Meet Allan Dwan — Director (1950) 🇺🇸

Allan Dwan’s direction of Sands of Iwo Jima has been termed by military men among the best top ranking war film director of all time.

by Paul Manning

The 1949 Exhibitor Laurel Awards which honored Dwan for this accomplishment clearly demonstrated the high regard which the exhibitors of the nation hold for this film.

One of the real veteran directors of the Hollywood scene, Dwan started his film career in 1909 with the Essanay Company in Chicago. Rapidly adapting himself to the uncertainties and eccentricities of those early and hectic days, Dwan moved up steadily on the lists of desired directors.

A startling record of 1,850 films is credited to his statistical account of film credits. Among these are many one reelers, and among his most outstanding early day successes are such all-time hits as Robin Hood, with Doug Fairbanks, Sr. [Douglas Fairbanks Sr.], seven Gloria Swanson features, Shirley Temple successes, including Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Heidi, and many others.

Many of his close friends claim that it was Dwan’s early football training, he played quarterback at Notre Dame, that gave him the fortitude to smash through the hazards of those pioneer day trials which beset many an enterprising director, and, in many sad instances, sent them to the nearest psychiatrist. Even today, Dwan presents a figure of calm and efficient authority, respected and given loyalty to by most Hollywood artisans. As there are very few people with whom he hasn’t worked, Dwan is usually surrounded by a familiar cast and crew, which always keeps the production ball rolling merrily along.

Producers seek Dwan eagerly as they are well aware of his reputation as an “actor’s director,” which simply means that he has that intangible ability to get the actor to do what he wants while the actor himself thinks that he is doing it his own way. This is a neat trick, and there are but few men who have this art under their bonnets. Allan Dwan is one of them, and from men like him we can expect top ranking films, and, what’s more, get them. — P. M.

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Good Things to come from Hollywood… “The Furies”

“The Furies”, a Hal Wallis Production for Paramount, is a picture that will command lots of attention.

by Paul Manning

The late Walter Huston has left in The Furies perhaps his finest dramatic triumph. In the role of T. C. Jeffers, a swashbuckling, arrogant baron of the west, Huston joins hands with a cast which includes Barbara Stanwyck, Wendell Corey, Judith Anderson, Gilbert Roland, Thomas Gomez, Blanche Yurka, Beulah Bondi, and others to bring to the screen a fine saga of the west. With such names, the marquees should provide pulling power. Seldom has this editor been as pleased to endorse a film. Here are drama, action, suspense, tumultuous romance, intrigue, and all the ingredients which go toward building up a spectacle of the screen. This is what you’ve been promising your patrons. — P. M.

In a tense scene from Paramount’s The Furies, Blanche Yurka, upper left, blazes away at an unseen enemy, while at right is Hal Wallis [Hal B. Wallis], producer of the film. Director Anthony Mann is at lower left, and Miss Stanwyck and Gilbert Roland are pictured at lower right in another shot.

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Scene of the recent world premiere of Paramount’s My Friend Irma Goes West, was Las Vegas, Nev., and at upper left is a view of the crowd that thronged the El Portal on opening night.

At upper right is the Hollywood contingent, including the stars of the film, Jerry Lewis, Marie Wilson, Diana Lynn, and Dean Martin, as they arrived aboard a chartered airliner. After the showing at the El Portal, the film was screened at an improvised outdoor theatre at the Flamingo Hotel, lower left, with about 1200 civic leaders, press representatives, and guests present.

Lower right, at a reception following premiere, are, left: G. A. Smith, Paramount western division manager; Mayor E. W. Cragin, host, and owner, El Portal; Cy Howard co-producer; Miss Wilson; R. J. O’Donnell, Interstate Theatres, and G. Aurelius, Arizona Paramount Theatres.

Collection: Exhibitor Magazine (Studio Survey), July 1950