Malcolm St. Clair

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Malcolm St. Clair (born May 17, 1897 in Los Angeles , California , † June 1, 1952 in Pasadena , California) was an American film director , screenwriter and actor .

life and career

St. Clair initially drew cartoons for a newspaper and joined Mack Sennett in 1915 as an actor and gag writer . Since 1919 he has made numerous short films, including several works with the dog star Rin Tin Tin and two comedies by Buster Keaton ( The Goat and The Blacksmith ), which established him as a director in the film business. But it wasn't until 1925 that he became famous practically overnight with the film Are Parents People? . Intelligent comedy made him a rival to Ernst Lubitsch and Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast for a while on the question of who was the best comedy director in Hollywood. He also consolidated his reputation thanks to films such as The Grand Duchess and the Waiter with Florence Vidor and Adolphe Menjou as well as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes based on the famous play by Anita Loos from 1928. Occasionally, he also directed outside this genre, such as the crime film The Canary Murder Case with William Powell .

His career collapsed as early as the end of the 1920s with the start of talkies for no clearly identifiable reason. The film critic Andrew Sarris wrote: “St. Clair's silent films bubbled up, and his sound films fizzled out “ ( " St. Clair's silent films fizzed, and his sound films fizzled " ). One of his last significant productions was the semi- musical Montana Moon with Joan Crawford from 1930. After that, St. Clair only shot B-films , especially for 20th Century Fox . From his later work in the 1940s, four comedies with Laurel and Hardy are known today, but these had already passed the high point of their careers after they left Hal Roach . His last directorial work was the crime drama Fighting Back from 1948, even as 20th Century Fox ended their production of B-films in the same year. In addition, health problems became apparent at St. Clair from the late 1940s onwards, which prevented his planned participation in the Buster Keaton Show on television.

Malcolm St. Clair died in 1952 at the age of 55 after a long illness, leaving behind his second wife Margaret, to whom he had been married since 1937.

Filmography (selection)

As a director

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Malcolm St. Clair at Allmovie
  2. Malcolm St. Clair at Allmovie