---
name: "Jack Conway"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/jack-conway"
roles: ["Director"]
born: "16 July 1887"
died: "11 October 1952"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 3
average_fi1m_score: 73
average_as: "director"
average_over: 3
updated: "2026-09-19T23:17:53.690818+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."
---

# Jack Conway

Director. Born 16 July 1887 in Graceville, Minnesota, USA. Died 11 October 1952.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 16 July 1887, Graceville, Minnesota, USA
- **Died:** 11 October 1952
- **Active:** 1934–1936
- **Also known as:** Hugh Ryan Conroy, John Conway
- **Frequently works with:** [David O. Selznick](https://film.one/person/david-o-selznick.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 73, as director, over 3 titles
- **Score spread:** 0 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Genres:** Romance 2, Adventure 1, Comedy 1, Drama 1, History 1, Western 1
- **Screen time:** 6 hours of reviewed films
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Conway_(filmmaker), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q141673, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0176699/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/82413

## Fi1m on Jack Conway

> Jack Conway was the MGM contract director in the fullest sense: more than twenty years of star vehicles delivered on schedule, with no style you could pick out of a line-up. What he did have was tempo, and the sense not to get in a star's way.

Watch Wallace Beery in *Viva Villa* (1934): grinning, roaring, filling the frame while the picture bangs along around him. That is what a Jack Conway film looks like when it is working. The star is at the centre, the machinery is out of sight, and the thing moves. We enjoyed most of its 115 minutes, and then, somewhere in the second half, we noticed how cheerfully it was killing people, and the enjoyment curdled a little. Conway is the credited director; Howard Hawks shot some of it before he went, and more than one pair of hands shows.

Conway began as an actor, on stage and then in films from 1909, including a spell in D.W. Griffith's stock company, and was directing shorts and features by 1912 or 1913. There were years at Universal, in 1916–17 and again in 1921–23, and then MGM from 1925–26, where he stayed until 1948. That is the whole shape of the career: one studio, two decades, whatever came down from the front office. What came down was mostly star vehicles. *Red-Headed Woman* (1932) with Jean Harlow, *Viva Villa*, *A Tale of Two Cities* (1935), *Libeled Lady* (1936), *Boom Town* (1940) with Clark Gable, whom he directed five times.

He was known at Metro as the man who brought pictures in on time, and it is easy to read that as faint praise. It is more than that. Handling the Paris crowds in *A Tale of Two Cities*, with some 17,000 extras, takes some doing, and so does keeping William Powell and Myrna Loy, who each worked with him three times, at the speed a comedy like *Libeled Lady* needs. The word that follows him about is agile, and in the comedies it fits.

The criticism is the same thing seen from the other side. Conway had no style of his own that we can point to, and his films tend to be remembered for whoever was standing in front of the camera. On *Viva Villa* that is Beery, and it is also Ben Hecht's script and David O. Selznick's production, and the picture never decides whether it is a frontier legend or a portrait of the appalling man underneath. A director with a firmer view would have chosen. Conway kept it moving instead, which is what he was paid for.

Start with *Viva Villa*, for Beery and for the noise, and go to *Libeled Lady* for the other thing he could do. Do not go looking for the man behind them. He seems to have been quite content to stay out of sight.

## Biography

Jack Conway (born Hugh Ryan Conway, 16 July 1887 – 11 October 1952) was an American film director and actor. Born in Graceville, Minnesota, he began his career as an actor, joining a repertory theatre group after high school and appearing in early films. In 1911 he joined D.W. Griffith’s stock company, working primarily in westerns, and later served as assistant director on Griffith’s *The Birth of a Nation* (1915) and *Intolerance* (1916). He began directing feature films around 1915.

Conway gained experience at Universal Studios before joining MGM in 1925, where he remained until 1948. He directed numerous studio productions, often featuring Clark Gable, including *Viva Villa!* (1934), *A Tale of Two Cities* (1935), *Libeled Lady* (1936) and *Boom Town* (1940). He also directed *Red-Headed Woman* (1932) and other MGM titles such as *Honky Tonk* (1941) and *The Hucksters* (1947). Conway was known for delivering commercially successful films efficiently within studio constraints.

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

## On Fi1m (3)

- *Libeled Lady* (1936), Fi1m 77, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/libeled-lady.md)
- *A Tale of Two Cities* (1935), Fi1m 76, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/a-tale-of-two-cities.md)
- *Viva Villa!* (1934), Fi1m 66, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/viva-villa.md)

