Edward L. Cahn

Directing

Edward L. Cahn

Born — Died

1899-02-12 — 1963-08-25

Place of birth

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Known for

Directing

Credits

40 titles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Edward L. Cahn (February 12, 1899 – August 25, 1963) was an American film director. He is best known for directing Our Gang comedies from 1939-1943, and a long line of other short subjects and B-movies afterward. He is also known for directing the 1958 film It! The Terror from Beyond Space, that inspired the 1979 film Alien. He made a number of films for American International Pictures. His brother was film editor Philip Cahn.

Known for

Three Came to Kill poster
6.0

Assassins take a flight controller's family hostage to force him into revealing the aircraft carrying their quarry.

Three Came to Kill

1960

It! The Terror from Beyond Space poster
5.8

The first manned expedition to Mars is invaded by an unknown life form, which stows away on the rescue ship.

It! The Terror from Beyond Space

1958

Creature with the Atom Brain poster
5.1

Murders, with victims dying from spines broken by brute strength, erupt in the city and the killers, when encountered, walk away unharmed by police bullets which strike them. A police doctor's investigation of the deaths leads to the discovery of an army of dead criminal musclemen restored to life, remotely controlled by a vengeful former crime boss and a former Nazi scientist, from the latter's laboratory hidden in the suburbs.

Creature with the Atom Brain

1955

Jet Attack poster
5.4

A Soviet nurse helps a U.S. pilot, his buddies and a scientist escape from North Korea. American International Pictures originally distributed this film as a double feature with "Suicide Battalion".

Jet Attack

1958

Guns Girls and Gangsters poster
5.9

Chuck Wheeler gets out of the Pen and sets up an elaborate heist of Vegas casino money travelling by armored truck. He enlists the help of shady club owner Joe Darren and his ex-cellmate's wife, Vi. Vi's husband Mike is a trigger happy and jealous hothead and will not grant her a divorce. Mike escapes from prison right before the armored truck job goes into motion and promises trouble as he tries to locate his associates and his wandering wife.

Guns Girls and Gangsters

1959

I Cheated the Law poster
7.0

An attorney learns he was duped into being his gangster murder client's alibi.

I Cheated the Law

1949

Behind the camera

Three Came to Kill poster
6.0

Assassins take a flight controller's family hostage to force him into revealing the aircraft carrying their quarry.

Three Came to Kill

1960

It! The Terror from Beyond Space poster
5.8

The first manned expedition to Mars is invaded by an unknown life form, which stows away on the rescue ship.

It! The Terror from Beyond Space

1958

Creature with the Atom Brain poster
5.1

Murders, with victims dying from spines broken by brute strength, erupt in the city and the killers, when encountered, walk away unharmed by police bullets which strike them. A police doctor's investigation of the deaths leads to the discovery of an army of dead criminal musclemen restored to life, remotely controlled by a vengeful former crime boss and a former Nazi scientist, from the latter's laboratory hidden in the suburbs.

Creature with the Atom Brain

1955

Jet Attack poster
5.4

A Soviet nurse helps a U.S. pilot, his buddies and a scientist escape from North Korea. American International Pictures originally distributed this film as a double feature with "Suicide Battalion".

Jet Attack

1958

Guns Girls and Gangsters poster
5.9

Chuck Wheeler gets out of the Pen and sets up an elaborate heist of Vegas casino money travelling by armored truck. He enlists the help of shady club owner Joe Darren and his ex-cellmate's wife, Vi. Vi's husband Mike is a trigger happy and jealous hothead and will not grant her a divorce. Mike escapes from prison right before the armored truck job goes into motion and promises trouble as he tries to locate his associates and his wandering wife.

Guns Girls and Gangsters

1959

I Cheated the Law poster
7.0

An attorney learns he was duped into being his gangster murder client's alibi.

I Cheated the Law

1949

Flesh and the Spur poster
4.9

A young man searches for his brother's killer with the help of a gunfighter, a native woman and a traveling medicine man.

Flesh and the Spur

1956

Vice Raid poster
6.2

A prostitute sets out to frame a cop.

Vice Raid

1959

Five Guns to Tombstone poster
6.1

Billy Wade is an ex-gunslinger who is approached by his outlaw brother Matt, not long out of prison, to help him with a big-time robbery. Matt forces Billy's participation with an offer he cannot refuse, unaware that Billy is actually working on the side of the law.

