Irving Rapper: Biography

London-born Irving Rapper originally came to the stage as a director while studying at New York University, and made appearances as both an actor and director on Broadway before going to Hollywood, initially as an assistant director and dialogue coach at Warner Bros., where much of his job consisted of translating for such non-English-speaking directors as William Dieterle and Michael Curtiz. He became a director in 1941 with Shining Victory, and distinguished himself in the '40s with two major Bette Davis triumphs, Now Voyager (1942) and The Corn Is Green (1945), and had major hits with Rhapsody in Blue (1945) among other movies. Rapper's last major success came in 1958 with Marjorie Morningstar, an adaptation of the bestseller starring Natalie Wood and a somewhat miscast Gene Kelly. His work tends toward the theatrical, but his eye for acting nuance is second-to-none among his generation of filmmakers, and his best work is continually rewarding for what it reveals of actors working at the peak of their dramatic abilities. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide