William Forest Crouch (January 16, 1904 – March 1968) was an American motion picture producer, director, writer, and film editor of the 1940s.
In 1944 he moved to Soundies’ New York facility, which was originally silent-film pioneer Thomas A. Edison’s studio on Decatur Avenue in the Bronx.
He used the same assembly-line tricks again and again: frequent cheesecake shots of young women, eccentric camera angles, special-lens compositions that divided the screen into multiple images, and editorial gimmicks like showing the action in reverse motion.
Reet, Petite and Gone was Crouch's most personal project: he produced it, directed it, and (under the alias William Forest) wrote the original story.
Universal decided to continue the series of novelty featurettes, but without Crouch or Red River Dave; the studio substituted singer Tex Williams and used its own personnel and facilities in Hollywood.
William Forest Crouch was already prepared for the quick-production demands of the television, and between 1949 and 1952 he made some 200 TV films, ranging from commercials to half-hour programs.
[8] In the early 1960s the Australian government was optimistic about its emerging film industry, and gave William Forest Crouch financial incentives to emigrate with most of his family and set up a studio in Australia.