Edward F. Cline

Edward Francis Cline, usually credited as Edward F. Cline or Eddie Cline (November 4, 1891 – May 22, 1961), was an American screenwriter, actor, writer and director best known for his work with comedians W.C. Fields, Buster Keaton, and Olsen and Johnson. He was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin and died in Hollywood, California.

Career Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline in a 1920 advertisementCline began working for Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios in 1914 and supported Charlie Chaplin in some of the shorts he made at the studio. At one time he claimed credit for having come up with the idea for the Sennett Bathing Beauties. When Buster Keaton began making his own shorts, after having worked with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle for years, he hired Cline as his co-director. In Keaton's short films Cline and Keaton himself were the only two regular gag men. For Keaton's 1921 short Hard Luck, Cline is credited with originating Keaton's personal favorite gag from his films. At the end of the film, Keaton attempts to dive into a swimming pool but overshoots it. Years later, he emerges from the hole which his fall created, accompanied by a Chinese wife and two small Chinese-American children. Besides working on most of Keaton's early shorts, Cline co-directed Keaton's first feature, Three Ages (1923).

At RKO Radio Pictures, Cline directed the Wheeler and Woolsey comedies off and on between 1930 and 1937, as well as features starring comedians ZaSu Pitts or Joe Penner. Independent producer Sol Lesser also employed him frequently for action and musical fare, including Lesser's George O'Brien westerns and Bobby Breen features.

W. C. Fields and Universal During the troubled filming of W. C. Fields's You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939), largely resulting from Fields's clashes with director George Marshall, Fields managed to put Cline in the director's chair. Co-star Constance Moore remembered "Before Mr. Fields did the famous ping-pong scene he wanted Mr. Cline. He said 'I've worked with Cline. He knows my work.' He first put out his feelers. Then he started asking for Cline. Then he demanded him." Cline's work on the film lasted 10 days, during which he shot the party scene containing the ping-pong game. Cline was then placed in charge of all of Universal's W. C. Fields comedies.

As director of My Little Chickadee (1940), Cline's desire that the actors follow the script caused some difficulties with Fields until Cline finally submitted to Fields's tendency to ad-lib. Cline objected to the ad-libbing because it caused the crew to laugh, and Cline's own laughter necessitated a quick cut at the end of one of Fields's barroom scenes. Cline and Fields then made The Bank Dick (1940). Recalling their work together, Cline said that Fields chose him to direct his films because he was the only person in Hollywood who knew "less about making movies" than Fields himself.

Universal Pictures, which had hired Cline to direct Fields, released Fields in 1941 but retained Cline, who went on to direct many of the studio's musical comedies, starring The Andrews Sisters, Gloria Jean, The Ritz Brothers, and Olsen and Johnson, among others.

In 1944, Cline directed Olsen and Johnson in Laffing Room Only, a vaudeville revue at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. The new regime did away with Universal's lower-budgeted comedies, musicals, mysteries, westerns, and serials, and dozens of employees were dismissed, including Cline.

He moved over to Monogram Pictures, directing and/or writing the studio's Jiggs and Maggie film series until 1950, when starring player Joe Yule died. Cline's last screen credit was Jiggs and Maggie Out West (1950).

In 1947, Cline directed a second Broadway production, Heads or Tails at the Cort Theatre.

Comic bandleader Spike Jones was famous for using wild visual gags in his band's performances, and his television show required even more material. Jones found an ideal resource in Eddie Cline, whose knack for comedy (and long memory for old sight gags) made him a valuable assistant. Cline remained in Jones's employ well into the 1950s.

Personal life In 1913, Cline became engaged to Minnie Elizabeth Matheis, aged 18, who previously had been engaged three times in three months. They married on March 6, 1916. In 1918, they had a daughter, named Elizabeth Normand; Minnie contracted an infection in childbirth and died four days later.

In 1919, Cline married Beatrice Altman. They had no children.

Cline died of cirrhosis in 1961. Year Title Notes 1914 Short film; actor only 1916 His Bread and Butter Short film 1923 Three Ages Co-director (with Buster Keaton) 1923 1924 When a Man's a Man 1924 Captain January 1924 Little Robinson Crusoe 1924 Along Came Ruth 1925 1925 Old Clothes 1926 Flirty Four-Flushers 1927 Let It Rain 1927 Soft Cushions 1929 1930 Leathernecking 1930 Hook, Line and Sinker 1931 Cracked Nuts 1932 Million Dollar Legs 1934 Peck's Bad Boy 1934 1935 When a Man's a Man 1935 It's a Great Life 1937 Forty Naughty Girls 1939 You Can't Cheat an Honest Man 1940 My Little Chickadee 1940 1941 Never Give a Sucker an Even Break 1942 What's Cookin'? 1942 Give Out, Sisters 1942 Behind the Eight Ball 1943 Crazy House 1944 Hat Check Honey 1944 Ghost Catchers 1945 Penthouse Rhythm 1946 Bringing up Father 1947 Jiggs and Maggie in Society Also screenwriter 1947 Jiggs and Maggie in Court Also screenwriter 1949 Jiggs and Maggie in Jackpot Jitters Screenwriter only 1950 Jiggs and Maggie Out West Co-director (with William Beaudine) and screenwriter

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