--- name: "Sidney Franklin" canonical: "https://film.one/person/sidney-franklin" roles: ["Director","Producer"] born: "20 March 1893" died: "18 May 1972" reviewed_on_fi1m: 9 average_fi1m_score: 68 average_as: "director" average_over: 3 updated: "2026-09-20T01:29:19.477112+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Sidney Franklin Director and producer. Born 20 March 1893 in San Francisco, California, USA. Died 18 May 1972. ## Details - **Work:** Director, Producer - **Born:** 20 March 1893, San Francisco, California, USA - **Died:** 18 May 1972 - **Active:** 1932–1946 - **Also known as:** Sidney A. Franklin Jr., Sidney Franklin Jr., S.A. Franklin, Sidney A. Franklin, Sydney A. Franklin, Sydney Franklin, Sidney Arnold Franklin, Sidney Frankland - **Titles on Fi1m:** 9: 3 directing, 4 producing, 2 other - **Frequently works with:** [Claudine West](https://film.one/person/claudine-west.md), [Greer Garson](https://film.one/person/greer-garson.md), [Irving Thalberg](https://film.one/person/irving-thalberg.md), [Arthur Wimperis](https://film.one/person/arthur-wimperis.md), [Ernest Vajda](https://film.one/person/ernest-vajda.md), [Fredric March](https://film.one/person/fredric-march.md), [George Froeschel](https://film.one/person/george-froeschel.md), [Henry Travers](https://film.one/person/henry-travers.md) - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar nomination - **Average Fi1m score:** 68, as director, over 3 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1930s 73 (5), 1940s 77 (4) - **Score spread:** 0 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Genres:** Drama 3, Romance 3, History 1 - **Screen time:** 6 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $5m across 2 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Franklin_(director), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q773066, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0291548/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/42060 ## Fi1m on Sidney Franklin > A studio craftsman who spent decades turning plays and novels into handsome, well-behaved MGM pictures, and who twice remade his own films. The polish is real and so is the feeling; what is hard to find is a signature. The best stretch of *Smilin' Through* (1932) is the long flashback to how Moonyeen died, which we will not describe. Franklin stages it as one sustained sequence and lets his editor, Margaret Booth, hold the shots far longer than she does in the modern scenes, while Adrian puts Norma Shearer in white and yards of veil and the Victorian party guests move around her in crinolines. It is patient and tasteful and it works. That is Franklin: he trusts the material, dresses it well and stays out of its way. He had been in films since about 1912, first as a writer and assistant cameraman, then from 1915 co-directing shorts and features with his brother Chester, children's films for Triangle and fairy-tale adaptations for Fox. After some years working independently he joined MGM in 1926 and found his trade, which was turning plays and novels into pictures. *Smilin' Through* was a sound remake of his own 1922 silent. *The Barretts of Wimpole Street* (1934) came from Rudolf Besier's play, with Shearer again. *The Good Earth* (1937) came from Pearl S. Buck's novel. After that he mostly produced, directing only once more, a scene-for-scene CinemaScope remake of *Barretts* in 1957, before retiring from the studio the following year. What he does well is actors, and women in particular. Shearer made three films with him, and in *Smilin' Through* he gets more from her in the smaller of her two parts, the slower and softer Moonyeen, than in the brisk modern niece. Leslie Howard's grieving baronet is the reason to watch the film, and Fredric March, doubled as well, is better as the man with drink and wounded pride than as the young lover we are meant to like. We sat down to *Smilin' Through* expecting a museum piece and were caught out; the play knows exactly where the tears are kept and Franklin, with Howard's help, goes for them without a flicker of embarrassment, and it worked on us. What he does not do is leave a mark. Irving Thalberg and Albert Lewin produced *Smilin' Through*, Claudine West and Ernest Vajda kept the play intact and added little, and what Franklin added was a look. That is the usual charge against him, that the films carry the studio's polish rather than any vision of his own, and on the evidence we have it is fair. It is not a hanging offence. A director who can put a play on screen without apologising for it or wrecking it is rarer than it sounds, and MGM kept him for good reason. A man who remade two of his own films, once when sound arrived and once when the screen got wider, plainly believed the play was what mattered and he was the frame round it. If that is what you want, he is safe hands. Start with *Smilin' Through*, in a forgiving mood, and stay for Howard. ## Biography Sidney Franklin was an American film director and producer. He began his career in the silent era, co-directing several short films and features with his brother Chester Franklin, before working independently and joining MGM in 1926. Franklin specialised in adaptations of literary works and stage plays. His credits include *Smilin' Through* (1932) and *The Barretts of Wimpole Street* (1934), both starring Norma Shearer. He also directed *The Good Earth* (1937), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. He later worked primarily as a producer at MGM before returning to direct a 1957 remake of *The Barretts of Wimpole Street*. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org.