Mervyn LeRoy

 ( 1900 Births ) 

Mervyn LeRoy (; October 15, 1900 – September 13, 1987) was an American film director and producer. During the 1930s, he was one of the two great practitioners of economical and effective film directing at Warner Brothers studios, the other being his colleague Michael Curtiz. LeRoy's most acclaimed films of his tenure at Warners include Little Caesar (1931), I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) and They Won't Forget (1937).Baxter, 1970: p. 79: LeRoy "made at Warners some of the most polished and ambitious productions of the Thirties." And p. 71-72: Warner's "two great directors of Mervyn Leroy and Michael Curtiz."Barson, 2020: List LeRoy's top films of the 1930s at Warners in as "Little Caesar, I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang, And Gold Diggers Of 1933." And: "They Won't Forget (1937) was the most serious drama LeRoy had been given in years... the film was a powerful indictment of political ambition." LeRoy left Warners and moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in 1939 to serve as both director and producer. He is best known for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.Barson, 2020: "LeRoy left Warner Brothers for the greener pastures of M-G-M, where he was offered an unusual deal that allowed him to function as either a producer or a director." And "most enduringly," his production of director Victor Fleming's Wizard of Oz.

LeRoy's mother was a frequent attendee at San Francisco's premier vaudeville venues, the Orpheum and the Alcazar, often socializing with the theater's personnel. She arranged for the six-year-old LeRoy to serve as a Native-American papoose in the 1906 stage production of The Squaw Man. LeRoy attributed his early interest in vaudeville to "my mother's fascination with it" and to that of his cousins, Jesse L. Lasky and Blanche Lasky, vaudevillians during LeRoy's youth.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 14: LeRoy reports in his memoir that he was "about six months old" when he served as "papoose", but the play was not produced until 1905. And p. 43: ""... The Squaw Man. which I had appeared in when I was only six months old 1901..."

LeRoy's parents separated suddenly in 1905 for reasons that were not divulged to their son. They never reunited and his father Harry raised LeRoy as a single parent. His mother moved to Oakland, California with Percy Teeple, a travel agent and former journalist, who would later become LeRoy's stepfather after the death of Harry LeRoy in 1916. LeRoy visited his mother as a child, regarding her more as "a grandparent or a favorite aunt."Flint, 1987: "His mother left her husband when LeRoy was a five-year-old to marry a hotel-reservation salesman."Whiteley, 2020: "His childhood was troubled as his mother deserted the family when Mervyn was five."LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 15-16: "My parents never told me why they separated, and I never asked." And: As a child LeRoy "would frequently visit" his mother and Teeples in Oakland, and his mother and father "curiously, remained good friends..my father and Teeple got along well, too."

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire devastated the city when LeRoy was five-and-a-half years old. He was sleeping in his bed on the second floor when the quake struck in the early morning causing the house to collapse. Neither LeRoy nor his father suffered serious physical injury. His father's import-export store was completely destroyed. LeRoy retained vivid mental images of the city's devastation:

Reduced to virtual penury, father and son lived as displaced persons at the military-run tent city on the Presidio for the next six months. The elder LeRoy obtained work as a salesman for the Heinz Pickle Company, but his business losses had left him "a beaten man." The young LeRoy emerged from the traumatic event with a sense of pride that he had survived the ordeal and to regard it as fortuitous: "The big thing in my life was the earthquake...it changed my life before I knew I even had one."LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 10: LeRoys' father was reduced to penury and working a menial job, "the quake had wiped him out...the bankruptcy of the insurance companies meant that his was unreimbursed." And p. 11-12: LeRoy a "survivor" with "a kind of pride...it was as though San had been reborn...for me...the change was a positive thing." And see p. 18 on the earthquake's shifting his outlook away from his father's business.

At the age of twelve, with few prospects to acquire a formal education and his father financially strained, LeRoy became a Newspaper hawker and earned his first money. His father supported him in this endeavor.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 21: "I wanted to make some money, to help my poor father..." LeRoy hawked newspapers at iconic locations, including Chinatown, the Barbary Coast red-light district and Fisherman's Wharf, where he became educated as to the realities of life in the city:

In 1916, his father died, leaving the 15-year-old LeRoy responsible for providing his own financial support.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 25: On the death of Harry LeRoy when his son LeRoy was 15. .Whiteley, 2020: "His father died in 1916, leaving Mervyn to fend for himself" LeRoy 15, going on 16 years-of-age.
Flint, 1987: "his father lost his spirit and had trouble supporting his family; he died in 1916...The youth had to sell newspapers at the age of 12 and then, at 14, sold papers by day and acted evenings in a stock company, where he perfected a Charlie Chaplin imitation. "
Whiteley, 2020: "He discovered an aptitude and liking for musical theater and in his early teens, he began to enter, and win, talent shows as a singer and Charlie Chaplin impersonator. And: LeRoy's success as a Chaplin impersonator "led to an early career in vaudeville and he toured for nine years around the national circuit first as a solo entertainer called The Singing Newsboy, and then for three years with a pianist, Clyde Cooper, as 'LeRoy and Cooper'."Flint, 1987: "The youth had to sell newspapers at the age of 12 and then, at 14, sold papers by day and acted evenings in a stock company, where he perfected a Charlie Chaplin imitation.

LeRoy joined George Choos's mostly female troupe in musical comedies, and Gus Edwards act billed "The Nine Country Kids" in 1922. LeRoy's enthusiasm for the stage gradually waned and he left the troupe in 1923.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 pp. 40-42: "... I quit vaudeville in 1922 or 1923...after around the vaudeville scene...with...after I was broke...scrounging to keep body and soul together...I'd hang around with the other out-of-work performers."

In October 1919, LeRoy, just turned 19, approached his cousin Jesse L. Lasky, a former vaudevillian who was twenty years his senior. Lasky was a partner with rising movie moguls Samuel Goldwyn and Adolph Zukor at its New York headquarters at Famous Players–Lasky. Lasky furnished LeRoy with note to the employment department at their Hollywood studios. A week later LeRoy began working in the Wardrobe Unit folding costumes for the American Civil War picture Secret Service (1919), earning $12.50 a week.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 49Barson, 2020: "His cousin Jesse Lasky helped him get a job folding costumes at Famous Players–Lasky in 1919, and from there he ascended from lab technician to assistant cameraman. LeRoy managed a parallel career as an actor, often playing juveniles in films from 1922 to 1924."

