James W. Horne

Biography

James W. Horne slipped behind a camera in the early ’20s and, by 1925, was calling the shots on his first Hal Roach one-reeler. Two years later he sent Buster Keaton back to school for the hit feature “College.” Between ’25 and ’26 he cranked out ten brisk two-reelers for Roach’s “All Star” lineup, then drifted away only to boomerang back in 1929. The payoff: late-era silent gags for Charley Chase and the immortal doorstep-destruction classic “Big Business” with Laurel & Hardy. Sound arrived; Horne answered with “Whispering Whoopie,” a 1930 Charley Chase talkie that opened the floodgates—30-plus sound shorts for Roach, among them the boys’ “Chickens Come Home” and the four-reel epic “Beau Hunks,” where, unable to cast an Arabian Riff, he slapped on a beard and played the part himself. While other directors handled English-language versions of Stan and Ollie’s comedies, Roach trusted Horne with the German, French and Spanish editions. He exited the lot in 1932, re-entered in 1935 to helm the duo’s final short, “Thicker Than Water,” and stayed long enough to steer their features “Bonnie Scotland,” “The Bohemian Girl,” and “Way Out West” (uncredited script polish, credited megaphone). Columbia eventually lured him away to produce cliffhanging serials, trading slapstick for weekly thrills.