James Wong Howe
James Wong Howe , actually Wong Tung Jim ( Chinese 黃宗 霑 / 黄宗 霑 , Pinyin Huáng Zōngzhān , born August 28, 1899 in Guangzhou , China ; † July 12, 1976 in Hollywood , Los Angeles , California ), was an American cameraman . In film titles, his name is occasionally given as "James Howe".
Life and movies
James Wong Howe was born in southern China to Wong How. His father, who had some success as a shopkeeper in America, was only able to catch up with his son in 1904 due to the legal situation ( Chinese Exclusion Act ).
After a few attempts as a boxer, Howe finally became a photographer and made the acquaintance of a cameraman who helped him clean up the cutting room of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation . From there he worked his way up to director Cecil B. DeMille's slate boy . After Paramount Pictures gradually emerged from the Famous Players in 1914 , Howe rose from camera assistant to operating cameraman within four years. In 1923 he did his first independent camerawork as director of photography : on the recommendation of actress Mary Miles Minter , he was involved in two of her productions that made the star look very advantageous.
Among the better known films at Paramount was working on the Clara Bow comedy mantrap . In 1927, his reputation as a cameraman who was more imaginative and sophisticated with light than most of his colleagues was so solid that he went into business for himself. In 1928 he directed the films Laugh, Clown, Laugh with Lon Chaney and Loretta Young and Four Walls with Joan Crawford and John Gilbert for MGM . From 1931 he also worked for the old Fox studios on the side. Howe was also indirectly involved in the film Shanghai Express : during a trip to China he had made film recordings that he originally wanted to use for his own directorial work, in order to finally sell the material to Paramount. Josef von Sternberg then used the archive material in the said film.
Highlights of his work were the adventure film The Prisoner of Zenda ( The Prisoner of Zenda ), where he was in 1937 before the problem is that both lead actor Ronald Colman and Madeleine Carroll wanted to keep her left side of the face in the camera and Algiers from the following year. The romantic melodrama, also directed by John Cromwell , was Hedy Lamarr's American debut , and Howe received the actress so skillfully that she lived up to her reputation as the most beautiful woman in the world .
Howe was a specialist in the use of shadows and subdued brightness, which earned him the nickname low-key Hoe, and one of the first cameramen in Hollywood to work with extreme depth of field, where the foreground and background are equally sharp. He often used this means to characterize people in the foreground through the background - e.g. B. in the western Persecuted , in which the background of a barren desert landscape explains the state of mind of a tortured man in the front of the picture.
However, his ideas did not always go down so well with the producers. When filming the film Whipsaw with Myrna Loy , Howe chose a strong chiaroscuro lighting to make Myrna Loy, who, according to the script, had just sat up all night with a sick woman, look exhausted. Studio boss Louis B. Mayer , who had the daily rushes shown for important films , called Howe over and asked him if he was possibly ailing, after all, he had made Myrna Loy look like an old woman. Howe explained his concept and was kicked out of the office with one of the infamous Mayer outbursts. The scene was re-recorded as the studio wanted and Loy looked perfectly made up in the mirror and sighed: "I look terrible."
James Wong Howe was one of the first Asian artists to achieve significant careers in film. He maintained a long-standing partnership with the author Sanora Babb , a white woman, he only in 1949, after the abolition of the California intermarriage could -Verbots marry. Howe was a cousin of actress Anna May Wong .