Five Guns to Tombstone

1961

The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake poster
6.0

Jonathan Drake, while attending his brother's funeral, is shocked to find the head of the deceased is missing. When his brother's skull shows up later in a locked cabinet, Drake realizes an ancient curse placed upon his grandfather by a tribe of South American Jivaro Indians is still in effect and that he himself is the probable next victim.

The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake

1959

Main Street After Dark poster
4.5

A police detective uses fluorescent powder to catch a pickpocket and her gang.

Main Street After Dark

1945

Beauty and the Beast poster
4.7

Curse turns a handsome prince into a Beast at night. A princess tries to help him, while his enemies plot to take his throne.

Beauty and the Beast

1962

Afraid to Talk poster
6.5

Corrupt politicians resort to murder and blackmail when a young boy accidentally witnesses them taking payoffs.

Afraid to Talk

1932

The She-Creature poster
4.1

A mysterious hypnotist reverts his beautiful assistant back into the form of a prehistoric sea monster that she was in a past life.

The She-Creature

1956

Experiment Alcatraz poster
6.9

A doctor testing drugs on convicts gets mixed up in a murder investigation.

Experiment Alcatraz

1950

Experiment Alcatraz poster
6.9

A doctor testing drugs on convicts gets mixed up in a murder investigation.

Experiment Alcatraz

1950

Curse of the Faceless Man poster
5.7

A stone-encrusted body is unearthed at Pompeii, and people left alone with it keep dying of crushed skulls...

Curse of the Faceless Man

1958

Incident in an Alley poster
4.1

A policeman is accused of manslaughtering a 14-year-old boy but is acquitted of all charges. Still, he feels a lot of guilt and begins to doubt if he really is innocent after all.

Incident in an Alley

1962

Invasion of the Saucer Men poster
4.9

Aliens equipped with venomous claws invade a small town, but the town's teenage population is mobilized to fight the menace.

Invasion of the Saucer Men

1957

Zombies of Mora Tau poster
5.5

A fortune hunter leads a search for diamonds guarded by undead sailors off the coast of Africa.

Zombies of Mora Tau

1957

Destination Murder poster
5.2

Laura Mansfield catches a glimpse of mob hit man Jackie Wales after he shoots her businessman father. At the police station, Laura identifies Jackie as the murderer, but the policeman in charge of the case, Lt. Brewster, lets him go, citing a lack of corroborating evidence. Outraged, Laura worms her way into the unsuspecting Jackie's heart, trying to snare him and mob-connected club owner Armitage in her trap.

Destination Murder

1950

Destination Murder poster
5.2

Laura Mansfield catches a glimpse of mob hit man Jackie Wales after he shoots her businessman father. At the police station, Laura identifies Jackie as the murderer, but the policeman in charge of the case, Lt. Brewster, lets him go, citing a lack of corroborating evidence. Outraged, Laura worms her way into the unsuspecting Jackie's heart, trying to snare him and mob-connected club owner Armitage in her trap.

Destination Murder

1950

Silent Fear poster
6.0

Mexico miner Pete Carroll is in Acapulco and meets Terry Perreau and falls in love with her after he hears her singing on a recording of "Extraño amor". The troubled Terry decides she wants to go shark fishing, so Pete poses as the skipper of a fishing boat, owned by Thursday, and off they go. Pete lands a mantray and cuts it up for bait and the sharks are soon swarming, and Terry dives in the water. Terry does likewise and fights a few sharks and gets his leg gashed but finally rescues her. Gradually, her friendship also turns into love. But back in Acapulco she learns of Pete's "fake skipper" joke, is all hacked off and goes to Mexico City with her friend Dr. Antez. There, a specialist, Dr. Rivas tells her that unless she has a dangerous operation she has only three months to live. Depressed even more than usual, if possible, she returns to the hotel and is met by!

Silent Fear

1956

A Dog's Best Friend poster
6.2

A young orphan rejects his foster parents and instead turns to a German shepherd whose master was recently murdered. Stumbling on some evidence, the boy is rescued from the killer by his dog.

A Dog's Best Friend

1959

The Gambler Wore a Gun poster
5.3

The professional gambler Case Silverthorn wants to quit and retire to a small ranch in Marlpine he bought recently. On the way there he saves the Sheriff's life, who got into an ambush. However another man is dead, Will Donovan, from whom he bought the ranch! Neither the Sheriff nor Donovan's children know about the sale. So Case has to switch back to his former profession, while he tries to clarify the situation. He comes across a group of cattle thieves.

