Gordon Douglas started his career as a gagwriter and only later turned to feature films. His debut as a director was with Zenobia (1939) and Saps at sea (1940), starring Oliver Hardy. Between 1942 abd 1947 he directed a dozen films for RKO. In 1950 he moved to Warner Brothers and worked fifteen years for them. His western and dramatic films were very well received by critics and public. In this period he directed Them!. Despite the fact that he was often unsatisfied with his career, he directed some of the most brilliant films of the 1950s-60s. One of the best-known is The Detective (1968), which was a great success for Frank Sinatra too.