According to film historian Kingley Canham, LeRoy's "enthusiasm, energy and push", in addition to a further appeal to Jesse Lasky, earned LeRoy promotion to lab technician in the film tinting unit.Canham, 1976 p. 134: sequence of promotions at studio.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 49 pay rate $12.50/week And p. 51 re: LeRoy's appeal to Lasky for promotion.

LeRoy's next advancement was achieved through his own initiative.Wood, 2009 TMC: "nepotism didn't allow LeRoy a free ride... Over the course of eight years, he proved himself capable of any number of jobs, including assistant cameraman, wardrobe assistant, color-tinter in the film lab, comedy writer, and bit player." Discovering that director William DeMille wished to create an illusion of moonlight shimmering on a lake to produce a romantic effect, LeRoy devised a technique in the lab:

Despite LeRoy suffering a stern reprimand, DeMille was delighted with the effect and used the footage in the film. LeRoy was immediately promoted to assistant cameraman.Canham, 1976 p. 134: LeRoy "perfecting a shot of moonlight on the water for a William Demille film and offered a chance at an assistant cameraman.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 52: DeMille called LeRoy "a genius."

After six months behind the camera, LeRoy experienced a disastrous contretemps when he improperly adjusted the camera focus settings, ruining footage on several scenes on a DeMille production. LeRoy describes it as "a horrible mess" which led to his dismissal in 1921 as cameraman.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 54-55: LeRoy: "I thought I was finished in the film business."Canham, 1976 p. 134: Canham reports that LeRoy "tired" of his work on the camera and returned to vaudeville "but within a year returned to Hollywood as a juvenile film actor...and attended night school in the evenings..." And p. 166: "...spent six months as an assistant cameraman in 1921."

LeRoy was soon hired as an extra on Cecil B. DeMille's 1923 epic The Ten CommandmentsLeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 pp. 55-56, p. 59: LeRoy: "horrible mess" And: "...immediately hired" as an extra by DeMille..."I had no major responsibilities..." And p. 60: LeRoy reports he "decided to continue with acting for a while: after his work as an extra for The Ten Commandments. LeRoy credits Cecil B. DeMille, for inspiring him to become a director: "As the top director of the era, DeMille had been the magnet that had drawn me to his set as often as I could go."LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 59: "I learned much about the handling of crowds from my experience on The Ten Commandments...I kept my eyes open and watched the Master DeMille...at work."Tibbetts, John C. ed. American Classic Screen Profiles, Scarecrow Press (2010) p. 175 LeRoy also credits DeMille for teaching him the directing techniques required to make his own films.

LeRoy worked intermittently in small supporting roles in film during the early 1920s. The youthful and diminutive LeRoy (at and just over ) was consistently cast in juvenile roles.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 41: At age 22 "I still looked like a teenager..."And: p. 52: "...somewhere between 115-120 pounds..." in his youth. And: p. 65: "...short enough to play a jockey..." according to Jack Warner, who cast him as a jockey in Little Johnny Jones (1930). And p. 92: p. 92: In 1930, he was down to "120 pounds or so..."Flint, 1987: "The movie maker was a short (5 feet 7 1/2 inches)..." appearing with film stars Wallace Reid, Betty Compson and Gloria Swanson (See Film Chronology table) He performed his last role in The Chorus Lady (1924) as "Duke".LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. pp. 60-61: And p. 54: LeRoy reports chauffeuring Betty Compson to her social events, but shunning him as an escort.Canham, 1976 p. 166: Canham does not know film titles for "1920" films with Swanson and Compson. Played with Wallace in Double Speed (1920)

While working at First National Pictures, LeRoy wrote gags for comedienne Colleen Moore in several films, including Sally (1925), The Desert Flower (1925), We Moderns (1925) and Ella Cinders (1926). LeRoy served as acting advisor and confidant to Moore. In 1927, her husband John McCormick, studio head at First National in Hollywood, asked LeRoy to direct Moore in a version of Peg O' My Heart. When the project was cancelled, studio president Richard A. Rowland, with Moore advocating, authorized LeRoy to direct a comedy, No Place to Go, starring Mary Astor and Lloyd Hughes and launching LeRoy's filmmaking career at age twenty-seven.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 pp. 169-173: personal and professional relationship with Colleen Moore. And: 75-76: first directorial assignmentCanham, 1976 p. 135 And: p. 167Barson, 2020: "LeRoy moved behind the scenes, writing gags (and sometimes more) for such Colleen Moore pictures as Sally (1925), Ella Cinders (1926), and Twinkletoes (1926)."

Warner Brothers acquired First National in 1925 as a subsidiary studio and producer Jack Warner became a mentor and in-law to LeRoy in subsequent years.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1976 p. 89: Jack Warner offered LeRoy his first chance to make sound pictures. And p. 113: Marries Doris Warner, Jack Warner's niece, Leroy becomes Jack Warner's nephew-in-law.Sarris, 1998: Warner Brothers "swallowed up Vitagraph and First National Pictures in 1925...
Georgaris, 2020: Quoted in TSPDT: "LeRoy established his reputation in the 30s when he directed for Warner Bros. and their subsidiary First National several powerful social dramas..."

LeRoy eagerly anticipated his first sound picture assignment, Naughty Baby (1929):

LeRoy's early directing efforts at First National were largely limited to comedies. His movies from this period include Gentleman's Fate (1931) with John Gilbert (filmed at M-G-M studios), Tonight or Never (1931), with Gloria Swanson, High Pressure, a proto-screwball comedy with William Powell and Evelyn Brent, and The Heart of New York (1932) with Joe Smith.

