Reginald LeBorg

Reginald Le Borg
Born(1902-12-11)11 December 1902
Vienna, Austria death_date = 25 March 1989(1989-03-25) (aged 86)
Died
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationFilm director
Years active1936–1974

Reginald LeBorg (11 December 1902 – 25 March 1989) was an Austrian-American film director. He directed 68 films between 1936 and 1974.[1]

LeBorg is perhaps best known for the horror films he made at Universal studios in the 1940s for the Inner Sanctum Mystery series, including Calling Dr. Death (1943) and Weird Woman (1944).[2]

A perennial director of low-budget “B movie” Hollywood productions, LeBorg was notable for striving to render “every nuance and visual flair” from even the most mediocre screenplay.[3][4]

LeBorg's accomplishment is the scope of his oeuvre, spanning every film genre, including opera, musicals, crime drama, romantic comedy, westerns, science fiction and horror.[5]

  1. ^ Dixon, 1992 p.136: Directorial Credits
  2. ^ Dixon, 1992 p. 10: “...the series of films for which he would become best known.”
  3. ^ Chapman, 2020: “Despite his providing background, he never really rose above minor “B” films, like Calling Dr. Death (the first of the Inner Sanctum series), followed by The Mummy's Ghost, Dead Man's Eyes, Weird Woman, etc. and got truly bogged down in a series of seven or eight Joe Palooka films.”
  4. ^ Dixon, 1992 p. 1-2: “LeBorg may have despised the script he was forced to work with, but this did not stop him from wringing every possible nuance or visual flair out the material at hand.” And p. 3: “LeBorg was always attracted to the most innovative and interesting scripts Universal would allow the “B” unit to produce.”
  5. ^ Dixon, 1992 p. Vii: See here for Editor's Note by Anthony Slide. And p. 4: “...the depth and range of his accomplishments.”