Hungarian in the Promised Land
Curtiz arrived in New York City via the ocean liner Leviathan on June 10, 1926; the story that his ship docked on July 4 and he thought the holiday fireworks were a celebration of his American arrival was a PR fiction that would be repeated for decades by Warner, Hal Wallis, and Curtiz. Curtiz arrived in Hollywood with his treatment of Noah’s Ark, but instead Jack Warner assigned him a crime drama, The Third Degree (1926), based on a 1908 stage play. He scrambled to learn about American criminal procedures by spending time in the L.A. County Jail and having the script translated into Hungarian. He added a great deal of unscripted material to the picture, a harbinger of future strife between him and the studio.As he completed more pictures for Warner Bros., including A Million Bid and The Desired Woman, he began his long association with Darryl F. Zanuck.He also met the screenwriter Bess Meredyth,who would become his second wife. His immigration status proved to be a problem, as it had to be extended each year by Warner Bros. until he could become a legal resident.