A Filmmaker's Guide to the Best Films: David O. Selznick

David O. Selznick is synonymous with the Hollywood Golden Age. He was one of the foremost producers for films by Alfred Hitchcock, Carol Reed, Victor Fleming and many more. As one of the biggest producers in Hollywood at the time, David O Selznick managed to make a big name for himself. He worked on films that today are known as classics of their genre and some of the greatest films ever made.

Short Biography

Selznick was born in Pennsylvania in 1902 and he is the son of silent movie producer Lewis J Selznick. After studying at university, David O Selznick's father got him to work in Hollywood as an assistant story editor for MGM Studios, which followed the collapse of Lewis Selznick's company and the filing of bankruptcy in 1923. In 1928, he worked at Paramount and then moved to RKO in 1931, beginning his legendary career for which he is most well-known.

In 1935, he formed Selznick International Pictures and made films through United Artists and RKO. By this time, he already had a rather average name for himself, but was more known for being his father's son than being an independent man. And so, it began...

By 1936, David O Selznick was already making smash hit movies and in 1939 and 1940, two of the movies he worked on were nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards - and they both won. In 1940, he closed Selznick International Pictures and took time off. He kept trying to better himself and yet stated that he had wasted his career doing it. In 1954, he retired from film and moved into TV - starting a quieter life for himself.

David O Selznick was a known amphetamine user and a republican, although he wasn't overtly political - Carol Reed [director] knew that Selznick was using drugs to enhance his ideas on set. Be that as it may, nobody seemed to mind.

In 1965, David O Selznick suffered several heart attacks and died. He was 63 years' old.

Now, we're going to go through the ten greatest films that David O Selznick, looking at the films he worked on and where they rank in the top ten. This was difficult to decide!

10. A Star is Born (1937)

9. Since You Went Away (1944)

8. The Young in Heart (1938)

7. Manhattan Melodrama (1934)

6. Duel in the Sun (1946)

5. Spellbound (1945)

4. Rebecca (1940)

3. Anna Karenina (1935)

2. Gone With the Wind (1939)

1. The Third Man (1949)

Well, the movie at number one was obvious since it also features on the list of my top ten films of all time. I love this film because it's so clever. This is the film that David O Selznick was taking amphetamines on the set of and making strange additions to. If you can spot it, you can really see the influence he had over the film. When you watch this film, you have to pay really good attention to what you can and cannot see. There are various things that appear, disappear and pieces of dialogue that you have to listen intently to. Not only is this one of my favourite films of all time, it is also my favourite Graham Greene book ever. David O Selznick really heightens how smart and structured the story is. The various parts in which the man goes to talk to Harry's friends who were apparently all there at the time he died who seem not to be talking about anything to do with the 'accident'.

Even though David O Selznick's career only lasted a short amount of time, but he managed to make a massive difference over the film industry. He introduced new noir styles into the production of film and pioneered the opening for Hitchcock's career by moving him from England to the USA. It really was quite a career for him and his production styles have rippled over through time and you can see them in the detective films and horror films of the resurgence in the 1970s and 80s.

When you look through history, Selznick is possibly the greatest producer of the early 20th century and deserves to be remembered as such. Remember, "Gone With the Wind" (1939) and Rebecca (1940) did both win Best Picture at the Academy Awards in consecutive years and both of them were produced by David O Selznick.

Let us remember him on the anniversary of his death.