Sidney Franklin was involved in amateur filmmaking while still at
school. With his brother
Chester M. Franklin, he wrote,
directed and edited a short film,
The Baby (1915), at a cost of $400.
Somehow it attracted the interest of
D.W. Griffith, who decided to put
the brothers to work making children's films for the Triangle Film
Corporation. After three years they went their separate ways. Sidney
ended up with the more successful career. He established his reputation
with Smilin' Through (1922), and
went on to direct some of the great female stars of the silent era,
including Norma Talmadge,
Mary Pickford and
Greta Garbo. He joined MGM in 1926 and
remained affiliated with the studio until his departure in 1958.
A protégé of the similarly inclined chief of production at
MGM,Irving Thalberg, Franklin was
thought of as a "literate" filmmaker. He was at his best bringing
classics to the screen, like the Noël Coward
adaptation of Private Lives (1931);
Rendezvous in Wien (1933), based
on a play by
Robert E. Sherwood;
Rudolph Besier's period melodrama
The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)
or Pearl S. Buck's tale of struggling
Chinese farmers,
Die gute Erde (1937). All were
lavishly produced as A-grade features, with A-grade budgets.
From 1939 Sidney spent most of his time as producer on similarly
prestigious films, with a strong inclination towards sentimental
melodrama. The biggest box-office hits were
Ihr erster Mann (1940),
Gefundene Jahre (1942),
Madame Curie (1943),The White Cliffs of Dover (1944)
and Mrs. Miniver (1942), a picture
he thought would lose money but needed to be made. It turned out to be
the most popular picture of the year and contributed in no small way to
Sidney winning the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award in 1943, for
"consistent high quality of production and achievement".
