Paul H. Sloan on AllMovie

Director Paul Sloane was no cinematic genius; his principal virtue was efficiency and productivity. A New York University graduate, Sloane accepted the confining post of screenwriter at the assembly-line Edison Studios in 1914, then moved on to more artistically satisfying work at Fox and especially Paramount. In 1925, Sloane became a director. One of his first assignments was the Richard Dix vehicle Too Many Kisses, which featured the movie debut of comedian Harpo Marx (as the Village Pan). At RKO in 1929, Sloane was assigned to helm the first vehicles of comedians Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, of which Half Shot at Sunrise (1930) was the most successful (and most cinematic). Five years later, Sloane had the dubious distinction of directing the biggest money-losing musical in RKO's history, the fabled Down To Their Last Yacht (1934). Back at Paramount in 1940, Sloane was credited as director for Geronimo, though his responsibility was confined to matching up close-ups with scads of stock footage from earlier films. Never truly gaining success as a director, Paul Sloane left Hollywood in the early '50s to become an independent producer of international films made in and around Japan.