Edmund Goulding's Dark Victory is the first biography ever written on one of the great talents of early twentieth century filmmaking. He is most remembered today as the director of Grand Hotel, the great Event Movie of the Depression. He wrote the story for the first musical, the Academy Award-winning The Broadway Melody and collaborated memorably with Gloria Swanson and Joseph Kennedy for The Trespasser. He excelled at the anti-war drama (White Banners, The Dawn Patrol, We Are Not Alone), fantastic Bette Davis weepies (Dark Victory, The Old Maid, The Great Lie), lilting romantic drama (The Constant Nymph, Claudia), big-budget literary adaptations (The Razor's Edge), and even film noir (Nightmare Alley). His well-crafted plots and compelling characters set a new standard in American cinema and had a profound influence on the future of filmmaking.