Edward L. Cahn (February 12, 1899 – August 25, 1963) was an American

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

Early life and education

Cahn was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. He went to work at

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

in 1917 while still a student at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

Career

He is best known for directing ''

Our Gang ''Our Gang'' (also known as ''The Little Rascals'' or ''Hal Roach's Rascals'') is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach, also the ...

'' comedies from 1939 to 1943, and a long line of other

short subject A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

s and

B-movie 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 ...

s afterward. He is also known for directing the 1958 film ''

It! The Terror from Beyond Space ''It! The Terror from Beyond Space'' is an independently made 1958 American science fiction horror film, produced by Robert Kent, directed by Edward L. Cahn, that stars Marshall Thompson, Shawn Smith (Shirley Patterson), and Kim Spalding. The ...

'', the film that inspired the 1979 film ''

Alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...

''. He made a number of films for

American International Pictures American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fi ...

.Mark McGee, ''Faster and Furiouser: The Revised and Fattened Fable of American International Pictures'', McFarland, 1996 p52

Personal life

His brother was

film editor Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film which increasingly involves the use of digital technology. The film edit ...

Philip Cahn Philip Cahn (1894–1984) was an American film editor who edited more than eighty films and television series. He also directed the 1935 film '' I've Been Around''. Philip Cahn, I. James Wilkinson and Ben Lewis founded ''The Society of Motion Pic ...

, who was the father of film editor

Dann Cahn Daniel Richard "Dann" Cahn (April 9, 1923 – November 21, 2012) was an American film editor who received the Career Achievement Award from the American Cinema Editors (ACE). Cahn was best known as the head editor of the TV series, ''I Lo ...

, who, in turn, was the father of film editor Daniel T. Cahn.

Selected filmography as director

*''

The Homicide Squad ''The Homicide Squad'' is a 1931 American pre-Code crime film directed by George Melford and Edward L. Cahn and written by John Thomas Neville, Charles Logue and Tom Reed. It is based on a 1928 Henry La Cossitt short story that originally ran in ...

'' (1931) *''

Radio Patrol ''Radio Patrol'' is a police comic strip carried in newspapers from August 7, 1933 to December 16, 1950 in the dailies, with a Sunday strip that ran from November 25, 1934 to October 20, 1946. It was created by artist Charles Schmidt and writer E ...

'' (1932) *''

Law and Order In modern politics, law and order is the approach focusing on harsher enforcement and penalties as ways to reduce crime. Penalties for perpetrators of disorder may include longer terms of imprisonment, mandatory sentencing, three-strikes laws a ...

'' (1932) *''

Afraid to Talk ''Afraid to Talk'' is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Edward L. Cahn and written by Tom Reed. The film stars Eric Linden, Sidney Fox, Tully Marshall, Louis Calhern, George Meeker and Robert Warwick. Release The film was relea ...

'' (1932) *''

Laughter in Hell ''Laughter in Hell'' is a 1933 American Pre-Code drama film directed by Edward L. Cahn and starring Pat O'Brien. The film's title was typical of the sensationalistic titles of many Pre-Code films. Adapted from the 1932 novel of the same name by ...

'' (1933) * ''Emergency Call'' (1933) * ''Confidential'' (1935) *''

Death Drives Through ''Death Drives Through'' is a 1935 British sports drama film directed by Edward L. Cahn and starring Chili Bouchier, Robert Douglas and Miles Mander. It was made as a quota quickie by the independent producer Clifford Taylor at Ealing Studios. ...

'' (1935) *''Hit and Run Driver'' (1935) *''A Thrill for Thelma'' (1935) *''Foolproof'' (1936) *''The Perfect Set-up'' (1936) *''Behind the Headlines'' (1936) *''Servant of the People: The Story of the Constitution of the United States'' (1937) * ''Bad Guy'' (1937) *''Grid Rules'' (1938) *'' Dad for a Day'' (1939) *''The Giant of Norway'' (1939) *''Angel of Mercy'' (1939) *'' Alfalfa's Double'' (1939) *''

Time Out for Lessons ''Time Out for Lessons'' is a 1939 '' Our Gang'' short comedy film directed by Edward Cahn. It was the 185th ''Our Gang'' short (186th episode, 97th talking short, 98th talking episode, and 17th MGM produced episode) that was released. Plot Af ...

