Monty Banks
Director
68
Películas
0
Series
Monty Banks was a short, stocky but somehow debonair Italian-born comic actor, later also writer and director. In the US from 1914, he first appeared on stage in musical comedy and cabaret. By 1917 he was working as a dancer in New York's Dominguez Cafe. After this he turned to films, acting and doing stunt work at Keystone, Universal and for Al Christie. Changing his name from Mario Bianchi to Monty Banks may have been prompted by Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle as a passing reference to his playing '"montebanks". By 1919 Banks had moved to Vitagraph to play a villain in The Grocery Clerk (1919), foil to star comic Larry Semon. Banks first came to the fore in his own right as star of the "Welcome Comedies" made by Warner Brothers. He spent the early 1920s at Fox and Grand Asher, graduating to writing and directing two-reel comedies with himself as the star. Most noteworthy entries in regard to inventive sight gags and Mack Sennett--style madcap plots are Pay or Move (1924) and The Golf Bug (1924). The success of this series prompted Banks to create an independent production company, the Monty Banks Pictures Corporation, in conjunction with writer/director Howard Estabrook. He made several feature-length films for Pathe, including Play Safe (1927)) (generally considered his best work), which featured a climactic runaway train sequence. This style of fast-action slapstick made it inevitable that Banks suffered more than his fair share of injuries, especially since he continued to do many of his own stunts. From the late 1920s Banks worked in England and made several appearances in sound films. However, his accent proved to be something of an obstacle. He therefore decided, after 1930, to concentrate on directing and producing. He helmed four features starring the popular entertainer Gracie Fields, who became his second wife in 1940. In 1935 he directed a well-received George Formby comedy, No Limit (1935), about the TT motorcycle races on the Isle of Man, which were shot on location there. With the outbreak of World War II Banks--being an Italian citizen--would have faced internment in England as an enemy alien. He therefore deemed it necessary to flee to Canada, and from there to the neutral United States. He eventually obtained American citizenship, for which he had applied years earlier, but had forgotten to submit the necessary paperwork. Back in Hollywood he ended up at 20th Century-Fox, directing Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in Great Guns (1941), arguably one of their lesser efforts. Banks died of a heart attack during a trip through Italy in January 1950, aged just 52. Sadly, the majority of his one- and two-reelers are now considered lost films. As a result, his status as a leading comic of the silent screen may have somewhat diminished--except, perhaps, in his home town of Cesena, where a foundation was established in his honor (the "Aula Didattica Monty Banks"), offering students "practical courses on experimental aspects of video production".
Detrás de Cámaras
Great Guns
Director
The Tenderfoot
Adaptation
Leave It to Me
Director
You Made Me Love You
Director
Horse Shoes
Guionista, Historia, Productor Ejecutivo
Tonight's the Night - Pass It On
Director
We're Going to Be Rich
Director
Man of the Moment
Director
Cocktails
Director
Shipyard Sally
Director
Why Sailors Leave Home
Director
No Limit
Director
Money for Nothing
Director
The Black Hand Gang
Director
Keep Smiling
Director
Keep Your Seats, Please
Director
Heads We Go
Director
For the Love of Mike
Director
Kiss Me Sergeant
Director
18 Minutes
Director
L'amour et la veine
Director
Atta Boy
Productor Ejecutivo
Keep Smiling
Escritor
Not So Quiet on the Western Front
Director
Poor Old Bill
Director
The Church Mouse
Director
Old Soldiers Never Die
Director, Productor
Almost a Honeymoon
Director, Escritor
The Compulsory Husband
Director
Queen of Hearts
Director
Como Actor/Actriz
Sangre y arena
Antonio Lopez
A Bell for Adano
Giuseppe
Leave It to Me
Days of Thrills and Laughter
Self (archive footage)
You Made Me Love You
Taxi Driver (uncredited)
Horse Shoes
Monty Milde
The Purple Mask
Jack Elliot & Jacques, Patricia's Butler (as Mario Bianchi)
Love
Farmhand
Atlantic
Dandy
Tonight's the Night - Pass It On
Convict
Man of the Moment
Doctor
Ça, c'est du cinéma
(archive footage)
Shipyard Sally
The Garage
Man with Dog (uncredited)
So You Won't Talk
Tony
Heads We Go
Chauffeur
For the Love of Mike
Chef
Too Much Johnson
Leon Dathis
Flying Luck
The Boy
Camping Out
Don't Park Here
A Rival
Atta Boy
Monty Milde
Adam's Apple
Monty Adams
Keep Smiling
The Boy
The Church Mouse
Harry Blump, the Window Washer (uncredited)
Six A.M.
Where Is My Wife?
The Jealous Husband
The Compulsory Husband
Monty
One Night Only
Brilliantine the Bull Fighter
Adolph Brilliantino