Arthur Ripley
Arthur Ripley was a notable American filmmaker born on January 12, 1897, in New York City. He began his career in the film industry as an apprentice at the Kalem Company in 1909 and advanced to become a film editor at Vitagraph by 1912. Transitioning to Hollywood, he worked as a cinematographer and eventually stepped into directing in 1920, although he was briefly replaced during his first project. Ripley made significant contributions as a gag writer for silent comedies and collaborated with prominent figures like Harry Langdon and Frank Capra. His uncredited work on "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" became a major success for Langdon. Throughout the 1930s, Ripley directed short films featuring comedians such as W. C. Fields and eventually transitioned to feature films, addressing various genres, including melodrama and propaganda. His best-known work is "A Voice in the Wind," which portrays the harrowing experiences of a musician tortured during World War II. Later in his career, he directed the influential low-budget film "Thunder Road." Ripley passed away from cancer in Los Angeles on February 13, 1961, leaving behind a legacy in the film industry.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Arthur Ripley
Writer
- Born: January 12, 1897
- Birthplace: Bronx, New York
- Died: February 13, 1961
- Place of death: Los Angeles, California
Biography
Arthur Ripley was born on January 12, 1897, in New York City. He began working in films in 1909 as an apprentice at the Kalem Company in New York and worked his way up to film editor. In 1912, he joined Vitagraph as chief editor before going to Hollywood as a cinematographer on films produced by Fox, Metro, and Universal.
Ripley began directing his first film, Alias Jimmy Valentine, in 1920, only to be replaced by Edward Mortimer. He then worked as a gag writer on Mack Sennett’s silent comedies. When Sennett signed Harry Langdon as a performer, Ripley and Frank Capra were assigned to develop stories for the childlike comedian. When Langdon left Sennett in 1926 to form his own company, he took Ripley, Capra, and director Harry Edwards with him. Their subsequent film, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, for which Ripley remained uncredited, became one of Langdon’s biggest hits.
When Edwards left the company, Capra began directing the scripts he wrote with Ripley. After Capra also left, Ripley became Langdon’s head writer, with the star becoming his own director. When the first three Langdon-directed films flopped, Ripley left Langdon to create gags for short comic films during the 1930’s, such as The Dog Doctor, starring Andy Clyde. Ripley was soon directing these shorts as well, with The Pharmacist and The Barber Shop, both starring W. C. Fields, being the best known.
Ripley slowly worked his way into features, directing, with Joshua Logan, the 1938 Joan Bennett-Henry Fondasoap operaI Met My Love Again and cowriting the 1939 Dennis Morgan melodrama Waterfront. Ripley then directed and cowrote Prisoner of Japan, a propaganda film intended to stir up anti-Japanese feelings during the early stages of American involvement in World War II. His best-known achievement as both writer and director is A Voice in the Wind, the story of a concert pianist, played by Francis Lederer, who loses his memory after being tortured by Nazis. This was Ripley’s final credit as a writer.
After directing The Chase, a low-budget but stylish film noir adapted from a Cornell Woolrich novel, with Robert Cummings and Peter Lorre, Ripley helped establish the Film Center at the University of California at Los Angeles and ran it from 1954 until his death. He directed only the occasional television drama until Robert Mitchum hired him in 1958 to make Thunder Road. This tale of a moonshiner outrunning the police is one of the most successful low-budget films of all time. Ripley died of cancer in Los Angeles on February 13, 1961.