Victor Heerman

Born in Great Britain, Victor Heerman was raised in the United States. A onetime child actor, Heerman entered films as a 2-reel comedy director in the early teens. His first feature, directed in collaboration with Marshal Neilan, was 1920's Don't Ever Marry. Outside of Rupert of Hentzau (1923) and Rubber Heels (1926), few of his silent films were memorable, but all posted tidy profits. Heerman made his talking-picture bow as one of the stable of directors for the 1930 musical revue Paramount on Parade. While at Paramount's Astoria, Long Island studios, Heerman piloted his best-remembered film, the Marx Brothers' Animal Crackers (1930). Warned that the Marxes were unpredictable and unreliable, Heerman made certain that he'd exercise a modicum of control over his set by constructing four individual jail cells and locking up Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo between takes. Perhaps significantly, Animal Crackers was Heerman's next-to-last directorial effort. A prolific screenwriter, Heerman generally worked in collaboration with his wife Sarah Y. Mason, sharing an Oscar with Mason for 1933's Little Women. Though Victor Heerman was for all intents and purposes retired by the early 1940s, he continued to receive screen credit for remakes of his earlier films.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide