Jack Hill

For other uses, see Jack Hill (disambiguation).

Jack Hill
Hill in 1968.
Born (1933-01-28) January 28, 1933
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other nameBrian Stuart
EducationUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Occupations
  • Film director
  • screenwriter
  • producer
  • cinematographer
  • editor
Years active1960–1982

Jack Hill (born January 28, 1933) is an American filmmaker, known for his work in the exploitation genre. He was an early associate of Francis Ford Coppola and Roger Corman, and worked on many films distributed by American International Pictures (AIP) during the 1960s and 1970s.

Hill's directorial works include Spider Baby (1967), Pit Stop (1969), The Big Doll House (1971), Coffy (1973), Foxy Brown (1974), and Switchblade Sisters (1975).[1] He is also credited with helping cultivate the careers of actors Pam Grier, Sid Haig, and Ellen Burstyn. Quentin Tarantino described him as “the Howard Hawks of exploitation filmmaking”.[2]

Early life and education

Hill was born January 28, 1933, in Los Angeles, California.[3][4] His mother, Mildred (née Pannill, b. February 1, 1907; death date n.a.),[5] was a music teacher.[6] His father, Roland E. Hill (February 5, 1895 – November 10, 1986),[7] worked as a set designer and art director for First National Pictures and Warner Bros.[6] on films including The Jazz Singer, Captain Blood, Action in the North Atlantic, and Captain Horatio Hornblower, and as well was an architect who designed the centerpiece Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland in California.[8]

Hill attended UCLA, which he attended, he said, for "a couple of years" before leaving to get married and then returning to earn a degree in music.[9] While a student, he played in a symphony orchestra that performed for the soundtracks of Doctor Zhivago and The Brothers Karamazov, and he arranged music for burlesque performers; through this he met comedian Lenny Bruce, whose daughter Kitty Bruce would act in Hill's 1975 film Switchblade Sisters.[9] He went on to postgraduate studies at UCLA Film School, where instructor and former movie director Dorothy Arzner encouraged Hill and his classmate and friend Francis Ford Coppola. Hill worked as a cameraman, a sound recorder (including on Coppola's student short Ayamonn the Terrible), and an editor on student films.[9] His short The Host starred Sid Haig, an acting student at the Pasadena Playhouse under teacher Arzner, who introduced them;[9] this marked the first of several films together.

Career

With Francis Ford Coppola

Hill worked with Coppola and Roger Corman on several of the former's early movies at American International Pictures (AIP).[10] He was the director of photography on Battle Beyond the Sun (1962), a re-edit of the Soviet sci-fi film Nebo Zovyot (1959), which featured additional scenes directed by Coppola and shot by Hill. He was the second unit director on Coppola's full directorial debut Dementia 13 (1963). He also worked on Coppola's sexploitation films Tonight for Sure (as director of photography) and The Bellboy and the Playgirls (as editor).

Hill was one of several uncredited directors (including Coppola) who worked on Corman's infamous The Terror (1963), starring Boris Karloff and a young Jack Nicholson.[10]

With Roger Corman

Hill was hired by Corman to direct Blood Bath (1966), a retooling of a Yugoslavian-produced spy thriller as a horror B-movie about a shapeshifting vampire. The troubled production meant Hill was eventually replaced by Stephanie Rothman, the two were jointly credited on the final film.[11]

Hill also added 20 minutes to Corman's Wasp Woman (1959) for its eventual television syndication release, shooting without access to any original cast-member.[10]

Independent productions

In 1967, Hill directed Spider Baby, a horror-comedy about a deranged family featuring Sid Haig in a starring role. The film was initially released to relative obscurity,[12] but eventually achieved cult status.[13][14]

The following year, he was hired by Mexican producers Luis Enrique Vergara and Juan Ibáñez to co-direct four films featuring Boris Karloff. Hill only directed Karloff's scenes in Los Angeles, which were shot separately from the rest of the cast in Mexico.[15]

In 1969, he directed Pit Stop, a drama about Figure 8 racing featuring Ellen Burstyn in an early starring role.[16]

With Pam Grier

Hill is credited with discovering Pam Grier while the actress was working as a switchboard operator at AIP.[17] He directed her in two women-in-prison films produced by Corman's newly-formed New World Pictures, The Big Doll House (1971) and The Big Bird Cage (1972), quickly making her a star of the burgeoning blaxploitation genre.