In the studio's competitive crucible produced by the Great Depression demanding profitable entertainment, LeRoy directed 36 pictures during the decade (Curtiz filmed an astounding 44 features during the same period). Baxter adds: "No genius could function without variation under such pressure."Baxter, 1968 p. 10: "Michael Curtiz made 44 films between 1930 and 1939, Mervyn LeRoy 36, John Ford 26..."Canham, 1976 p. 136: Warner Brothers "prolific output" The social perspective of films favored at Warner Brothers was distinct from those of its chief rivals: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (M-G-M), uncontested for its "technical virtuosity" aimed to serve "middle-class tastes" and Paramount studios identified for its "sophisticated dialogue and baroque settings" that catered to European sensibilities.Baxter, 1970 p. 22: M-G-M "uncontested" in this regard. And p. 46: Paramount's European orientation discussed, re: sister studio UFA in Berlin And p. 69: Paramount "upper class" and M-G-M "middle class"Sarris: M-G-M's "middle-brow tastes" and "the timidity of the content" after 1934. And: Paramount's "tradition of elegance" and its "Europeanized sensibilities". In contrast, Warner Brothers films carried themes appealing to the working classes.Georgaris, 2020: quoted in TSPDT: "LeRoy did his best work at Warner Bros. in the 1930s, turning out a string of gritty realistic films which reflected the hardships of Depression-era America..." LeRoy biographer Kingsley Canham writes:

LeRoy's output in the early Thirties was prodigious. The director attests to the rate of film production at the studios:

LeRoy admits in retrospect that "I shot them so often and so fast that they tend to blend together in my memory."Sarris, 1998:"A Warners B picture seldom ran more than seventy minutes. MGM and Paramount production values padded their Bs to the eighty- and ninety-minute mark without adding anything of substance or originality."

LeRoy's social realism mocked corrupt politicians, bankers and the idle rich, while celebrating the Depression Era experiences of "hard-working chorus girls...taxi-drivers and bell-hops struggling to make ends meet in the brawl of New York...gloss and polish were considered useless affectation."Baxter, 1968 p. 69
Canham, 1976 p. 139Weil, 1987: "Through the 1930s, he directed many of the fast-paced melodramas that gave the Warner Bros. studio a reputation for films embodying hard-grained social realism."
Sarris, 1998: "Not for Warners were the longueurs of MGM and the polish of Paramount. A Warners' B picture seldom ran more than seventy minutes. MGM and Paramount production values padded their Bs to the eighty- and ninety-minute mark without adding anything of substance or originality.
Flint, 1987: "Mr. LeRoy was a keen, adaptable director who made mostly taut, punchy, socially critical films at Warner Brothers for a decade..."

LeRoy's Little Caesar established the iconography of subsequent films on organized crime, emphasizing the hierarchy of family loyalties and the function of violence in advancing criminal careers.Barson, 2020: " then came Little Caesar (1931), the film that made LeRoy's reputation, with Edward G. Robinson as a Capone-like crime czar. It stands as one of the seminal gangster pictures, along with William Wellman's The Public Enemy (1931) and Howard Hawks's Scarface).
Whiteley, 2020: "In 1931 he confirmed his rising star status with two important films, the Oscar-nominated 'Five Star Final' and the influential gangster classic 'Little Caesar', starring Edward G Robinson, which marked the start of a succession of gangster films made by the Warner Bros studio." LeRoy's adroit cinematic handling of Robinson's Rico incrementally shifts initial audience response from revulsion at the character's homicidal acts to a "grudging admiration" that provides for a measure of sympathy when the gangster meets his sordid death in a back alley.Baxter, 1976 p. 79-80: "...begins as criticism and modulates to grudging admiration...until we find ourselves distressed by his death in a back alley...moved by his final bemused words 'My God sic, is this the end of Rico?'" LeRoy recalled the topicality of his subject in 1930: "Al Capone was a household word and the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre had happened only a year before."LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 97

LeRoy further demonstrated his talent for delivering fast-paced and competently executed social commentary and entertainment with Five Star Final (1931), an exposé of tabloid journalism, and Two Seconds (1932), a "vicious and disenchanted" cautionary tale of a death row inmate, each starring Robinson.Canham, 1974 p. 142-143: Robinson's " tour-de-force" performance in Two Seconds..."
Weil, 1987: "Through the 1930s, he directed many of the fast-paced melodramas that gave the Warner Bros. studio a reputation for films embodying hard-grained social realism.Baxter, 1970 p. 80: Notes on Two Seconds: "Warners...provided LeRoy with a strongly biased towards social comment. The premise is disturbing." And p. 81: "...vicious and disenchanted..."
Safford, 2005 TMC: "Five Star Final (1931)...addressed a different type of social problem – tabloid journalism...an exploitative mix of personal tragedies, prurient interest and rumors as facts, often destroying lives and careers in the process..."
Wood, 2009 TMC: In Two Seconds " a condemned criminal former whose life unfolds in flashback at the moment of his electrocution."
Baxter, 1970: "...Vicious...unrelieved in its dark mood..."

Historian John Baxter observes that "no director has managed to close his film on so cold a note as LeRoy." Muni's escaped convict, falsely condemned to hard labor, is reduced to furtive prey: Asked by his estranged sweetheart "how do you get along, how do you live?" he hisses "I steal" and retreats into the night.Baxter, 1970 p. 80: Baxter describes the "hissed" exchange between Muni and actress Glenda Farrell.
Barson, 2020: "One of LeRoy's most notable films was I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), a blistering adaptation of Robert E. Burns's account of his horrible experiences in a Georgia prison camp. The film and Paul Muni's harrowing portrayal of the unjustly imprisoned convict were nominated for Academy Awards. Muni continued to work effectively with LeRoy in The World Changes (1933) with Aline MacMahon and in Hi, Nellie! (1934) with Glenda Farrell.Canham, 1976 p. 143: "Muni's...outstanding performances under LeRoy's direction..."Baxter, 1970 p. 84: The World Changes "tedious in the extreme, but competently executed despite wretched script...a feeble story."
Carr, 2014 TMC
Axmaker, 2014 TMCLandazuri, 2008 TMC

The versatile LeRoy portrayed both hard-boiled and clownish characters at Warner Brothers. His Hard to Handle (1933), James Cagney plays a fast-talking and remorselessly unscrupulous con-man, often to comic effect. His 1933 pictures Tugboat Annie (with LeRoy on loan to M-G-M), with Marie Dressler and Elmer, the Great, the final of three pictures that LeRoy made with comic Joe E. Brown, stand in contrast with the director's gangster melodramas.Canham, 1974 p. 143: a "wildly paced" Hard to Handle, "a Cagney vehicle..."Weil, 1987: "LeRoy was a success with comedy and romance, musical and melodrama."

