Richard Earl Cunha (March 4, 1922 – September 18, 2005) was an American cinematographer and film director. Cunha's father was
Albert "Sonny" Cunha, an American songwriter.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Cunha served as an aerial photographer for the military, and then was transferred to
Hal Roach Studios 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 (TV series), Branded''.
Cunha wrote and directed only a handful of films, with his four best-known ones all being low-budget, sci fi-horror B movie, B-movies released in 1958 by Astor Pictures -- ''Giant from the Unknown'', ''She Demons (film), She Demons'', ''Missile to the Moon'', and ''Frankenstein's Daughter''.
In an interview with ''The Astounding B Monster Archive'', Cunha said his low-budget films had "budgets [that] were 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
* ''Giant from the Unknown'' 1958
* ''Bloodlust!'' 1961
* ''The Silent Witness (1962 film), The Silent Witness'' 1964
* ''Le Proscrit (série télévisée), Le Proscrit'' (TV) 1965
As director
* ''She Demons'' with Irish McCalla, Ted Griffin, Victor Sen Yung, Rudolph Anders. 1958
* ''Giant from the Unknown'' with Ed Kemmer, Sally Fraser, Buddy Baer 1958
* ''Missile to the Moon'' with Richard Travis, Cathy Downs, K.T. Stevens, Tommy Cook. 1958
* ''Frankenstein's Daughter'') with John Ashley, Sandra Knight, Donald Murphy, Sally Todd, Harold Lloyd. 1958
* ''Girl in Room 13 (1960 film), Girl in Room 13''. 1960
* ''Dog Eat Dog (1964 film), Dog Eat Dog''. 1964
As writer
* ''She Demons''. 1958
* ''Girl in Room 13 (1960 film), 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