Biography

Born in New York, director Bernard Vorhaus made his name in England during the 1930s and later became a victim of the Hollywood blacklist. His most well-known film was The Last Journey (1935), but his quirky thriller about phony spiritualists, The Amazing Mr. X (1948), has a loyal following. A graduate of Harvard University, Vorhaus gave a young director by the name of David Lean his first job as a film cutter. Lean went on to become an Oscar-winning director known for such intelligent epics such as Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Doctor Zhivago (1965). Lean called Vorhaus the "greatest influence" in his life. After being blacklisted, Vorhaus relocated to England, where he lived with his Welsh-born wife until his death in November 2000.
- IMDb mini biography by: Luis32789@aol.com

Bernard was born in New York and became hooked on films at an early age. His elder sister, Amy, wrote for films at the Fort Lee Studios in New Jersey and used to take him to the studios with her and leave him on the set to watch the filming. After studying law at Harvard, he asked Harry Cohn of Columbia for a job and was taken on as a writer at $50 a week. Soon he was providing material for MGM, Paramount and Fox as well. He made his directing debut in 1928 with the silent film Sunlight, starring Zasu Pitts and which he financed from his own savings. With sound coming and a silent short not likely to make an impact, he went to Britain and stayed for seven years working for several of the quickie outfits. Most of his dozen or so British films were made at Twickenham. Between 1933 and '36, he directed seven films for producer Julius Hagen. As long as he shot fast and brought the film in on time and on budget, he found he could do pretty much as he liked with no interference.

With the British film industry hitting a crisis in 1937, he returned to Hollywood and signed a contract with Republic Pictures, which he said was one of the worst mistakes he ever made. Even so, he tried to make something of the terrible material they gave him, especially two offbeat John Wayne films - Three Faces West (1940) and Lady From Louisiana (1941). In 1942 ,he joined the US Air Force Film Unit where he directed several propaganda shorts, several of which featured Ronald Reagan, the unit's security officer. He then returned to B films one of which, So Young So Bad (1950), was the only one in his career over which he had full creative control. In 1951, he was named in the House of Un-American Activities Committee as a Communist sympathiser. He moved to Europe, where he directed a film in France and one in Italy, the latter being released under a pseudonym as the American Projectionists Union threatened to blackball all United Artists releases if his name appeared in the credits. Narrowly escaping extradition to America from Italy, he moved to Britain and kept a low profile, creating a new career for himself refurbishing houses .Apart from some uncredited script doctoring and an abortive plan to co produce TV documentaries in Russia, he made no more films.

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- IMDb mini biography by: Tonyman 5