- John J. Mescall was born on January 10, 1899 in Litchfield, Illinois, USA. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Take a Letter, Darling (1942) and The Black Cat (1934). He died on February 10, 1962 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.
- Left Universal Pictures after the failure of James Whale's adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's novel "The Road Back" due to the studio's demands that the picture be re-edited. They were afraid the picture would be boycotted in Europe because of its strong anti-Nazi content. The film had subsequently been "watered down" by the new heads of Universal so as not to upset the Nazi regime.
- Had a penchant for off-beat tilted camera angles and eccentric tracking movements. After winding down his career as a cinematographer in the 1940's, he free-lanced as a trick photography consultant.
- Director of photography from 1920. Under contract at Pathe, 1927-1930; Universal, 1934-1936 (where he did his most memorable work on James Whale's Bride of Frankenstein (1935)) and Show Boat (1936)); 20th Century Fox, 1938; Paramount 1941-1942; and United Artists, 1943-1945,1950.
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