Edward L. Cahn (February 12, 1899 – August 25, 1963) was an American

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

and

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

Early life and education

Cahn was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. He went to work at

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

in 1917 while still a student at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

Career

He is best known for directing ''

Our Gang ''Our Gang'' (also known as ''The Little Rascals'' or ''Hal Roach's Rascals'') is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach, who also pr ...

'' comedies from 1939 to 1943, and a long line of other

short subject A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film or ...

s and

B-movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...

s afterward. He is also known for directing the 1958 film ''

It! The Terror from Beyond Space ''It! The Terror from Beyond Space'' is an independently made 1958 American science fiction horror film, produced by Robert Kent, directed by Edward L. Cahn, that stars Marshall Thompson, Shawn Smith ( Shirley Patterson), and Kim Spalding. ...

'', the film that inspired the 1979 film '' Alien''. He made a number of films for

American International Pictures American International Pictures, LLC (AIP or American International Productions) is an American film production company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution c ...

.Mark McGee, ''Faster and Furiouser: The Revised and Fattened Fable of American International Pictures'', McFarland, 1996 p52

Personal life

His brother was

film editor Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film stock, film which increasingly involves the use Digital cinema, of digital ...

Philip Cahn Philip Cahn (1894–1984) was an American film editor who edited more than eighty films and television series. He also directed the 1935 film '' I've Been Around''. Philip Cahn, I. James Wilkinson and Ben Lewis founded ''The Society of Motion Pic ...

, who was the father of film editor Dann Cahn who, in turn, was the father of film editor Daniel T. Cahn.

Selected filmography as director

Source: *'' The Homicide Squad'' (1931) *'' Radio Patrol'' (1932) *'' Law and Order'' (1932) *''

Afraid to Talk ''Afraid to Talk'' is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Edward L. Cahn and written by Tom Reed. The film stars Eric Linden, Sidney Fox, Tully Marshall, Louis Calhern, George Meeker and Robert Warwick. The film was released on Dec ...

'' (1932) *'' Laughter in Hell'' (1933) * ''Emergency Call'' (1933) * ''Confidential'' (1935) *''

Death Drives Through ''Death Drives Through'' is a 1935 British sports drama film directed by Edward L. Cahn and starring Chili Bouchier, Robert Douglas and Miles Mander. It was made as a quota quickie by the independent producer Clifford Taylor at Ealing Studios. ...

'' (1935) *''Hit and Run Driver'' (1935) *''A Thrill for Thelma'' (1935) *''Foolproof'' (1936) *''The Perfect Set-up'' (1936) *''Behind the Headlines'' (1936) *''Servant of the People: The Story of the Constitution of the United States'' (1937) * ''Bad Guy'' (1937) *''Grid Rules'' (1938) *'' Dad for a Day'' (1939) *''The Giant of Norway'' (1939) *''Angel of Mercy'' (1939) *'' Alfalfa's Double'' (1939) *'' Time Out for Lessons'' (1939) *''

Redhead Red hair, also known as ginger hair, is a human hair color found in 2–6% of people of Northern or Northwestern European ancestry and lesser frequency in other populations. It is most common in individuals homozygous for a recessive alle ...

'' (1941) *''

Main Street After Dark ''Main Street After Dark'' is a 1945 American drama film directed by Edward L. Cahn and written by John C. Higgins and Karl Kamb. The film stars Edward Arnold, Selena Royle, Tom Trout, Audrey Totter, Dan Duryea, Hume Cronyn and Dorothy Morris. ...

'' (1945) *''

Dangerous Partners ''Dangerous Partners'' is a 1945 American adventure film directed by Edward L. Cahn and written by Marion Parsonnet and Edmund L. Hartmann, based on the novel “Paper Chase” by Oliver Weld Bayer, the pen-name of Leo and Eleanor Bayer (later kn ...

'' (1945) * '' Gas House Kids in Hollywood'' (1947) *'' Goodbye, Miss Turlock'' (1948) -- Oscar-winner for Best Short Subject (One-Reel) *'' Experiment Alcatraz'' (1950) (and producer) *''

Destination Murder ''Destination Murder'' is a 1950 American crime film noir directed by Edward L. Cahn. The drama features Joyce MacKenzie, Stanley Clements and Hurd Hatfield. Plot During a five-minute movie intermission, Jackie Wales leaves a theater, gets into ...

'' (1950) *'' Creature with the Atom Brain'' (1955) *'' Girls in Prison'' (1956) *''

The She-Creature ''The She-Creature'', or ''The She Creature'', is a 1956 American black-and-white science fiction horror film, released by American International Pictures from a script by Lou Rusoff (brother-in-law of AIP executive Samuel Z. Arkoff). It wa ...

'' (1956) *''

Voodoo Woman ''Voodoo Woman'' is a 1957 American horror film directed by Edward L. Cahn and starring Marla English in her final film role, Tom Conway, and Mike Connors. It was released in February 1957 by American International Pictures as a double featur ...

'' (1957) *''

Zombies of Mora Tau ''Zombies of Mora Tau'' (also known as ''The Dead That Walk'') is a 1957 black-and-white zombie horror film directed by Edward L. Cahn and starring Gregg Palmer, Allison Hayes and Autumn Russell. Distributed by Columbia Pictures, it was produced ...

'' (1957) *''

Invasion of the Saucer Men ''Invasion of the Saucer Men'' (U.K. title: ''Invasion of the Hell Creatures''; working title: ''Spacemen Saturday Night''), is a 1957 black-and-white comic science fiction/ comedy horror film produced by James H. Nicholson for release by Amer ...

'' (1957) *'' Curse of the Faceless Man'' (1958) *''

'' (1958) *'' Pier 5, Havana'' (1958) *'' The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake'' (1959) * ''

Inside the Mafia ''Inside the Mafia'' is a 1959 film noir crime film based on a true incident. It was based on the Albert Anastasia murder and subsequent Apalachin Meeting. Plot The gangster Augie Martello is riddled with bullets in an assassination attempt org ...

'' (1959) *'' Invisible Invaders'' (1959) *''

A Dog's Best Friend ''A Dog's Best Friend'' is a 1959 American Drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, ra ...

'' (1959) *'' Guns, Girls and Gangsters'' (1959) *''

Vice Raid ''Vice Raid'' is a 1959 B-movie crime drama directed by Edward L. Cahn and starring Mamie Van Doren and Richard Coogan. It was issued on a double bill with '' Inside the Mafia''. Plot Police Sgt. Whitey Brandon works for the Vice Squad and is ...

'' (1959) * ''

Operation Bottleneck ''Operation Bottleneck'' is a 1961 war film. Plot During the Burma Campaign, a detachment of American paratroopers are aided by a group of local women in their mission against the Japanese. Six paratroopers undertake an extremely dangerous miss ...

'' (1961) * ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1962)

Editor

Source: * ''Surrender'' (1927) * ''The Man Who Laughs'' (1928) * ''Broadway'' (1929) (associate editor) * '' The White Hell of Pitz Palu'' (1929) * '' The Last Performance'' (1929) * ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1930)

References

External links

* 1899 births 1963 deaths

Cahn Cahn is a Germanized form of the Jewish surname Cohen, another variant of which is Kahn. People with the surname Cahn * Andrew Cahn (born 1951), British civil servant * Anne Hessing Cahn (c. 1930–2024), German-born American political auth ...

American horror film directors American science fiction film directors {{US-film-director-1890s-stub