* ## On Fi1m (9) ### Directed (3) — the average rests on these - *The Good Earth* (1937), Fi1m 64, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-good-earth.md) - *The Barretts of Wimpole Street* (1934), Fi1m 72, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-barretts-of-wimpole-street.md) - *Smilin' Through* (1932), Fi1m 67, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/smilin-through.md) ### Produced (4) - *Madame Curie* (1943), Fi1m 72, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/madame-curie.md) - *Mrs. Miniver* (1942), Fi1m 73, as Man at Flower Show (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/mrs-miniver.md) - *Random Harvest* (1942), Fi1m 76, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/random-harvest.md) - *Ninotchka* (1939), Fi1m 82, Associate Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/ninotchka.md) ### Also credited (2) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited - *Bambi* (1942), Fi1m 86, Thanks — [page](https://film.one/film/bambi.md) - *Goodbye, Mr. Chips* (1939), Fi1m 82, Thanks — [page](https://film.one/film/goodbye-mr-chips.md) ## Complete filmography (90) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *The Barretts of Wimpole Street* (1957), Director - *Torch Song* (1953), Producer - *Young Bess* (1953), Producer - *The Story of Three Loves* (1953), Producer - *Sky Full of Moon* (1952), Producer - *Fearless Fagan* (1952), Story, Associate Producer - *The Miniver Story* (1950), Producer - *Command Decision* (1948), Producer - *Homecoming* (1948), Producer - *Duel in the Sun* (1946), Co-Director - *The Yearling* (1946), Producer - *The White Cliffs of Dover* (1944), Producer - *Madame Curie* (1943), Producer — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/madame-curie.md) - *Random Harvest* (1942), Producer — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/random-harvest.md) - *Bambi* (1942), Thanks — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/film/bambi.md) - *Mrs. Miniver* (1942), as Man at Flower Show (uncredited) · Producer — Fi1m 73, [page](https://film.one/film/mrs-miniver.md) - *Waterloo Bridge* (1940), Producer - *Ninotchka* (1939), Associate Producer — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/ninotchka.md) - *Goodbye, Mr. Chips* (1939), Thanks — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/goodbye-mr-chips.md) - *On Borrowed Time* (1939), Producer - *The Good Earth* (1937), Director — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/the-good-earth.md) - *The Dark Angel* (1935), Director - *The Barretts of Wimpole Street* (1934), Director — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/the-barretts-of-wimpole-street.md) - *Reunion in Vienna* (1933), Director - *Smilin' Through* (1932), Director — Fi1m 67, [page](https://film.one/film/smilin-through.md) - *Private Lives* (1931), Director - *The Guardsman* (1931), Director - *A Lady's Morals* (1930), Director - *The Lady of Scandal* (1930), Director - *Devil-May-Care* (1929), Director - *The Last of Mrs. Cheyney* (1929), Director - *Wild Orchids* (1929), Director - *The Actress* (1928), Director - *Quality Street* (1927), Director - *The Duchess of Buffalo* (1926), Director - *Beverly of Graustark* (1926), Director - *Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ* (1925), as Chariot Race Spectator (uncredited) - *Her Sister from Paris* (1925), Director - *Learning to Love* (1925), Director - *Her Night of Romance* (1924), Director - *Tiger Rose* (1923), Director - *Dulcy* (1923), Director - *Brass* (1923), Director - *The Beautiful and Damned* (1922), Director - *East Is West* (1922), Director - *The Primitive Lover* (1922), Director - *The Vermilion Pencil* (1922), as Fu Wong - *Smilin' Through* (1922), Director, Adaptation - *Not Guilty* (1921), Director - *Unseen Forces* (1920), Director, Producer - *Down Home* (1920), as Cash Bailey (as Sidney A. Franklin) - *Two Weeks* (1920), Director - *Heart o' the Hills* (1919), Director - *The Hoodlum* (1919), Director - *The Man in the Moonlight* (1919), as Pierre Delorme - *A Rogue's Romance* (1919), as Burgomaster - *The Probation Wife* (1919), Director - *The Heart of Wetona* (1919), Director - *Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves* (1918), Director - *Fan Fan* (1918), Director - *The Forbidden City* (1918), Director - *Her Only Way* (1918), Director - *The Safety Curtain* (1918), Director, Scenario Writer - *Six-Shooter Andy* (1918), Director - *The Babes in the Woods* (1917), Director - *Treasure Island* (1917), Director - *Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp* (1917), Director - *Jack and the Beanstalk* (1917), Scenario Writer, Director - *A Sister of Six* (1916), Director - *Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages* (1916), Second Unit - *Gretchen the Greenhorn* (1916), Director - *The Little School Ma'am* (1916), Director - *Going Straight* (1916), Director - *The Children in the House* (1916), Director - *Martha's Vindication* (1916), Director - *Let Katie Do it* (1916), Director - *The Doll-House Mystery* (1915), Director - *The Little Life Guard* (1915), Director - *For Love of Mary Ellen* (1915), Director - *The Little Cupids* (1915), Director - *Billie's Goat* (1915), Director - *The Straw Man* (1915), Director - *The Runaways* (1915), Director - *A Ten-Cent Adventure* (1915), Director - *The Kid Magicians* (1915), Director - *The Ashcan, or Little Dick's First Adventure* (1915), Director - *Pirates Bold* (1915), Director - *Dirty Face Dan* (1915), Director - *The Rivals* (1915), Director - *The Baby* (1915), Director ## Gallery - ![Sidney Franklin](https://film.one/media/person/675664/gallery-d743e1cadba3.jpg) Sidney Franklin — Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Sidney_Franklin_-_Jun_1920_MPN.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Sidney Franklin](https://film.one/media/person/675664/gallery-ae213a029e13.jpg) Sidney Franklin — Image via TMDB - ![Sidney Franklin](https://film.one/media/person/675664/gallery-46ae6f9c9c7e.jpg) Sidney Franklin — Image via TMDB - ![Sidney Franklin](https://film.one/media/person/675664/gallery-f3323e902fdf.jpg) Sidney Franklin — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - 1938: Best Director (nominated), for *The Good Earth* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/sidney-franklin