Background
Norman McLeod was born on 20 September 1899 in Grayling, Michigan, United States.
Norman McLeod was born on 20 September 1899 in Grayling, Michigan, United States.
McLeod studied as a gagwriter and animator at the University of Washington during the 1920s, but it was his First World War service as a fighter pilot that allowed him to script The Air Circus (28, Howard Hawks and Lewis Seiler) and work as assistant director on Wings (29, William Wellman). That led him into work as a director at Paramount, but generally earthbound.
With his name on several perennial comedies, McLeod is better known than his record deserves. Between the Marx Brothers, Danny Kaye, and Bob Hope there are doldrums enough to convince us that McLeod merely conducted these comics to the screen. The Marx Brothers were beyond the control of more decisive directors; Danny Kave was a self-indulgent sentimentalist, so indulged by Goldwyn that no director could restrain him. The Paleface is probably the film in which McLeod was most successful, though dependent on Frank Tashlin’s inventive script. He roamed around—from MGM, to Hal Roach, Goldwyn, and back to Paramount— but seldom set his character on a film. Still, he brought Topper to the screen with exactly the right touch.