William K. Howard

William K. Howard was born in St. Marys, Ohio, and began his career in the film industry as an actor and assistant director in the early 1920s. He directed his first feature, Get Your Man, in 1921, and quickly established a reputation for efficient, stylish filmmaking. His early work included westerns and action films, such as The Thundering Herd (1925), which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Assistant Director.¹

Howard's silent-era output was prolific, but he transitioned smoothly to sound films, demonstrating a keen visual sense and a talent for handling dialogue. He worked for major studios including Fox, Paramount, and MGM, often on assignment, which limited his artistic control but honed his versatility.²

Howard's most significant contribution to cinema is The Power and the Glory (1933), a drama about a railroad tycoon told through a series of flashbacks that reveal the story from multiple perspectives. The film's nonlinear structure, written by Preston Sturges, was groundbreaking and is often cited as an influence on Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941).³

Despite its critical recognition, the film was not a major commercial success, and Howard continued to work in a variety of genres, including mysteries, comedies, and musicals. His later films, such as Johnny Come Lately (1943) with James Cagney, showed a continued interest in character-driven stories.⁴

By the 1940s, Howard's career began to decline, and he directed fewer features. He worked in television in its early days, directing episodes of anthology series. His last feature film was Rendezvous 24 (1946), a spy thriller. Howard's later years were marked by health problems, and he died in 1954 at the age of 54.⁵

Although not as well remembered as some of his contemporaries, Howard's work has been reassessed by film historians, particularly for its visual flair and narrative experimentation. His films are occasionally screened at retrospectives, and The Power and the Glory is available on DVD and streaming.

Howard was known for his meticulous preparation and his ability to work quickly, often completing films ahead of schedule. He was also an early advocate for the use of deep focus cinematography, which he employed in several films before it became a hallmark of Orson Welles's style.

One of his more obscure films, The Trial of Vivienne Ware (1932), is notable for its innovative use of split-screen and overlapping dialogue. Howard also directed the first film adaptation of The Cat and the Canary (1927), a silent horror-comedy that influenced later haunted-house films.⁶

Nonlinear narrative

A storytelling technique that presents events out of chronological order, often to create suspense or reveal character.

Deep focus

A cinematographic technique that keeps objects in the foreground, middle ground, and background all in sharp focus.

Anthology series

A television or radio series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each episode.