William Beaudine


William Washington Beaudine was an American film actor and director. He was one of Hollywood's most prolific directors, turning out films in remarkable numbers and in a wide variety of genres.

Life and career

Born in New York City, Beaudine began his career as an actor in 1909 with American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. He married Marguerite Fleischer in 1914 and they stayed married until his death. Her sister was the mother of actor Bobby Anderson. Beaudine's brother was short action filled comedy films director Harold Beaudine.
In 1915 he was hired as an actor and director by the Kalem Company. He was an assistant to director D.W. Griffith on The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. By the time he was 23 Beaudine had directed his first picture, a short called Almost a King. He would continue to direct shorts exclusively until 1922, when he shifted his efforts into making feature-length films.
Beaudine directed silent films for Goldwyn Pictures, Metro Pictures, First National Pictures, Principal and Warner Brothers. In 1926 he made Sparrows, the story of orphans imprisoned in a swamp farm starring Mary Pickford. Beaudine had at least 30 pictures to his credit before the sound era began. Among his first sound films were short Mack Sennett comedies; he made at least one film for Sennett while contractually bound elsewhere, resulting in his adopting the pseudonym "William Crowley." He would occasionally use the pseudonym in later years, usually as "William X. Crowley."
He ground out several movies annually for Fox Films, Warner Brothers, Paramount, and Universal Pictures. His most famous credit of the early 1930s is The Old-Fashioned Way, a comedy about old-time show folks starring W. C. Fields.
Beaudine was one of a number of experienced directors who were brought to England from Hollywood in the 1930s to work on what were in all other respects very British productions. Beaudine directed four films there starring Will Hay, including Boys Will Be Boys and Where There's a Will, and the George Formby comedy Feather Your Nest.
Beaudine returned to America in 1937 and had trouble re-establishing himself at the major studios. Once widely known as an A-list director of important productions, Beaudine had commanded a premium salary in the late 1920s that Hollywood producers of the late 1930s didn't want to match. He worked briefly at Warner Brothers, with whom he had been associated in Britain, and then waited for offers on his terms. They never came. Beaudine had lost much of his personal fortune through no fault of his own.
In 1940 publicist-turned-producer Jed Buell approached Beaudine to direct an all-black-cast feature for Buell's Dixie National Pictures. The salary was a flat $500 for one week's work. Beaudine knew that if he accepted this job, he would henceforth be associated with low-budget films and would never command his old salary again, but with his finances at a low ebb Beaudine accepted the assignment.
Buell was pleased with Beaudine's professionalism and inventive ways to maximize a shoestring budget. He hired Beaudine to direct Misbehaving Husbands, noteworthy at the time as the comeback feature of silent-screen clown Harry Langdon. It was a humble comeback for both Langdon and Beaudine, since it was released by the tiny Producers Releasing Corporation, whose budgets seldom ventured beyond five figures, but it was successful and reestablished both Langdon and Beaudine, albeit in B pictures.
William Beaudine became a low-budget specialist, forsaking his artistic ambitions in favor of strictly commercial film fare, and recouping his financial losses through sheer volume of work. He made dozens of comedies, thrillers and melodramas with such popular personalities as Bela Lugosi, Ralph Byrd, Edmund Lowe, Jean Parker, and The East Side Kids. He became a fixture at the ambitious Monogram Pictures, and directed fully half of the 48 comedy features starring The Bowery Boys. By this time Beaudine had a reputation for being a resourceful, no-nonsense director who could make feature films in a matter of days, sometimes as few as five. He occasionally directed special-interest productions, like the 1945 crusade-for-sex-education feature Mom and Dad, produced by Kroger Babb, and the 1950 religious drama Again Pioneers, produced by the Protestant Film Commission.
The authors of the 1978 book "The 50 Worst Films of All Time" gave William Beaudine the unflattering nickname "One-Shot," because he always seemed to shoot just one take, regardless of actors flubbing their lines or special effects malfunctioning. It is true that Beaudine shot economically—he usually had no choice—but he was always professional, and actually did shoot multiple takes of movie scenes.
Beaudine was often entrusted with series films, including the Torchy Blane, The East Side Kids, Jiggs and Maggie, The Shadow, Charlie Chan and The Bowery Boys series. His efficiency was so well known that Walt Disney hired him to direct some of his television projects of the 1950s and had him direct a feature western, Ten Who Dared. Beaudine became even busier in TV, directing Naked City, The Green Hornet, and dozens of Lassie episodes.
His last two feature films, both released in 1966, were the horror-westerns Billy the Kid vs. Dracula and Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter. By the end of the decade he was the industry's oldest working professional, having started in 1909.
The Academy Film Archive has preserved three films directed by William Beaudine: Little Annie Rooney, Mom and Dad, and A Husband in Haste.

Death

Beaudine died of uremic poisoning in 1970 in California and was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood.

Selected filmography

The following is a listing of the theatrically released, feature-length films directed by William Beaudine. Short subjects and television productions are not included.