LeRoy's socially themed narrative is evident in his Three on a Match (1932) which follows the fates of three young women: a stenographer, a showgirl and a socialite played by Bette Davis, Joan Blondell and Ann Dvorak, respectively. His adroit transitions and cross-cutting provide quick and effective insights into his characters' social rise and fall. The "pitiless mileau of grimy backstreets and cheap motels" serve as an implicit social critique without making this the theme of the picture.Canham, 1974 pp. 145-146: The film quickly establishes "social and historical context...cross-cutting increases suspense...camera movements and dialogue in neat transitions enforce intelligent points without any need for elaboration...the climax Dvorak's is brilliantly handled..." And p. 147: "...the reality and exactness of the atmosphere lend themselves to a framework of social criticism without making this the motivating factor."
Baxter, 1970 p. 82: The film employs "some neat transitions" with which Leroy makes his points ``quickly and with intelligence."

LeRoy's control of the comedic elements and his direction of a cast endowed with "hard-boiled" heroines Ruby Keeler, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon and Ginger Rogers, would provide stand-alone entertainment even if unencumbered by Berkeley's choreographed numbers.Canham, 1976 p. 147: "...the spectacular staging of the Busby Berkeley routines tends to divorce the plot and LeRoy's skillful direction from the mass of material written about the film." And: Canham singles out Aline MacMahon as "Trixie" for special mention "outstanding performance."Baxter, 1970 p. 83: Comments on "heroines", Trixie "ruthless." And p. 84: "In the end, Berkeley's dance numbers seem an imposition on LeRoy's skillful comic pattern; without them Gold Diggers might well be an even more entertaining film than it is now." MacMahon, who plays the "ruthless" Trixie, was later cast as a murderess in the lead for LeRoy's dramatic Heat Lightning (1934), a picture which prefigures director Archie Mayo's The Petrified Forest (1936).Canham, 1974 p. 147-148: MacMahon in "an arresting dramatic character study..."Baxter, 1970 p. 83: Trixie "ruthless" and "delightfully opportunist"
Nixon, 2013: "The comedic center of the film was still the romantic efforts of a group of showgirls and pushed the limits of censorship with an eroticism unprecedented for the genre."Stafford, 2011 TMC: "highlighted by versatile supporting actress Aline MacMahon in her first top billed film role. The movie also prefigures The Petrified Forest (1936) by two years with a similar setting and plot."

LeRoy followed with a Happiness Ahead, a musical-like comedy for Warners in 1934 starring Josephine Hutchinson, a society heiress who woos a window washer, played by Dick Powell.Miller, 2014 TMC

LeRoy returned to light comedy and romance in 1935 with a film adaptation of stage production, the 1929 Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II play, starring Irene Dunne, followed by a Marion Davies vehicle Page Miss Glory, (filmed for Hearst's Cosmopolitan Pictures), and I Found Stella Parish,, with Kay Francis in a sentimental, " tour-de-force" performance.Thames, 2007 TMC: "...based on a stage musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein that debuted on Broadway September 3, 1929."Canham, 1976 p. 150: See here for films with Davies and FrancisBaxter, 1970: Baxter makes no mention of these films in his overview of Thirties films.
Miller, 2004 TMC: On Hearst and Davies
LoBianco, 2014 TMC: "...a story so perfectly suited to her talents..."

The "lively performances" from a large cast, which included Fredric March, Olivia de Havilland, Claude Rains, Anita Louise and Gale Sondergaard, as well as LeRoy's "technical excellence," led to five Academy Award nominations.Canham, 1976 p. 151: "lively" and "excellence" quotes
Steinberg, 2009: "...problems of scale in distilling the 1,200+ page book into two hours and twenty minutes of screen time, problems that were apparent even to critics of its day. Still, the impressive production values and the efforts of a uniformly fine cast make any kind of offhanded dismissal unwarranted."Baxter, 1970 p. 86: "...successful for historical pageant and personal drama, especially interesting for Fredric March in."

LeRoy reported in his 1974 memoir that "by the time 1936 arrived, I was slowing my pace somewhat. Gone were the assembly-line tactics, the grinding-them-out methods of a few years before...I was working slower, trying to achieve more beauty on film, looking for cinematic perfection."LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 126

LeRoy also produced director James Whale's The Great Garrick (1937), a historical comedy with Brian Aherne who plays the David Garrick.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 133

LeRoy was poised to move to M-G-M as head of production in 1938, with the fulsome support of the studio's Louis B. Mayer where "LeRoy would establish himself as a major force in Forties cinema."Whiteley, 2020: "In 1938 LeRoy's successful record was recognized when he was offered and accepted the title of Production Executive at MGM, the most successful studio in Hollywood.
Baxter, 1970 p. 89: A major force "financially, at least"..."
LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 134-135: Leroy: "The idea of going over to MGM appealed to me...Mayer offered me a fantastic salary..."And: LeRoy describes his close personal relationship with Mayer. Before departing Warners, LeRoy directed and produced his final film, Fools for Scandal (1938), the studio's second – and failed attempt – to launch the American film career of French actor Fernand Gravet. Comedienne Carole Lombard co-starred.Baxter, 1970 p. 89: The film "interesting for its French star, Fernand Gravet, but little else."
Canham, 1076 p. 177
LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 133
Barson, 2020: "But then came the frothy Fools for Scandal (1938), starring Carole Lombard and Fernand Gravet...These last two films were also produced by LeRoy, but it was becoming clear that Warner Brothers had no sense of what projects best suited him."
Whiteley, 2020: "In 1938 LeRoy's successful record was recognized when he was offered and accepted the title of Production Executive at MGM, the most successful studio in Hollywood."

Dramatic School (1938) directed by Robert B. Sinclair: A romantic drama starring Luise Rainer and Paulette Goddard and LeRoy's first picture at M-G-M. Biographer John Baxter attributes Rainer's "coherent, moving and truthful" performance to producer LeRoy and "a fitting to the rich Thirties career."Baxter, 1970 p. 89-90: Rainer "an actress apparently limited in talent..."Whiteley, 2020: His first production for his new employer was Dramatic School in 1938."

Stand Up and Fight (1938), directed by W. S. Van Dyke: A Wallace Beery vehicle, with costars Robert Taylor and Florence Rice. The screenplay was co-written by crime fiction writer James M. Cain, and Jane Murfin, who wrote the adaptation of Booth Tarkington's novel the Katharine Hepburn vehicle Alice Adams (1935).Nixon, 2004 TCM: "The screenplay came from...and Murfin who penned several Katharine Hepburn films, including the screen adaptation of Booth Tarkington's novel Alice Adams (1935)...James M. Cain...was best known for gritty urban crime thrillers."

