Monta Bell

Producer / director/ screenwriter Monta Bell was born on February 5, 1891, in Washington, DC. He turned to the stage as an actor after trying his hand at journalism in that city.

He was cast by Charles Chaplin in the great comedian's The Pilgrim (1923), which was Bell's sole screen appearance as an actor.

He worked for Chaplin as an editor and assistant director before becoming a director in his own right in 1924. He specialized in comedies of manners akin to early Cecil B. DeMille and Ernst Lubitsch.

He directed Greta Garbo in her American film debut, The Torrent (1924), at MGM. Bell left MGM to take over Paramount's New York City Astoria Studios as head of production.

While he was studio chief, Astoria turned out The Marx Brothers' debut film The Cocoanuts (1929). Going back behind the camera, Bell directed comedies and melodramas in the early '30s, the time of the "talkies".

He quit directing in 1933 to return full-time to producing.

Twelve years later, he directed his final film, China's Little Devils (1945), starring former silent film star Harry Carey.

Though not considered important enough, from the standpoint of 1968, to be included among the directors in the book American Cinema by Andrew Sarris, Bell was granted a certain rediscovery by 1977 in that year's New York Film Festival section, Saved, where two of his films The Torrent and Downstairs were revived.