William Berke

William Berke

William A. Berke (October 3, 1903 – February 15, 1958) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He directed nearly 90 films between 1934 and 1958. He also produced nearly 80 films between 1933 and 1958. He was born in Milwaukee and died in Los Angeles. Richard Fleischer later recalled Berke "was known as King of the B's. For years and years he had made nothing but pictures with ten or twelve day shooting schedules, minuscule budgets of about $100,000 and no stars. Without bothering with editing or any postproduction chores and with short shooting schedules, he was able to squeeze in eight or ten pictures a year. And he was going nuts". According to Fleischer, Berke eventually pestered RKO executives enough to be assigned an A picture with a long shooting schedule and stars and he still shot it in twelve days.

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