Biography
Otto Brower entered films as an actor in 1920, playing featured roles in major productions like
All the Brothers Were Valiant. Brower switched to directing when he signed up with Paramount studios in 1928; among his assignments was the all-star musical
Paramount on Parade (1930), which also utilized the directorial talents of
Monta Bell, Elsie Janis and
Ernst Lubitsch, among others. He spent the first few years of the 1930s helming westerns at both Paramount and the studio's next-door neighbor RKO. He co-directed the bizarre
Gene Autry serial
Phantom Empire (1935), and guided
Bela Lugosi through a rare non-horror role in
Postal Inspector. At 20th Century-Fox in the latter half of the 1930s, Brower served as second unit director for such big-budgeters as
Under Two Flags (1936) and
Suez (1938); he was also credited as cinematographer on Fox's
Stanley and Livingstone. In his last year on earth, Otto Brower found time to contribute a few bridging and atmosphere scenes to Selznick's
Duel in the Sun (1946), and to direct the above-average Fox programmer
Behind Green Lights (1946). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide