# Lambert Hillyer

Lambert Hillyer (July 8, 1893 – July 5, 1969) was an American film director and screenwriter. He is best known today for his many western features, his horror films The Invisible Ray and Dracula's Daughter, and the first Batman serial.

## Biography

Lambert Harwood Hillyer was born July 8, 1893, in Tyner, Indiana (his 1946 resumé amended this to South Bend, Indiana). His mother was character actress Lydia Knott. A graduate of Drake College, he worked as a newspaper reporter and short-story writer, then as an actor in vaudeville and stock theater. During World War I he began working in motion pictures with the Mutual company. He began his career as a director with Paramount-Artcraft, then First National, Goldwyn, and Fox. He became a specialist in westerns, working on many silent features starring William S. Hart, Buck Jones, Tom Mix, and others.
Hillyer expanded into romantic melodramas and crime films in the 1920s. In 1936 he directed two chillers for Universal, the science-fiction film The Invisible Ray and the cult horror film Dracula's Daughter.
He directed many features for Columbia Pictures in the 1930s and early 1940s. Some were major productions like The Defense Rests (1935) with Jack Holt and Jean Arthur, but most were low-budget action features. In 1940 he was assigned to Columbia's Charles Starrett westerns, including The Durango Kid (1940), which later inspired a popular series. When Starrett left the studio temporarily, Hillyer was reassigned to the Bill Elliott series, which he directed through 1942. One of Hillyer's most famous credits is the Batman serial (1943), which was memorable enough to be re-released in 1954, 1962, and 1965. The 1965 revival inspired the very successful Batman TV series.
After his tenure with Columbia ended in 1943, Hillyer moved to RKO Radio Pictures briefly, where he directed a Tim Holt western and a pair of two-reel comedies with Leon Errol. Hillyer then began a six-year association with Monogram Pictures, first with the Sam Katzman crime story Smart Guy and then a series with the studio's newest cowboy star Johnny Mack Brown. Hillyer also directed Monogram's other western leads Jimmy Wakely and Whip Wilson.

## Television

Like many directors who were accustomed to low budgets and speedy schedules, Lambert Hillyer made a smooth transition to the new field of television. He directed 40 episodes of the syndicated Western The Cisco Kid. Hillyer also directed seven episodes of Highway Patrol, which starred Broderick Crawford. His last assignment came in 1957, a single episode of the secret-agent show The Man Called X, under the pseudonym Lambert Hill.
Hillyer died July 5, 1969, in Los Angeles, California.

