John J. Mescall

Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Show Boat (1936),[2] both directed by James Whale, are generally named among Mescall's greatest achievements in cinematography.

[3] Mescall also filmed The Road Back (1937) for Whale, an ill-fated sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front (1930).

Though visually compelling, The Road Back bombed at the box-office, in part due to a well-publicized editing dispute between Whale and Universal executives.

[5] After the 1939 "weepie" When Tomorrow Comes, starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer in their second film together, Mescall was limited to working in a series of forgettable films, except for the 1944 film-noir Dark Waters, starring Merle Oberon, Franchot Tone and Thomas Mitchell.

[6] He received his only Academy Award nomination, oddly enough, not for his work on the Universal classics (which also included such films as Edgar G. Ulmer's The Black Cat), but for the semi-forgotten 1942 romantic comedy Take a Letter, Darling, starring Fred MacMurray and Rosalind Russell.