B Movie Directors - the B List

1. Edward L. Cahn

Edward L. Cahn was an American second-feature director of Polish ancestry. His brother Philip Cahn worked in the industry as editor. Edward worked in films from 1917 as a production assistant. He later joined his brother in the cutting room of Universal, eventually becoming one of the studio's top ...

2. Edwin L. Marin

Director | Invisible Agent

Director Edwin L. Marin was born in Jersey City, NJ, in 1899. He traveled to Hollywood as a young man, and at age 20 got a job in the industry as an assistant cameraman. By 1932 he had crossed over to directing, first for low-budget studio Tiffany Pictures. However, he worked his way up the ...

3. Lew Landers

Director | Pacific Liner

Rivaling Sam Newfield and William Beaudine as one of the American film industry's most prolific directors, Lew Landers began directing features in the mid-'30s under his real name of Louis Friedlander, but changed it to Lew Landers after several films. His first effort, The Raven (1935), with Boris...

4. Edward Bernds

Director | Assignment: Underwater

Edward Bernds was born in 1905 in Chicago, Illinois. While in his junior year in Lake View High School, he and several friends formed a small radio club and obtained amateur licenses. In the early '20s there was considerable prestige for an amateur operator (a "ham") to have commercial radio ...

5. Howard Bretherton

Director | Midnight Limited

Former propman Howard Bretherton was one of the legion of unknown directors who made the films--mostly westerns--that generations of kids trudged to see at the Saturday afternoon matinées. Bretherton's long career as an action/western director began in the late 1920s and ended more than 25 years ...

6. William Berke

Director | Rolling Home

American director of 1940s and '50s second features, mainly westerns (often starring Charles Starrett) and crime and jungle dramas for Republic, Columbia and Pine-Thomas Productions. A graduate of Los Angeles Polytechnic High School, Berke worked his way up the ladder from office boy to assistant ...

7. William Beaudine

Director | The Ape Man

William Beaudine, the director of nearly 350 known films (nearly one for every day of the year; some listings of his work put his output at 500 movies and hundreds of TV episodes) and scores of television episodes, enjoyed a directing career that stretched across seven decades from the 'Teens to ...

8. Jean Yarbrough

Director | I'm the Law

Jean Yarbrough was born on August 22, 1900 in Marianna, Arkansas, USA. He was a director and producer, known for I'm the Law (1953), Freckles Comes Home (1942) and Inside Job (1946). He died on August 2, 1975 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

9. W. Lee Wilder

Director | Once a Thief

W. Lee Wilder was born on August 22, 1904 in Sucha, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Sucha Beskidzka, Malopolskie, Poland]. W. Lee was a director and producer, known for Once a Thief (1950), The Big Bluff (1955) and Killers from Space (1954). W. Lee died on February 14, 1982 in Los Angeles, California...

10. Seymour Friedman

Director | Criminal Lawyer

Born in Detroit, Cambridge-educated Seymour Friedman entered films in 1937 as an assistant editor, eventually graduating to assistant director. After WW II service, he returned to the film industry as a director, mainly of routine, low-budget action films, many for Columbia Pictures, debuting with ...

11. Alfred Zeisler

Director | Fear

Alfred Zeisler was born on September 26, 1897 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a producer and director, known for Fear (1946), Der Schuß im Tonfilmatelier (1930) and The Amazing Adventure (1936). He was married to Lien Deyers. He died on March 1, 1985 in Camano Island, Washington, USA.

12. Steve Sekely

Director | A Noszty fiú esete Tóth Marival

Steve Sekely was born on February 25, 1899 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]. He was a director and writer, known for Boy, the Noszty (1938), Die große Sehnsucht (1930) and The Fabulous Suzanne (1946). He was married to Klára Makoldy and Irén Ágay. He died on March 9, 1979 in Palm ...

13. Eugene Forde

Director | The Big Diamond Robbery

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 8, 1896, director Eugene Forde began his industry career as a child actor on the legitimate stage. He left the business in the early 1920s, but in 1926 came back as a writer/director. He was one of the mainstays at the 20th Century-Fox "B" unit starting...

14. Lesley Selander

Director | The Pilgrim Lady

Lesley Selander's film career, which lasted more than 40 years, started in the early 1920s as a teenager when he got a job at a studio as a lab technician. He soon managed to work his way into the production end of the business and secured employment as a camera operator, then an assistant director...

15. Crane Wilbur

Writer | The Bat

Actor, screenwriter and director Crane Wilbur was born Erwin Crane Wilbur on November 17, 1886, in Athens, NY. The nephew of the great stage actor Tyrone Power Sr., Wilbur first took to the boards as an actor, making his Broadway debut billed as Erwin Crane Wilbur on June 3, 1903, in a trilogy of ...

