Robert Florey  

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Robert Florey (1900 – 1979) was a French-American director, screenwriter, film journalist and actor known for such films as The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra (1928).

Born as Robert Fuchs in Paris, he became an orphan at an early age and was then raised in Switzerland. In 1920 he worked at first as a film journalist, then as an assistant and extra in featurettes from Louis Feuillade. Florey moved to the United States in 1921. As a director, Florey's most productive decades were the 1930s and 1940s, working on relatively low-budget fillers for Paramount and Warner Brothers. His reputation is balanced between his avant-garde expressionist style, most evident in his early career, and his work as a fast, reliable studio-system director called on to finish troubled projects, such as 1939's Hotel Imperial.

Florey directed more than 50 films, the best known likely being the Marx Brothers first feature, The Cocoanuts (1929). His 1932 foray into Universal-style horror, Murders in the Rue Morgue, is regarded by horror fans as highly reflective of German expressionism. In 2006, as his 1937 film Daughter of Shanghai was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Complete filmography

as an actor

• The Masque of Life(1915-16) Italian

This filmography lists Florey's credits as director of feature films, and is believed to be complete.

• That Model from Paris, 1926 (uncredited)
• One Hour of Love, 1927
• The Romantic Age, 1927
• Face Value, 1927
• The Hole in the Wall, 1929
• The Cocoanuts, 1929
• The Battle of Paris, 1929
• The Road Is Fine (La Route est belle), 1930
• Love Songs (L'Amour chante), 1930
• El Profesor de mi Señora, 1930
• Rendezvous, 1930
• Black and White (Le Blanc et la noir) (co-director), 1931
• Murders in the Rue Morgue, 1932
• The Man Called Back, 1932
• Those We Love, 1932
• Girl Missing, 1933
• Ex-Lady, 1933
• The House on 56th Street, 1933
• Bedside, 1934
• Registered Nurse, 1934
• Smarty, 1934
• I Sell Anything, 1934
• I Am a Thief, 1934
• The Woman in Red, 1935
• The Florentine Dagger, 1935
• Go Into Your Dance (uncredited), 1935
• Going Highbrow, 1935
• Don't Bet on Blondes, 1935
• Ship Cafe, 1935
• The Payoff, 1935
• The Preview Murder Mystery, 1936
• Till We Meet Again, 1936
• Hollywood Boulevard, 1936
• Outcast, 1937
• King of Gamblers, 1937
• Mountain Music, 1937
• This Way Please, 1937
• Daughter of Shanghai, 1937
• Dangerous to Know, 1938
• King of Alcatraz, 1938
• Disbarred, 1939
• Hotel Imperial, 1939
• The Magnificent Fraud, 1939
• Death of a Champion, 1939
• Parole Fixer, 1940
• Women Without Names, 1940
• The Face Behind the Mask, 1941
• Meet Boston Blackie, 1941
• Two in a Taxi, 1941
• Dangerously They Live, 1941
• Lady Gangster (billed as Florian Roberts), 1941
• Bomber's Moon (second-unit director), 1943
• The Desert Song, 1943
• Roger Touhy, Gangster, 1944
• Man from Frisco, 1944
• God Is My Co-Pilot, 1945
• Danger Signal, 1945
• San Antonio, 1945
• The Beast with Five Fingers, 1946
• Tarzan and the Mermaids, 1948
• Rogues' Regiment, 1948
• Outpost in Morocco, 1949
• The Crooked Way, 1949
• The Vicious Years, 1950
• Johnny One-Eye, 1950
• Adventures of Captain Fabian (uncredited), 1951

Short subjects

• The Love of Zero, 1927
• Hello New York! (aka Bonjour New York), 1928
• The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra, 1928
• Skyscraper Symphony, 1929
• Fifty-Fifty, 1932
• "The Incredible Dr. Markesan" Thriller Series, costars Boris Karloff, 1962