---
name: "Frank Tashlin"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/frank-tashlin"
fi1m_id: "frank-tashlin"
imdb_id: "nm0850895"
tmdb_id: 47399
wikidata_id: "Q589459"
roles: ["Writer","Director"]
born: "19 February 1913"
died: "5 May 1972"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_as: "writer"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-25T06:58:06.917693+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Frank Tashlin

## Identity

Frank Tashlin

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/frank-tashlin
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** frank-tashlin
- **IMDb ID:** nm0850895
- **TMDB ID:** 47399
- **Wikidata ID:** Q589459
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Tashlin, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q589459, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0850895/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/47399

Writer and director. Born 19 February 1913 in Weehawken, New Jersey, USA. Died 5 May 1972.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer, Director
- **Born:** 19 February 1913, Weehawken, New Jersey, USA
- **Died:** 5 May 1972
- **Active:** 1948–1955
- **Also known as:**  Frank Tash , Tish Tash , F. Tashlin, Francis Fredrick von Taschlein
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 2: 1 directing, 1 writing
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1940s 68 (1), 1950s 72 (1)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Tashlin, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q589459, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0850895/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/47399

## Fi1m on Frank Tashlin

> Frank Tashlin writes for bodies as much as voices, giving comedians a brightly coloured world fit for their exaggerations. We enjoy his visual invention, but his jokes often continue after they have stopped being funny.

In *Artists and Models* (1955), Jerry Lewis’s Eugene Fullstack has a comic-strip obsession, and Frank Tashlin gives the film the bright colour and exaggeration to match. Children are being offered violent fantasies, while the adults hardly seem able to keep them in proportion. We laughed at Eugene’s fixation, then felt uneasy about what was feeding it. Tashlin makes that unease part of the comedy without stopping to deliver a lecture.

Tashlin brought an animator’s experience to live-action gag writing and screenplays in the mid-1940s. In *The Paleface* (1948), his script with Edmund Hartmann makes good use of Bob Hope’s wisecracks and Jane Russell’s drollness. He knows how to write for a particular performer, though here the supply of fresh jokes cannot quite keep up. The comedy returns to the same pleasures until they begin to wear thin. That is a limitation worth remembering when praising his invention.

He began directing features in 1952, carrying animation’s rapid pacing, unusual camera angles and elastic physical comedy into live action. The interest in popular culture extends from the comic books of *Artists and Models* to the rock ’n’ roll and celebrity of *The Girl Can’t Help It* (1956). *Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?* (1957) turns to advertising and fame. These subjects suit a writer whose exaggerations can be funny and uncomfortable in the same scene.

In *Artists and Models*, Daniel L. Fapp’s bright colour makes the physical exaggeration feel at home, and the pictures sometimes outdo the jokes. Warren Low’s editing keeps the bustle moving, but the screenplay Tashlin shares with Hal Kanter and Herbert Baker allows routines to carry on after their comic value has run out. The spy complications are less rewarding than the comic-strip fixation, and 110 minutes leaves plenty of room for fatigue. Still, the film gives Lewis’s frantic energy a purpose, rather than merely indulging it. Start there, provided broad physical comedy is your sort of evening and you can forgive a film for not knowing when to stop.

## Biography

Frank Tashlin (born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein) was an American animator, screenwriter and film director. He began his career in animation, working on Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for Warner Bros. in the 1930s and 1940s.

Tashlin later wrote screenplays for live-action comedies, including *The Paleface* (1948). He made his directorial debut with *The First Time* (1952) and went on to direct a series of popular films, among them *Artists and Models* (1955), *The Girl Can't Help It* (1956), *Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?* (1957), *Rock-a-Bye Baby* (1958) and *Cinderfella* (1960). He died in 1972.

*Sources: imdb.com, catalog.afi.com, en.wikipedia.org, britannica.com.*

## On Fi1m (2)

### Directed (1)

- *Artists and Models* (1955), Fi1m 72, Director, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/artists-and-models.md)

### Wrote (1) — the average rests on these

- *The Paleface* (1948), Fi1m 68, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/the-paleface.md)

