Biography
Born in Marianna, AR, and educated at the University of the South, Jean Yarbrough started out in movies in 1922 as a prop man working for producer
Hal Roach. He moved up to assistant director in the mid-'20s, mostly handling second-unit material, on such silent comedies as
Dizzy Daddies (co-written by
Stan Laurel, featuring
James Finlayson) and
Galloping Ghosts (co-written by Laurel, featuring
Oliver Hardy and Finlayson). He continued as an assistant director into the talkie era, with comedies such as Alaska Love starring
Andy Clyde, before he moved up to the director's chair in 1936 with Dog Blight, a
Jack Norton comedy short co-starring
Barbara Pepper. Yarbrough was an efficient filmmaker who could move his actors around quickly and effectively, skills that he honed on fast-moving shorts such as A Buckaroo Broadcast starring comedic character man
Dick Elliott and cowboy singer/songwriter/actor Ray Whitley. He made the jump to B-features in 1938 with
Rebellious Daughters, a comedy-thriller co-starring
Marjorie Reynolds. He specialized in low-budget films, but managed to make his mark in this field with movies such as the
Bela Lugosi vehicle
The Devil Bat (1940), which has become highly regarded for its camp value as well as some decent chills. He managed to mix these same elements even more effectively in
King of the Zombies (1941), an unusual comedy-thriller in which the black comic-relief character, a valet played by
Mantan Moreland, is the only character who knows what is going on and keeps a step ahead of the villain. During the early '40s, Yarbrough moved to Universal as a director (and sometime producer/director) and was responsible for making a string of enjoyable B-comedy-musicals, including
South of Dixie,
So's Your Uncle, and Good Morning, Judge, which were immensely popular and profitable during the war years. In 1944, Yarbrough moved to the top rung of Universal's comedy ladder when he was assigned to the Abbott & Costello vehicles
In Society (1944),
Here Come the Co-Eds, and
The Naughty Nineties (both 1945) which, among them, offered classic film accounts of the renowned comedy sketches "Floogle Street" (renamed "Bagle Street" here), "Jonah and the Whale," and "Who's on First." During this same period, he proved himself no less adept at straight horror fare with his work on
House of Horrors,
The Brute Man (both starring
Rondo Hatton as a demented backbreaker), and
The Creeper. During the late '40s, Yarbrough began moving between the major studios such as 20th Century Fox, where he did breezy B-titles like
The Challenge, a minor
Bulldog Drummond thriller, and B-studios such as Monogram, where he did one of the most unusual of the
Bowery Boys movies,
Angels in Disguise, which added the veneer of film noir and the mood of a serious detective thriller to the comic antics normally associated with those films. He continued doing comedies into the early '50s, directing such lesser fare as Abbott & Costello Go to Mars and then he was pegged to work as the director of The Abbott & Costello Show (one episode of which included an in-joke reference to Yarbrough's early-'40s feature film
South of Dixie). During the late '50s he occasionally veered into other genres, such as serious historical drama with
The Women of Pitcairn Island, and he moved into frequent television work as well, including series such as
Bonanza. Yarbrough's last feature film was Hillbillies in a Haunted House (1967) and, apart from a couple of shared directorial efforts, he made his final bow as a director two years later with
The Over-the-Hill Gang, a made-for-TV movie starring veteran actors
Walter Brennan,
Pat O'Brien,
Chill Wills,
Edgar Buchanan, and
Andy Devine. He passed away in 1975, leaving behind a lively and engaging body of work that usually had a special appeal among younger viewers. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide