but gradually becomes desperate when letters sent her by her husband request more and more money. Joe's letters actually are being intercepted and rewritten by millionaire Harlan Quinn, who has designs on Peggy and wishes to portray Joe's situation as hopeless. After receiving a particularly alarming letter, Peggy consents to sell her honor to Harlan.
Her Body in Bond
