Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1983-1979

Today is the birth anniversary of Ernest B. Schoedsack, a name that most people wouldn't know unless they're movie buffs. Schoedsack was a collaborator with Merian C. Cooper in the 1920s and 1930s, starting with the Persian-set documentary Grass, about the migration of a traditional tribal people in what is now southwestern Iran. After making Grass, Cooper and Schoedsack went off to Siam (now Thailand, of course), where they made Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness, about the people who lived in interior rural villages. When Cooper became head of production at RKO, Schoedsack followed; unsurprisingly, their most famous collaboration is the 1933 version of King Kong.

But, Schoedsack actually directed some other well-known movies at RKO in the early 1930s. I've blogged about The Most Dangerous Game before, but don't think I've done a full-length post on The Last Days of Pompeii. (Either that, or Blogger's search function is acting up again, which wouldn't surprise me.) I believe that all of the movies I've mentioned have been released to DVD, but I'm not certain how many of them are still in print.