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IMDbPro

Sam Newfield(1899-1964)

  • Director
  • Writer
  • Producer
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Legendary "B" picture director Sam Newfield was born Samuel Neufeld in New York City. His brother was Sigmund Neufeld, later the head of PRC Pictures, where Sam made so many of his films (so many, in fact, that he had to use the pseudonyms "Peter Stewart" and "Sherman Scott" so audiences wouldn't notice that only one man directed so much of the studio's output). He entered the film business in 1919 and began his career as a director in 1926, shooting two-reel comedy shorts for virtually every production company in town, from fly-by-night independent producers to major studios like Universal Pictures. He made his first full-length feature in 1933, for independent "B"-picture production company Tower Pictures. He worked for many of the independent studios, making films for such prestigious-sounding but low-rent companies as Ambassador Pictures, Victory Pictures and Puritan Pictures. While much of his output seemed to be, shall we say, "rushed", he did in fact manage to turn out several interesting, compact and well-made little westerns with Tim McCoy for Victory and Puritan (two companies headed by another "B" picture icon, producer Sam Katzman).

In 1939 he went to work for PRC, where he would make his "name". Sam shot films in two styles: fast and faster. With rock-bottom budgets (at PRC, for instance, budgets were so low that he got paid only $500 a picture; he had to grind them out like sausages in order to make any kind of money), super-tight shooting schedules (often a week, sometimes less) and not necessarily the best talent in front of and behind the cameras, glitches were bound to happen. However, since Sam didn't believe in retakes (and couldn't afford them, anyway), whatever went wrong in the picture (crew members wandering into shots, actors flubbing lines, props malfunctioning, etc.) pretty much stayed in the picture. Sam made films in just about every conceivable genre (science-fiction, westerns, crime thrillers, horror, comedy), and while most were routine at best (and embarrassingly inept and/or incoherent at worst), there were a few bright spots among the dross: Lost Continent (1951), a sci-fi epic he made for low-budget specialist Lippert Pictures in 1951, showed more care than you normally found in a Newfield film, with a better cast and a more coherent script than he was usually given, and is now considered to be one of his best films, if not his best. He also turned out Western Pacific Agent (1950) for Lippert, a fast-paced, neat little crime thriller about railroad detectives investigating a string of murders.

Newfield is considered to be among the most prolific directors in the history of American films (not counting cartoon directors, whose product rarely ran longer than 8-10 minutes or so), with an output estimated at approximately 300 films--everything from one-reel black-and-white training films to full-length color features--over a 30-year-plus career. He spent the last few years of that career shooting films and TV series outside the US (he shot the Buster Crabbe action series Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion (1955) in Morocco and the Lon Chaney Jr. western series Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans (1957) in Canada) because of cheaper production costs.

Sam Newfield finally retired from the film industry in 1958 and died in Los Angeles in 1964.
BornDecember 6, 1899
DiedNovember 10, 1964(64)
BornDecember 6, 1899
DiedNovember 10, 1964(64)
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Photos

Cesar Romero and Sam Newfield in Scotland Yard Inspector (1952)
Philip Brandon, Eric Clavering, Adrienne Dore, Kenne Duncan, Wilbur Freeman, Elliott Lorraine, Austin Moran, Sam Newfield, Wheeler Oakman, Charles Starrett, and Grace Webster in Undercover Men (1934)

Known for

Henry Kulky, Richard Loo, and William Lundigan in State Department: File 649 (1949)
State Department: File 649
4.7
  • Director(as Peter Stewart)
  • 1949
Rory Calhoun and Rhonda Fleming in Adventure Island (1947)
Adventure Island
4.6
  • Director(as Peter Stewart)
  • 1947
Jimmy Aubrey, William Boyd, and Sheila Terry in Go-Get-'Em, Haines (1936)
Go-Get-'Em, Haines
5.0
  • Director
  • 1936
William Boyd, Joseph W. Girard, and Barbara Worth in Racing Luck (1935)
Racing Luck
6.0
  • Director
  • 1935

Credits

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IMDbPro

Director

  • Lon Chaney Jr. and John Hart in The Long Rifle and the Tomahawk (1964)
    The Long Rifle and the Tomahawk
  • Gigantis, the Fire Monster (1959)
    Gigantis, the Fire Monster
    • (uncredited)
  • Bruce Bennett and Jim Davis in Flaming Frontier (1958)
    Flaming Frontier
  • Tony Brown, Jim Davis, and Prince The Dog in Wolf Dog (1958)
    Wolf Dog
  • Lon Chaney Jr. and John Hart in The Pathfinder and the Mohican (1957)
    The Pathfinder and the Mohican
  • Lon Chaney Jr. and John Hart in Along the Mohawk Trail (1957)
    Along the Mohawk Trail
  • Minerva Urecal in The Adventures of Tugboat Annie (1957)
    The Adventures of Tugboat Annie
  • Lon Chaney Jr. and John Hart in Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans (1957)
    Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans
  • John Bromfield, Jim Davis, Margia Dean, Coleen Gray, and Kent Taylor in Frontier Gambler (1956)
    Frontier Gambler
  • Alan Hale Jr., Bruce Bennett, Neville Brand, and Lillian Molieri in The Three Outlaws (1956)
    The Three Outlaws
  • Coleen Gray and Bill Williams in The Wild Dakotas (1956)
    The Wild Dakotas
  • James Craig, Margia Dean, and Barton MacLane in Last of the Desperados (1955)
    Last of the Desperados
  • Buster Crabbe in Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion (1955)
    Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion
  • Thunder Over Sangoland (1955)
    Thunder Over Sangoland
  • Jon Hall, Ray Montgomery, and Nick Stewart in Ramar of the Jungle (1952)
    Ramar of the Jungle

Writer

  • Kathleen Byron, Naomi Chance, and Dane Clark in The Gambler and the Lady (1952)
    The Gambler and the Lady
  • House-Rent Party (1946)
    House-Rent Party
  • Dewey 'Pigmeat' Markham, John Murray, and Percy Verwayen in Fight That Ghost (1946)
    Fight That Ghost
  • Luis Alberni, Joseph Allen, Carol Hughes, Roscoe Karns, Patsy Kelly, and Maxie Rosenbloom in My Son, the Hero (1943)
    My Son, the Hero
  • Picnic Perils
  • Just We Two
  • Oh! My Operation

Producer

  • Bruce Bennett and Jim Davis in Flaming Frontier (1958)
    Flaming Frontier
  • Tony Brown, Jim Davis, and Prince The Dog in Wolf Dog (1958)
    Wolf Dog
  • Joan Barclay and Tex Fletcher in Six-Gun Rhythm (1939)
    Six-Gun Rhythm

Personal details

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    • December 6, 1899
    • New York City, New York, USA
    • November 10, 1964
    • Los Angeles, California, USA(liver cancer)
    • Violet McComas(divorced, 2 children)

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    Brother of Sigmund Neufeld, head of PRC Studios.
    • Prairie Rustlers
      (1945)
      $1,250

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