Joseph H. Lewis

Biography

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Joseph H. Lewis  (April 6, 1907–August 30, 2000), was an American B-movie film director. Although he worked with both Béla Lugosi (The Invisible Ghost) and Lionel Atwill in early 1940s horror, he is best known for his work in film noir from the late 40s and the 1950s. His most acclaimed feature, Gun Crazy (1949), is a dark romance about gun-obsession, and notable for its use of location photography. At the dawn of his career (1937–1940), when Lewis was directing inexpensive westerns, he earned the derogatory nickname "Wagon-Wheel Joe" from the studio editors, because of his tendency to use wagon-wheels for constructing interesting visual compositions within the frame. Lewis's offbeat and eye-catching compositions added style and value to inexpensive productions. His 1944 musical Minstrel Man, starring singer Benny Fields, is quite possibly the finest film ever made by low-budget PRC Pictures. Industry insiders noticed, prompting Columbia Pictures to hire Lewis to film the musical sequences for its blockbuster musical The Jolson Story. Toward the end of Lewis's career, he worked in television, directing mostly westerns: The Rifleman, Bona…

Directed

1. Gun Crazy (1950) — Director
2. The Big Combo (1955) — Director
3. Gunsmoke (1955) — Director
4. My Name Is Julia Ross (1945) — Director
5. The Big Valley (1965) — Director
6. Invisible Ghost (1941) — Director
7. The Rifleman (1958) — Director
8. Terror in a Texas Town (1958) — Director
9. The Undercover Man (1949) — Director
10. A Lawless Street (1955) — Director
11. So Dark the Night (1946) — Director
12. Daniel Boone (1964) — Director
13. A Lady Without Passport (1950) — Director
14. The Mad Doctor of Market Street (1942) — Director
15. 7th Cavalry (1956) — Director
16. Branded (1965) — Director
17. Boys of the City (1940) — Director
18. The Falcon in San Francisco (1945) — Director
19. That Gang of Mine (1940) — Director
20. Cry of the Hunted (1953) — Director
21. Retreat, Hell! (1952) — Director
22. Pride of the Bowery (1940) — Director
23. The Halliday Brand (1957) — Director
24. The Detectives (1959) — Director
25. Bombs Over Burma (1942) — Director
26. Desperate Search (1952) — Director
27. The Return of October (1948) — Director
28. Minstrel Man (1944) — Director
29. The Gold Racket (1937) — Director
30. The Spy Ring (1938) — Director
31. Criminals Within (1941) — Director
32. The Man from Tumbleweeds (1940) — Director
33. The Silver Bullet (1942) — Director
34. The Swordsman (1948) — Director
35. Secrets of a Co-Ed (1942) — Director
36. Two-Fisted Rangers (1939) — Director
37. Navy Spy (1937) — Director
38. Arizona Cyclone (1941) — Director
39. Man on a Bus (1955) — Director
40. The Investigators (1961) — Director

Also appeared in

1. Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula (1997) — Self