He then directed her in two similar films at AIP, Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974), both of which were considerable commercial successes and firmly established Grier's stardom.

Later works

The same year, Hill directed the sex comedy The Swinging Cheerleaders (1974). In 1975, Hill directed Switchblade Sisters, about an all-girl teen gang.

Hill co-wrote the disaster film City on Fire (1979) and Death Ship (1980) for director Alvin Rakoff.

In 1982, Hill directed the sword-and-sorcery film Sorceress for Corman's New World. Various issues with the production (including filming hastily relocating to Mexico and Hill's inability to cast Sid Haig) and Corman's re-cutting of the film without his input, led Hill to remove his name from the final film, using the alias 'Brian Stuart'.

Legacy

Quentin Tarantino's company Rolling Thunder Pictures re-released Switchblade Sisters theatrically in 1996.[10] In the introduction to the film's DVD release, Tarantino calls Hill " “the Howard Hawks of exploitation filmmaking”.[18]

Hill's discoveries include Pam Grier, who starred in four of his films from The Big Doll House through Foxy Brown; Sid Haig, who acts in most of Hill's films, beginning with Spider Baby; and Ellen Burstyn, who starred in Pit Stop.

His student film The Host was a partial influence on former classmate Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now.[3][10] Hill recalled in a 2000s interview that when he made The Host,

I had been reading James Frazer ... and I had enjoyed his best-known book, The Golden Bough; in fact, my writing teacher said of 'The Host', “This is the story that Frazer forgot to tell.” It was influenced by his writing and if you see Apocalypse Now and look at the very last act of the movie, the camera explores Kurtz’s hideaway and you see a stack of books on his shelf. Very prominently featured there is The Golden Bough. When I saw the movie, my jaw dropped because Francis knew very well that my story was adapted from that. ... The third act [of Apocalypse Now] didn’t work but that was mine—that was my story [laughs]. ... John Milius wrote the script and Francis thought it was great but he did not like the ending. In fact, he didn’t come up with the right ending until he was over in the Philippines shooting it. So he knew my student film very well and I got this straight from Steve Burum, who ... was my cameraman on The Host and he was the second unit cameraman on Apocalypse Now and he said, 'We were all laughing and saying that we were doing Jack Hill’s student film.'[19]

Film scholar Wheeler Winston Dixon believed that for Hill and fellow low-budget auteur Monte Hellman, film was primarily a means of personal expression while remaining a "deeply financially dependent medium". Dixon wrote that Hill and Hellman's movies often were sufficiently successful while remaining true to their personal vision.[17]

Archive

The moving image collection of Jack Hill is held at the Academy Film Archive.[20] The Academy Film Archive preserved Spider Baby in 2013.[21]

Filmography

Year Title Functioned as Notes
Dir. Wri. Prod. Edit. DoP.
1959 The Wasp Woman Yes No Yes No No Uncredited director of 20-minute introduction for TV syndication, shot in 1962[22]
1961 The Host Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes UCLA student film[23]
1963 The Terror Yes Yes No No No Uncredited director of additional scenes
1966 Mondo Keyhole Yes Yes No Yes Yes Co-directed with John Lamb
1966 Blood Bath Yes Yes Yes No No Co-directed and written with Stephanie Rothman
1967 Spider Baby Yes Yes No Yes No
1968 House of Evil Yes Yes No No No Co-directed with Luis Enrique Vergara
Fear Chamber Yes Yes No No No Co-directed with Juan Ibáñez
1969 Pit Stop Yes Yes No Yes No
1970 Ich, ein Groupie Yes Yes No No No Co-directed with Erwin C. Dietrich
1971 The Snake People Yes Yes No No No Co-directed with Juan Ibáñez
The Incredible Invasion Yes No No No No Co-directed with Luis Enrique Vergara
The Big Doll House Yes No No No No
1972 The Big Bird Cage Yes Yes No No No
1973 Coffy Yes Yes No No No
1974 Foxy Brown Yes No No No No
The Swinging Cheerleaders Yes Yes No No No
1975 Switchblade Sisters Yes Yes No No No
1982 Sorceress Yes Yes Yes No No Credited as 'Brian Stuart'

