Joseph H. Lewis

Directing

Joseph H. Lewis

Born — Died

1907-04-06 — 2000-08-30

Place of birth

New York City, New York, USA

Known for

Directing

Credits

41 titles

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Joseph H. Lewis  (April 6, 1907–August 30, 2000), was an American B-movie film director. Although he worked with both Béla Lugosi (The Invisible Ghost) and Lionel Atwill in early 1940s horror, he is best known for his work in film noir from the late 40s and the 1950s. His most acclaimed feature, Gun Crazy (1949), is a dark romance about gun-obsession, and notable for its use of location photography. At the dawn of his career (1937–1940), when Lewis was directing inexpensive westerns, he earned the derogatory nickname "Wagon-Wheel Joe" from the studio editors, because of his tendency to use wagon-wheels for constructing interesting visual composition…

Known for

Film credits

Behind the camera

A Lawless Street poster
5.6

A Marshal must face unpleasant facts about his past when he attempts to run a criminal gang out of town.

A Lawless Street

1955

Gun Crazy poster
7.4

Bart Tare, an ex-Army man who has a lifelong fixation with guns, meets a kindred spirit in sharpshooter Annie Starr and goes to work at a carnival alongside her. After upsetting the carnival owner who lusts after Starr, they both get fired. Soon, at Starr's behest, the couple embarks on a crime spree for cash.

Gun Crazy

1950

The Big Combo poster
7.0

Police Lt. Leonard Diamond vies to bring a clever, well connected, and sadistic gangster to justice all the while obsessing over the gangster's girlfriend.

The Big Combo

1955

Retreat, Hell! poster
6.5

During the Korean War, a U.S. Marine battalion must fight its way out of a frozen mountain pass despite diminishing supplies, freezing temperatures and constant attacks by overwhelming numbers of Chinese soldiers.

Retreat, Hell!

1952

The Undercover Man poster
6.1

Frank Warren is a treasury agent assigned to put an end to the activities of a powerful mob crime boss. Frank works undercover, posing as a criminal to seek information, but is frustrated when all he finds are terrified witnesses and corrupt police officers.

The Undercover Man

1949

7th Cavalry poster
6.1

An officer accused of cowardice volunteers to bring back General Custers's body after Little Big Horn.

7th Cavalry

1956

The Falcon in San Francisco poster
6.2

While on vacation, the Falcon is arrested for kidnapping after striking up a friendship with a girl whose nurse has been recently murdered.

The Falcon in San Francisco

1945

Terror in a Texas Town poster
6.7

Armed with a harpoon, a Swedish whaler is out for revenge after the death of his father. A greedy oil man trying to buy up the Swede's land might be the guilty party.

Terror in a Texas Town

1958

My Name Is Julia Ross poster
6.7

Julia Ross secures employment with a wealthy widow and goes to live at her house. Two days later, she awakens in a different house in different clothes and with a new identity.

My Name Is Julia Ross

1945

Boys of the City poster
5.3

Street kids get sent to the country, where they get mixed up in murder and a haunted house.

Boys of the City

1940

Cry of the Hunted poster
6.1

A prison convict escapes through the Louisiana swamps.

Cry of the Hunted

1953

A Lady Without Passport poster
5.3

An undercover U.S. Immigration agent falls in love with an immigrant attempting to enter the United States through Havana, Cuba in an illegal smuggling ring.

A Lady Without Passport

1950

So Dark the Night poster
6.1

Inspector Cassin, a renowned Paris detective, departs to the country for a much-needed break. There he falls in love with the innkeeper’s daughter, Nanette, who is already betrothed to a local farmer. On the evening of their engagement party, Nanette and the farmer both disappear. Cassin takes up the case immediately to discover what happened to them and who is responsible.

So Dark the Night

1946

The Return of Wild Bill poster
7.0

When Matt Kilgore and his men frame and then hang an innocent man, Lige Saunders sends for his son Wild Bill Saunders who arrives to find his father shot by Matt's brother. When the brother is killed in his fight with Bill, Matt sends two fake Deputies to arrest Bill whom he then plans to hang. But Matt's sister, attracted to Bill, overhears the plan and rides for help.