At the Circus (1938) directed by Edward Buzzell: A Marx Brothers comedy.Whiteley, 2020: "LeRoy produced the Marx Brothers hit movie At the Circus."

LeRoy's last picture as M-G-M's production executive was an adaptation of L. Frank Baum's children's book The Wizard of Oz.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 136-137: LeRoy: "...a gigantic headache...I wanted to direct it..."
Canham, 1976 p. 153
Baxter, 1970 p. 85

LeRoy added that "it took six months to prepare the picture, six months to shoot it, and then a lengthy post-production schedule for editing and scoring. Altogether, The Wizard of Oz was many months in the making..."LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 140

Though LeRoy was earning $3,000 a week ($600,000 per year), after completing The Wizard of Oz, he requested a release from his contract to return to directing, and Mayer complied.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 136: LeRoy: "...a fantastic salary...twice what I was making at Warners."Flint, 1987: "The movie maker worked easily with such widely feared studio chiefs as Jack L. Warner and Louis B. Mayer and, by 1938, was earning $300,000 a year."

LeRoy accepted a cut in salary to $4,000 a week as a director at M-G-M and "never again functioned only as a producer."LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 143

Critic Andrew Sarris disparages the "sentimental piety and conformist cant" that characterized M-G-M studios, as well as Warner Brothers in Hollywood's Golden AgeSarris, year, Oxford University Press

LeRoy limited himself to directing features at M-G-M for the next 9 years, delivering 11 pictures. The quality of his output during this period is generally viewed as a decline creatively compared to his early work at Warner Brothers during the Thirties.Whiteley, 2020: "LeRoy's time at MGM was noteworthy for the change in the emphasis and genres of his movies. After the hard hitting social commentaries of his Warners career he began creating classic romantic dramas such as Waterloo Bridge"Georgaris. 2020: "In 1938 LeRoy switched to MGM and turned his hand to glossier, and, for the most part, less satisfactory fare." (The Virgin International Encyclopedia of Film, 1992) And: "If his late films seem somewhat slack, he more than made up for it with his early social dramas at, which remain some of the most riveting examples of early Hollywood sound cinema." (Wheeler Winston Dixon, 501 Movie Directors, 2007) And : "LeRoy's reputation declined somewhat after WWII, when he turned out a string of mediocre entertainment films for MGM, but it revived when he returned to Warners in the mid-50s." (The MacMillan International Film Encyclopedia, 1994). And: "He went about as far as it was possible for a contract director to go during the peak studio years of the 30s and 40s and, when the 50s decline set in, he attempted to continue as an independent producer-director for a time, albeit with only varying degrees of success." (Joel W. Finler, The Movie Director's Story, 1985)
Feaster, 2004 TCM: " When he moved to MGM, LeRoy turned his talents to directing high production romances and melodramas including Random Harvest (1942), Little Women (1949) and Blossoms in the Dust, which some of his critics construed as a loss of interest in social issues."

He resumed directorial duties with an adaptation of Robert E. Sherwood's romantic play Waterloo Bridge (1930).Landazuri, 2003. TCM: "...a remake of the popular Robert Sherwood tearjerker..."Barson, 2020: "Finally, in 1940, LeRoy stepped behind the camera again. His first picture was Waterloo Bridge, adapted from the Robert E. Sherwood play about a London dancer (Vivian Leigh) and a soldier (Robert Taylor) who fall in love during an air raid.

LeRoy's Waterloo Bridge (1940), served as a vehicle to capitalize upon the meteoric rise of Vivien Leigh, heroine of David O. Selznick's epic Gone with the Wind (1939). In a period when foreign markets were in jeopardy, profitable films were at a premium.Baxter, 1970 p. 85: The 1940 Waterloo Bridge a LeRoy "money-spinner" for Metro.
Canham, 1976 p. 153-155: See here for Canham plot analysis and praise for acting: Though a "soap opera it stands on the strength of its casting...so much depends on the strength and conviction of the cast in terms of winning modern audience response."
Higham and Greenberg 1968 p. 172-173: Higham and Greenberg describe the performance of "the leading players Leigh...appalling, but the film has considerable visual charm."

A silent film era technician and director in his early Hollywood career, LeRoy utilized silent film methods to film a key nightclub love scene with Leigh and costar Robert Taylor. LeRoy describes his epiphany:

LeRoy directed Robert Taylor, Norma Shearer and Conrad Veidt in the 1940 Escape, the first of a number of anti-Nazi features suppressed by Adolf Hitler and which ultimately led to the banning of all M-G-M pictures in Germany.Johnson, 2002. TCM: "Based on a popular 1939 novel by Ethel Vance, Escape (1940) was one of MGM's first anti-Nazi films."Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 98: LeRoy's anti-nazi film "Escape was equally crude as Frank Borzage's The Mortal Storm (1940), and even less effective..."
Johnson, 2002 TCM: "Hitler banned Escape in Germany for its critical depiction of the country. When MGM continued making anti-Nazi films, Hitler eventually banned all MGM films."
Canham, 1976 p. 155: "...part of the anti-German propaganda which characterized American films...before Pearl Harbor."

Blossoms in the Dust (1941): The screenplay by Anita Loos portrays the struggle by social reformer Edna Gladney to redeem children stigmatized by illegitimacy. Termed "highly romanticized" and "shamelessly sentimental" by film historian Kingley Canham,Canham, 1976 p. 157
Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 91: "Mervyn LeRoy's Blossoms in the Dust (1941) was an exquisitely designed production (photographed jointly in Technicolor by Karl Freund and Alfred E. Green) in which Greer Garson played Mrs. Edna Gladney, a Texas woman who did much to remove the nineteenth-century social stigma from illegitimate children. Anita Loos's script played free with the fact and was shamelessly sentimental, but the film nevertheless had a real feeling for the subject. As a soap opera-cum-message picture, discreetly directed and bathed in lovely pastel colors, it yielded much enjoyment." LeRoy defended the picture as virtuous and socially significant:

The pairing of Garson with Walter Pidgeon proved particularly appealing to their fans. They would appear together in a number of pictures, including LeRoy's 1943 biopic of Madame Curie.Feaster, 2004 TCM: "Garson and Pidgeon were such a successful onscreen couple in Blossoms that they were soon paired in a number of romantic films including the enormously popular Mrs. Miniver (1942), Madame Curie (1943) and Mrs. Parkington (1944).Passafiume, 2007 TCM: "...Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon went on to make six more features together; they were teamed on the screen a total of nine times."

