Howard Bretherton

Biography

Former propman Howard Bretherton was one of the legion of unknown directors who made the films--mostly westerns--that generations of kids trudged to see at the Saturday afternoon matinées. Bretherton's long career as an action/western director began in the late 1920s and ended more than 25 years later. In between he ground out scores of cowboy flicks, action/adventure yarns, serials, and just about anything anyone would hire him for. He made films the way "B" picture producers wanted them made--fast, with a minimum of fuss and within budget. The fact that Bretherton was also an editor--a skill he passed on to his son, David Bretherton, who was an editor for more than 40 years--who could cut "in the camera" must have added to his desirability in the eyes of producers. Bretherton was one of the directors of the long-running "Hopalong Cassidy" series, and also spent a lot of time at Warner Bros. cranking out many of that studio's gritty little action pictures. Unlike many of his fellow "B" directors who turned to series television toward the end of their careers, Bretherton stayed mostly in features until his retirement in 1952, with only the occasional venture into episodic TV.