Lewis Allen(1905-2000)

Born in England on Christmas Day, 1905, Lewis Allen first came on the show-biz scene when he was appointed executive in charge of West End and Broadway stage productions for famed impresario Gilbert Miller. Allen also co-directed some of the productions (including the celebrated "Victoria Regina" with Helen Hayes and Vincent Price) before he was lured to Hollywood by Paramount studio head Buddy G. DeSylva. La Falaise mystérieuse (1944), based on Dorothy Macardle's best-selling novel, made for an auspicious directing debut; its success prompted an immediate follow-up, the suspense thriller L'Invisible Meurtrier (1945) (with a script by Raymond Chandler). Otherwise, his filmography leans heavily toward "tough guy" movies of the Alan Ladd-George Raft-Edward G. Robinson school. Allen also directed much TV (Perry Mason (1957), La grande vallée (1965), Mission impossible (1966), La petite maison dans la prairie (1974), many more).