As LeRoy's first color film, Blossoms in the Dust demonstrates an aesthetically pleasing and an adroit handling of the new Technicolor technology.Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 91: "...an exquisitely designed production filmed by...Karl Freund...discreetly directed and bathed in lovely pastel colors..."

Random Harvest (1942): LeRoy and producer Sydney Franklin paired Garson with fellow Briton Ronald Colman in a romance that dramatizes clinical amnesia suffered by a WWI combat veteran.Miller, 2009 TCM: " Random Harvest is often cited as one of Hollywood's all-time greatest tearjerkers. It's also considered the definitive treatment of amnesia in a romantic film." Garson's genteel and largely desexualized screen image – "M-G-M's First Lady of Saintly Virtue" – favored by Louis B. Mayer, is countered by LeRoy's less inhibited Garson as the "impulsive Scottish lass" Paula.Canham, 1976 p. 157: "Genteel" and "Saintly Virtue" And p. 181: Garson's "impulsive Scottish lass."

LeRoy's leisurely narrative pace, the lavishness of the settings, the fulsome musical score and the balanced editing demonstrate his embrace of M-G-M production values and distinguishing the stylish Random Harvest from his work at Warner Brothers.Canham, 1976 p. 159-160

Madame Curie (1943): Apropos LeRoy's "lavish and lengthy biography"Canham, 1976 p. 181 portraying the Nobel prize-winning scientist Marie Curie,Passafiume, 2007 TCM: "Marie Curie was the first woman in France to receive a Ph.D., the first woman ever to receive a Nobel Prize, and the first person ever to receive two Nobel Prizes." critics Higham and Greenberg make these observations:

LeRoy and producer Sydney Franklin made a genuine effort to make the "highbrow" subject of the film – the heroic discovery of radium isotopes – engaging to the public, resorting to romanticizing and simplifying the topic.Passafiume, 2007 TCM: "The biggest challenge for making a movie of Madame Curie was in making the unlikely subject of the discovery of radium interesting and entertaining for audiences." And quotes from LeRoy's autobiography. Also: "Franklin very much wanted to keep the events in the film as historically and scientifically accurate as possible...he brought in Dr. Rudolph MeyerLanger, a physicist from Cal Tech, as an official technical advisor.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 151: ""I didn't let a scene go by unless I understood it myself..."

Madame Curie was one of nine pictures in which Garson was cast with leading man Pidgeon. Married to Buddy Fogelson, Garson earned the title "the daytime Mrs. Pidgeon" on M-G-M sets.Feaster, 2004 TCM: "Their film match-ups proved so reliable Garson was referred to on the MGM lot as 'the daytime Mrs. Pidgeon.'"LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 117: "...Fogelson, Greer Garson's husband..."

Desire Me (1946): LeRoy attempted to reshoot an uncompleted George Cukor project starring Garson and Robert Mitchum, Desire Me, but abandoned the film, disparaging the "rotten script, a script that made absolutely no sense.". Neither Cukor nor LeRoy appeared in the credits.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 196: LeRoy: "...I tried my best to make something out of it, but I failed...It was a botch...It was the only major film ever issued with a director's credet."Arnold, 2012 TCM: "LeRoy also worked, uncredited, on the Garson film Desire Me, 1947, a film released without any directing credit."

Strange Lady in Town (1955): LeRoy's first film after returning to Warner Brothers studios as a director-producer. Garson, passed over by M-G-M to star as opera diva Marjorie Lawrence in Interrupted Melody (1955), signed with Warners to make Strange Lady in Town, a western set in Santa Fe, New Mexico and endowed to Garson's satisfaction "with horses and sunsets." Dana Andrews co-stars.Arnold, 2012 TCM: "Garson was crushed...After that, she left the studio M-G-M and signed with Warner Bros. in early 1954 to make Strange Lady in Town." And: Garson: "...a richly corny period story which interested me particularly because I've been a carpet actress all my life in Hollywood...I wanted to do an outdoor role, one with horses and sunsets."

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) recounts the 1942 U.S. bombing mission over Tokyo by sixteen B-25s, coordinated by Lieutenant-Colonel James H. Doolittle (played by Spencer Tracy). LeRoy employs flashbacks in an effort to present the personal lives of the airmen and their spouses, including an emotionally wrought scene in which the wounded Lieutenant Ted W. Lawson (played by Van Johnson) has his leg amputated.Canham, 1976 p. 160: "...relying on embarrassing flashbacks that delirious, or in the amputation sequence...the emotionalism is probably quite valid...but it is so overplayed that it is difficult to take seriously..."Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 111: LeRoy's " Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, written by Dalton Trumbo...a tedious, tendentious affair, its avowed morale-boosting aim was to emphasize the close cooperation between army and navy that made the Tokyo raid possible and – ironically in view of later developments- to foster closer relations 'between the American people and their courageous Chinese allies." And: "...soporific"

Conceived as a morale-builder for the homefront, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, with a script written by Dalton Trumbo "lacks the scope and organization" and compares unfavorably to director John Cromwell's 1943 Since You Went Away according to critic Kingsley Canham.Canham, 1976 p. 160: "An exceptionally long film, it tries to cover similar ground as Cromwell's Since You Went Away...but Trumbo's script lacks the scope and organization of David O. Selznick's..."Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 111: "...avowed moral-boosting aim..." And p.113: See here praise for Cromwell's Since You Went Away as a "masterpiece" despite its "idiotic sentiments."Miller, 2011 TCM: Miller disagrees: "Dalton Trumbo's screenplay is considered the best of his work before he was blacklisted in 1947. The rescue sequences of the downed American flyers' by Chinese guerrillas was designed "to foster closer relations 'between the American People and their courageous Chinese allies'" and includes a scene with Chinese children at a mission hospital honoring the airmen with a rendition of Katherine Lee Bates' patriotic anthem America the Beautiful.Canham, 1976 p. 160: Canham reports song as "America", assumed here to be the song derived from Bates' 1895 poem.Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 111: Praise for Chinese allies "ironic in view of later developments..."

