Editor and assistant director with UFA who arrived in the US in 1924 and, after a stint with a Wagnerian opera company and in a Broadway chorus, left for Hollywood. Vidor made his directorial debut in 1931 with the self-financed short, "The Bridge", which landed him a contract with MGM. In 1932 he co-directed his first feature, "The Mask of Fu Manchu", one of the finest screen adaptations of the Sax Rohmer novels. Vidor was noted for his ability to impart a technical fluency to routine subjects; among the best of his prolific output were "Ladies in Retirement" (1941), "Love Me or Leave Me"
