Francis M. Cockrell


Biography

Not to be confused with the similarly named Confederate general who became a U.S. Senator from Missouri during Reconstruction, Francis Cockrell had a long career writing for film and television, with credits spanning over four decades. He came to Hollywood in the early 1930s. His first job was a co-screenwriting credit on the young-love drama "The Age of Consent." Cockrell worked steadil...

Biography

Not to be confused with the similarly named Confederate general who became a U.S. Senator from Missouri during Reconstruction, Francis Cockrell had a long career writing for film and television, with credits spanning over four decades. He came to Hollywood in the early 1930s. His first job was a co-screenwriting credit on the young-love drama "The Age of Consent." Cockrell worked steadily throughout the 1930s and '40s, largely on somewhat forgettable B movies. Two of these films, a mistaken-identity comedy with former silent film star Harold Lloyd called "Professor Beware," and the back-from-the-dead thriller "Dark Waters," were co-written with his wife, future prolific television writer Marion B. Cockrell. Like many screenwriters of his generation, Cockrell moved into television in the mid-1950s when it became clear that the new technology was no mere passing fad; after 1956, all his work was for the small screen. He became best known for his work on the anthology "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," for which he wrote 18 episodes between 1955 and '59; he directed two of them as well, the only non-writing credits of his entire career. Though Cockrell did not have that lengthy an association with any other television show, he worked steadily through the 1960s on such hit shows as the campy comic book spinoff "Batman." His final work was the 1973 TV movie "Ordeal," a revenge story about a businessman stranded in the desert by his unfaithful wife and her lover.

Life Events

Videos

Movie Clip

Inferno (1953) -- (Movie Clip) No Cure For A Broken Leg First scene for Robert Ryan as cranky hard-drinking wealthy mine owner Carson, voicing his internal monologue, not aware that his unfaithful wife and trusted employee (Rhonda Fleming, William Lundigan) have improvised a plan to leave him to die after a riding accident, early in Inferno, 1953.
Inferno (1953) -- (Movie Clip) It's Not Like Killing Him Exactly Opening from director Roy Baker and Frank Cockrell’s original screenplay, much to be inferred as William Lundigan and Rhonda Fleming undertake suspicious activities in the Mojave, in the 20th Century-Fox 3-D Technicolor Western-Noir-Thriller hybrid Inferno, 1953, also starring Robert Ryan.
Inferno (1953) -- (Movie Clip) Made To Order Introduction of Larry Keating as Emory, manager of Carson enterprises, on the phone, who has no idea that secret lovers Gerry (Rhonda Fleming) and Joe (William Lundigan) have seized the unexpected opportunity to leave her husband and their boss (Robert Ryan) to die in the desert, early in Inferno, 1953.
Inferno (1953) -- (Movie Clip) First Class Campfire Girl From the fourth solo scene for Robert Ryan, voicing his thoughts, as millionaire mining businessman Carson, who’s put a splint on his broken leg and improvised a way to crawl out of a ravine in the Mojave, expecting to be rescued, not knowing that his wife and trusted aide have planned to let him die, in the 3-D thriller Inferno, 1953.
Age Of Consent, The (1932) -- (Movie Clip) Blanket Over Your Head ageofconsent32_Director Gregory La Cava begins with vignettes around a campus that looks a lot like USC, then introduces co-ed Betty (Dorothy Wilson), professor David (John Halliday), playboy Duke (Eric Linden) and boyfriend Michael (Richard Cromwell), in The Age Of Consent, 1932._FC_133a
Age Of Consent, The (1932) -- (Movie Clip) Free Love With My Meals Lovesick college man Michael (Richard Cromwell) wanders into the cafe, where everyone is talking about sex, then chatting with waitress Dora (Arline Judge), in the racy pre-code cautionary tale directed by Gregory La Cava, The Age Of Consent, 1932.

Bibliography