The House I Live In (1945), Documentary short: LeRoy reports in his memoir Take One that Frank Sinatra approached him in 1945 with the idea of making a short movie version based on the song by Abel Meeropol The House I Live In. LeRoy thought it a worthy project and "a good thing to do during the wartime years." The script was written by Albert Maltz and produced by Frank Ross and LeRoy, who also directed.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 155-156: NOTE that entries on this page do not appear in Take One index under The House I Live InCanham, 1976 p. 181-182: "Leroy produced an Academy Award winning documentary short called The House I Live In collaboration with Frank Ross.I t was directed as Axel Stordahl."Barson, 2020: "Another exercise in patriotism was a documentary short about religious tolerance, The House I Live In (1945), written by Albert Maltz (later of the Hollywood Ten), with Frank Sinatra delivering the message."

The House I Live In garnered LeRoy a special Oscar for his role as producer in the short film, the only Academy Award he would ever receive.Barson, 2020: "LeRoy, Maltz, Sinatra, and three others won a special Oscar for the film; it was the only Oscar LeRoy would ever receive."Weil, 1987: "In 1945 he made The House I Live In, starring Frank Sinatra. Mr. LeRoy's first documentary, it won a special Academy Award.`` In appreciation for LeRoy's contributions to The House I Live In, Frank Sinatra presented him with a medallion bearing the Jewish Star of David on one side and a Saint Christopher medal on the obverse.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 174

The formerly "glossy" productions were often replaced with lower budget, black-and-white films, which employed smaller casts and used indoor stages, rather than expensive on-location sites.

Compounding the financial crisis was the Red Scare, launched against the purported Communist influence in Hollywood.Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 16: "By far the biggest bombshell of 1947 was HUAC hearings to investigate alleged Communists and alleged communist content in some of its pictures." The leading studio executives expelled many talented figures in collaboration with House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Accused of introducing Communist content into productions, the departure of Leftist screenwriters, directors and actors removed a creative element that had for years contributed to the success of Hollywood pictures. These purgings were considered, in some financial circles and the anti-Communist establishment, a necessary corrective to labor militancy in the industry: "To some observers, the represented a long overdue housecleaning process; to others it meant the beginning of an era of fear, betrayal and witch-hunting hysteria."Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 17: "What is certain is that Communist influence in Hollywood, if it ever existed, was driven out, and that the ranks of key contributors to the movie-making process were appreciably thinned...the departure of Left-oriented contributors" led to a decline in the quality and profitability of studio productions. And: The blacklist used to "establish Hollywood's political bona fides..." And: See p. 17 for quote on "witch-hunting hysteria"

LeRoy reflected on the Red Scare in his 1974 memoir:

By the close of the Forties, the drain of artistic talent, the emerging television industry, and litigation that led to the weakening of studio monopolies destabilized the film industry, initiating a decline in the heretofore unlimited power and profitability of the Hollywood movie empire.Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 17-18: "...at the decades end something vital seemed ebbing ever more swiftly away from the films of Hollywood, a process accelerating in the early Fifties." And p. 18: "The Forties 1940s may now be seen as the apotheosis of the U.S. feature film, its last great show of confidence and skill before it virtually succumbed artistically to the paralyzing effects of bigger and bigger screens and the collapse of the star system."Weil, 1987: "In the 1950s, when the film industry seemed to be foundering, Mr. LeRoy made this observation: "Our business was built on 'moving' pictures. But too many sit and talk and talk. That's what's wrong with so many movies today."

Homecoming (1948): Like director William Wyler's 1946 The Best Years of Our Lives, LeRoy's Homecoming dramatizes an ex-servicemen's readjustment to civilian life. The film is based on Sidney Kingsley novel, The Homecoming of Ulysses (1944), which draws on Homer's Odyssey. Clark Gable plays Ulysses "Lee" Johnson, a recently discharged war surgeon whose self-complacency is shaken by his personal and professional combat experiences. That softens his misanthropy and eases the nexus with his estranged wife, played by Anne Baxter. In the third of her film pairings with Gable, Lana Turner plays an "uncharacteristically unglamorous" Lt. Jane "Snapshot" McCall.Canham, 1976 p. 160: "Homecoming is...effective as nurse Lana Turner converts a narrow-minded society doctor (Gable) to understanding the reasons for American involvement in the War...the tragic ending satisfies both censorship needs and credibility." And: p. 182: "powerful star vehicle" for Gable and co-stars.Steinberg, 2004 TMC: M-G-M "traded upon the public perception of Gable's WWII-era triumphs and tragedies in addressing the greater issues of servicemen coming home from conflict irrevocably changed" And: "Gable turned to the service in 1942 after the untimely death of beloved wife Carole Lombard, who perished in a plane crash during her return from a war bond drive. Gable patently had to have tapped into these sorrows for his performance here, as the world-weariness and sense of loss that he projects as the home-bound Ulysses are palpable." And: Lana Turner "unglamorous" character.

Little Women: One of several film adaptations of Louisa May Alcott's Civil War era literary classic. The M-G-M Technicolor production offers "a picture postcard prettiness" in lieu of credible performances by June Allyson, Janet Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor and Margaret O'Brien.Baxter, 1970 p. 168: "...flawless design by Hobe Erwin..."Canham, 1976 p. 161: "...emphasis was all on heart and color at the expense of credible acting performances."Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 132: "...Mervyn LeRoy's unremarkable remake of Little Women (1949)..."

Any Number Can Play (1949): Based on an Edward Harris Heth novel, the film describes the personal and professional crisis of a casino owner of high rectitude Clark Gable who also plays for high stakes, with his family relations in the balance. LeRoy was perplexed that the compelling screenplay by Richard Brooks and excellent performances delivered by Gable and Alexis Smith did not register at the box-office. LeRoy reflected on the picture: "I don't know what went wrong. You start out with what you think is a good script and you get a good cast...but you end up with a film that is less than you expect. Something happened or, more likely, something didn't happen – the chemistry didn't work and the emotions didn't explode. Whatever the reason, Any Number Can Play was a disappointment to me."LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 166Arnold, 2004 TCM: "Though Clark Gable gives a commanding performance in Any Number Can Play, backed up by a strong supporting cast, the movie was not a great success. And: "The script...by Richard Brooks from an Edward Harris Heth novel, centers on a casino owner who is 'a nut for human dignity'...He also has a heart condition and family problems, with an estranged wife (Alexis Smith) and son (Darryl Hickman)...eventually he realizes he can have his casino or his family but not both."
Barson, 2020: "LeRoy had not had a hit since Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, and make-work pictures such as Any Number Can Play (1949), which featured Gable as a gambler with marital problems, did nothing to reestablish him."

