Monta Bell

• Name — Monta Bell • Born — 5 February 1891 • Birthplace — Washington D.C., U.S. • Died — 4 February 1958 • Place of death — Motion Picture Country House and Hospital, U.S. • Birth Name — Louis Monta Bell • Spouse — Betty Lawford (1931-1937) • Years Active — 1925 - 1942

Monta Bell was born in Washington, D.C. He enrolled in District of Columbia Public Schools graduating from Eastern High School. He first appeared in theatrical venues with Washington D.C. stock companies, including organizing the original Garrick Players and producing at the Garrick Theater in Washington. He then took up journalism and publishing in New York, after he had been a reporter and editor at The Washington Herald. While in New York, filmmaker Charlie Chaplin enlisted the 32-year-old Bell to ghost-write his 1922 memoir My Trip Abroad. Bell, along a number of other apprentices including Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast and Mal St. Clair, became film editors and assistant directors. Here Bell was “exposed to Chaplin’s meticulous style of comedy construction and a complete immersion in all aspects of filmmaking.” In 1924, Paramount manager Walter Wanger engaged a number of “promising young men without significant directing experience”, among them Bell, to direct pictures at their Astoria Studios, Queens, New York. One of Bell’s early achievements as director is The King on Main Street (1925). Bell developed into a major cinematic stylist, directing sophisticated film essays on “contemporary sexual mores.” Bell is notable for directing the 1926 Torrent, Greta Garbo's first American film. In 1928, with the advent of sound films, Bell was transferred Paramount Pictures’ east coast operations, serving as head of production at the Astoria Studios. There Bell directed a number of high comedies and low melodramas and later moved to producing films, Like his mentor Charles Chaplin, Bell championed the superiority of silent cinema as an art form and a method of conveying a story. Monta directed 20 films from 1924 to 1945. In addition, he produced 20 films and wrote 9 screenplays.

Monta Bell and Lucille Marie Bell were married in Annapolis, Maryland, on May 3, 1910. She sued for divorce in December 1931. They had a daughter. He married actress Betty Lawford in New York City on December 23, 1931. They were divorced in 1937 in Mexico. He died on February 4, 1958, at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital, one day before his 67th birthday. He is interred in Section 8 Garden of Legends in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, California.

• Year — Title — Director — Writer — Producer • 1924 — Broadway After Dark • The Snob • 1925 — Lady of the Night • Pretty Ladies • The King on Main Street — Adaptation • Lights of Old Broadway • 1926 — Torrent — Uncredited • The Boy Friend • Upstage • 1927 — After Midnight — Story • Man, Woman and Sin — Story • 1929 — The Letter • Gentlemen of the Press • Applause • The Bellamy Trial • The Battle of Paris • 1930 — Behind the Make-Up • Young Man of Manhattan • The Big Pond • Laughter • East Is West — Co-producer • 1932 — Downstairs • 1933 — The Worst Woman in Paris? • 1934 — Men in White • Student Tour • 1941 — West Point of the Air • Aloma of the South Seas • Birth of the Blues • 1945 — China's Little Devils Uncredited actor • The Adventurer (1917, Short) - Man • The Pilgrim (1923) - Policeman