John J. Mescall

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John J. Mescall (born January 10, 1899 in Litchfield , Illinois , † February 10, 1962 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American cameraman .

Life

John Mescall worked in Hollywood as a laboratory assistant in the late second decade of the twentieth century before becoming a cameraman in 1920. During the silent film era , Mescall was behind the camera for two films by Ernst Lubitsch , in 1926 for the comedy So This Is Paris and in 1927 for Romance Alt-Heidelberg , a film adaptation of a popular operetta.

During the 1930s, Mescall worked with director James Whale a total of six times . In Whales The Invisible Man , Mescall was responsible for the visual effects, but was not mentioned in the credits . After the filming of the musical Show Boat , Mescalls worked with Whale again in 1937 while filming The Road Back , the sequel to Nothing New in the West . The film is based on the novel The Way Back by Erich Maria Remarque .

In the mid-1940s, Mescall devoted himself increasingly to special effects and was only sporadically behind the camera. He was nominated for an Oscar in 1943 for his work on the comedy Liebling, Dictation with Rosalind Russell and Fred MacMurray . One last time before his death Mescall led the camera in 1957 for Roger Corman's film Not of This Earth (Not of This Earth) .

Filmography (selection)

Web links