## Complete filmography (108)

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

- *Tales from the Crypt: New Year's Shockin' Eve* (2012), Writer
- *Old School vs. New School* (2012), as Leon
- *Julia Misbehaves* (1948), Director
- *Desire Me* (1947), Director
- *The Hucksters* (1947), Director
- *High Barbaree* (1947), Director
- *Dragon Seed* (1944), Director
- *Assignment in Brittany* (1943), Director
- *Crossroads* (1942), Director
- *Honky Tonk* (1941), Director
- *Love Crazy* (1941), Director
- *Boom Town* (1940), Director
- *Lady of the Tropics* (1939), Director
- *Let Freedom Ring* (1939), Director
- *Too Hot to Handle* (1938), Director
- *A Yank at Oxford* (1938), Director
- *Saratoga* (1937), Director
- *Libeled Lady* (1936), Director — Fi1m 77, [page](https://film.one/film/libeled-lady.md)
- *A Tale of Two Cities* (1935), Director — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/a-tale-of-two-cities.md)
- *Roof Tops of Manhattan* (1935), as Pa O'Shea
- *One New York Night* (1935), Director
- *The Gay Bride* (1934), Director
- *The Girl from Missouri* (1934), Director, Producer
- *Viva Villa!* (1934), Director — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/film/viva-villa.md)
- *The Solitaire Man* (1933), Director
- *Hell Below* (1933), Director
- *The Nuisance* (1933), Director
- *Red-Headed Woman* (1932), Director
- *But the Flesh Is Weak* (1932), Director
- *Arsène Lupin* (1932), Director
- *Just a Gigolo* (1931), Director
- *The Easiest Way* (1931), Director
- *New Moon* (1930), Director
- *The Unholy Three* (1930), Director
- *They Learned About Women* (1930), Director
- *Untamed* (1929), Director
- *Our Modern Maidens* (1929), Director, Producer
- *Alias Jimmy Valentine* (1928), Director
- *The Smart Set* (1928), Director, Producer
- *Bringing Up Father* (1928), Director
- *While the City Sleeps* (1928), Director
- *Twelve Miles Out* (1927), Director
- *The Understanding Heart* (1927), Director
- *Brown of Harvard* (1926), Director
- *The Only Thing* (1925), Director
- *Soul Mates* (1925), Director
- *The Hunted Woman* (1925), Director
- *The Roughneck* (1924), Director
- *The Heart Buster* (1924), Director
- *The Trouble Shooter* (1924), Director
- *Lucretia Lombard* (1923), Director
- *Sawdust* (1923), Director
- *What Wives Want* (1923), Director
- *Trimmed in Scarlet* (1923), Director
- *The Prisoner* (1923), Director
- *Quicksands* (1923), Director
- *Another Man's Shoes* (1922), Director
- *The Long Chance* (1922), Director
- *Don't Shoot* (1922), Director
- *Step on It!* (1922), Director
- *Across the Dead-Line* (1922), Director
- *The Millionaire* (1921), Director
- *A Daughter of the Law* (1921), Director
- *The Rage of Paris* (1921), Director
- *The Kiss* (1921), Director
- *The Servant in the House* (1921), Director
- *The Killer* (1921), as William Sanborn · Director
- *The U.P. Trail* (1920), Director
- *The Money Changers* (1920), Director
- *The Dwelling Place of Light* (1920), Director
- *Riders of the Dawn* (1920), Director
- *Lombardi, Ltd.* (1919), Director
- *Restless Souls* (1919), as Hugh Gregory
- *A Diplomatic Mission* (1918), Director
- *Desert Law* (1918), Director
- *You Can't Believe Everything* (1918), Director
- *Her Decision* (1918), Director
- *Little Red Decides* (1918), Director
- *Because of a Woman* (1917), Director
- *Bond of Fear* (1917), Director
- *The Charmer* (1917), Director
- *The Little Orphan* (1917), as David Clark · Director
- *Come Through* (1917), Director
- *A Jewel in Pawn* (1917), Director
- *Polly Redhead* (1917), Director
- *Her Soul's Inspiration* (1917), Director
- *The Mainspring* (1916), Director
- *The Measure of a Man* (1916), Director
- *The Social Buccaneer* (1916), Director
- *Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages* (1916), Second Assistant Director
- *The Beckoning Trail* (1916), Director
- *The Silent Battle* (1916), Director
- *Macbeth* (1916), as Lennox
- *The Birth of a Nation* (1915), Assistant Director
- *The Chechako* (1914), as Smoke Bellew
- *The Folly of Anne* (1914), as The Heartless Publisher
- *Even Unto Death* (1914), as Walter Gordon
- *Burning Daylight: The Adventures of 'Burning Daylight' in Alaska* (1914), as Joe Hines
- *The Valley of the Moon* (1914), as Billy Roberts
- *The Mistress of the Air* (1914), as Dick - the Hero
- *The Twelfth Juror* (1913), as Clarence Morton
- *When Lincoln Paid* (1913), Actor
- *His Only Son* (1912), Director
- *The Post Telegrapher* (1912), Actor
- *Her Indian Hero* (1912), as Hal Benton · Director
- *Kit Carson's Wooing* (1911), as Kit Carson
- *Her Indian Mother* (1910), as Stephen Moore
- *Scarlet Letter* (1908), Actor

## Gallery

- ![Jack Conway](https://film.one/media/person/1227721/gallery-827590ce28ca.jpg) Jack Conway — Acme News photos, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Jack_Conway_1937_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Jack Conway](https://film.one/media/person/1227721/gallery-22ccee426790.jpg) Jack Conway — Image via TMDB

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© 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/jack-conway