Born in Newark, New Jersey. Taught English at the University of Missouri and after WW I service became an assistant national director of the American Jewish Relief Committee. He was a drama and film critic for the Jewish Tribune before entering films in the early 20s as a reader for Samuel Goldwyn. He worked as a script clerk for directors King Vidor and Victor Sjöström and in 1924 joined MGM as a screenwriter. He was then appointed head of the studio's script department and by the late 20s was Irving Thalberg's personal assistant and closest associate. Nominally credited as an associate producer, he produced several of MGM's most important films of the 30s and after Thalberg's death joined Paramount as a producer in 1937 and remained there until 1941. Notable producing credits during this period include TRUE CONFESSION and MEET THE MISSUS (both 1937), SPAWN OF THE NORTH (1938), ZAZA (1939) and SO ENDS OUR NIGHT (1941). He began directing in 1942, but his entire ouput as director over a period spanning 15 years was limited to six films: THE MOON AND SIXPENCE (1943), THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945), THE PRIVATE AFFAIRS OF BEL AMI (1947), PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN (1951), SAADIA (1953) and THE LIVING IDOL (1955). He wrote the screenplays for all his own films and produced several of them. As a director-writer he showed arty literary and cultural aspirations in the selection and treatment of his themes. The results were ususally a curious but interesting mixture of the naïve and sophisticated, the dilettantish and the fascinating, the vulgar and the refined. Novel: The Unaltered Cat 1966.  Best Picture 1935: MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY - Associate Producer at MGM, Irving G. Thalberg, producer  Nominated for Picture 1935: THE GOOD EARTH - Associate Producer at MGM, Irving G. Thalberg, producer 2 nominations, 1 Award