Lambert Harwood Hillyer (July 8, 1893 – July 5, 1969) was an American film director and screenwriter.
Lambert Hillyer | |
---|---|
Born | Lambert Harwood Hillyer July 8, 1893 |
Died | July 5, 1969 | (aged 75)
Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter |
Years active | 1917–1949 |
Lambert Harwood Hillyer was born July 8, 1893, in Tyner, Indiana.[1] His mother was character actress Lydia Knott.[2] A graduate of Drake College,[3] he worked as a newspaper reporter and an actor in vaudeville and stock theater. During World War I he began working in motion pictures and became a prolific director and screenwriter, working on many silent-era Westerns by William S. Hart, Buck Jones, Tom Mix and others.
Often associated with producer Thomas H. Ince, Hillyer expanded into romantic melodramas and crime films in the 1920s. In 1936 he directed two chillers for Universal, the science-fiction film The Invisible Ray and the cult horror film Dracula's Daughter. He directed the first screen depiction of Batman, a 15-part serial produced in 1943[4] that was re-released as a theatrical feature in 1965.[5]
He directed many B movies for Columbia Pictures in the 1930s and early 1940s,[6] including the Westerns that were his specialty. Hillyer finished his career directing low-budget dramas and Westerns for Monogram Pictures.[4] In the early days of television, Hillyer also directed episodes of the syndicated Western, The Cisco Kid. Hillyer directed at least one episode of Highway Patrol, which starred Broderick Crawford.
Hillyer died July 5, 1969, in Los Angeles, California.[7]
In addition to writing screenplays for many of the films he directed, as noted above, Hillyer wrote or contributed to the screenplays for these motion pictures.
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
1917 | They're Off | [6] |
1917 | The Mother Instinct | [6] |
1917 | The Desert Man | [6] |
1917 | The Little Brother | [6] |
1917 | Love or Justice | [6] |
1917 | The Snarl | [6] |
1917 | One Shot Ross | [6] |
1917 | The Silent Man | [6] |
1921 | The Man from Lost River | [6] |
1930 | Hide-Out | [6] |
1933 | Straightaway | [6] |
1933 | State Trooper | [6] |
1935 | Law Beyond the Range | [6] |
1937 | The Shadow | [6] |
1938 | Highway Patrol | [6] |
1939 | Parents on Trial | [6] |
1939 | The Officer and the Lady | [6] |
Bill Elliott's presence, with a matching performance by Kenneth MacDonald, brings this western saga satisfactorily to the screen. [...] An interesting subplot has heroine Evelyn Young momentarily switching her affection from Stanley Brown to his brother, Eliott. Lambert Hillyer's direction is first rate.