The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.
Hangmen Also Die! is a 1943 noir war film directed by the Austrian director Fritz Lang and written by John Wexley from a story by Bertolt Brecht and Lang. The film stars Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan, Alexander Granach and Anna Lee, and features Gene Lockhart and Dennis O'Keefe. Hanns Eisler composed the score, being nominated for an Academy Award, and the cinematographer was James Wong Howe.
June Ada Rose Duprez was an English film actress.
Producers Releasing Corporation was the smallest and least prestigious of the Hollywood film studios of the 1940s. It was considered a prime example of what was called "Poverty Row": a low-rent stretch of Gower Street in Hollywood where shoestring film producers based their operations. However, PRC was more substantial than the usual independent company that made only a few low-budget movies and then disappeared. PRC was an actual Hollywood studio -- albeit the smallest -- with its own production facilities and distribution network, and it even accepted imports from the UK. PRC lasted from 1939 to 1947, churning out low-budget B movies for the lower half of a double bill or the upper half of a neighborhood theater showing second-run films. The studio was originally located at 1440 N. Gower St. from 1936 to 1943. PRC then occupied the former Grand National Pictures physical plant at 7324 Santa Monica Blvd., from 1943 to 1946. This address is now an apartment complex.
Barton MacLane was an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter. Although he appeared in many classic films from the 1930s through the 1960s, he became best-known for his role as General Martin Peterson on the 1960s NBC television comedy series I Dream of Jeannie, with Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman.
Sam Newfield, born Samuel Neufeld,, also known as Sherman Scott or Peter Stewart, was an American B-movie director, one of the most prolific in American film history—he is credited with directing over 250 feature films in a career which began during the silent era and ended in 1958. In addition to his staggering feature output, he also directed one -and two-reel comedy shorts, training films, industrial films, TV episodes and pretty much anything anyone would pay him for. Because of this massive output—he would sometimes direct more than 20 films in a single year—he has been called the most prolific director of the sound era. Many of Newfield's films were made for PRC Pictures. This was a film production company headed by his brother Sigmund Neufeld. The films PRC produced were low-budget productions, the majority being westerns, with an occasional horror film or crime drama.
Frank Howard Buck was an American hunter, animal collector, and author, as well as a film actor, director, and producer. Beginning in the 1910s he made many expeditions into Asia for the purpose of hunting and collecting exotic animals, bringing over 100,000 live specimens back to the United States and elsewhere for zoos and circuses and earning a reputation as an adventurer. He co-authored seven books chronicling or based on his expeditions, beginning with 1930's Bring 'Em Back Alive, which became a bestseller. Between 1932 and 1943 he starred in seven adventure films based on his exploits, most of which featured staged "fights to the death" with various wild beasts. He was also briefly a director of the San Diego Zoo, displayed wild animals at the 1933–34 Century of Progress exhibition and 1939 New York World's Fair, toured with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and co-authored an autobiography, 1941's All in a Lifetime. The Frank Buck Zoo in Buck's hometown of Gainesville, Texas, is named after him.
Raphael Kuhner Wuppermann, known professionally as Ralph Morgan, was a Hollywood stage and film character actor, and the older brother of Frank Morgan.
Monster Squad is a television series produced by D'Angelo-Bullock-Allen Productions that aired Saturday mornings on NBC from September 11, 1976, to September 3, 1977. It is unrelated to the later film of the same name.
John Farrell MacDonald was an American character actor and director. He played supporting roles and occasional leads. He appeared in over 325 films over a four-decade career from 1911 to 1951, and directed forty-four silent films from 1912 to 1917.
Jungle Menace (1937) is the first serial released by Columbia Pictures.
Wheeler Oakman was an American film actor.
Clarence Muse was an American actor, screenwriter, director, singer, and composer. He was the first African American to appear in a starring role in a film, 1929's Hearts in Dixie. He acted for 50 years, and appeared in more than 150 films. He was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1973.
James Melven Dannaldson starred in the Frank Buck film Jacaré.
Arnold Frey was a German actor who portrayed the Nazi villain Dr. Lang in the Frank Buck movie Tiger Fangs (1943).
Ira Harry Morgan was an American cinematographer. He successfully transitioned from silent movies to sound films. He filmed famed animal-trainer Frank Buck’s film Tiger Fangs (1943).
George Martin Merrick was an American writer of the Frank Buck serial Jungle Menace.
Jungle Siren is a 1942 American film directed by Sam Newfield.
Appointment in Berlin is a 1943 American war drama film directed by Alfred E. Green and starring George Sanders, Marguerite Chapman and Onslow Stevens. The film's plot follows an R.A.F. officer who infiltrates the German high command by broadcasting a series of pro-Nazi messages.
Wild Horse Rustlers is a 1943 American Western film directed by Sam Newfield and written by Joseph O'Donnell. The film stars Robert Livingston as the Lone Rider and Al St. John as his sidekick "Fuzzy Jones", with Lane Chandler, Linda Leighton, Frank Ellis and Stanley Price. The film was released on February 12, 1943, by Producers Releasing Corporation.
