From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Merritt B. Gerstad (5 July 1900, Chicago, Illinois – 1 March 1974, Laguna Beach, California) was an American cinematographer of silent and early sound films. After beginning as a cinematographer on films for Universal, he worked for MGM, working with director Tod Browning on (the lost) London After Midnight (1927) and Freaks (1932), and Sam Wood on the Marx Brothers A Night at the Opera (1935). Later he was at Warner Bros. for Watch on the Rhine (1943) starring Bette Davis, Conflict (1945) with Humphrey Bogart in the lead, and the Gershwin biopic Rhapsody in Blue (1945), his last credit.