'' (1939) *''

Redhead Red hair (also known as orange hair and ginger hair) is a hair color found in one to two percent of the human population, appearing with greater frequency (two to six percent) among people of Northern or Northwestern European ancestry and ...

'' (1941) *''

Main Street After Dark ''Main Street After Dark'' is a 1945 American drama film directed by Edward L. Cahn and written by John C. Higgins and Karl Kamb. The film stars Edward Arnold, Selena Royle, Tom Trout, Audrey Totter, Dan Duryea, Hume Cronyn and Dorothy Morris. ...

'' (1945) *''

Dangerous Partners ''Dangerous Partners'' is a 1945 American adventure film directed by Edward L. Cahn and written by Marion Parsonnet and Edmund L. Hartmann, based on the novel “Paper Chase” by Oliver Weld Bayer, the pen-name of Leo and Eleanor Bayer (later kn ...

'' (1945) * ''

Gas House Kids in Hollywood Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma). A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...

'' (1947) *'' Experiment Alcatraz'' (1950) (and producer) *''

Destination Murder ''Destination Murder'' is a 1950 American crime film noir directed by Edward L. Cahn. The drama features Joyce MacKenzie, Stanley Clements and Hurd Hatfield. Plot During a five-minute movie intermission, Jackie Wales leaves a theater, gets in ...

'' (1950) *'' Creature with the Atom Brain'' (1955) *'' Girls in Prison'' (1956) *''

Zombies of Mora Tau ''Zombies of Mora Tau'' (also known as ''The Dead That Walk'') is a 1957 black-and-white zombie horror film directed by Edward L. Cahn and starring Gregg Palmer, Allison Hayes and Autumn Russel. Distributed by Columbia Pictures, it was produced b ...

'' (1957) *''

Invasion of the Saucer Men ''Invasion of the Saucer Men'' (U.K. title: ''Invasion of the Hell Creatures''; working title: ''Spacemen Saturday Night''), is a 1957 black-and-white comic science fiction/horror film produced by James H. Nicholson for release by American Int ...

'' (1957) *'' Curse of the Faceless Man'' (1958) *''

'' (1958) *''

Pier 5, Havana ''Pier 5, Havana'' is a 1959 American Neo- noir, action, adventure, mystery, thriller crime film directed by Edward L. Cahn starring Cameron Mitchell and Allison Hayes. Plot Steve Daggett ( Cameron Mitchell) fights to protect Fidel Castro fr ...

'' (1958) *''

The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake ''The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake'' is a 1959 American black-and-white horror film written by Orville H. Hampton and directed by Edward L. Cahn. It was one of a series of films they made in the late 1950s for producer Robert E. Kent on contract ...

'' (1959) * ''

Inside the Mafia ''Inside the Mafia'' is a 1959 film noir crime film based on a true incident. It was based on the Albert Anastasia murder and subsequent Apalachin Meeting. Plot The gangster Augie Martello is riddled with bullets in an assassination attempt orga ...

'' (1959) *''

Invisible Invaders ''Invisible Invaders'' is a 1959 science fiction film starring John Agar, Jean Byron, John Carradine and Philip Tonge. It was produced by Robert E. Kent, directed by Edward L. Cahn and written by Samuel Newman. The monster costume from 1958's ''It ...

'' (1959) *''

A Dog's Best Friend ''A Dog's Best Friend'' is a 1959 American Drama Western film directed by Edward L. Cahn and written by Orville H. Hampton. The film stars Bill Williams, Marcia Henderson, Roger Mobley, Roy Engel, Charles Cooper and Harry Dean Stanton. The fil ...

'' (1959) * '' Operation Bottleneck'' (1961) * ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1962)

Editor

* ''Surrender'' (1927) * ''The Man Who Laughs'' (1928) * ''Broadway'' (1929) (associate editor) * '' The White Hell of Pitz Palu'' (1929) * ''

The Last Performance ''The Last Performance'' is a 1929 American film directed by Paul Fejos and starring Conrad Veidt and Mary Philbin. The film was made in two version: a silent version and Movietone version complete with music, talking sequences, and sound effe ...

'' (1929) * ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1930)

References

External links

* 1899 births 1963 deaths

Cahn Cahn is a Germanized form of the Jewish surname Cohen, another variant of which is Kahn. People with the surname Cahn * Jonathan Cahn (born 1959), American Messianic minister and writer * Andrew Cahn (born 1951), British civil servant * Anne ...

Film directors from New York City Horror film directors Science fiction film directors {{US-film-director-stub