Phil Karlson

Phil Karlson (born Philip N. Karlstein; July 2, 1908 – December 12, 1982) was an American film director. Karlson directed ''99 River Street'', ''Kansas City Confidential'' and '' Hell's Island'', all with actor John Payne, in the early 1950s.

Other films include '' The Texas Rangers'' (1951), '' The Phenix City Story'' (1955), '' 5 Against the House'' (1955), '' Gunman's Walk'' (1958), '' The Young Doctors'' (1961) and '' Walking Tall'' (1973).

Biography

Early life

Karlson was the son of Irish actress Lillian O'Brien. His father was Jewish.

He attended Marshall High School and studied painting at Chicago's Art Institute. He tried to make a living as a song and dance man but was unsuccessful. Then he studied law, at his father's request, at Loyola Marymount University in California. He took a part-time job at Universal Pictures "washing toilets and dishes and whatever the hell they gave me" according to Karlson.Todd McCarthy and Richard Thompson. “Phil Karlson: Interview, November 19, 1973” Kings of the Bs; Working Within the Hollywood System, eds. Todd McCarthy and Charles Flynn (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1975), pp. 327-345. Rpt. Cine Resort, Oct. 7 2014
/ref> He also sold some gags to Buster Keaton. Eventually he decided to pursue a career in film, quitting college a year before graduation.

Assistant Director at Universal

Karlson got a job at Universal Pictures, doing a variety of jobs.

He worked as assistant director on '' Destry Rides Again'' (1932) and ''My Pal, the King'' with Tom Mix; '' The Countess of Monte Cristo'' (1934) and '' Cheating Cheaters'' (1934) with Fay Wray; '' I Like It That Way'' (1934); '' Romance in the Rain'' (1934); and '' Strange Wives'' (1934), directed by Richard Thorpe.

He worked on '' The Mystery of Edwin Drood'' (1935) with Claude Rains; '' Princess O'Hara'' (1935); '' Alias Mary Dow'' (1935), for Kurt Neumann; '' Werewolf of London'' (1935); '' Sing Me a Love Song'' (1935); '' She Gets Her Man'' (1935); '' The Affair of Susan'' (1935); '' Love Before Breakfast'' (1936), with director Walter Lang; ''The Girl on the Front Page'' (1936); and ''Top of the Town'' (1937).

Karlson said that Sam Goldwyn put him under contract intending to use him as a director, but Karlson wound up spending nine months idle. He asked for a release of his contract and got it. He joined a company of Maurice Kosloff.

He went back to Universal where he worked as an assistant on '' The Black Doll'' (1938); '' The Case of the Missing Blonde'' (1938); ''The Last Express'' (1938); ''His Exciting Night'' (1938), ''The Last Warning'' (1938), ''Newsboys' Home'' (1938), and '' Society Smugglers'' (1939), directed by Joe May.

His credits became more distinguished: ''Rio'' (1939), with Basil Rathbone, directed by John Brahm; '' The Invisible Man Returns'' (1940) and ''The House of the Seven Gables'' for May; '' I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby'' (1940), a musical; ''You're Not So Tough'' (1940), for May; '' Margie'' (1940), '' Seven Sinners'' (1940), with John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich for director Tay Garnett; ''Where Did You Get That Girl?'' (1941), for Arthur Lubin; and '' The Flame of New Orleans'' (1941), with Dietrich for René Clair.

Karlson did '' In the Navy'' (1941) with Abbott and Costello for Lubin, and he became friendly with Lou Costello, often pitching him gags. He worked on '' It Started with Eve'' (1941) for Henry Koster with the studio's other big star, Deanna Durbin.

Karlson quit Universal in 1940 to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Forces. In 1943, he was injured in a plane crash ending his career as a flight instructor.

Monogram Pictures

Karlson, still using his real name of Philip Karlstein, took a job at Monogram Pictures, as an assistant director. He was contacted by Lou Costello, who wanted to produce a film and offered Karlstein the job of directing it. The resulting movie was ''A Wave, a WAC and a Marine'' (1944), starring comedian Henny Youngman. Karlson called it "probably the worst picture ever made... a nothing picture, but I was lucky because it was for Monogram and they didn't understand how bad it was, because they had never made anything that was any good." However, Karlson did like his second film as director, ''G. I. Honeymoon'' (1945), with Gale Storm, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Music.

Karlson made Monogram's low-budget productions look much more expensive by being creative with the staging. He used light and shadow to add mood to ordinary dialogue scenes, and employed careful camera angles to maximize the size of the limited sets. Karlson's resourcefulness made him Monogram's choice to launch a new series (The Bowery Boys, The Shadow) or invigorate an existing one ( Charlie Chan). An excellent example is Karlson's Charlie Chan mystery ''The Shanghai Cobra'' (1945) in which the director, given a small exterior set, established a film noir atmosphere by shooting the scene at night during a rainstorm. Karlson was well aware of Monogram's budgetary limitations: "They knew what they were doing, because there was a certain class of picture they were going to make and they weren't going to make anything any different."

Slightly more distinguished was '' Wife Wanted'' (1946) which starred and was produced by Kay Francis. Both she and Karlson disliked the original script so they rewrote it together. It turned out to be Francis's last movie. He followed it with '' Kilroy Was Here'' (1947), co-starring former child actors Jackie Cooper and Jackie Coogan.

Karlson received acclaim for '' Black Gold'' (1947), a story of the plight of the American Indian, based around the true story of the racehorse Black Gold. It was an early lead for Anthony Quinn and the first film released by Monogram's new, higher-budget division, Allied Artists. Karlson took a year to make that film because he wanted seasonal shots; he says he directed four films while also making ''Black Gold''.

Karlson then made ''Louisiana'' (1947) with governor Jimmie Davis. He followed this with ''Rocky'' (1948) with Roddy McDowall.

Columbia

Karlson went over to Columbia Pictures where he directed two Westerns, '' Above All Laws'' (1947) and '' Fury'' (1948). He then made '' Ladies of the Chorus'' (1948), with Marilyn Monroe in her first substantial role.

British production company Eagle-Lion Films hired Karlson to direct '' The Big Cat'' (1949), which he later described as his answer to ''The Grapes of Wrath'' (1940). While at Eagle-Lion Karlson also did ''Down Memory Lane'' (1949) with Steve Allen, shot in two days.

Edward Small

Karlson teamed with producer Edward Small for ''The Iroquois Trail'' (1950) with George Montgomery, based on ''The Last of the Mohicans''. Small liked Karlson's work and used him on ''Lorna Doone'' (1951), an adaptation of the famous novel with Richard Greene, and '' The Texas Rangers'' (1951), a Western with Montgomery.

These films were distributed by Columbia, who used Karlson for '' Mask of the Avenger'' (1951), a swashbuckler with John Derek

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