Michael Gordon
Active with the Group Theater and such workers' filmmaking groups as Frontier Films during the 1930s and began in Hollywood as a dialogue director in 1940. Gordon's first films were insignificant B's, but he came into his own later in the decade with a series of taut melodramas and action pictures. "The Web" (1947) was a clever, strongly plotted film noir, "The Lady Gambles" (1949) gave Barbara Stanwyck a good emotional workout as a gambling addict, "Woman in Hiding" (1950) put Ida Lupino in edgy peril, and "I Can Get It for Your Wholesale" (1951) offered Susan Hayward a suitably aggressive showcase as a fashion entrepreneur.