Mark Sandrich

Mark Sandrich (born October 26, 1901, New York, New York, U.S.—died March 4, 1945, Hollywood, California) was an American film director who was best known for his Fred Astaire–Ginger Rogers musicals, notably Top Hat (1935).

Sandrich attended Columbia University before taking his first job in the movie business as a prop man. In 1926 he began directing comedy shorts, and two years later he helmed his first feature, Runaway Girls, a melodrama about a young woman who finds herself in danger after moving to the big city. He cowrote as well as directed The Talk of Hollywood (1929) before being demoted back to shorts with the coming of sound films. In 1933, however, he was assigned the comedy musical Melody Cruise, and that year he also made the short So This Is Harris!, which won an Academy Award. Sandrich subsequently focused on feature films. The musical Aggie Appleby, Maker of Men (1933) included several elaborate Busby Berkeley-like numbers. Hips, Hips, Hooray and Cockeyed Cavaliers (both 1934) were popular Bert Wheeler–Robert Woolsey comedies.

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It was The Gay Divorcee (1934), however, that put Sandrich on the map. The first of the Fred Astaire–Ginger Rogers vehicles (they had been featured performers in Flying Down to Rio the year before), it was a huge hit and established the formula that would carry Astaire and Rogers through the decade. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for best picture, but its only Oscar win was for the song “The Continental.” The trio reteamed for Top Hat (1935), which was even more successful. In addition to its notable dance numbers, the musical included screwball comedic touches that broadened its appeal. Top Hat was a major box-office success and is widely regarded as a classic. It received an Oscar nomination for best picture. Sandrich then directed Astaire and Rogers in Follow the Fleet (1936), which featured Betty Grable and Lucille Ball in early screen roles.

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A second Astaire-Rogers picture was scheduled for 1936—Swing Time—but was given to George Stevens instead. Sandrich made A Woman Rebels (1936), a proto-feminist period piece with Katharine Hepburn. It was one of Hepburn’s string of mid-1930s commercial failures, though the film later drew praise from contemporary viewers. Sandrich reunited with Astaire and Rogers on Shall We Dance (1937); while the formula was beginning to fray around the edges, the songs by Ira and George Gershwin, including “They All Laughed” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me,” were memorable. In 1938 Sandrich made Carefree, his last collaboration with both Astaire and Rogers. The film departed from the usual formula, focusing less on musical numbers and more on comedy.

Sandrich then directed Jack Benny in the comedy musicals Man About Town (1939), Buck Benny Rides Again (1940), and Love Thy Neighbor (1940). Next was Skylark (1941), a deft romantic comedy with Claudette Colbert and Ray Milland. In 1942 Sandrich made the bucolic musical Holiday Inn, an enormous box-office success that featured Irving Berlin’s Oscar-winning song “White Christmas.” That film starred Bing Crosby as an entertainer who retires and opens an inn; Astaire was cast as his former stage partner.

So Proudly We Hail (1943) was a change of pace for Sandrich, a grimly patriotic drama about a group of nurses stationed in the Pacific during World War II. The cast included Colbert, Veronica Lake, Sonny Tufts, and Paulette Goddard, who was nominated for an Academy Award. Here Come the Waves (1944) was a return to the more familiar territory of musical comedy; it featured Crosby and Betty Hutton. Sandrich’s other 1944 film was I Love a Soldier, a wartime soap opera starring Goddard and Tufts. In 1945 the director began working on the musical Blue Skies (1946) with Astaire and Crosby. During production, however, Sandrich died of a heart attack; Stuart Heisler completed the film.