Lewis Allen(1905-2000)
- Director
- Production Manager
- Producer
Born in England on Christmas Day, 1905, Lewis Allen first came on the
show-biz scene when he was appointed executive in charge of West End
and Broadway stage productions for famed impresario
Gilbert Miller. Allen also
co-directed some of the productions (including the celebrated "Victoria
Regina" with Helen Hayes and
Vincent Price) before he was lured
to Hollywood by Paramount studio head
Buddy G. DeSylva.
The Uninvited (1944), based on
Dorothy Macardle's best-selling novel,
made for an auspicious directing debut; its success prompted an
immediate follow-up, the suspense thriller
The Unseen (1945) (with a script by
Raymond Chandler). Otherwise, his
filmography leans heavily toward "tough guy" movies of the
Alan Ladd-George Raft-Edward G. Robinson
school. Allen also directed much TV
(Perry Mason (1957),
The Big Valley (1965),
Mission: Impossible (1966),
Little House on the Prairie (1974),
many more).
