 Pichel was soon drawn to directing and his character acting dropped off after 1939.He co-directed several B-movies until he signed with 20th Century Fox in 1939 and began directing their established stars.Much of his directing work was in anti-Nazi and pro-British-themed films in the years before the United States entered the war; this perhaps led to his problems with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and subsequent blacklisting in the industry.