William Beaudine

William Washington Beaudine (January 15, 1892 – March 18, 1970) was an American film director. He was one of Hollywood's most prolific directors, turning out films in remarkable numbers and in a wide variety of genres.

Life and career

This section has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "William Beaudine" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) The neutrality of this section is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (October 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Born in New York City, Beaudine began his career as an actor in 1909, aged 17, with

The 1959 book, Classics of the Silent Screen: A Pictorial Treasury (credited to Joe Franklin but actually written by noted film historian William K. Everson), remarks on "what a really fine director William Beaudine was in the silent era, long before he became the principal director of The Bowery Boys "B" comedies".^[2]

Beaudine was very much in demand during the 1920s; he directed silent films for

Beaudine was one of a number of experienced directors (including Raoul Walsh and Allan Dwan) who were brought to England from Hollywood in the 1930s to work on what were in all other respects very British productions. Beaudine directed 11 features there from 1935 through 1937, including Boys Will Be Boys (1935) and Where There's a Will (1936) starring Will Hay, and the George Formby comedy Feather Your Nest (1937).

Beaudine returned to America in 1937 and had trouble re-establishing himself at the major studios. Once widely known as an A-list director of important productions, Beaudine had commanded a premium salary in the late 1920s that Hollywood producers of the late 1930s didn't want to match. He worked briefly at Warner Bros., with whom he had been associated in Britain, and then waited for offers on his terms. They never came. Beaudine had lost much of his personal fortune through no fault of his own (a bank he bought an interest in had failed, and much of his income was claimed by the British government in taxes).

In 1940 publicist-turned-producer Jed Buell approached Beaudine to direct an all-black-cast feature for Buell's Dixie National Pictures. The salary was a flat $500 for one week's work. Beaudine knew that if he accepted this job, he would henceforth be associated with low-budget films and would never command his old salary again, but with his finances at a low ebb Beaudine accepted the assignment, under his "William X. Crowley" alias.

Buell was pleased with Beaudine's professionalism and inventive ways to extend a shoestring budget. He hired Beaudine to direct Misbehaving Husbands (1940), noteworthy at the time as the comeback feature of silent-screen clown Harry Langdon. It was a humble comeback for both Langdon and Beaudine, since it was released by the tiny Producers Releasing Corporation, whose budgets seldom ventured beyond five figures. Langdon and Beaudine received critical raves for their work: "Preview house rewarded them with practically solid laughter" (Boxoffice);^[3] "Easily [Langdon's] best performance in years" (Motion Picture Daily).^[4] The film's success within its own market reestablished both Langdon and Beaudine, albeit in B pictures.

William Beaudine became a low-budget specialist, forsaking his artistic ambitions in favor of strictly commercial film fare, and recouping his financial losses through sheer volume of work. He made dozens of comedies,

In 1980, in their tongue-in-cheek book The Golden Turkey Awards, Michael and Harry Medved put William Beaudine on their list of worst directors of all time.^[5] They gave him the unflattering nickname "One-Shot," because he always seemed to shoot just one take, regardless of actors flubbing their lines or special effects malfunctioning. It is true that Beaudine shot economically—he usually had no choice—but he was always professional, and actually did shoot multiple takes of movie scenes. (The coming-attractions trailers of Beaudine's films are rife with alternate takes.)

The Academy Film Archive has preserved three films directed by William Beaudine: Little Annie Rooney, Mom and Dad, and A Husband in Haste.^[6]

Death

Beaudine died of

Selected filmography

The following is a listing of the theatrically released, feature-length films directed by William Beaudine. Short subjects and television productions are not included.

1910s

• Almost a Wild Man (1913)

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1. Ten Who Dared (1960)
2. Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966)
3. Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1966)

Quotes

"These films are going to be made regardless of who directs them. There's a market for them and the studios are going to continue to make them. I've been doing this long enough, I think I can make them as good or better than anyone else."^[7]

See also

Medved, Harry and Medved, Michael. The Golden Turkey Awards. Perigee Books, G.P. Putnam's Sons. New York. 1980.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Beaudine.

• William Beaudine at
  IMDb
• One-Shot Beaudine