William Witney
(May 15, 1915 – March 17, 2002)
William Witney was born 108 years ago. He was a true innovator in how action makes its way to the movie screen. He was working at Republic Pictures, and while on location for the 1937 serial The Painted Stallion, the director, Ray Taylor, was too drunk to work. Witney took over at just 21.
Watching Busby Berkeley put together one of his famous dance numbers, Witney realized that fight sequences could be choreographed and shot the same way. He under-cranked the camera to speed up the action — merely fast became death-defying. He experimented with the best place to put the camera car when tracking a chase — along the side of the car or stagecoach vs. shooting head-on, with horses charging straight at the camera.
After serving in a Marine combat camera unit in World War II, Witney returned to Republic for his last serial, The Crimson Ghost (1946), then took over the Roy Rogers movies. Dialing up the action, putting less emphasis on the music and bringing in a decidedly darker, more violent tone, Witney breathed new life into Roy’s final films.
William Witney was a genius, and his contribution the cinema has been pathetically under-appreciated.
Photo up top: William Witney and Cheryl Rogers on the set of Trail Of Robin Hood (1950). Photo courtesy of Jay Dee Witney.
50 Westerns From The 50s. 
Toby, I’ve been a fan of William Witney’s work for a long time, even before I knew who he was or what a director did. It was through television. Witney directed a lot of episodic tv from the 1950’s to the 1970’s. Looking back some of the better episodes of those shows were directed by him. BONANZA, SKY KING, ZORRO, THE VIRGINIAN, BRANDED, THE WILD, WILD WEST, DANIEL BOONE, LAREDO, TALES OF WELLS FARGO, LARAMIE, THE HIGH CHAPARRAL, TARZAN, KODIAK, and others.
I’ve never viewed KODIAK, which starred Clint Walker and was filmed on location in Oregon in 1974. The show was canceled and only 5 episodes were aired in the USA. All 13 episodes that were filmed were shown in the UK. IMDb lists 3 episodes directed by Witney, although I think that he might have directed more.
William Witney is a master movie and tv action director bar none.