In Remembrance: Hubert Cornfield

     Hubert Cornfield, the B-film director best known for writing and directing the racial drama Pressure Point (1962), has passed away on June 18, 2006 in Los Angeles, CA. He was 77.

     Born on February 9, 1929 in Istanbul, Turkey, Cornfield’s family moved to France and then eventually the United States while he was still a boy. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania.

     Cornfield made his directorial debut with the 1955 film noir Sudden Danger for Allied Artists. He was soon hired by 20^th Century Fox, where he directed the dramas Lure Of The Swamp and Plunder Road (1957). In 1960 he both scripted and directed the thriller The 3^rd Voice for the studio. Cornfield also wrote and directed Pressure Point (1962), which starred Sidney Poitier as a prison psychiatrist treating a bigoted inmate (Bobby Darrin). In 1969 he wrote and shot the crime drama The Night Of The Following Day, though he reportedly clashed with the film’s star Marlon Brando.

     Cornfield’s final film was 1975’s Les Grand Movens, which was shot in France.