Archie Mayo

Competent technician who began his career in 1916 as a gagman and director of comedy shorts before making his first feature a decade later. A versatile director without a definitive style or stamp, Mayo flourished as a house director at Warner Bros. during the 1930s, where his finer works included "Svengali" (1931), "Ever in My Heart" (1933) and "The Petrified Forest" (1936). His freelance career through the 1940s was characterized by conventional, uninspired efforts for 20th Century-Fox and other studios; Mayo's better films from this period include "Charley's Aunt" (1941) and "Crash Dive" (1943).