Chester Erskine on AllMovie

A stage actor by the late '20s, Chester Erskine came to New York, where he scored a hit writing, producing, and directing the all-black revue Harlem in 1929. He produced and directed several Broadway plays and then went to Hollywood in 1932 and assisted Lewis Milestone on Rain. He began directing films with the psychological drama Midnight in 1934; as a writer/director, his credits include The Egg and I, the debut film of the characters Ma and Pa Kettle; the mystery Take One False Step, co-scripted with Irwin Shaw; the comedy A Girl in Every Port, starring Groucho Marx; and the Shaw adaptation Androcles and the Lion. As a writer/producer, Erskine made the Arthur Miller adaptation All My Sons and the thriller Witness to Murder starring Barbara Stanwyck, as well as episodes of television's Reader's Digest anthology series.