A stage actor and director in the late 1900s, James W. Horne began directing films in the mid teens, initially specializing in serials such as Stingaree, The Midnight Man, and The Third Eye. In the '20s he made numerous actioners and comedies, and helmed the Buster Keaton feature College. Horne began directing Laurel and Hardy short comedies with their 1929 silent classic Big Business; he also guided them in their sound shorts Chickens Come Home, Laughing Gravy, Our Wife, Come Clean, One Good Turn, Beau Hunks, Any Old Port, and Thicker than Water, as well as their features Bonnie Scotland, The Bohemian Girl (co-directed with Charles Rogers), and Way Out West. He returned to serials in the late '30s, and helmed such notable action fare as The Shadow, Holt of the Secret Service, The Iron Claw, The Spider Returns, and Captain Midnight.