Richard Earl Cunha (March 4, 1922 – September 18, 2005) was an American cinematographer and film director. Cunha's father was

Albert "Sonny" Cunha Sonny Cunha, full name Albert Richard Cunha (October 1, 1879 – January 23, 1933) was an American composer, bandleader, pianist, singer, politician and entrepreneur. He was the first to popularize ''hapa haole'' music, a type of Hawaiian music with ...

, an American songwriter. During World War II, Cunha served as an aerial photographer for the military, and then was transferred to

Hal Roach Studios Hal Roach Studios was an American motion picture and television production studio. Known as ''The Laugh Factory to the World'', it was founded by producer Hal Roach and business partners Dan Linthicum and I.H. Nance as the Rolin Film Company on Ju ...

in Los Angeles, where he made military training films, newsreels and documentaries. After the war, Cunha worked as a TV photographer, eventually working his way to up director of photography for the TV shows '' Death Valley Days'' and '' Branded''. Cunha wrote and directed only a handful of films, with his four best-known ones all being low-budget, sci fi-horror B-movies released in 1958 by Astor Pictures -- ''

Giant from the Unknown ''Giant from the Unknown'' (working titles ''Giant from Devil's Crag'' and ''The Diablo Giant'' ) is a 1958 independently made American black-and-white science fiction- horror film drama, produced by Marc Frederic and Arthur A. Jacobs, directed by ...

'', ''

She Demons ''She Demons'' is a 1958 American independent black-and-white science fiction horror film, produced by Arthur A. Jacobs and Marc Frederic, directed and co-written by Richard E. Cunha, that stars Irish McCalla, Tod Griffin, and Victor Sen Yu ...

'', '' Missile to the Moon'', and ''

Frankenstein's Daughter ''Frankenstein's Daughter'' is an independently made 1958 American black-and-white science fiction/ horror film drama, produced by Marc Frederic and George Fowley, directed by Richard E. Cunha, that stars John Ashley, Sandra Knight, Donald ...

''. In an interview with ''The Astounding B Monster Archive'', Cunha said his low-budget films had "budgets hatwere under $80,000, and we tried very hard to bring them in for approximately $65,000 or less," that the "shooting schedules were always six days," and "you don't run over on these low-budget films - you shoot the opening scenes and the end scenes, and then fill in the picture in between."

Selected filmography

As cinematographer

* '' Red Rock Outlaw '' 1950 * '' Death Valley Days'' (TV) 1952 * ''

'' 1958 * ''

Bloodlust! ''Bloodlust!'' is a 1961 American horror thriller film written, directed and produced by Ralph Brooke and starring Wilton Graff, June Kenney, Joan Lora, Eugene Persson, and Robert Reed. It is based on Richard Connell's 1924 short story "The Most ...

'' 1961 * '' The Silent Witness'' 1964 * '' Le Proscrit'' (TV) 1965

As director

* ''

'' with Irish McCalla, Ted Griffin, Victor Sen Yung, Rudolph Anders. 1958 * ''

'' with

Ed Kemmer Ed Kemmer (October 29, 1921 – November 9, 2004) was an American motion picture and television actor. Life Kemmer was born in Reading, Pennsylvania as Edward William Kemmerer, and served as a fighter pilot in World War II. He was shot down ove ...

, Sally Fraser,

Buddy Baer Jacob Henry "Buddy" Baer (June 11, 1915 – July 18, 1986) was an American boxer and later an actor with important parts in seventeen films, as well as roles on various television series in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1941, he came extremely cl ...

1958 * '' Missile to the Moon'' with Richard Travis, Cathy Downs,

K.T. Stevens K.T. Stevens (born Gloria Wood, July 20, 1919 – June 13, 1994) was an American film and television actress. Early years Stevens was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of film producer and director Sam Wood. She made her first film appearan ...

, Tommy Cook. 1958 * ''

'') with John Ashley, Sandra Knight, Donald Murphy, Sally Todd, Harold Lloyd. 1958 * '' Girl in Room 13''. 1960 * '' Dog Eat Dog''. 1964

As writer

* ''

''. 1958 * '' Girl in Room 13''. 1960

References

External links

*
Richard E. Cunha, 83; Directed Cult-Status '50s Horror Movies (Los Angeles Times, October 3, 2005)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunha, Richard E. 1922 births 2005 deaths American cinematographers People from Oceanside, California United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II United States Army Air Forces soldiers Science fiction film directors