Joseph H. Lewis (April 6, 1907 – August 30, 2000) was an American

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 ...

film director whose stylish flourishes came to be appreciated by auteur theory-espousing film critics in the years following his retirement in 1966. In a 30-year directorial career, he helmed numerous low-budget westerns, action pictures, musicals, adventures, and thrillers. Today he is remembered for mysteries and

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...

stories: ''

My Name Is Julia Ross ''My Name Is Julia Ross'' is a 1945 American gothic film noir directed by Joseph H. Lewis, and starring Nina Foch, Dame May Whitty, and George Macready. Its plot follows a young woman in England who is hired as a live-in secretary for an ailing ...

'' (1945) and ''

So Dark the Night ''So Dark the Night'' is a 1946 American crime film with film noir influences, featuring Steven Geray, Micheline Cheirel, and Eugene Borden. Based on a story written by Aubrey Wisberg, the screenplay was written by Dwight V. Babcock and Mart ...

'' (1946) as well as his most highly regarded features, 1950's '' Gun Crazy'', which spotlighted a desperate young couple (

Peggy Cummins Peggy Cummins (born Augusta Margaret Diane Fuller; 18 December 1925 – 29 December 2017) was an Irish actress, born in Wales, who is best known for her performance in Joseph H. Lewis's ''Gun Crazy'' (1950), playing a trigger-happy ''femme fa ...

and

John Dall John Dall (born John Dall Thompson; May 26, 1920 – January 15, 1971) was an American actor. Primarily a stage actor, he is best remembered today for two film roles: the cool-minded intellectual killer in Alfred Hitchcock's ''Rope'' (1948), and ...

) who embark on a deadly crime spree, and the 1955 film noir ''

The Big Combo ''The Big Combo'' is a 1955 American film noir crime film directed by Joseph H. Lewis, written by Philip Yordan and photographed by cinematographer John Alton, with music by David Raksin. The film stars Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte and Brian Donlev ...

'', with its stunning cinematography by John Alton.

Life and career

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 ...

, the son of

Russian Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...

immigrants, Ernestine (née Miriamson) and Leopold Lewis. His father was an

optometrist Optometry is a specialized health care profession that involves examining the eyes and related structures for defects or abnormalities. Optometrists are health care professionals who typically provide comprehensive primary eye care. In the Uni ...

. He grew up on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

of New York City and attended DeWitt Clinton High School in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

and when his brother, Ben, moved to Hollywood in 1927, he decided to follow with the hope of becoming an actor. Ben found him a job as camera assistant and, subsequently, young Joseph became an assistant film editor just as the film industry was converting to sound. He began his directorial career (1937–40) by turning out low-budget B-Westerns starring Bob Baker, Charles Starrett, and

Bill Elliott William Clyde Elliott (born October 8, 1955), also known as Awesome Bill from Dawsonville, Million Dollar Bill, or Wild Bill is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He competes full time in the Camping World Superstar Racing ...

. Film editors referred to Lewis as "Wagon-Wheel Joe," because of his tendency to use wagon wheels in the foreground to create interesting visual compositions. Lewis was equally comfortable working in different genres: horror ( Bela Lugosi, ''

The Invisible Ghost ''Invisible Ghost'' is a 1941 American horror film directed by Joseph H. Lewis, produced by Sam Katzman and starring Bela Lugosi. Plot The home of Charles Kessler is beset by a series of unsolved murders. Kessler, who lives with his daughter ...

''), comedy ( The East Side Kids, '' That Gang of Mine''), detective mystery ( Tom Conway, '' The Falcon in San Francisco''), costume adventure ( Larry Parks, '' The Swordsman''), and musicals (

Benny Fields Benny Fields, occasionally billed as "Bennie Fields" (born Benjamin Geisenfeld; June 14, 1894 – August 16, 1959), was a popular singer of the early 20th century, best known as one-half of the Blossom Seeley-Benny Fields vaudeville team. ...

, '' Minstrel Man''). Lewis's creative compositions for ''Minstrel Man'' won him the assignment of staging the musical sequences for '' The Jolson Story''. Today, Lewis is primarily known for his work in film noir during the 1940s and early 1950s. ''Gun Crazy'' is a dark romance about gun-obsession, notable for its use of location photography and, for film students and buffs, a particularly arresting shot which lasts for ten minutes, as the audience suddenly becomes a passenger in the getaway car following a bank robbery committed by the young leads. Toward the end of Lewis's career, he worked in television, directing mostly westerns: ''

The Rifleman ''The Rifleman'' is an American Western television program starring Chuck Connors as rancher Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the fictional town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show wa ...

'', ''

Bonanza ''Bonanza'' is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 13, 1959, to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 432 episodes, ''Bonanza'' is NBC's longest-running western, the second-longest-running western series on U ...

'', ''

The Big Valley ''The Big Valley'' is an American Western drama television series that originally aired from September 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969 on ABC. The series is set on the fictional Barkley Ranch in Stockton, California, from 1884 to 1888. The one-hour e ...

'', ''

Gunsmoke ''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centers on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central character ...

'', and the pilot for '' Branded''. He also directed the 1961 CBS crime adventure-drama series '' The Investigators''. Lewis suffered a major heart attack at the age of 46, but continued working until his 59th birthday in April 1966, at the end of the 1965–66 TV season. He later lectured at film schools and fan gatherings as well as at retrospectives such as the Telluride Film Festival, along with European venues in France, Germany and other locations. In 1997 he became the recipient of the

Los Angeles Film Critics Association The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) is an American film critic organization founded in 1975. Background Its membership comprises film critics from Los Angeles-based print and electronic media. In December of each year, the organiza ...

Lifetime Achievement Award. Nearly five months after his 93rd birthday, Lewis died at his home in

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...

's seaside community of

Marina del Rey Marina del Rey (Spanish for "Marina of the King") is an unincorporated seaside community in Los Angeles County, California, with an eponymous harbor that is a major boating and water recreation destination of the greater Los Angeles area. The p ...

. Active until the end, he made his final public appearance five weeks earlier to introduce a screening of ''Gun Crazy'' at the

University of California at Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

. He was married to Buena Vista Lewis; they had one daughter, Candy Lewis Sangster.

Selected filmography

References

External links

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Life and career

Selected filmography

References

External links

Further reading