Clyde E. Elliott
Encyclopedia
Clyde Ernest Elliott was a motion picture director, producer, and writer. He is best known for animal films, especially Frank Buck
’s first movie, Bring 'Em Back Alive (1932).
scenes. The result is an infinitely clearer conception of the clashes between tigers, pythons and crocodiles than had been achieved in previous films. The movie was a huge hit, Elliott's (and Frank Buck's) most successful and popular film.
In The Devil Tiger (1934), Elliott allowed his star, Kane Richmond
, to fight a 25 foot python. Richmond hated snakes but hated doubles more, and had insisted. The actor, on his feet, on the ground, on his feet again, succeeded in holding the snake's snapping mouth away from his face, while struggling to free himself from the triple coils around his body. At the height of the struggle, the heroine, Marion Burns
, runs in and saves the hero from the python. Ms Burns had to fight the snake too, in order to get at Richmond's pistol, with
which she was supposed to dispatch the python. She played her own scene, as well.
In 1935, Elliott was scheduled to visit Mongolia for Columbia Pictures
to produce a
film called "China Roars." He was to be accompanied by one author (Gordon Rigby
), two camera men (Carl Berger
and Robert Miller), one assistant director, a business manager, a sound man (Zultan Kagel) and one American actor, whom Elliott hoped would be "a cross between Clark Gable
and Ronald Colman
." The story concerned an American physician and his Chinese aviator friend who decided to fly over the route to India once followed by Marco Polo
. They are forced down in the Gobi Desert, taken prisoner by a nomad tribe, finally escape and, after a series of adventures which include a fight with river pirates, return to Shanghai. This movie was never made.
In Booloo (1938) Elliott produced and directed the story of Captain Robert Rogers (Colin Tapley
), who organizes a search for a white tiger in the Malayan jungle to clear his father's name.
Elliott was a director (uncredited) of the Frank Buck
film Jacaré
. To Elliott's great relief, Jacaré was not "doctored" with scenes made at the studio of white girls lost in the jungle, a process, he claimed, by which Paramount had ruined Booloo.
Elliott's last film, Little Trunk (1947), was to have been set partly in Singapore.
It was to show the reunion of a planter and his wife a few months after the end of World War II. It then was to quickly move 300 miles north to their rubber estate, on and near which the main action was to unfold. The plot revolved around incidents in the struggle of the couple to restore their war-wrecked plantation to productivity in the face of discouraging odds created by intriguing natives, wild animals and nature's angry moods. This film was never completed.
From 1945-1950, Elliott was editor of the Santa Ana Independent, a weekly newspaper published from 1935-1966.
Frank Buck (animal collector)
Frank Howard Buck was a hunter and "collector of wild animals," as well as a movie actor, director, writer and producer...
’s first movie, Bring 'Em Back Alive (1932).
Education and early career
Elliott was a class of 1909 alumnus of the University of Nebraska. He founded Post Pictures Corporation in 1919, to make nature films distributed by Paramount. (Post was Elliott's mother's maiden name.)Films
In Bring ‘Em Back Alive, unlike in most other jungle pictures of the time, Elliott kept the camera in the background. Neither the camera nor the cameramen are visible in any of thescenes. The result is an infinitely clearer conception of the clashes between tigers, pythons and crocodiles than had been achieved in previous films. The movie was a huge hit, Elliott's (and Frank Buck's) most successful and popular film.
In The Devil Tiger (1934), Elliott allowed his star, Kane Richmond
Kane Richmond
Kane Richmond was an American film actor of the 1930s and 1940s, mostly appearing in cliffhangers and serials...
, to fight a 25 foot python. Richmond hated snakes but hated doubles more, and had insisted. The actor, on his feet, on the ground, on his feet again, succeeded in holding the snake's snapping mouth away from his face, while struggling to free himself from the triple coils around his body. At the height of the struggle, the heroine, Marion Burns
Marion Burns
Marion Burns was an American film actress of the 1930s. She is best known for having starred opposite John Wayne in the 1935 film The Dawn Rider and opposite him again that same year in Paradise Canyon....
, runs in and saves the hero from the python. Ms Burns had to fight the snake too, in order to get at Richmond's pistol, with
which she was supposed to dispatch the python. She played her own scene, as well.
In 1935, Elliott was scheduled to visit Mongolia for Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
to produce a
film called "China Roars." He was to be accompanied by one author (Gordon Rigby
Gordon Rigby
Gordon Rigby was an American screenwriter. He wrote for 47 films between 1921 and 1948.He was born and died in Los Angeles.-Selected filmography:* Song of the Flame * Under a Texas Moon...
), two camera men (Carl Berger
Carl Berger
Carl George Berger was a cinematographer who photographed Frank Buck’s film Bring 'Em Back Alive .-Early years:...
and Robert Miller), one assistant director, a business manager, a sound man (Zultan Kagel) and one American actor, whom Elliott hoped would be "a cross between Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
and Ronald Colman
Ronald Colman
Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor.-Early years:He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he...
." The story concerned an American physician and his Chinese aviator friend who decided to fly over the route to India once followed by Marco Polo
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently...
. They are forced down in the Gobi Desert, taken prisoner by a nomad tribe, finally escape and, after a series of adventures which include a fight with river pirates, return to Shanghai. This movie was never made.
In Booloo (1938) Elliott produced and directed the story of Captain Robert Rogers (Colin Tapley
Colin Tapley
Colin Tapley was a British actor. Born in New Zealand, he served in the Royal Air Force and an expedition to Antarctica before winning a Paramount Pictures talent contest and moving to Hollywood. He acted in several films before returning to Britain during the Second World War as a flight...
), who organizes a search for a white tiger in the Malayan jungle to clear his father's name.
Elliott was a director (uncredited) of the Frank Buck
Frank Buck (animal collector)
Frank Howard Buck was a hunter and "collector of wild animals," as well as a movie actor, director, writer and producer...
film Jacaré
Jacare (film)
Jacaré was a film made in 1942 of James Dannaldson’s expedition to the Amazon.Clyde E. Elliott, Charles E. Ford and James Dannaldson led the film crew, which shot some 260,000 feet of film on the lower reaches of the Amazon River in Spring 1942...
. To Elliott's great relief, Jacaré was not "doctored" with scenes made at the studio of white girls lost in the jungle, a process, he claimed, by which Paramount had ruined Booloo.
Elliott's last film, Little Trunk (1947), was to have been set partly in Singapore.
It was to show the reunion of a planter and his wife a few months after the end of World War II. It then was to quickly move 300 miles north to their rubber estate, on and near which the main action was to unfold. The plot revolved around incidents in the struggle of the couple to restore their war-wrecked plantation to productivity in the face of discouraging odds created by intriguing natives, wild animals and nature's angry moods. This film was never completed.
From 1945-1950, Elliott was editor of the Santa Ana Independent, a weekly newspaper published from 1935-1966.
Filmography
- JacareJacare (film)Jacaré was a film made in 1942 of James Dannaldson’s expedition to the Amazon.Clyde E. Elliott, Charles E. Ford and James Dannaldson led the film crew, which shot some 260,000 feet of film on the lower reaches of the Amazon River in Spring 1942...
(uncredited, 1942) - Booloo (1938)
- The Devil Tiger (1934)
- Bring 'Em Back Alive (1932)
- Western Ways (1922)
- A Winter's Tale (1922)
- The City (1921)
- Le voyageur (1921)
- A Bit Old Fashioned (1921)
- My Barefoot Boy (1921)
- Trees, a Noble Folk (1921)
- The Lone Indian (1921)
- Citizen Saint (1947)