The Return of Wild Bill

1940

The Halliday Brand poster
6.2

Sheriff Halliday doesn't approve of his children dating or marrying half-breeds and his blind hate threatens to alienate his whole family.

The Halliday Brand

1957

The Return of October poster
6.4

A wholesome girl believes her new racehorse, October, is the reincarnation of her favorite uncle, Willie.

The Return of October

1948

Invisible Ghost poster
5.3

The town's leading citizen becomes a homicidal maniac after his wife deserts him.

Invisible Ghost

1941

Pride of the Bowery poster
6.2

Muggs is tricked into entering a Civilian Conservation Corps camp by Danny in order to get in shape. Muggs resists and battles with the camp captain and with other campers. He also becomes involved in trying to help one of his friends get out of trouble.

Pride of the Bowery

1940

The Spy Ring poster
5.6

Two American-army officers are working on a new type of machine-gun for anti-aircraft warfare, when one of them is murdered. The other vows to get the spies that are after the invention and avenge his friend's death.

The Spy Ring

1938

Man on a Bus poster
5.0

Six people who have emigrated to Israel from different countries are all on a bus traveling through the Negev Desert. They find themselves stranded overnight in the bus. To pass the time, each begins to tell the story behind their emigration to Israel.

Man on a Bus

1955

Minstrel Man poster
5.5

Unusually elaborate for a PRC film, Minstrel Man is a lively musical drama built around the talents of veteran vaudevillian Benny Fields. The star is cast as Dixie Boy Johnson, who rises from the ranks of minstrel shows to become a top Broadway attraction. On the opening night of his greatest stage triumph, Dixie Boy's wife dies in childbirth. Profoundly shaken, he walks out of the show, leaving the baby to be raised by his showbiz pals Mae and Lasses White (Gladys George, Roscoe Karns). The kid grows up to be an attractive young woman named Caroline (Judy Clark), who follows in her dad's footsteps by billing herself as-that's right-Dixie Girl Johnson. This leads to a tearful reunion between Caroline and the father she'd long assumed to be dead. If Minstrel Man seems at times to be a dress rehearsal for Columbia's The Jolson Story (1946), it shouldn't surprising: the PRC film was directed by Joseph H. Lewis, who went on to helm Jolson Story's musical highlights.

Minstrel Man

1944

Blazing Six Shooters poster
8.0

The story revolves around a valuable silver deposit, located between two ranches. Villain Lash Bender cooks up a scheme to gain control of both ranches so that he may have a clear field to the silver lode.

Blazing Six Shooters

1940

The Mad Doctor of Market Street poster
5.5

A fugitive doctor tries to raise the dead for South Sea Islanders.

The Mad Doctor of Market Street

1942

The Gold Racket poster
5.2

At the request of the Mexican government, a federal agent and a lady reporter team up to catch a gang that has been smuggling gold from Mexico to the U.S. and then selling it to the U.S. government.

The Gold Racket

1937

Navy Spy poster
5.5

A federal agent and a female reporter team up to catch a criminal gang that has kidnapped a scientist in order to get his formula for a new type of poison gas.

Navy Spy

1937

The Man from Tumbleweeds poster
5.0

Wild Bill Saunders recruits a team of paroled convicts to subdue a lawless gang.

The Man from Tumbleweeds

1940

Secrets of a Co-Ed poster
4.0

An attorney's immature college-student daughter becomes romantically involved with a mobster, unaware that a nightclub singer also loves him - or that her father is secretly the mob's leader.

Secrets of a Co-Ed

1942

The Swordsman poster
7.3

Young lovers brings two fighting clans together.

The Swordsman

1948

Courage of the West poster
8.0

Rangers go after bandits holding up Wells Fargo offices.

