Lambert Hillyer


Lambert Hillyer was an American film director and screenwriter. He is best known today for his many western features, his horror films The Invisible Ray and Dracula's Daughter, and the first Batman serial.

Biography

Lambert Harwood Hillyer was born July 8, 1893, in Tyner, Indiana. His mother was character actress Lydia Knott. A graduate of Drake College, he worked as a newspaper reporter and short-story writer, then as an actor in vaudeville and stock theater. During World War I he began working in motion pictures with the Mutual company. He began his career as a director with Paramount-Artcraft, then First National, Goldwyn, and Fox. He became a specialist in westerns, working on many silent features starring William S. Hart, Buck Jones, Tom Mix, and others.
Hillyer expanded into romantic melodramas and crime films in the 1920s. In 1936 he directed two chillers for Universal, the science-fiction film The Invisible Ray and the cult horror film Dracula's Daughter.
He directed many features for Columbia Pictures in the 1930s and early 1940s. Some were major productions like The Defense Rests with Jack Holt and Jean Arthur, but most were low-budget action features. In 1940 he was assigned to Columbia's Charles Starrett westerns, including The Durango Kid, which later inspired a popular series. When Starrett left the studio temporarily, Hillyer was reassigned to the Bill Elliott series, which he directed through 1942. One of Hillyer's most famous credits is the Batman serial, which was memorable enough to be re-released in 1954, 1962, and 1965. The 1965 revival inspired the very successful Batman TV series.
After his tenure with Columbia ended in 1943, Hillyer moved to RKO Radio Pictures briefly, where he directed a Tim Holt western and a pair of two-reel comedies with Leon Errol. Hillyer then began a six-year association with Monogram Pictures, first with the Sam Katzman crime story Smart Guy and then a series with the studio's newest cowboy star Johnny Mack Brown. Hillyer also directed Monogram's other western leads Jimmy Wakely and Whip Wilson.

Television

Like many directors who were accustomed to low budgets and speedy schedules, Lambert Hillyer made a smooth transition to the new field of television. He directed 40 episodes of the syndicated Western The Cisco Kid. Hillyer also directed seven episodes of Highway Patrol, which starred Broderick Crawford. His last assignment came in 1957, a single episode of the secret-agent show The Man Called X, under the pseudonym Lambert Hill.
Hillyer died July 5, 1969, in Los Angeles, California.

Filmography

Director

YearTitleNotes
1917'Also screenwriter
1917Strife
1917'
1918Riddle Gawne
1919Breed of Men
1919'
1919'Also screenwriter
1919Square Deal SandersonAlso screenwriter
1919Wagon Tracks
1919John Petticoats
1920'Also screenwriter
1920Sand!Also screenwriter
1920'Also screenwriter
1920'Also screenwriter
1921O'Malley of the Mounted
1921The WhistleAlso screenwriter
1921Three Word BrandAlso screenwriter
1921White Oak
1922White HandsAlso screenwriter
1922Travelin' OnAlso screenwriter
1922Caught Bluffing
1922Skin Deep
1922The Super-SexAlso screenwriter
1922'
1923Scars of JealousyAlso screenwriter
1923'
1923Temporary MarriageAlso screenwriter
1923'
1923The Lone Star RangerAlso screenwriter
1923Eyes of the Forest
1923Mile-a-Minute Romeo
1924Those Who DanceAlso screenwriter
1924Barbara FrietchieAlso screenwriter
1924Idle Tongues
1925I Want My Man
1925The Making of O'Malley
1925The Knockout
1925The Unguarded Hour
1926Her Second Chance
1926Miss Nobody
192630 Below Zero
1927The War HorseAlso screenwriter
1927Hills of Peril
1927Chain LightningAlso screenwriter
1928The Branded SombreroAlso screenwriter
1928FleetwingAlso screenwriter
1930Beau Bandit
1931The DeadlineAlso screenwriter
1931One Man LawAlso screenwriter
1932The Fighting Fool
1932South of the Rio Grande
1932Hello TroubleAlso screenwriter
1932White Eagle
1932Forbidden Trail
1932Sundown RiderAlso screenwriter
1933The California TrailAlso screenwriter
1933Unknown ValleyAlso screenwriter
1933Dangerous Crossroads
1933Police Car 17Also screenwriter
1933Master of Men
1933Before Midnight
1933The Fighting CodeAlso screenwriter
1934Once to Every Woman
1934The Man TrailerAlso screenwriter
1934'
1934'
1934Against the Law
1934Men of the NightAlso screenwriter
1935Behind the Evidence
1935In Spite of Danger
1935Men of the Hour
1935The Awakening of Jim Burke
1935Super Speed
1935Guard That GirlAlso screenwriter
1936The Invisible Ray
1936Dangerous Waters
1936Dracula's Daughter
1937Speed to SpareAlso screenwriter
1937Girls Can PlayAlso screenwriter
1937All American Sweetheart
1938Women in Prison
1938My Old Kentucky Home
1938ExtortionAlso screenwriter
1938Gang Bullets
1939Convict's Code
1939Should a Girl Marry?
1939Girl from Rio
1940'
1940Beyond the Sacramento
1940'
1941The Pinto Kid
1941'Second-unit director
1941North from the Lone Star
1941Hands Across the Rockies
1941'
1941Also screenwriter
1941Thunder Over the Prairie
1941King of Dodge City
1941Prairie Stranger
1941Roaring Frontiers
1941''The Royal Mounted Patrol

Screenwriter

In addition to writing screenplays for many of the films he directed, as noted above, Hillyer wrote or contributed to the screenplays for these motion pictures.
YearTitleNotes
1917They're Off
1917'
1917'
1917'
1917Love or Justice
1917The Snarl
1917One Shot Ross
1917'
1921'
1930Hide-Out
1933Straightaway
1933State Trooper
1935Law Beyond the Range
1937'
1938Highway Patrol
1939Parents on Trial
1939