Filmography (selection)
- 1923: The Spanish Dancer
- 1924: Peter Pan
- 1925: The Charmer
- 1926: Mantrap
- 1927: Captain Sorrell and his son ( Sorrell and Son )
- 1928: Laugh, Clown, Laugh
- 1928: Four Walls
- 1930: The Criminal Code ( The Criminal Code )
- 1931: Transatlantic
- 1933: Walking Down Broadway
- 1933: Beauty for Sale
- 1933: The Power and the Glory
- 1934: Scream of the Haunted ( Viva Villa! )
- 1934: Manhattan Melodrama
- 1934: The Thin Man ( The Thin Man )
- 1935: Biography of a Bachelor Girl
- 1935: The Flame Within
- 1935: Whipsaw
- 1936: Fire Over England ( Fire Over England )
- 1936: Under the Red Robe (Under the Red Robe)
- 1937: The Prisoner of Zenda ( The Prisoner of Zenda )
- 1938: Tom's adventures ( The Adventures of Tom Sawyer )
- 1938: Algiers
- 1938: Comet Over Broadway
- 1939: Oklahoma Kid (The Oklahoma Kid)
- 1939: Four Wives
- 1940: Abe Lincoln in Illinois
- 1940: Paul Ehrlich - A Life for Research ( Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet )
- 1940: In the frenzy of the cosmopolitan city ( City for Conquest )
- 1940: A man with imagination ( A Dispatch from Reuter's )
- 1940: Fantasia
- 1941: Most Beautiful in Town ( The Strawberry Blonde )
- 1941: Shore in the Fog ( Out of the Fog )
- 1942: Kings Row
- 1942: Yankee Doodle Dandy
- 1943: Executioners die too ( Hangmen Also Die! )
- 1943: Into the Japanese Sun ( Air Force )
- 1943: The Hard Way
- 1943: The North Star
- 1944: Ticket to Marseille ( Passage to Marseille )
- 1945: Hunt in the Fog (Confidential Agent)
- 1945: The Hero of Burma ( Objective, Burma! )
- 1946: My Reputation
- 1947: Nora Prentiss
- 1947: Hunt for Millions (Body and Soul)
- 1947: Pursued ( Pursued )
- 1948: Just for the sake of my wife ( Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House )
- 1951: The Brave Bulls
- 1952: Come Back, Little Sheba ( Come Back, Little Sheba )
- 1953: Termini Station
- 1955: picnic ( Picnic )
- 1955: The Rose Tattoo ( The Rose Tattoo )
- 1957: Your Fate in My Hand ( Sweet Smell of Success )
- 1957: In Another Land ( A Farewell to Arms )
- 1958: The Old Man and the Sea ( The Old Man and the Sea )
- 1958: My Bride Is Psychic ( Bell, Book and Candle )
- 1959: The wrath of the righteous ( The Last Angry Man )
- 1959: Sensation on page 1 ( The Story on Page One )
- 1960: Only a few are chosen ( Song without end )
- 1963: The wildest among a thousand ( Hud )
- 1964: Carrasco, the molester ( The Outrage )
- 1965: The Glory Guys ( The Glory Guys )
- 1966: This Property Is Condemned ( This Property Is Condemned )
- 1966: The Man Who Lived Twice ( Seconds )
- 1967: He was called Hombre ( Hombre )
- 1968: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter ( The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter )
- 1970: Cursed Until Judgment Day ( The Molly Maguires )
- 1975: Funny Lady
Awards
- 1938: Algiers - nomination
- 1940: Abe Lincoln in Illinois - nomination
- 1942: King's Row - nomination
- 1943: The North Star nomination
- 1943: Airforce nomination
- 1955: The Rose Tattoo - Oscar for Best Cinematographer
- 1958: The Old Man and the Sea - nomination
- 1963: The wildest among a thousand - Oscar for best cameraman
- 1966: The Man Who Lived Twice ( Seconds ) nomination
- 1975: Funny Lady nomination
- 1958: The Old Man and the Sea - won
- 1968: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter ( The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter ) - won
Honors
On August 28, 2020, Howe was honored with a Google Doodle for his 118th birthday .
Web links
- James Wong Howe in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- A tribute to Howe at the Seattle Film Festival
- Essay on Howe (English)
- Detailed essay about Howe (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ James Wong Howe's 118th birthday. August 28, 2017, accessed on August 22, 2020 .
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Howe, James Wong |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wong Tung Jim (real name); v = 黄宗 霑 (Chinese) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American cameraman |
DATE OF BIRTH | August 28, 1899 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Guangzhou , China |
DATE OF DEATH | July 12, 1976 |
Place of death | Hollywood , Los Angeles , California |