1910s

  1. Watch Your Step
  2. Catch My Smoke
  3. Heroes of the Street
  4. Her Fatal Millions
  5. Penrod and Sam
  6. The Printer's Devil
  7. The Country Kid
  8. Boy of Mine
  9. Daring Youth
  10. Wandering Husbands a.k.a. Love and Lies
  11. Daughters of Pleasure a.k.a. Beggars on Horseback
  12. A Self-Made Failure a.k.a. The Goof
  13. Cornered
  14. Lover's Lane unconfirmed
  15. The Narrow Street
  16. A Broadway Butterfly
  17. How Baxter Butted In
  18. Little Annie Rooney
  19. That's My Baby
  20. Sparrows
  21. The Social Highwayman
  22. Hold That Lion
  23. The Canadian
  24. Frisco Sally Levy
  25. The Life of Riley
  26. The Irresistible Lover
  27. The Cohens and the Kellys in Paris
  28. Heart to Heart
  29. Home, James
  30. Do Your Duty
  31. Give and Take
  32. Fugitives
  33. Two Weeks Off
  34. Hard to Get a.k.a. Classified
  35. The Girl from Woolworth's
  36. Wedding Rings a.k.a. The Dark Swan

    1930s

  37. Those Who Dance
  38. Road to Paradise
  39. Father's Son
  40. Misbehaving Ladies
  41. The Lady Who Dared
  42. The Mad Parade a.k.a. Forgotten Women
  43. Penrod and Sam
  44. Men in Her Life
  45. Three Wise Girls
  46. Make Me a Star
  47. The Crime of the Century
  48. Her Bodyguard
  49. The Old Fashioned Way
  50. Two Hearts in Harmony
  51. So You Won't Talk
  52. Dandy Dick
  53. Boys Will Be Boys
  54. Get Off My Foot
  55. Mr. Cohen Takes a Walk
  56. Where There's a Will
  57. Educated Evans
  58. It's in the Bag
  59. Windbag the Sailor
  60. Feather Your Nest
  61. Said O'Reilly to McNab
  62. Take It from Me
  63. Torchy Gets Her Man
  64. Torchy Blane in Chinatown

    1940s

  65. She Done Him Right
  66. Four Shall Die a.k.a. Condemned Men
  67. Misbehaving Husbands
  68. Up Jumped the Devil
  69. Emergency Landing
  70. Federal Fugitives a.k.a. International Spy
  71. Desperate Cargo
  72. Mr. Celebrity
  73. The Miracle Kid
  74. Blonde Comet
  75. Duke of the Navy
  76. Broadway Big Shot
  77. Lucky Ghost a.k.a. Lady Luck
  78. Professor Creeps
  79. The Panther's Claw
  80. Men of San Quentin
  81. Gallant Lady a.k.a. Prison Girl
  82. One Thrilling Night
  83. Phantom Killer
  84. Foreign Agent
  85. The Living Ghost
  86. The Ape Man
  87. Clancy Street Boys
  88. Spotlight Scandals a.k.a. Spotlight Revue
  89. Ghosts on the Loose
  90. Here Comes Kelly
  91. Mr. Muggs Steps Out
  92. Mystery of the 13th Guest
  93. What a Man!
  94. Voodoo Man
  95. Hot Rhythm
  96. Detective Kitty O'Day
  97. Follow the Leader
  98. Leave It to the Irish
  99. Oh, What a Night
  100. Shadow of Suspicion
  101. Bowery Champs
  102. Crazy Knights a.k.a. Murder in the Family
  103. Mom and Dad
  104. Adventures of Kitty O'Day
  105. Fashion Model
  106. Blonde Ransom
  107. Swingin' on a Rainbow
  108. Come Out Fighting
  109. Black Market Babies
  110. Girl on the Spot
  111. The Face of Marble
  112. One Exciting Week
  113. Don't Gamble with Strangers
  114. Below the Deadline a.k.a. Jumping Joe
  115. Spook Busters
  116. Mr. Hex
  117. Philo Vance Returns a.k.a. Infamous Crimes
  118. Hard Boiled Mahoney
  119. Too Many Winners
  120. Killer at Large a.k.a. Gangway for Murder and Syndicated Murder
  121. Gas House Kids Go West
  122. News Hounds
  123. Bowery Buckaroos
  124. The Chinese Ring
  125. Angels' Alley
  126. Jinx Money
  127. The Shanghai Chest
  128. The Golden Eye
  129. Smugglers' Cove
  130. Incident
  131. Kidnapped
  132. Jiggs and Maggie in Court
  133. The Feathered Serpent
  134. The Lawton Story
  135. Tuna Clipper
  136. Forgotten Women
  137. Trail of the Yukon as William X. Crowley
  138. Jiggs and Maggie in Jackpot Jitters
  139. Tough Assignment

    1950s

  140. Blue Grass of Kentucky
  141. Blonde Dynamite
  142. Jiggs and Maggie Out West
  143. Lucky Losers
  144. County Fair
  145. Second Chance
  146. Blues Busters
  147. Again Pioneers
  148. A Wonderful Life
  149. Bowery Battalion
  150. Cuban Fireball
  151. Ghost Chasers
  152. Let's Go Navy!
  153. Havana Rose
  154. Crazy Over Horses
  155. The Congregation
  156. Rodeo
  157. Hold That Line
  158. Jet Job
  159. Here Come the Marines
  160. The Rose Bowl Story
  161. Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla
  162. Feudin' Fools
  163. No Holds Barred
  164. Jalopy
  165. Born to the Saddle
  166. Roar of the Crowd
  167. Murder Without Tears
  168. Yukon Vengeance
  169. Paris Playboys
  170. Pride of the Blue Grass
  171. High Society
  172. Jail Busters
  173. Westward Ho, the Wagons!
  174. Up in Smoke
  175. In the Money

    1960s

  176. Ten Who Dared
  177. Billy the Kid Versus Dracula
  178. Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter

    Quotes

"These films are going to be made regardless of who directs them. There's a market for them and the studios are going to continue to make them. I've been doing this long enough, I think I can make them as good or better than anyone else."