16. Paul Landres

Director | The Return of Dracula

Paul Landres was born on August 21, 1912 in New York City, New York, USA. Paul was a director and editor, known for The Return of Dracula (1958), The Vampire (1957) and Navy Bound (1951). Paul was married to Jean Landres. Paul died on December 26, 2001 in Encino, Los Angeles, California, USA.

17. William Witney

Director | The Crimson Ghost

Born in Oklahoma in 1915, Witney broke into the business in 1933, working at Mascot, the leading producer of low-budget serials. After Mascot and other small companies merged in 1935 to form Republic, Witney graduated to director (at 21, he was Hollywood's youngest). Witney teamed with director ...

18. Sam Newfield

Director | State Department: File 649

Legendary "B" picture director Sam Newfield was born Samuel Neufeld in New York City. His brother was Sigmund Neufeld, later the head of PRC Pictures, where Sam made so many of his films (so many, in fact, that he had to use the pseudonyms "Peter Stewart" and "Sherman Scott" so audiences wouldn't ...

19. Nick Grinde

Director | Girls of the Road

Nick Grinde's career lasted from the late 1920s to the mid-'40s, but his heyday was the mid to late 1930s. Grinde was one of the journeyman directors (such as Lesley Selander, George Sherman, Lew Landers, etc.) who made the "B" pictures that everybody enjoyed at a Saturday matinée, but whose name ...

20. D. Ross Lederman

Director | Shadows of the Night

Starting out as an extra in Mack Sennett's Keystone Kops series, D. Ross Lederman worked his way through the ranks of film production, and made his mark as a second-unit director. Becoming a feature director in the late 1920s, he specialized in action films and especially westerns, turning out a ...

21. Harry Essex

Writer | Creature from the Black Lagoon

New York-born Harry Essex planned on a writing career throughout his young life. Among his first jobs were stints on the New York newspapers "The Daily Mirror" and "The Brooklyn Eagle", short stories for "Collier's" and "The Saturday Evening Post" and even a Broadway play titled "Something for ...

22. Felix F. Feist

Soundtrack | I'm Going on the War Path

Felix F. Feist was born on July 15, 1883. Felix F. died on April 15, 1936.

23. Fred F. Sears

Director | The Giant Claw

A graduate of Boston College, Fred F. Sears got his show-business start in regional theater, where he was an actor, director and producer. He started "little theater" groups and was a drama instructor at Southwestern University when Columbia Pictures hired him as a dialogue director. He also worked...

24. Philip Ford

Director | Web of Danger

Philip Ford was born on October 16, 1900 in Portland, Maine, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for Web of Danger (1947), Prisoners in Petticoats (1950) and Valley of the Zombies (1946). He was married to Jane Eliza Harrison, Viola Catherine Waller and Lucia Diprete. He died on ...

25. Hugo Haas

Actor | Pickup

A portly, somewhat grubby and bohemian-looking character star, Hugo Haas was one of the most celebrated Czech actors back in the 30s, a comic star who only grew in stature as he delved creatively into writing, directing and producing. The Nazi invasion forced him to leave his beloved country and ...

26. Nathan Juran

Art_director | How Green Was My Valley

Austrian-born Nathan Juran was a professional architect before entering the film industry as an art director in 1937. He won an Academy Award for art direction on How Green Was My Valley (1941). World War II interrupted his film career, and he spent his war years with the OSS. Returning to ...

27. Howard W. Koch

Producer | The Manchurian Candidate

Getting his start in the movie business in Universal's contract and playdate department in New York City, Howard W. Koch moved on to 20th Century-Fox as a film librarian and then entered production as second assistant director on The Keys of the Kingdom (1944). After many films as assistant ...

28. Reginald Le Borg

Director | The White Orchid

The oldest of three sons, Reginald LeBorg majored in political economy at the University of Austria and studied musical composition for a year at Arnold Schoenberg's Composition Seminar. His education completed, LeBorg entered his father's banking business and, acting as the senior LeBorg's ...

29. Herbert I. Leeds

Director | Just Off Broadway

Herbert I. Leeds was a journeyman film editor before turning director in 1937. Many of his films were made for 20th Century-Fox, and his training as an editor was evident in the efficiency and tight pacing of his films. Although he started out making westerns, he soon turned to mysteries and ...

