Alfred L. Werker (December 2, 1896 – July 28, 1975) was a film director whose work in movies spanned from 1917 through 1957. After a number of film production jobs and assistant directing, Werker co-directed his first film, ''Ridin' the Wind'' in 1925 alongside director

Del Andrews Del Andrews (October 5, 1894 – October 27, 1942), born Udell Endrows, was an American film director and screenwriter in the 1920s. He primarily worked on low budget westerns, writing and directing films starring Hoot Gibson, Fred Thomson, and ...

. He was brought in by

Fox Film Corporation The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American Independent film production studio formed by William Fox (1879–1952) in 1915, by combining his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attractions Film C ...

executives to re-shoot and re-edit Erich von Stroheim's film '' Hello, Sister!'' ( 1933), co-starring

Boots Mallory Patricia "Boots" Mallory (October 22, 1913 – December 1, 1958) was an American film actress, dancer, and model. Career Mallory grew up in Mobile, Alabama, where her father operated a tugboat. She attended Murphy High School, and was wor ...

and

ZaSu Pitts Zasu Pitts (; January 3, 1894 – June 7, 1963) was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas, including Erich von Stroheim's epic 1924 silent film ''Greed'', and comedies, transitioning successfully to mostly comedy films with the ...

. Most of Werker's work is unremarkable, but a few were well received by critics. Those films included ''

House of Rothschild The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court factor to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel in the Free City of F ...

'' (1934) and ''

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes ''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' is a collection of twelve short stories by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, first published on 14 October 1892. It contains the earliest short stories featuring the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, w ...

'' (1939); the latter film is considered one of the best in the Sherlock Holmes series. During the early 1940s, he directed a number of comedies including

Laurel & Hardy Laurel and Hardy were a British-American comedy duo act during the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957). Starting their career as a duo in t ...

's '' A-Haunting We Will Go'' (1942). In the late 1940s, Werker worked for the

B-picture A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...

film studio

Eagle-Lion Films Eagle-Lion Films was a British-American film production company owned by J. Arthur Rank intended to distribute British productions in the United States. In 1947, it acquired Robert R. Young's PRC Pictures, a small American production company, ...

. Notable films from that period include the unique mystery thriller ''

Repeat Performance ''Repeat Performance'' is a 1947 American film noir (with fantasy elements) starring Louis Hayward and Joan Leslie. The film was released by Eagle-Lion Films, directed by Alfred L. Werker, and produced by Aubrey Schenck. Plot On New Year's Ev ...

'' (1947) and ''

He Walked by Night ''He Walked by Night'' is a 1948 American police procedural film noir directed by Alfred L. Werker and an uncredited Anthony Mann. The film, shot in semidocumentary tone, was loosely based on newspaper accounts of the real-life actions of Erwin ...

'' (1948). The latter film, however, was taken over by uncredited director Anthony Mann. In 1949 ''

'' won the

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, ...

's award for Best Police Film. The following year, Werker was nominated for, but did not win, the

Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the group merge ...

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures for ''

Lost Boundaries ''Lost Boundaries'' is a 1949 American film starring Beatrice Pearson, Mel Ferrer (in his first leading role), and Susan Douglas Rubeš. Directed by Alfred L. Werker, it is based on William Lindsay White's story of the same title, a nonfiction ...

'' (1949).
IMDB Awards for Alfred L. Werker

Filmography

References

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Werker, Alfred L. 1896 births 1975 deaths People from Deadwood, South Dakota Film directors from South Dakota Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay winners