Russell Rouse

Son of a New York-based assistant director, Edwin Russell, Rouse worked his way up from laborer and assorted low level studio jobs in Hollywood to screenwriter, director and producer with collaborator Clarence Greene. Rouse reputedly worked first as an uncredited screenwriter before writing the offbeat film noir, "D.O.A" (1950) and winning an Oscar for his original story for "Pillow Talk" (1959). Rouse's films are notable for their offbeat gimmicks: in "D.O.A" a man, dying from a slow-acting poison must find his own murderer before the poison kills him; his directorial debut, "The Well" (1951) which deals with mob psychology and racism has a black child trapped down a well as the only person who can save a suspect from being hanged; and "The Thief" (1952) is a spy film made completely without dialogue. Rouse also directed the more conventional "New York Confidential" (1955), "A House is Not a Home" (1964) and "The Oscar" (1966).