## Complete filmography (105)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Looney Tunes Super Stars Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl* (2010), Director
- *Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl* (2010), Director
- *The Possum That Didn't* (1972), Book
- *The Shakiest Gun in the West* (1968), Original Film Writer
- *The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell* (1968), Director, Writer
- *The Bear That Wasn't* (1967), Producer, Story, Book
- *Caprice* (1967), Screenplay, Director
- *The Glass Bottom Boat* (1966), Director
- *The Alphabet Murders* (1965), Director
- *The Disorderly Orderly* (1964), Screenplay, Director
- *Who's Minding the Store?* (1963), Director, Screenplay
- *The Man from the Diners' Club* (1963), Director
- *It's Only Money* (1962), Director
- *Snow White and the Three Stooges* (1961), Writer
- *Bachelor Flat* (1961), Director, Screenplay
- *Cinderfella* (1960), Writer, Director
- *Say One for Me* (1959), Producer, Director
- *The Geisha Boy* (1958), Director, Screenplay, Screenstory
- *Rock-a-Bye Baby* (1958), Director, Story, Screenplay
- *Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?* (1957), Screenplay, Director, Producer, Screenstory
- *The Girl Can't Help It* (1956), Screenplay, Director, Producer
- *Hollywood or Bust* (1956), Director
- *The Scarlet Hour* (1956), Screenplay, Story
- *The Lieutenant Wore Skirts* (1956), Director, Executive Producer, Screenplay
- *Artists and Models* (1955), Director, Screenplay — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/artists-and-models.md)
- *Susan Slept Here* (1954), Director
- *Marry Me Again* (1953), Director, Screenplay
- *General Electric Theater* (1953), series, Director
- *Natural Vision 3-Dimension* (1952), Producer
- *Son of Paleface* (1952), Director, Writer
- *The First Time* (1952), Director, Screenplay
- *The Lemon Drop Kid* (1951), Screenplay
- *The Fuller Brush Girl* (1950), Writer
- *Kill the Umpire* (1950), Writer
- *The Good Humor Man* (1950), Screenplay
- *A Woman of Distinction* (1950), Additional Dialogue
- *Miss Grant Takes Richmond* (1949), Screenplay
- *Love Happy* (1949), Screenplay
- *Red, Hot and Blue* (1949), Story
- *The Paleface* (1948), Screenplay — Fi1m 68, [page](https://film.one/film/the-paleface.md)
- *One Touch of Venus* (1948), Screenplay
- *The Fuller Brush Man* (1948), Screenplay
- *Variety Girl* (1947), Screenplay
- *The Way of Peace* (1947), Director, Writer
- *The Lady Said No* (1946), Story, Director
- *Hare Remover* (1946), Director
- *Nasty Quacks* (1945), Director
- *A Tale of Two Mice* (1945), Director
- *Behind the Meat-Ball* (1945), Director
- *Delightfully Dangerous* (1945), Story
- *The Unruly Hare* (1945), Director
- *The Stupid Cupid* (1944), Director
- *Booby Hatched* (1944), Director
- *Plane Daffy* (1944), Director
- *Censored* (1944), Director
- *Brother Brat* (1944), Director
- *The Chow Hound* (1944), Director
- *Swooner Crooner* (1944), Director
- *Donald Duck and the Gorilla* (1944), Story
- *I Got Plenty of Mutton* (1944), Director
- *Puss n' Booty* (1943), Director
- *The Home Front* (1943), Director
- *A Corny Concerto* (1943), Story
- *The Gold Brick* (1943), Director
- *Scrap Happy Daffy* (1943), Director
- *Porky Pig's Feat* (1943), Director
- *Tito's Guitar* (1942), Director, Producer
- *The Dumbconscious Mind* (1942), Director
- *The Bulldog and the Baby* (1942), Director
- *The Wild and Woozy West* (1942), Supervising Technical Director
- *A Hollywood Detour* (1942), Story, Director
- *The Tangled Angler* (1941), Director
- *The Fox and the Grapes* (1941), Director
- *Timber* (1941), Director, Story
- *Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip* (1940), Story
- *Mr. Duck Steps Out* (1940), Story
- *You're an Education* (1938), Director
- *Little Pancho Vanilla* (1938), Director
- *Brave Little Tailor* (1938), Story
- *Cracked Ice* (1938), Director
- *Wholly Smoke* (1938), Director
- *The Major Lied 'Til Dawn* (1938), Director
- *Porky's Spring Planting* (1938), Director
- *Have You Got Any Castles* (1938), Director
- *Porky the Fireman* (1938), Director
- *Now That Summer Is Gone* (1938), Director
- *Porky at the Crocadero* (1938), Director
- *The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos* (1937), Director
- *Porky's Double Trouble* (1937), Director
- *The Case of the Stuttering Pig* (1937), Director
- *Speaking of the Weather* (1937), Director
- *Porky's Railroad* (1937), Director
- *Porky's Building* (1937), Director
- *Porky's Romance* (1937), Director
- *Porky's Road Race* (1937), Director
- *Porky in the North Woods* (1936), Director
- *Little Beau Porky* (1936), Director
- *Porky's Poultry Plant* (1936), Director
- *The Fixer Uppers* (1935), Writer
- *Tit for Tat* (1935), Writer
- *Pettin' in the Park* (1934), Animation
- *Hook and Ladder Hokum* (1933), Director
- *Pencil Mania* (1932), Animation
- *Piano Tooners* (1932), Animation
- *Looney Tunes* (1929), series, Director, Writer

## Gallery

- ![Theatre advertisement for the film, The Girl Can't Help, 19 December, 1956.](https://film.one/media/person/3865833/gallery-53b567588825.jpg) Theatre advertisement for the film, The Girl Can't Help, 19 December, 1956. — 20th Century-Fox, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/The_Girl_Can%27t_Help_It_ad_-_19_December_1956.jpg/1280px-The_Girl_Can%27t_Help_It_ad_-_19_December_1956.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Frank Tashlin](https://film.one/media/person/3865833/gallery-ba748bd4f658.jpg) Frank Tashlin — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Other awards — 1 won

- Prix Bernard Versele Family League 1985: Prix Bernard Versele Family League (won)

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/frank-tashlin