Samuel Bischoff(1890-1975)
- Producer
- Production Manager
- Additional Crew
Samuel Bischoff, a Connecticut-born graduate of Boston University and
Northwestern College, was trained as a Certified Public Accountant and
naturally viewed the film industry from a financial, rather than
artistic, perspective. In 1922, he formed his own production and
distribution company, which, for six years, released short comedies
made on shoe-string budgets, including the early
Stan Laurel effort
Mixed Nuts (1922), and a series of
twelve two-reelers for Mack Sennett,
starring Eddie Gribbon and
Mildred June.
From 1926, Bischoff turned out feature films for Poverty Row studios
like Mascot and Tiffany, where his budget-conscious methodology
sufficiently impressed the ever-frugal Columbia boss
Harry Cohn to hire him as supervising
producer. In 1932, he moved on to work at Warner Brothers, primarily as
associate producer for the B-unit. In that capacity, his only credited
A-grade features were the gangster melodramas
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
and
Castle on the Hudson (1940).
Having acquired the taste for more ambitious projects, Bischoff
produced a string of popular escapist films for Columbia and RKO
between 1941 and 1956. These included the lavish musical
You'll Never Get Rich (1941),
the mystery-comedy
A Night to Remember (1942),
the tongue-in-cheek fairy-tale adventure
A Thousand and One Nights (1945)
and the Robert Mitchum -
Jane Russell film noir
Macao (1952). His final six films were
released under the banner of his short-lived Bischoff-Diamond
Corporation, the last being the
Alfred Hitchcock wannabe
The Strangler (1964).
Northwestern College, was trained as a Certified Public Accountant and
naturally viewed the film industry from a financial, rather than
artistic, perspective. In 1922, he formed his own production and
distribution company, which, for six years, released short comedies
made on shoe-string budgets, including the early
Stan Laurel effort
Mixed Nuts (1922), and a series of
twelve two-reelers for Mack Sennett,
starring Eddie Gribbon and
Mildred June.
From 1926, Bischoff turned out feature films for Poverty Row studios
like Mascot and Tiffany, where his budget-conscious methodology
sufficiently impressed the ever-frugal Columbia boss
Harry Cohn to hire him as supervising
producer. In 1932, he moved on to work at Warner Brothers, primarily as
associate producer for the B-unit. In that capacity, his only credited
A-grade features were the gangster melodramas
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
and
Castle on the Hudson (1940).
Having acquired the taste for more ambitious projects, Bischoff
produced a string of popular escapist films for Columbia and RKO
between 1941 and 1956. These included the lavish musical
You'll Never Get Rich (1941),
the mystery-comedy
A Night to Remember (1942),
the tongue-in-cheek fairy-tale adventure
A Thousand and One Nights (1945)
and the Robert Mitchum -
Jane Russell film noir
Macao (1952). His final six films were
released under the banner of his short-lived Bischoff-Diamond
Corporation, the last being the
Alfred Hitchcock wannabe
The Strangler (1964).