Courage of the West

1937

That Gang of Mine poster
5.8

A street kid has dreams of becoming a jockey. He gets his chance when he and his gang discover a poor old man who has a championship race horse. The man agrees to let the boy ride his horse in a race, but first the gang must get enough money to pay for the race's entry fees.

That Gang of Mine

1940

Texas Stagecoach poster
9.0

The Kinkaids and the Harpers both run stage lines and are friendly competitors. Appleby is after the stage line and convinces the two owners to build a spur line to the same town. Then he has both projects sabotaged pitting the friends against each other and running them out of money.

Texas Stagecoach

1940

Boss of Hangtown Mesa poster
10.0

It is now an accepted fact that the best of Johnny Mack Brown's Universal westerns were directed by the talented Joseph H. Lewis. Boss of Hangtown Mesa may not be in the same league as the Brown-Lewis classic Arizona Cyclone, but it comes awfully close. This time around, hero Steve Collins (Brown) comes to the aid of Betty Wilkins (Helen Deverell), who has taken over the telegraph-line business established by her uncle John (Henry Hall). The latter was murdered by outlaws who don't cotton to having the territory linked up electronically with the rest of the world.

Boss of Hangtown Mesa

1942

Arizona Cyclone poster
7.0

Crenshaw and Randolph are competing freight haulers and Randolph's lead man Tom Baxter has given him an advantage....

Arizona Cyclone

1941

Bombs Over Burma poster
5.2

The film tells the story of Chinese guerrillas fighting for the Allied cause in Burma during Early in World War II, Chungking schoolteacher Lin Yang is recruited to help with the dangerous mission of protecting the Allied supply line from Burma into China. In spite of the danger involved, her determination to help is strengthened when one of her young students is killed in a Japanese air raid. Some time later, she is part of a group of Allied representatives departing from Lashio, on a bus traveling the Burma Road back to China. A bridge outage forces them to spend the night in a monastery along the way, and during the night they watch in horror as a supply convoy of trucks is bombed by Japanese planes. The timing and accuracy of the raid brings them to realize that either one of their group, or perhaps the priest in the monastery, is really an enemy agent

Bombs Over Burma

1942

Bombs Over Burma poster
5.2

The film tells the story of Chinese guerrillas fighting for the Allied cause in Burma during Early in World War II, Chungking schoolteacher Lin Yang is recruited to help with the dangerous mission of protecting the Allied supply line from Burma into China. In spite of the danger involved, her determination to help is strengthened when one of her young students is killed in a Japanese air raid. Some time later, she is part of a group of Allied representatives departing from Lashio, on a bus traveling the Burma Road back to China. A bridge outage forces them to spend the night in a monastery along the way, and during the night they watch in horror as a supply convoy of trucks is bombed by Japanese planes. The timing and accuracy of the raid brings them to realize that either one of their group, or perhaps the priest in the monastery, is really an enemy agent

Bombs Over Burma

1942

Criminals Within poster
6.5

A young soldier uncovers a ring of spies when he investigates his brother's mysterious murder.

Criminals Within

1941

Two-Fisted Rangers poster
4.3

Thad Lawson arrives in Oak Valley to avenge the murder of his brother, the local sheriff. He learns that Jack Rand, powerful overlord of the town is to blame. After Rand murders newspaper publisher Jordan Webster, Thad sets out to put him behind bars.

Two-Fisted Rangers

1939

The Silver Bullet poster
6.0

A cowboy heads for the town where his father was murdered to find out who was responsible.

The Silver Bullet

1942

The Singing Outlaw poster
9.0

A rodeo rider finds himself accused of the murder of a U.S. marshal.

The Singing Outlaw

1937

Border Wolves poster
8.0

Just after Carson's gang murder members of a wagon train, Rusty and Clem come along and are arrested. Knowing they are innocent Judge Coleman breaks them out and sends them after Carson. They join Carson's gang to learn of their next raid but the Marshal arrests them for the wagon train murders.

Border Wolves

1938