Jack Hill (born January 28, 1933) is 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 ...

in the exploitation film genre. Several of Hill's later films have been characterized as

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

works.

Early life

Hill was born January 28, 1933, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, California. His mother, Mildred (née Pannill, b. February 1, 1907; death date n.a.), was a music teacher. His father, Roland Everett Hill (February 5, 1895 – November 10, 1986),Stone (1995),
Roland Everett Hill
. Retrieved November 1, 2014

from the original on November 1, 2014. worked as a set designer and art director for

First National Pictures First National Pictures was an American motion picture production and distribution company. It was founded in 1917 as First National Exhibitors' Circuit, Inc., an association of independent theatre owners in the United States, and became the count ...

and

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...

Jack Hill interview, on films including '' The Jazz Singer'', '' Captain Blood'', '' Action in the North Atlantic'', and '' Captain Horatio Hornblower'', and as well was an architect who designed the centerpiece

Sleeping Beauty Castle Sleeping Beauty Castle is a fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic ...

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...

in California. Hill attended

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 ...

, which he attended, he said, for "a couple of years" before leaving to get married and then returning to earn a degree in music. While a student, he played in a

symphony orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ce ...

that performed for the soundtracks of ''

Doctor Zhivago ''Doctor Zhivago'' is the title of a novel by Boris Pasternak and its various adaptations. Description The story, in all of its forms, describes the life of the fictional Russian physician and poet Yuri Zhivago and deals with love and loss during ...

'' and '' The Brothers Karamazov'', and he arranged music for burlesque performers; through this he met comedian

Lenny Bruce Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), known professionally as Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy which ...

, whose daughter Kitty Bruce would act in Hill's 1975 film '' Switchblade Sisters''. He went on to postgraduate studies at

UCLA Film School The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (UCLA TFT), is one of the 12 schools within the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) located in Los Angeles, California. Its creation was groundbreaking in that it was the first time a leadi ...

, where instructor and former movie director Dorothy Arzner encouraged Hill and his classmate and friend

Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the recipient of five A ...

. Hill worked as a cameraman, a sound recorder (including on Coppola's student short ''Ayamonn the Terrible''), and an editor on student films. His short ''The Host'' starred

Sid Haig Sidney Eddie Mosesian (July 14, 1939 – September 21, 2019), known professionally as Sid Haig, was an American actor, film producer, and musician. He was known for his roles in several of Jack Hill's blaxploitation films from the 1970s, as well ...

, an acting student at the Pasadena Playhouse under teacher Arzner, who introduced them; this marked the first of several films together.

Career

Hill went on to work with Coppola on several of Coppola's early movies, including producer Roger Corman's 1963 movie '' The Terror''. He added 20 minutes to 1960's '' Wasp Woman'' for its eventual

television syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...

release, shooting without access to any original cast-member.

Legacy

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...

's company Rolling Thunder Pictures re-released '' Switchblade Sisters'' theatrically in 1996. In the introduction to the film's DVD release, Tarantino calls Hill " “the Howard Hawks of exploitation filmmaking”. Hill's discoveries include Pam Grier, who starred in four of his films from '' The Big Doll House'' through '' Foxy Brown'';

, who acts in most of Hill's films, beginning with ''

Spider Baby ''Spider Baby: or, the Maddest Story Ever Told'' is a 1967 American black comedy horror film, written and directed by Jack Hill. It stars Lon Chaney Jr. as Bruno, the chauffeur and caretaker of three orphaned siblings who suffer from "Merrye Sy ...

''; and Ellen Burstyn, who starred in '' Pit Stop''. His student film ''The Host'' was a partial influence on former classmate

's '' Apocalypse Now''. Hill recalled in a 2000s interview that when he made ''The Host'', Film scholar Wheeler Winston Dixon believed that for Hill and fellow low-budget auteur Monte Hellman, film was primarily a means of personal expression while remaining a "deeply financially dependent medium". Dixon wrote that Hill and Hellman's movies often were sufficiently successful while remaining true to their personal vision.

Filmography

Film crew *''

Battle Beyond the Sun ''Battle Beyond the Sun'' is the English-dubbed and re-edited U.S. version of '' Nebo Zovyot'', a 1959 Soviet science fiction film. Roger Corman acquired the Soviet film for US distribution and hired a young film-school student named Francis F ...

'' (1962) - additional cinematography * ''

The Wasp Woman ''The Wasp Woman'' (also known as ''The Bee Girl'' and ''Insect Woman'') is a 1959 American independent science-fiction horror film produced and directed by Roger Corman. Filmed in black-and-white, it stars Susan Cabot, Anthony Eisley, Mich ...

'' (1962) (uncredited) - 20-minute introduction for TV syndication, shot in 1962 * ''

The Bellboy and the Playgirls ''The Bellboy and the Playgirls'' is a 1962 American film by Francis Ford Coppola and Jack Hill. The film is a re-edited version of a West German film of 1958 originally titled '' '', directed by Fritz Umgelter with Coppola and Hill shooting nud ...

'' (1963) - editor * '' The Terror'' (1963) - uncredited director and co-writer * '' City on Fire'' (1979) - writer * '' Death Ship'' (1980) - writer As director * ''The Host'' (short; made 1960-61) - directorWaddell, p. 9, which notes "The Host" received a public release in 2000 as an extra on the '' Switchblade Sisters'' DVD, with new titles, sound recording and music. Waddell calls "The Host" a 1961 film on page 9, but then asks, "Why was 'The Host' not finished back in 1960?" on page 10. * '' Mondo Keyhole'' (1966) - director * ''

Blood Bath ''Blood Bath'' is a 1966 American horror film directed by Jack Hill and Stephanie Rothman and starring William Campbell, Linda Saunders, Marissa Mathes, and Sid Haig. The film concerns a mad painter of weird art who turns into a vampire-li ...

'' (a.k.a. ''Track of the Vampire'') (1966) - co-director * ''

'' (a.k.a. ''The Maddest Story Ever Told'') (1967) - writer, director * '' House of Evil'' (1968) (US scenes) - director * '' Fear Chamber'' (1968) (US scenes) - director * '' Pit Stop'' (1969) - director * ''Ich, ein Groupie'' (a.k.a. ''Higher and Higher'') (1970) (uncredited) - co-director * '' The Snake People'' (1971) (US scenes) - director * '' The Incredible Invasion'' (a.k.a. ''Alien Terror'') (1971) (US scenes) - director * '' The Big Doll House'' (1971) - director * '' The Big Bird Cage'' (1972) - director * '' Coffy'' (1973) - writer, director * '' Foxy Brown'' (1974) - director * ''

The Swinging Cheerleaders ''The Swinging Cheerleaders'' is a 1974 comedy-drama film written and directed by exploitation film auteur Jack Hill (who was credited for writing the film as Jane Witherspoon). The film was also released under the titles ''Locker Room Girls'' a ...

'' (1974) - writer, director * '' Switchblade Sisters'' (1975) - writer, director * '' Sorceress'' (1982) - writer, director (as Brian Stuart)

References

External links