East Side, West Side (1949): A "dramatic social melodrama", in which the East Side, West Side refers to the class differences that define and divide the "superlative cast" in this M-G-M "high-gloss" production. Barbara Stanwyck, plays the betrayed spouse, supported by co-stars James Mason, Ava Gardner and Van Heflin.Canham, 1976 p. 182Landazuri, 2008. TCM: "A soap opera about infidelity and murder among New York socialites, East Side, West Side (1949) boasts a superlative cast and M-G-M's usual high gloss production values."
Barson, 2020: "East Side, West Side (1949) had the benefit of a great cast—Ava Gardner, James Mason, Barbara Stanwyck, and Van Heflin—but was not a success."

LeRoy's recognized that the Hollywood film industry would be best served by "accommodating" the emerging popularity of television, envisioning a division of mass entertainment function: TV would do small scale, low-budget productions dealing with "intimate things," while the motion picture studios would provide "the bigger, broader type of film."Leroy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 169: "It was a spectacle, and I wanted to make a spectacle...I whipped the monumental story into a script that was possible to film but had all the vastness the tale demanded." LeRoy's turn to "gigantic spectacle" coincided with the early onset of Hollywood's relative decline, as described by film historians Charles Higham and Joel Greenberg:

Logistically, Quo Vadis presented an "enormity." Filmed at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome, the production required the mobilization of tens of thousands of extras, more than nine months of shooting and an immense financial risk for M-G-M.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 170: "...the enormity of the project..."Celia, 2003 TCM: "The logistics involved in producing a film of this magnitude were staggering. There were over two hundred speaking parts, many hundreds of workmen, and tens of thousands of extras. The company was managed in a paramilitary fashion, with group captains assigned to a specific number of extras, for whom they were responsible for everything from make-up to wages during the length of the shoot. As the first color film made at Cinecitta Studios in Rome."

The huge investment in time and money paid off: Second only to Gone with the Wind (1939) in gross earnings, Quo Vadis garnered eight Academy Award nominations in 1952.Celia, 2003 TCM: "When the Academy Award nominations were given out for 1952, Quo Vadis received eight including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actors (Leo Genn and Peter Ustinov), Best Color Cinematography, Best Color Art Direction, Best Dramatic Score, Best Film Editing, and Best Costume Design. However, it didn't win in any category since An American in Paris, A Streetcar Named Desire, and A Place in the Sun claimed most of the major awards."
LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 169: Leroy reports a 12 million dollar cost for the film, but a 50 million dollar gross.
Barson, 2020: " Quo Vadis (1951), MGM's $7 million epic about the persecution of Christians under the Roman emperor Nero, had actually been initiated in 1949 with John Huston directing, but LeRoy took over the production, which was filmed on location in Rome over six grueling months... Quo Vadis was MGM's second highest grossing picture ever, behind Gone with the Wind (1939)."

LeRoy welcomed the services of an American Jesuit priest assigned to act as a technical adviser on the production. The director was granted a personal audience with Pope Pius XII and, upon LeRoy's request, the Pope blessed the script of Quo Vadis.LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 174-175

Lovely to Look At (1952): A re-make of the 1935 Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical scored by Jerome Kern, Roberta, directed by William A. Seiter. Vincente Minnelli organized the extravagant fashion show finale, with costumes by AdrianCanham, 1976 p. 184. And p. 161: "The musical remakes, such as Lovely To Look At...reunited LeRoy with Busby Berkeley but there was less emphasis on the mechanics of the numbers than on the vocal abilities of the singing stars."Barson, 2020: "Lovely to Look At (1952), with Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel, was a handsome if unnecessary remake of Roberta (1935)."

Million Dollar Mermaid (1952): An aquatic-themed biopic loosely based on the life of Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman, portrayed by Esther Williams and aided by LeRoy's "competent direction." Busby Berkeley stages his lavishly produced underwater Oyster ballet.Canham, 1976 p. 161-162: "...competent direction..." and Berkeley's "gloriously spectacular' water ballet.Cox, 2004 TCM: "a story loosely based on the real-life Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman. The movie, full of romance, music, and dazzling underwater spectacles, remains one of the definitive films of Williams' career...Dominating the film are, of course, water extravaganzas orchestrated by the Million Dollar Dance Director himself, Busby Berkeley."
Barson, 2020: "a biopic about Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman (Williams), who became a Hollywood star in the silent era; Berkeley handled the musical numbers."

Latin Lovers (1953): A romantic musical comedy starring Lana Turner and Ricardo Montalbán.Canham, 1976 p. 184-185LoBianco, 2009 TCM

Rose Marie (1954): An adaptation of a stage operetta by Otto Harbach and previously filmed by M-G-M in silent and sound versions, the LeRoy adaptation starred Ann Blyth and Howard Keel.Barson, 2020: "Rose Marie (1954) was another inferior remake of a 1930s classic."
Passafiume, 2011. TCM: "Rose Marie was based on the famous stage operetta originally written by Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II and Rudolf Friml that was first produced for the New York stage in 1924. The story had already been filmed twice before at MGM, both times to great success. The 1928 silent version featured Joan Crawford in the title role, and the 1936 version starred Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald."
Canham, 1976 p. 161: "LeRoy must take some blame for Lovely, although they reflect the gulf between the major companies and their audiences that characterized American films in the post-war period." his final effort with M-G-M before he returned to Warner Brothers.Passafiume, 2011. TCM: "Rose Marie would be the last film that Mervyn LeRoy ever directed for MGM. LeRoy had worked successfully at MGM for over 20 years, but he and new studio head Dore Schary butted heads frequently, and LeRoy wanted out. Rose Marie would be his MGM swan song before moving to Warner Bros."

LeRoy attributes his disaffection from M-G-M to a professional incompatibility with Dore Schary, who had recently replaced Louis B. Mayer as head of production: "Schary and I never really did see eye-to-eye on most things...since he was then running the studio, it didn't seem to make much sense for me to stick around."LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 184:

Mister Roberts enjoyed immense popular and financial film success for Warners and earned supporting actor Jack Lemmon his first Oscar.Flint, 1987: "Movie audiences loved Mister Roberts, making it 1955's third-biggest box office hit."Barson, 2020: Mister Roberts "was a major box-office hit and was Oscar nominated as best picture. For the rest of his career, LeRoy made a specialty of adapting Broadway hits."

Despite these developments, LeRoy remained a profitable asset in the film industry.