Frank Tashlin
Frank Tashlin was a notable figure in Hollywood, recognized for successfully transitioning from an animator to a writer and director of feature films. His work is particularly revered in France, where he is often associated with the French New Wave due to his unique style, which included self-referential elements and direct audience engagement. Tashlin’s early career began at the age of thirteen, leading him through significant roles in various animation studios, including Warner Brothers and Disney, where he created well-known cartoons featuring iconic characters like Porky Pig and Mickey Mouse.
In the 1940s, he shifted to feature films, with notable works such as "The Paleface," "Artists and Models," and "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" Tashlin collaborated frequently with comedian Jerry Lewis, contributing to a series of successful films that showcased his innovative and fast-paced comedic style. Despite experiencing a decline in popularity in the late 1960s, Tashlin's legacy endures through his creative contributions to cinema, particularly in blending animated sensibilities with live-action storytelling. He passed away in 1972, leaving behind a distinctive mark on the film industry.
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Frank Tashlin
Film Director
- Born: February 19, 1913
- Birthplace: Weehawken, New Jersey
- Died: May 5, 1972
- Place of death: Beverly Hills, California
Biography
Frank Tashlin was one of few figures in Hollywood to make the transition from animator to writer and director of feature-length movies. He is also unusual in that his reputation abroad, especially in France, is more distinguished than in America. His films attracted the attention of the Cahiers du Cinéma and he is often credited with exerting some influence on the French New Wave, largely because of his function as an auteur using self-referential devices. For example, characters sometimes step out of the fictional realm of the film and address the audience directly, or a character orders the film technicians to transform the small black-and-white image into Technicolor, stereo, or cinemascope. The fascination that the French hold for Tashlin may also have to do with their keen interest in Jerry Lewis, who appeared in nine of the films Tashlin wrote and directed. In any event, Tashlin himself remarked that this aesthetic adulation was just so much “philosophical double-talk.”
Many of the qualities that appear in the films Tashlin was to write and direct probably have their origin in his early career as an animator. The films are fast-paced, working through abrupt twists in the plot and heavily sprinkled with sight gags. That early career began after he had dropped out of school at the age of thirteen and worked for a couple of years at odd jobs, such as delivering papers and running errands for storekeepers. In 1928, he was running those errands for Max Fleischer, who was just developing the cartoon industry. That in turn led in 1930 to his working with Paul Terry on his Aesop’s Film Fables and from there to Hal Roach’s studio in 1933 and Warner Brothers in 1936. From there he went to work for Amadee J. Van Beuren in 1938 and on to Disney Studios, then back to Warner Brothers. During his time at Warner Brothers, he produced probably his best-known cartoons, many of them featuring Porky Pig, although he also did memorable cartoons for Disney featuring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. In the early 1940’s, he became executive producer at Screen Gems and as part of the war effort he contributed his talents as cartoonist to the Army and Navy with his cartoons about the inept soldier Private Snafu.
After the war, Tashlin made the jump to feature films beginning with Delightfully Dangerous, for which he wrote the story (but not the screenplay). His first major picture was The Paleface, starring Bob Hope and Jane Russell. He followed it almost at once with two other films, The Fuller Brush Man with Red Skelton and Janet Blair and One Touch of Venus, with Robert Walker and Ava Gardner, adapted from S. J. Perelman’s stage play. Between 1949 and 1951, he wrote four screenplays, all directed by Lloyd Bacon, two of them for Lucille Ball (Miss Grant Takes Richmond and The Fuller Brush Girl).
Thereafter Tashlin directed all his own screenplays, beginning with Son of Paleface, a sequel to The Paleface, again starring Bob Hope. Probably his most successful pieces come from the mid- to late 1950’s. They include Artists and Models, a satire on the comic-book industry and the first of nine films Tashlin did with Jerry Lewis. One the best known of Tashlin’s films came in 1957: Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, based on the stage play by George Axelrod satirizing Madison Avenue. The film starred Tony Randal and Jayne Mansfield. Tashlin returned to Jerry Lewis with such films as Rock-a-Bye Baby, Cinderfella, Who’s Minding the Store?, and The Disorderly Orderly. That was his last movie with Lewis.
In the late 1960’s, Tashlin wrote and directed a film for Doris Day (Caprice). His last film as director appeared in 1968: The Private Navy of Sergeant O’Farrell, in which the sergeant, played by Bob Hope, tries to track down a boat carrying beer for his platoon.
By that time, Tashlin’s career seems to have run its course. His films of this era failed to connect with the public as his earlier films had done. He is chiefly remembered for his innovative approach to feature films, much of it carried over from his early days as an animator. He died of a heart attack in 1972, four years after his last film.