30. Max Nosseck

Director | The Brighton Strangler

Max Nosseck was born on September 19, 1902 in Nakel, East Prussia, Germany [now Naklo nad Notecia, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Poland]. He was a director and actor, known for The Brighton Strangler (1945), The Body Beautiful (1953) and Kill or Be Killed (1950). He was married to Ilse Steppat, Genevieve ...

31. Arch Oboler

Writer | Five

Arch Oboler was born on December 7, 1909 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Five (1951), The Twonky (1953) and The Bubble (1966). He was married to Eleanor Helfand. He died on March 19, 1987 in Westlake Village, California, USA.

32. Albert S. Rogell

Director | The Wrecker

Born in Oklahoma City, Albert Rogell moved with his family to Spokane, WA, when he was a child. At 15 he got a job with the Washington Motion Picture Co. Having gotten a taste of the film business, he headed to Los Angeles after the company went bankrupt, and had a succession of jobs before joining...

33. Sidney Salkow

Director | This Is Alice

Sidney Salkow was born on June 16, 1909 in New York City, New York, USA. Sidney was a director and writer, known for This Is Alice (1958), Raiders of the Seven Seas (1953) and The Lone Wolf Keeps a Date (1940). Sidney was married to Patricia Salkow and Katherine Ottesen. Sidney died on October 18, ...

34. Lewis Seiler

Director | Girls Gone Wild

Lewis Seiler went to Hollywood in 1919 and worked as a gag man and assistant director before directing a number of two-reel comedies. He was closely associated with Tom Mix Westerns during the 1920s. He spent much of the 1930s at Warner Brothers, turning out some of that studio's grittier gangster ...

35. Maxwell Shane

Writer | The Glass Wall

Maxwell Shane was born on August 26, 1905 in Paterson, New Jersey, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The Glass Wall (1953), Nightmare (1956) and Fear in the Night (1946). He died on October 25, 1983 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

36. S. Sylvan Simon

Producer | Born Yesterday

Director S. Sylvan Simon worked as a drama coach, radio executive and stage director before joining Warner Brothers in 1935. He then moved to MGM as director and assistant director in 1937. His sudden death at the age of 41 shocked all who knew him and he was mourned throughout the film industry.

37. R.G. Springsteen

Director | Secret Venture

R.G. Springsteen was born on September 8, 1904 in Tacoma, Washington, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for Secret Venture (1955), Harbor of Missing Men (1950) and Heart of Virginia (1948). He was married to Alice Van Springsteen. He died on December 9, 1989.

38. H. Bruce Humberstone

Director | Wonder Man

A juvenile actor, Bruce Humberstone started his career as a script clerk, later serving as assistant director for the likes of King Vidor, Edmund Goulding and Allan Dwan. One of the 28 founders of the Directors Guild of America, Humberstone worked in a number of capacities on several silent films. ...

39. Bruno VeSota

Actor | Attack of the Giant Leeches

Tubby 5' 10 1/2" character actor Bruno VeSota had a remarkably long, varied and impressive career acting and directing in the mediums of stage, radio, movies and television. He was born Bruno William VeSota on March 25th, 1922 in Chicago, Illinois. He was the second of three sons born to Lithuanian...

40. Tim Whelan

Director | The Thief of Bagdad

Tim Whelan was born on November 2, 1893 in Cannelton, Indiana, USA. He was a director and writer, known for The Thief of Bagdad (1940), The Murder Man (1935) and Along Came Sally (1934). He was married to Miriam Seegar. He died on August 11, 1957 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

41. Lewis Allen

Director | The 20th Century-Fox Hour

Born in England on Christmas Day, 1905, Lewis Allen first came on the show-biz scene when he was appointed executive in charge of West End and Broadway stage productions for famed impresario Gilbert Miller. Allen also co-directed some of the productions (including the celebrated "Victoria Regina" ...

42. Christy Cabanne

Director | The Great Secret

Christy Cabanne was, along with Sam Newfield and William Beaudine, one of the most prolific directors in the history of American films.

Cabanne spent several years in the navy, leaving the service in 1908. He decided on a career in the theater, and became a director as well as an actor. Although ...

43. Phil Rosen

Director | It Could Happen to You

Russian-born Phil Rosen began his film career as a cameraman during the silent era, and worked his way into directing. Rosen was a highy regarded director in the silent era, as evidenced by the fact that when MGM fired Josef von Sternberg from Exquisite Sinner (1926)--for, among other things, his ...

44. B. Reeves Eason

Director | The Adventures of Rex and Rinty

B. Reeves Eason ran a produce business before going into stock and vaudeville. He is known for using 42 cameras to film the spectacular chariot race in the Ramon Novarro, Francis X. Bushman version of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925). (The chariot race was filmed at what is now the intersection...

45. Philip Ford