Writer only

Year Title Director
1972 The Woman Hunt Eddie Romero
1978 The Bees Alfredo Zacarías
1979 City on Fire Alvin Rakoff
1980 Death Ship

Other production credits

Year Title Director Notes
1962 Tonight for Sure Francis Ford Coppola
Jerry Schafer 		Director of photography
Battle Beyond the Sun Mikhail Karyukov
Aleksandr Kozyr
Francis Ford Coppola 		Director of photography: US sequences
1963 The Bellboy and the Playgirls Francis Ford Coppola
Fritz Umgelter 		Editor
Dementia 13 Francis Ford Coppola 2nd unit director
1965 The Raw Ones John Lamb Editor & director of photography

References

  1. ^ Renshaw, Jerry (December 29, 1997). "Foxy Brown: Directed by Jack Hill". (review) Filmvault.com (The Austin Chronicle). Archived from the original on March 25, 2012. Retrieved 2012-05-18.
  2. ^ Waddell, Calum (November 2, 2014). "Jack Hill: king of cult carnage". dazeddigital.com. Retrieved November 29, 2025.
  3. ^ a b "Jack Hill". Film Society of Lincoln Center. n.d. Archived from the original on November 1, 2014. Retrieved November 1, 2014.
  4. ^ Knight, Gladys L. (2010). Female Action Heroes: A Guide to Women in Comics, Video Games, Film, and Television. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood Press. p. 129. ISBN 9780313376122.
  5. ^ Stone, Frank Bush, compiler. "Mildred Pannill". The Family History of James Ball, Senior. (Manuscript; Summit, NJ: Frank Bush Stone, June 2, 1995) via New England Ball Project. Archived from the original on November 1, 2014. Retrieved November 1, 2014.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ a b Jack Hill interview, "Confessions of a B-Movie King". LowCut Magazine. n.d. Archived from the original on September 4, 2004. Retrieved 2012-05-18. My father Roland Hill went to work as a set designer for First National Studios [sic] around 1925 and stayed on when it became Warner Bros. He later became an art director there, specializing in period architecture and ships. ...My mother is now 94 years old and has about 50 students on violin and piano.
  7. ^ Stone (1995), "Roland Everett Hill". Retrieved November 1, 2014. Archived from the original on November 1, 2014.
  8. ^ "Historic-Cultural Monument Application for the Roland E. Hill House" (PDF). Los Angeles Department of City Planning. January 24, 2008. p. 2. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 7, 2012. Retrieved November 1, 2014. The proposed Roland E. Hill House historic monument was designed by its original owner, architect Roland E. Hill ... [who] worked as a set designer and art director for the film industry.... Hill also designed attractions for Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, designing the iconic Sleeping Beauty Castle, the centerpiece of the theme park.
  9. ^ a b c d Waddell, Calum (2009). Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, Film by Film. McFarland & Company. p. 8. ISBN 978-0786436095.
  10. ^ a b c d e Hartl, John (June 20, 1996). "Not Yet Over The Hill – Director of Campy 'Sisters' in Comeback". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on November 1, 2014. Retrieved November 1, 2014.
  11. ^ "Blood Bath". Arrow Films. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
  12. ^ "Spider Baby". TVGuide.com. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
  13. ^ "Videophiled Cult: 'Spider Baby' and the B-movie delights of Jack Hill". Cinephiled. 5 July 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
  14. ^ The Real Indies: A Close Look at Orphan Films|Oscars.org (title: "Spider Baby")
  15. ^ Stephen Jacobs, Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster, Tomahawk Press 2011 p 503-504
  16. ^ "Pit Stop (1969)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  17. ^ a b Dixon, Wheeler Winston (2007). Film Talk: Directors at Work. Rutgers University Press. p. xi, Introduction. ISBN 978-0-8135-4077-1.
  18. ^ Waddell, p. 2
  19. ^ Waddell, pp. 9–10
  20. ^ "Jack Hill Collection". Academy Film Archive.
  21. ^ "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.
  22. ^ Waddell, p.11
  23. ^ Waddell, p. 9, which notes "The Host" received a public release in 2000 as an extra on the Switchblade Sisters DVD, with new titles, sound recording and music. Waddell calls "The Host" a 1961 film on page 9, but then asks, "Why was 'The Host' not finished back in 1960?" on page 10.
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