Edward Dmytryk

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Edward Dmytryk (1951)

Edward Dmytryk (born September 4, 1908 in Grand Forks , British Columbia , Canada , † July 1, 1999 in Encino , California ) was an American film director . Dmytryk made a name for itself primarily with war films and film noirs . His best-known films include Murder, My Sweet , Im Kreuzfeuer and The Caine Was Her Fate . He belonged to the so-called Hollywood Ten .

Life

Dmytryk grew up in San Francisco as the son of Ukrainian immigrants. During his mathematics and physics studies, he worked as a temporary worker in the film city of Hollywood .

Despite a scholarship, he broke off his studies at the California Institute of Technology after a year and worked full-time in Hollywood, where he first worked as a film editor and from 1935 as a film director. In 1939 he took American citizenship . From the early 1940s Dmytryk worked for the RKO film studio . After the success of Hitler's Children (1943), he switched from B-films to more reputable projects.

In 1944 Dmytryk shot the Raymond Chandler film version Murder, My Sweet, one of the "archetypal" film noirs: The "confusing shooting angles" and "high-contrast low-key lighting" referred to a "broken and ominous world that got out of control", and the film was "not only a highly stylized and complex detective thriller , but also an uncompromising vision of corruption and decay." (Alain Silver, Elizabeth Ward)

Murder, My Sweet was the first of four joint films by producer Adrian Scott , director Dmytryk and screenwriter John Paxton . This was followed by Cornered (1945) about the struggle between European fascists and anti-fascists in hiding in Argentina , Unforgotten Jahre (1947) and Im Kreuzfeuer (also 1947), which highlighted anti-Semitic tendencies within the US armed forces . The focus on political issues was intended: Scott and Dmytryk were during the Second World War, the Communist Party USA joined the so Dmytryk, "only ones who do something". For Im Kreuzfeuer , Dmytryk was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Director .

In the late 1940s, Dmytryk was denounced as a communist . Together with Adrian Scott and eight other filmmakers who later became known as "Hollywood Ten", he was invited to appear before the Committee for Un-American Activities (HUAC). He initially refused to give evidence there, and in 1948 he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for “contempt”. Dmytryk couldn't find a job in Hollywood and shot temporarily in the UK . In 1951 he changed his mind and gave the committee the names of alleged communists in the American film business, including Adrian Scott, Jules Dassin and Albert Maltz . Many of his colleagues have not forgiven him for this denunciation, which destroyed the professional and social life of the artists.

After rehabilitation, Dmytryk was able to build on his previous career. He shot in a variety of genres including westerns , dramas and adventure films . The first directorial assignment was the film noir The Sniper (1952) for producer Stanley Kramer . One of his most successful films was the literary adaptation The Caine Was Fate . From the end of the 1960s, Dmytryk worked again in Europe. In the 1970s he retired from the film business due to a lack of offers and supervised film classes at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California .

From 1932 until the divorce in 1947 he was married to Madeleine Robinson, they had a son. In his second marriage he was married to the actress Jean Porter from 1948 until his death , from this marriage they had three children.

Filmography (selection)

Director

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Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Geoff Mayer, Brian McDonnell: Encyclopedia of Film Noir. Greenwood Press, Westport 2007, pp. 171-172.
  2. ^ Edward Dmytryk, Odd Man Out: A Memoir of the Hollywood Ten. Southern Illinois University Press 1996, p. 156.
  3. ↑ "The disorienting angles, low-key and high-contrast lighting [...] point to a disordered and ominous world beond control. [...] Ultimately Murder, My Sweet is the archetype for a number of films made later. […] There is nothing sweet in Murder, My Sweet , a film that remains not only a highly stylized and complex detective thriller but also an uncompromising vision of corruption and decay. "- Alain Silver, Elizabeth Ward (ed.): Film Noir . An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, Third Edition. Overlook / Duckworth, New York / Woodstock / London 1992, ISBN 978-0-87951-479-2 , pp. 192-193.
  4. ^ Brian Neve: Film and Politics in America. A social tradition. Routledge, Oxon 1992, p. 95.
  5. ↑ Andrew Spicer: Historical Dictionary of Film Noir. Scarecrow Press, Lanham (Maryland) 2010, pp. 75-76.
personal data
SURNAME Dmytryk, Edward
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film director
DATE OF BIRTH 4th September 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Grand Forks , British Columbia , Canada
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 1999
Place of death Encino , California , USA