He is best remembered for the action films he made for Republic Pictures, particularly serials: Dick Tracy Returns, G-Men vs. the Black Dragon, Daredevils of the Red Circle, Zorro's Fighting Legion, and Drums of Fu Manchu.
Colbert Clark, Witney's brother-in-law, introduced him to films by letting him ride in some chase scenes for the serial Fighting with Kit Carson (1933).
Instead of filming a crowd of people wildly throwing punches at each other, as in a barroom brawl, Witney broke the action down into separate, carefully choreographed shots, which he patterned after the dance sequences in Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals.
[4] Following the war, Witney returned to public directing many of Roy Rogers' and Rex Allen's Westerns.
In the 1970s he directed I Escaped from Devil's Island (1973) starring Jim Brown and Darktown Strutters a 1975 blaxploitation musical comedy.
"[7] Tarantino considers four films as Witney's best work: The Golden Stallion (1949), a Roy Rogers vehicle, Stranger at My Door (1956), The Bonnie Parker Story (1958), and Paratroop Command (1959).