Background
Stuart Heisler was born on 5 December 1894 in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Stuart Heisler was born on 5 December 1894 in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Heisler waited a long time before being allowed to direct. He had joined Famous Players in 1913, and later worked for Sennett, Fox, Mary Pieklord, First National, and Coldwyn before becoming an editor in the 1930s: Condemned (29, Wesley Ruggles); The Kid from Spain (32, Leo McCarey); Roman Scandals (33, Frank Tuttle); The Dark Angel (35, Sidney Franklin); WeddingNight (35, King Vidor); Peter Ibbetson (35, Henrv Hathaway); and Klondike Annie (36, Raoul Walsh). In 1937, he was second unit director on John Ford's The Hurricane, and by 1940 lie was directing at Paramount.
For a man nearly fifty before he got into his stride, Heisler kept a youthful enthusiasm for visual excitement. Although willing to take on any project, he was at his best with thrillers and action films. The Biscuit Eater benefits from Georgia locations and fine acting from two kids, one black, one white. He made the best Ladd-Lake movie, The Glass Key: directed three enjoyable Susan Hayward pictures: Among the Living, Smash-Up, and Tulsa; directed Gary Cooper in the actor's own production of Along Came fones and in a good Western, Dallas; somehow made Ginger Rogers and Doris Dav interesting in Storm Warning; celebrated the delightful Linda Darnell in Saturday Island and This Is My Love; made one \ivid war picture, Beach-Head; and an excellent thriller, I Died a Thousand Times (a remake of High Sierra), with Jack Palance and Shelley Winters.