April 3 - Allan Dwan

Happy Birthday, Allan Dwan! Born today in 1885 as Joseph Aloysius Dwan, this pioneering Canadian-born American screenwriter, film producer and film director had made more than four hundred known feature films and short productions to his credit.  

  

Along with the more-celebrated American filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille, Dwan was one of the few directors who made the transition from the days of the one-reelers in the 1910s through the glory days of the studio system in the 1930s and 1940s and into its decline in the 1950s. 

  

Among his credits, Dwan is best known for directing the 1954 American Technicolor Western/action/adventure film 'Silver Lode'. 

  

The film tells the story of Dan Ballard (John Payne) and Rose Evans (Lizabeth Scott), who are about to be married on the Fourth of July. 

However, when Marshal Fred McCarty (Dan Duryea) and his deputies ride into town looking for Ballard, McCarty accuses Ballard of having murdered his brother and has come to arrest him. 

  

At first, the townspeople are on Ballard's side, but gradually they turn against him, especially when they believe that he has killed Wooley (Emile Meyer), the town sheriff. Ballard tries to prove his innocence and expose McCarty (who appears to be a veiled reference to Senator Joseph McCarthy). 

  

The film had a similar plot to Austrian-born American film director Fred Zinnemann's ('From Here to Eternity') 1952 American black and white Western drama film 'High Noon'. 

  

Another notable film by Dwan is the 1949 American black and white war/action film 'Sands of Iwo Jima', starring John Wayne as U.S. Marine Sgt. John Stryker. 

  

The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (John Wayne), Best Film Editing, Best Sound Recording (Daniel J. Bloomberg) and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story (Harry Brown, James Edward Grant). This occurred at the 22nd Academy Awards in late April 1950. 

  

Dwan had been active from 1911–1961. 

  

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