One of the workhorses in Warner Brothers' stable of directors in the
1930s, Lloyd Bacon didn't have a career as loaded with classic films as
many of his more famous contemporaries. What few "classics" he had his
hand in (Die 42. Straße (1933),
Parade im Rampenlicht (1933)) are so
overshadowed by the dazzling surrealistic choreography of
Busby Berkeley that casual film buffs
today often forget they were actually directed by Bacon. While his
resume lacks the drama of failed productions and tales of an unbridled
ego, he consistently enriched the studio's coffers, directing a handful
of its biggest hits of the late 1920s and 1930s. Bacon's career amounts
to that of a competent--and at times brilliant--director who did the
best with the material handed to him in assembly-line fashion.
Lloyd Bacon was born in San Jose, California, on January 16, 1890, into
a theatrical family (his father was
Frank Bacon, a playwright and stage actor).
His parents enlisted all the Bacon children onto the stage. Despite
having a strong interest in law as a student at Santa Clara College,
Lloyd opted for an acting career after appearing in a student
production of "The Passion Play." In 1911 he joined
David Belasco's Los Angeles Stock
Company (with Lewis Stone), touring
the country and gaining good notices in a Broadway run of the hit
"Cinderella Man", and gaining further experience during a season of
vaudeville. He switched gears in 1915 and took a stab at silent
Hollywood, playing the heavy in several of
Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson's
shorts and pulling double duty as a stunt man. With America's entry
into World War I in 1917, Bacon enlisted in the Navy and was assigned
to the Photo Department. This began a lifelong admiration for the
service and might explain the Navy being a favorite recurring theme in
many of his films.
After the war's end Bacon moved from Mutual
(Charles Chaplin's studio at the time)
to Triangle as a comedy actor. It was at this point that he got his
first taste of directing-- he had let everyone at the studio know he
had an interest in helming a picture, and when the director of a now
forgotten Lloyd Hamilton comedy
short fell ill, Bacon was given his chance. Constantly moving, he
joined tightwad producer Mack Sennett as a
gag writer. Sennett, sensing a bargain, happily accommodated Lloyd's
desire to become a full-time director by early 1921. The Sennett studio
was already in an irreversible decline during Bacon's tenure there but
it allowed the novice director to gain a wealth of experience. He
apprenticed for Sennett until joining Warner Brothers in 1925, an
association that would last a remarkable 18 years and begin when the
working-man's studio was building a strong stable of contract directors
that included Michael Curtiz,
Alan Crosland,
John G. Adolfi and
Mervyn LeRoy.
Although Lloyd never became known for a particular style other than a
well-placed close up, his ability to bring in an entertaining film on
time and within budget earned him such enormous respect from the five
Warner Brothers that he was soon handed control over important
projects, including
Der singende Narr (1928),
Al Jolson's follow-up to
Der Jazzsänger (1927), which
grossed an unheard-of (for Warners, at least) $4,000,000 in domestic
receipts alone-- the studio's #1 hit for 1928. Bacon was rewarded by
becoming the highest paid director on the studio lot, earning over
$200,000 a year throughout the Depression. He was called upon to direct
the studio's big-budget production of
Moby Dick (1930), which garnered good
notices, but it's a version that's barely remembered today.
The 1930s saw Bacon assigned to the assembly line; aside from the
Busby Berkeley-choreographed films, he
directed many of James Cagney's
crowd-pleasing two-week wonders, including
Der Mann mit der Kamera (1933) (Cagney
once remarked that the schedule on that picture was so tight that, one
time after he and the cast had rehearsed a particular scene, Cagney
said, "OK, Lloyd, are you ready to shoot?" Bacon grinned and said, "I
just did!") and
The Irish in Us (1935). As a
reward, he was occasionally afforded more time and money on productions
such as
Here Comes the Navy (1934)
and
Devil Dogs of the Air (1935).
He also directed Cagney's return effort after his ill-advised move to
cheapjack Grand National Pictures after one of his periodic salary
disputes with studio head
Jack L. Warner-- the badly miscast if
frenetic Der kleine Star (1938).
This was one of Cagney's least critically acclaimed Warner Brothers
films of the 1930s, but a smash hit for the studio.
During his years at Warners, Bacon gained a reputation as a clothes
horse, the dapper director arriving on the set dressed to the nines,
wearing expensive hats that he would hurl around the set when
expressing his dissatisfaction (he ruined a lot of hats) at an actor's
performance or missed cue. Bacon continued to turn out profitable films
for the studio until moving to 20th Century-Fox in 1944 (a logical
move, since the recently discharged
Darryl F. Zanuck knew Bacon from his
early days at Warners). He stayed at Fox until 1949, then bounced among
Columbia, Fox, Universal and finally the chaotically-run RKO in 1954.
He worked virtually until his death from a cerebral hemorrhage at age
65.