The Gambler Wore a Gun

1961

The Checkered Coat poster
8.2

A psychiatrist tries to help a patient who loses consciousness after he kills someone. When the doctor provides the patient with a letter that explains his problem, he inadvertently implicates himself in the crimes.

The Checkered Coat

1948

Main Street Today poster
6.3

This patriotic short film promotes America's war effort at home. The story looks at a fictional small town's main street, seeing where additional workforce, for increased production of materials needed by the military, might come from.

Main Street Today

1944

Noose for a Gunman poster
6.0

Case Britton, gunslinger and wanted man, comes to town to meet his bride-to-be, stop a stagecoach robbery, and get even with the man who killed his brother.

Noose for a Gunman

1960

Come Back, Miss Pipps poster
7.7

On Mickey's birthday, Miss Pipps, the school teacher, serves cake and ice cream during school hours. Sour old Mr. Pratt, head of the school board, stumbles on the festivities and has Miss Pipps fired. The Our Gang conspire to save her job by inviting all the parents to a special meeting. There the gang stage a melodrama, with Mr. Pratt portrayed as Simon Legree. The parents react by demoting Mr. Pratt to janitor. They appoint kindly Mr. Swanson, the current janitor, to head the school board. And of course they reinstate Miss Pipps as school teacher. Sometime later, in an act of forgiveness, Miss Pipps and the gang hold a birthday party for Pratt who is then humbled by the experience.

Come Back, Miss Pipps

1941

Oklahoma Territory poster
7.0

Temple Houston (Sam Houston's son) who is the DA with a sense of Justice. He is located in Fort Smith, Ark and works with Judge Parker in 1872. His area includes the Oklahoma Territory which was the Indian territory at that time. Chief Buffalo Horn who is falsely accused of murder.

Oklahoma Territory

1960

Emergency Call poster
6.3

A surgeon and an ambulance driver fight racketeers who take over their hospital.

Emergency Call

1933

Gun Fight poster
5.3

Action Western directed by Edward L. Cahn . After courageously protecting a pretty dance hall girl (Joan Staley) from peril, former cavalry soldier Wayne (James Brown) refuses to join his brother Brad's (Gregg Palmer) unlawful cattle rustling gang, which leads to heated disagreements, bitter betrayals and life-threatening danger.

Gun Fight

1961

Invisible Invaders poster
5.0

Aliens, contacting scientist Adam Penner, inform him that they have been on the moon for twenty thousand years, undetected due to their invisibility, and have now decided to annihilate humanity unless all the nations of earth surrender immediately. Sequestered in an impregnable laboratory trying to find the aliens' weakness, Penner, his daughter, a no-nonsense army major and a squeamish scientist are attacked from outside by the aliens, who have occupied the bodies of the recently deceased.

Invisible Invaders

1959

Gun Street poster
5.2

A sheriff goes in pursuit of an escaped convict who is bent on paying back the people responsible for his imprisonment.

Gun Street

1961

The Gas House Kids in Hollywood poster
8.0

The Gas House Kids, the very poor man's Bowery Boys, head for Hollywood.

The Gas House Kids in Hollywood

1947

Angel of Mercy poster
7.7

This MGM Passing Parade series short tells the story of Clara Barton, the founder of the Red Cross.

Angel of Mercy

1939

Voodoo Woman poster
4.7

Deep in the jungles a mad scientist is using the natives' voodoo for his experiments to create an indestructible being to serve his will. When a party of gold seekers stumbles upon his village, the scientist realizes that Marilyn the expedition's evil leader is the perfect subject for his work.

Voodoo Woman

1957

Motorcycle Gang poster
5.7

A troublemaker returns to town only to find his old tearaway pals have joined a supervised motorcycle club. Friction erupts between him and the new leader about this goody-goody setup, and about the charms of gang moll Terry.

Motorcycle Gang

1957

Don't Lie poster
6.5

After Buckwheat tells the gang he's seen a big monkey, Spanky, Froggy and Mickey decide to teach him once and for all not to lie. What the gang doesn't know is that the monkey is real, and hilarity will ensue.

Don't Lie

1942

You Have to Run Fast poster
6.7

Dr. Frank Harlow is in the process of trying to save a man badly beaten by two gangsters whom he identifies to the police. When the victim dies the charge becomes murder and Harlow hightails it to the far woods where he finds a job as clerk Roger Condon in a sporting-goods store. Harlow's plan is to lay low until the gangsters forget about him. But complications arise from two different sectors. First, Harlow falls in love with the local beauty Laurie Maitland and second, the murderers find out where he is hiding.

You Have to Run Fast

1961