Encyclopedia of French Film Directors

966 • TOURNEUR, JACQUES
The son of director Maurice Tourneur and actress
Fernande Van Doren (1877–1964), he followed his
father to the USA in 1913 and became a US citizen
in 1919. He grew up in Hollywood, where he landed
a job as an offi ce boy at MGM in 1924. After working
as a script clerk, assistant director, actor, and location
manager on several productions, including the six
last American fi lms directed by Maurice Tourneur, he
signed a contract with MGM as a stock actor in 1926
and notably appeared in Love (Edmund Goulding,
1927) and The Trail of 98 (Clarence Brown, 1928). In
1928, he returned to France and became his father’s
editor and assistant until 1934. The young Jean Gabin
starred and sang in the fi rst movie he directed (Tout
ça ne vaut pas l’Amour). After his fourth French fi lm,
he joined Hollywood and MGM in 1935, working fi rst
as a second unit director (The Winning Ticket, Charles
Reisner; 1935 A Tale of Two Cities). Having settled in
Hollywood until the mid-1960s, he directed only
American fi lms from 1936 to 1965. He was also an
assistant director to George W. Hill (1927 Tell the Marines,
USA), Jacques Natanson (1933 La Fusée / USA:
Grandeur and Decadence), and W. S. Van Dyke (1938
Marie Antoinette, USA).
Filmography
1931 Tout ça ne vaut pas l’Amour / Un Vieux Garçon
1933 Pour être aimé
Toto
1934 Les Filles de la Concierge
1935 A Tale of Two Cities (Jack Conway, uncredited
Robert Z. Leonard; Jacques Tourneur directed
a few scenes; USA)
1936 The Jonker Diamond (short; USA)
A Sports Parade Subject: Harnessed Rhythm
(short; USA)
Master Will Shakespeare (short; USA)
Killer-Dog (short; USA)
1937 The Grand Bounce (short; USA)
The Boss Didn’t Say Good Morning (short;
USA)
The Rainbow Pass (short; USA)
The King Without a Crown (short; USA)
Romance of Radium (short; USA)
The Man in the Barn (short; USA)
What Do You Think? (short; USA)
1938 What Do You Think (Number Three) (short;
USA)
The Ship That Died (short; USA)
The Face Behind the Mask (short; USA)
What Do You Think? No. 4: Tupapaoo (short;
USA)
Strange Glory (short; USA)
Think It Over / Crime Does Not Pay No. 19: Think
It Over (short; USA)
1939 Yankee Doodle Goes to Town / Passing Parade No.
6: Yankee Doodle Goes to Town (short; USA)
They All Come Out (USA)
Nick Carter—Master Detective (USA)
1940 Phantom Raiders (USA)
1941 Doctors Don’t Tell (Edward Mann resumed the
movie; USA)
1942 The Incredible Stranger / Passing Parade No. 32:
The Incredible Stranger (short; USA)
The Magic Alphabet / Passing Parade No. 34: The
Magic Alphabet (short; USA)
Cat People (USA)
1943 I Walked with a Zombie (USA)
The Leopard Man (USA)
1944 Reward Unlimited (short; USA)
Days of Glory (USA)
Experiment Perilous (USA)
1946 Canyon Passage (USA)
1947 Out of the Past / UK: Build My Gallows High
(USA)
1948 Berlin Express (USA)
1949 Easy Living (USA)
1950 Stars in My Crown (USA)
The Flame and the Arrow (USA)
1951 Circle of Danger (UK)
Anne of the Indies (USA)
1952 Way of the Gaucho (with the collaboration of
Henry Levin; USA)
1953 Appointment in Honduras / Jungle Fury (USA)
1955 Stranger on Horseback (USA)
Wichita (USA)
1956 Great Day in the Morning (USA)
1957 Nightfall (USA)
Night of the Demon (UK)
1958 The Fearmakers (USA)
1959 Timbuktu (USA)
Frontier Rangers (USA)
La battaglia di Marathon / La Bataille de Marathon
/ USA: Giant of Marathon (Italy / France)
1963 The Comedy of Terrors / Graveside Story (USA)
1965 The City Under the Sea / USA: City in the Sea /
War-Gods of the Deep (UK)
Television Filmography
1955 General Electric Theater (episodes “The Martyr,”
“Into the Night”; USA)