Robert Stevenson

Robert Stevenson (born March 31, 1905, Buxton, Derbyshire, England—died April 30, 1986, Santa Barbara, California, U.S.) was a British-born American director best known for his numerous Disney movies, which included such classics as Johnny Tremain (1957) and Mary Poppins (1964).

Early films

After studying at the University of Cambridge, Stevenson embarked on a film career in Britain. He worked as a screenwriter before codirecting (with Paul Martin) his first film, A Blonde Dream (also known as Happy Ever After) in 1932. His first solo effort was Nine Days a Queen (1936; also known as Tudor Rose), a historical drama about Lady Jane Grey. Other notable early films include Non-Stop New York and King Solomon’s Mines (both 1937), the latter of which starred Paul Robeson. In 1939 Stevenson was put under contract by David O. Selznick and brought to Hollywood. Selznick, however, never used Stevenson himself, instead loaning out the director to a number of studios. Stevenson’s first American film, Tom Brown’s School Days (1940), was a colourful adaptation of Thomas Hughes’s popular novel, with Freddie Bartholomew and Jimmy Lydon. (At about this time Stevenson became a U.S. citizen.) Stevenson followed it with the melodrama Back Street (1941), a fine adaptation of Fannie Hurst’s novel; it starred Charles Boyer and Margaret Sullavan as illicit lovers.

Stevenson worked on several documentary films during World War II while also continuing to direct features. Joan of Paris (1942) was one of the best early World War II action movies and starred Michèle Morgan, Paul Henreid, and Laird Cregar. Stevenson then contributed a segment to the episodic drama Forever and a Day (1943). The intergenerational family saga featured an all-star cast of British performers. The well-mounted adaptation (1943) of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre starred Joan Fontaine, Orson Welles (whose hand hovers over this atmospheric production), and Margaret O’Brien; Elizabeth Taylor appeared in an uncredited role. In the mystery Dishonored Lady (1947), Hedy Lamarr portrayed a magazine editor accused of murder. To the Ends of the Earth (1948), an especially good Dick Powell opus about the international opium trade, ranks with the best hard-boiled films of that time. Stevenson closed out the decade with the frenetic I Married a Communist (1949; also known as The Woman on Pier 13). Robert Ryan played a businessman being blackmailed by members of the Communist Party, who threaten to expose his earlier involvement with the group if he fails to help them; Laraine Day was cast as his wife.

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Walk Softly, Stranger (1950) was a moody love story in which a thief (played by Joseph Cotten) turns over a new leaf after he falls in love with a disabled girl (Alida Valli). The drama My Forbidden Past (1951) featured Robert Mitchum and Ava Gardner in 19th-century New Orleans. The Las Vegas Story (1952) was a disappointing film noir starring Victor Mature, Vincent Price, and Jane Russell. The movie was perhaps best remembered for the battle between the Screen Writers Guild and producer Howard Hughes, who refused to credit Paul Jarrico because of the latter’s alleged communist leanings; Hughes ultimately prevailed, though years later Jarrico’s name was added. Stevenson then moved to television, working on such anthology series as The Ford Television Theatre, Cavalcade of America, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He also directed several episodes of Gunsmoke.

Films for Disney

In 1956 Stevenson joined Walt Disney’s Buena Vista division. There he would make 19 films, several of which were the best children’s pictures of that era. First was Johnny Tremain (1957), an adaptation of Esther Forbes’s novel about a youth’s adventures during the American Revolution. Later in 1957 came Old Yeller, a heartbreaking drama based on Fred Gipson’s book about a boy (Tommy Kirk) and his dog in 1850s Texas; his parents were played by Dorothy McGuire and Fess Parker. Also successful was Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959), a whimsical fantasy centring on leprechauns; it featured a young Sean Connery and noteworthy special effects.

In 1960 Stevenson directed Kidnapped, a popular adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel; its top-notch cast included Peter Finch, Peter O’Toole, and James MacArthur. Next was The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), which was a huge success at the box office; it starred Fred MacMurray as the inventor of flying rubber, known as “flubber.” Stevenson also directed the sequel, Son of Flubber (1963). In Search of the Castaways, an adaptation of the Jules Verne novel, was one of 1962’s top-grossing films. Also successful was The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964), with Tommy Kirk as a brilliant teenaged inventor; it spawned a sequel, The Monkey’s Uncle (1965), which Stevenson also helmed.

In 1964 Stevenson made the film for which he was best remembered, Mary Poppins. The children’s classic about a magical nanny, which was based on the novel by P.L. Travers, was one of the decade’s biggest hits, a unique combination of live action and animation. It received 13 Academy Award nominations, including Stevenson’s only nod for best director. It won four Oscars, including a best actress statuette for Julie Andrews (in her film debut). That Darn Cat! (1965) was perhaps the best of Stevenson’s later movies; it featured Hayley Mills as the plucky heroine who aids an FBI agent (Dean Jones). Stevenson then made The Gnome-Mobile (1967), which was based on Upton Sinclair’s novel The Gnomobile. It offered Walter Brennan as a cantankerous businessman who tries to keep gnomes that he has discovered in a forest from being exploited. Blackbeard’s Ghost (1968) was enlivened by the casting of Peter Ustinov as the eponymous pirate. In 1969 Stevenson had another major box-office success with The Love Bug. The sleeper hit featured Jones as the bewildered owner of Herbie, a Volkswagen with a mind of its own.

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Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) was also quite popular, with Angela Lansbury as a witch who tries to help the Allied cause during World War II. Herbie Rides Again (1974) was one of sequels inspired by The Love Bug, and The Island at the Top of the World (1974) starred David Hartman as the leader of an Arctic expedition that stumbles across a tribe of lost Vikings. In 1975 Stevenson directed One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing, a spy comedy about a bunch of English nannies (Helen Hayes, among others) trying to recover stolen secrets hidden in a dinosaur bone. His last film was The Shaggy D.A. (1976), a follow-up to the popular The Shaggy Dog (1959).