Biography
Workhorse director Ford Beebe tackled literally every film genre during his 50-year career; he even supervised the live-action footage used as reference for the "Pastorale" sequence in the Disney cartoon feature
Fantasia (1940). For the most part, Beebe called the shots on westerns, detective pictures, and (especially) serials. The best of Beebe's nearly 200 chapter plays include
Flash Gordon's Trip To Mars (1938),
Buck Rogers (1939),
The Green Hornet (1940) and
Don Winslow of the Navy (1942). Hardly pausing for breath as he entered the 1950s, Ford Beebe directed all twelve installments of Monogram's
Bomba the Jungle Boy "B"-series, splicing generous stock footage from the 1930 documentary
Africa Speaks into each film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide