Louis Monta Bell (February 5, 1891 – February 4, 1958) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter.
Biography
Monta Bell was born in Washington, D.C. He enrolled in District of Columbia Public Schools graduating from Eastern High School. He first appeared in theatrical venues with Washington D.C. stock companies, including organizing the original Garrick Players and producing at the Garrick Theater in Washington. He then took up journalism and publishing in New York,Koszarski, 1976 p. 227: “...drifted into publishing” in D.C. and New York. after he had been a reporter and editor at The Washington Herald. While in New York, filmmaker Charlie Chaplin enlisted the 32-year-old Bell to ghost-write his 1922 memoir My Trip Abroad. Bell, along a number of other apprentices including Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast and Mal St. Clair, became film editors and assistant directors. Here Bell was “exposed to Chaplin’s meticulous style of comedy construction and a complete immersion in all aspects of filmmaking.”Koszarski, 1976 p. 227Koszarski, 2008 p. 181: “...Bell had been one of Chaplin’s assistants on that film...one of the comedian’s inner circle after ghostwriting [Chaplin’s] 1922 memoir My Trip Abroad.”
In 1924, Paramount manager Walter Wanger engaged a number of “promising young men without significant directing experience”, among them Bell, to direct pictures at their Astoria Studios, Queens, New York. One of Bell’s early achievements as director is The King on Main Street (1925).Koszarski, 2008 p. 48 Bell developed into a major cinematic stylist, directing sophisticated film essays on “contemporary sexual mores.” Bell is notable for directing the 1926 Torrent, Greta Garbo's first American film.Koszarski, 2008 p. 181: See here for info on Garbo and John Gilbert films. Quotation taken from same page.
In 1928, with the advent of sound films, Bell was transferred Paramount Pictures’ east coast operations, serving as head of production at the Astoria Studios.Koszarski, 1976 p. 227: Bell assigned to Paramount’s “east coast operation when sound arrived, a position no doubt intended to take advantage of his experience” in stage productions in that region. There Bell directed a number of high comedies and low melodramas and later moved to producing films,Koszarski, 2008 p. 219: “After being kicked upstairs [to executive status] Monta Bell continued at Astoria Studios as a producer and occasional director.”Koszarski, 1976 p. 227: “Bell prefers a trashy, but highly stylized melodrama like Alibi (1929) to a more respectable, literate, and ultimately static photoplay such as Madame X (1929).”
Like his mentor Charles Chaplin, Bell championed the superiority of silent cinema as an art form and a method of conveying a story.Koszarski, 1976 p. 227: Bell’s “preference for the silent film, attitude shared by his mentor, Charles Chaplin.”Koszarski, 2008 p. 181: See here for Bell’s displeasure with sound films, compared to silent.
Monta directed 20 films from 1924 to 1945. In addition, he produced 20 films and wrote 9 screenplays.
Personal life and death Monta Bell and Lucille Marie Bell were married in Annapolis, Maryland, on May 3, 1910. She sued for divorce in December 1931. They had a daughter. He married actress Betty Lawford in New York City on December 23, 1931. They were divorced in 1937 in Mexico.
He died on February 4, 1958, at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital, one day before his 67th birthday. He is interred in Section 8 Garden of Legends in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, California.
Filmography
Year Title Director Writer Producer1924 Broadway After Dark The Snob 1925 Lady of the Night Pretty Ladies The King on Main Street Lights of Old Broadway 1926 Torrent The Boy Friend Upstage 1927 After Midnight Man, Woman and Sin 1929 The Letter Gentlemen of the Press Applause The Bellamy Trial The Battle of Paris 1930 Behind the Make-Up Young Man of Manhattan The Big Pond Laughter East Is West 1932 Downstairs 1933 The Worst Woman in Paris? 1934 Men in White Student Tour 1941 West Point of the Air Aloma of the South Seas Birth of the Blues 1945 China's Little Devils
Uncredited actor The Adventurer (1917, Short) - Man The Pilgrim (1923) - Policeman
Footnotes
Sources Koszarski, Richard. 1976. Hollywood Directors: 1914-1940. Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Catalog Number: 76-9262. Koszarski, Richard. 2008. Hollywood on the Hudson: Film and Television in New York from Griffith to Sarnoff. Rutgers University Press.
External links
Monta Bell at Virtual History