Elissa Landi: Cinema’s Empress of Emotion

Cecil B. DeMille boosted the career of Elissa Landi in The Sign of the Cross (1932). Her leading men included Laurence Olivier, Fredric March, Cary Grant, and Robert Donat in The Count of Monte Cristo (1934). After 33 films, Landi gave up on Hollywood, to focus on her career as a novelist.

"O'Brien reveals things about Elissa, I never knew!"

- Suki Landi Sennett (niece)

Elissa Landi is Scott O'Brien's eighth biography of classic cinema legends. His books have garnered positive reviews in such publications as Classic Images, Sight & Sound, and SF Gate. Three of O'Brien's books have made the Huffington Post "Best Cinema Books of the Year."

From the Foreword:

When Elissa Landi arrived at Fox Studios in the Fall of 1930, she had a résumé of nine films to her credit, over a dozen stage plays, and had written two novels. Writing was her real passion, but her acting career had been pushed forward by the likes of Noel Coward, Dorothy Gish, John Barrymore, and directors Anthony Asquith and Rouben Mamoulian.

Landi's recent success in Broadway's A Farewell to Arms (1930) inspired composer George Gershwin to rhapsodize that her performance was "a symphony of emotion." Fox did a spin on Gershwin's comment, coupling it with Elissa's mother's claim of being the daughter of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Landi had to cope with the studio promoting her as Hollywood's "Empress of Emotion." She had reason to go along for the ride.