Background
Henry King was born on 24 January 1886 in Christiansburg, Virginia, United States
Henry King was born on 24 January 1886 in Christiansburg, Virginia, United States
Having begun as an actor in local stock, King became a stage director in Chicago before the First World War. He went into films originally as an actor but by 1916 he was directing for Pathe. Thomas Ince hired him to make 23V: Hours Leave and King became a prominent director ol the silent era. In 1921, with Richard Barthelmess and Charles Duell, he formed the Inspiration Company to make Tol’able David and many others. That tone of rural virtuousness was picked up later in Chad Hanna and Fd Climb the Highest Mountain. It shows how far his own taste was for simplicity. King was also responsible for lavish emotional films such as The White Sister. Romola, and Stella Dallas, but in the sound era he was always an artisan unable to infuse narrative with life or any recognizable style.
His long period at Fox suffered from all the defects of that studio: routine material based on mediocre players, with an emphasis on detail in settings that never escaped the neat hand ol the art department. Despite a fatal slowness and no real ability with action, King regularly made adventure pictures—some, like Captain from Castile, a severe test on one’s patience. He is happier with more intimate, period subjects like Margie, and with solid biopies, such as Stanley and Livingstone and Wilson. The former has Tracy and Cedric Hardwieke; the latter profits from Alexander Knox’s resemblance to Woodrow Wilson and from Leon Shamroy’s creation of Washington interiors.
King seldom seemed to notice theme or to be sympathetic to actors. He labored time and again with Tyrone Power, but made two startlingly good films with Gregory Peck—Twelve O Clock High and The Gnnfghtee His retirement came at least ten years late and his dealings with Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald are disastrous. Only Love Is a Many Splendored Thing has any romantic consistency. (He was one of the few directors Jennifer Jones trusted.)