## Filmography
### Director

| Year | Title | Notes |
| 1917 | An Even Break | Also screenwriter |
| 1917 | Strife | |
| 1917 | The Narrow Trail | |
| 1918 | Riddle Gawne | |
| 1919 | Breed of Men | |
| 1919 | The Poppy Girl's Husband | |
| 1919 | The Money Corral | Also screenwriter |
| 1919 | Square Deal Sanderson | Also screenwriter |
| 1919 | Wagon Tracks | |
| 1919 | John Petticoats | |
| 1920 | The Toll Gate | Also screenwriter |
| 1920 | Sand! | Also screenwriter |
| 1920 | The Cradle of Courage | Also screenwriter |
| 1920 | The Testing Block | Also screenwriter |
| 1921 | O'Malley of the Mounted | |
| 1921 | The Whistle | Also screenwriter |
| 1921 | Three Word Brand | Also screenwriter |
| 1921 | White Oak | |
| 1922 | White Hands | Also screenwriter |
| 1922 | Travelin' On | Also screenwriter |
| 1922 | Caught Bluffing | |
| 1922 | Skin Deep | |
| 1922 | The Super-Sex | Also screenwriter |
| 1922 | The Altar Stairs | |
| 1923 | Scars of Jealousy | Also screenwriter |
| 1923 | The Shock | |
| 1923 | Temporary Marriage | Also screenwriter |
| 1923 | The Spoilers | |
| 1923 | The Lone Star Ranger | Also screenwriter |
| 1923 | Eyes of the Forest | |
| 1923 | Mile-a-Minute Romeo | |
| 1924 | Those Who Dance | Also screenwriter |
| 1924 | Barbara Frietchie | Also screenwriter |
| 1924 | Idle Tongues | |
| 1925 | I Want My Man | |
| 1925 | The Making of O'Malley | |
| 1925 | The Knockout | |
| 1925 | The Unguarded Hour | |
| 1926 | Her Second Chance | |
| 1926 | Miss Nobody | |
| 1926 | 30 Below Zero | |
| 1927 | The War Horse | Also screenwriter |
| 1927 | Hills of Peril | |
| 1927 | Chain Lightning | Also screenwriter |
| 1928 | The Branded Sombrero | Also screenwriter |
| 1928 | Fleetwing | Also screenwriter |
| 1930 | Beau Bandit | |
| 1931 | The Deadline | Also screenwriter |
| 1931 | One Man Law | Also screenwriter |
| 1932 | The Fighting Fool | |
| 1932 | South of the Rio Grande | |
| 1932 | Hello Trouble | Also screenwriter |
| 1932 | White Eagle | |
| 1932 | Forbidden Trail | |
| 1932 | Sundown Rider | Also screenwriter |
| 1933 | The California Trail | Also screenwriter |
| 1933 | Unknown Valley | Also screenwriter |
| 1933 | Dangerous Crossroads | |
| 1933 | Police Car 17 | Also screenwriter |
| 1933 | Master of Men | |
| 1933 | Before Midnight | |
| 1933 | The Fighting Code | Also screenwriter |
| 1934 | Once to Every Woman | |
| 1934 | The Man Trailer | Also screenwriter |
| 1934 | The Most Precious Thing in Life | |
| 1934 | The Defense Rests | |
| 1934 | Against the Law | |
| 1934 | Men of the Night | Also screenwriter |
| 1935 | Behind the Evidence | |
| 1935 | In Spite of Danger | |
| 1935 | Men of the Hour | |
| 1935 | The Awakening of Jim Burke | |
| 1935 | Superspeed | |
| 1935 | Guard That Girl | Also screenwriter |
| 1936 | The Invisible Ray | |
| 1936 | Dangerous Waters | |
| 1936 | Dracula's Daughter | |
| 1937 | Speed to Spare | Also screenwriter |
| 1937 | Girls Can Play | Also screenwriter |
| 1937 | All American Sweetheart | |
| 1938 | Women in Prison | |
| 1938 | My Old Kentucky Home | |
| 1938 | Extortion | Also screenwriter |
| 1938 | Gang Bullets | |
| 1939 | Convict's Code | |
| 1939 | Should a Girl Marry? | |
| 1939 | Girl from Rio | |
| 1940 | The Durango Kid | |
| 1940 | Beyond the Sacramento | |
| 1940 | The Wildcat of Tucson | |
| 1941 | The Pinto Kid | |
| 1941 | The Son of Monte Cristo | Second-unit director |
| 1941 | North from the Lone Star | |
| 1941 | Hands Across the Rockies | |
| 1941 | The Medico of Painted Springs | |
| 1941 | The Son of Davy Crockett | Also screenwriter |
| 1941 | Thunder over the Prairie | |
| 1941 | King of Dodge City | |
| 1941 | Prairie Stranger | |
| 1941 | Roaring Frontiers | |
| 1941 | The Royal Mounted Patrol | |
| 1942 | The Devil's Trail | |
| 1942 | North of the Rockies | |
| 1942 | Prairie Gunsmoke | |
| 1942 | Vengeance of the West | |
| 1943 | Fighting Frontier | |
| 1943 | Bombardier | Aerial action sequences (uncredited) |
| 1943 | The Stranger from Pecos | |
| 1943 | Six Gun Gospel | |
| 1943 | Smart Guy | |
| 1943 | ''The Texas Kid | |
| 1943 | Batman | 15-part serial |
| 1944 | Partners of the Trail | |
| 1944 | Law Men | |
| 1944 | Range Law | |
| 1944 | West of the Rio Grande | |
| 1944 | Land of the Outlaws | |
| 1944 | Ghost Guns | |
| 1945 | Beyond the Pecos | |
| 1945 | Flame of the West | |
| 1945 | Stranger from Santa Fe | |
| 1945 | South of the Rio Grande | |
| 1945 | The Lost Trail | |
| 1945 | Frontier Feud | |
| 1946 | Border Bandits | |
| 1946 | Under Arizona Skies | |
| 1946 | The Gentleman from Texas | |
| 1946 | Silver Range | |
| 1946 | Trigger Fingers | |
| 1946 | Shadows on the Range | |
| 1947 | Raiders of the South | |
| 1947 | Valley of Fear | |
| 1947 | Land of the Lawless | |
| 1947 | The Law Comes to Gunsight | |
| 1947 | Trailing Danger | |
| 1947 | The Hat Box Mystery | |
| 1947 | The Case of the Baby Sitter | |
| 1947 | Flashing Guns | |
| 1947 | Gun Talk | |
| 1948 | Overland Trails | |
| 1948 | Song of the Drifter | |
| 1948 | Oklahoma Blues | |
| 1948 | Crossed Trails | |
| 1948 | Partners of the Sunset | |
| 1948 | Frontier Agent | |
| 1948 | Range Renegades | |
| 1948 | The Fighting Ranger | |
| 1948 | The Sheriff of Medicine Bow | |
| 1948 | Outlaw Brand | |
| 1948 | Sundown Riders | |
| 1949 | Gun Runner | |
| 1949 | Gun Law Justice | |
| 1949 | Trails End | |
| 1949 | Haunted Trails | |
| 1949 | Riders of the Dusk | |
| 1949 | Range Land | |

### Screenwriter

In addition to writing screenplays for many of the films he directed, as noted above, Hillyer wrote or contributed to the screenplays for these motion pictures.
| Year | Title |
| 1917 | They're Off |
| 1917 | The Mother Instinct |
| 1917 | The Desert Man |
| 1917 | The Little Brother |
| 1917 | Love or Justice |
| 1917 | The Snarl |
| 1917 | One Shot Ross |
| 1917 | The Silent Man |
| 1921 | The Man from Lost River |
| 1930 | Hide-Out |
| 1933 | Straightaway |
| 1933 | State Trooper |
| 1935 | Law Beyond the Range |
| 1937 | The Shadow |
| 1938 | Highway Patrol |
| 1939 | Parents on Trial |
| 1939 | The Officer and the Lady |