Edward Dmytryk

Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 – July 1, 1999) was a Canadian-born American film director and editor.

Dmytryk was born on September 4, 1908, in Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada.

His Ukrainian immigrant parents were Frances (Berezowski) and Michael Dmytryk, a severe disciplinarian who bounced among jobs as truck driver, smelter worker, and motorman.

The family moved to San Francisco, California, and then to Los Angeles.

After his mother died, his father remarried.

Dmytryk worked as a messenger at Famous Players–Lasky (forerunner of Paramount Pictures) for $6 per week while attending Hollywood High School.

He progressed to projectionist, film editor, and by age 31, a director and a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Dmytryk worked in the editing department on films such as The Dance of Life (1929), Only Saps Work (1930), The Royal Family of Broadway (1930), Make Me a Star (1932), The Phantom President (1932), and If I Had a Million (1932).

He helped edit two Leo McCarey movies: Duck Soup (1933) and Six of a Kind (1934).

He edited College Rhythm (1934), followed by Leo McCarey's Ruggles of Red Gap (1935).

Dmytryk made his directorial debut with The Hawk (1935), a low-budget, independent Western.

He returned to editing duties at Paramount, but was assigned to B films:Too Many Parents (1936), Three Cheers for Love (1936), Three Married Men (1936), Easy to Take (1936), Murder Goes to College (1937), Turn Off the Moon (1937), Double or Nothing (1937) with Bing Crosby, and That Navy Spirit (1937).

Dmytryk also edited Bulldog Drummond's Peril (1938) and Prison Farm (1938).

He moved his way to A movies with Zaza (1938), directed by George Cukor.

McCarey asked him over to RKO to edit Love Affair (1939).

He returned to Paramount to edit the Bob Hope comedy Some Like It Hot (1939).

Dmytryk did some uncredited directing on Million Dollar Legs (1939) with Betty Grable.

This encouraged Paramount to allow him to direct Television Spy (1939).

He was known for his 1940s noir films and received an Oscar nomination for Best Director for Crossfire (1947).

He followed it with Emergency Squad (1940), Golden Gloves (1940), and Mystery Sea Raider (1940) with Carole Landis.

Dmytryk went to Monogram Pictures to direct the musical Her First Romance (1940).

He went over to Columbia to direct for its B picture unit: The Devil Commands (1941) with Boris Karloff, Under Age (1941), Broadway Ahead (1941), Hot Pearls (1941), Secrets of the Lone Wolf (1941), Confessions of Boston Blackie (1941), and Counter-Espionage (1942), a "Lone Wolf" movie.

Dmytryk signed a contract to RKO, where he continued to direct B movies, starting with Seven Miles from Alcatraz (1942).

However, he then made Hitler's Children (1943), which turned out to be a massive "sleeper" hit, earning over $3 million.

The one-time success did not immediately change his career, and he remained in B movies such as The Falcon Strikes Back (1943), and then went to Universal for Captive Wild Woman (1943).

Back at RKO, he directed Behind the Rising Sun (1943), a Hitler's Children-style thriller about the Japanese.

It was another box-office sensation, and Dmytryk was promoted to A films.

Dmytryk directed Ginger Rogers, RKO's biggest star, in the melodrama Tender Comrade (1943), which was a huge hit.

He followed it with the popular film noir Murder, My Sweet (1944), adapted from Raymond Chandler's novel Farewell, My Lovely by John Paxton and produced by Adrian Scott; the star was Dick Powell, whose performance as Philip Marlowe completely revitalized Powell's career.

Dymtryk did Back to Bataan (1945), a war film starring John Wayne, then he was reunited with Powell, Paxton, and Scott for another film noir, Cornered (1945).

He did Till the End of Time (1946), a drama about soldiers coming back from the war, which was a big hit, and went to England to make So Well Remembered (1947) with Paxton and Scott.

In 1947, he was named as one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who refused to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in their investigations during the McCarthy-era Red Scare.

They all served time in prison for contempt of Congress.

Dmytryk, Scott, and Paxton then collaborated on the hugely successful thriller Crossfire (1947), for which Dmytryk received a Best Director Oscar nomination.

The success of his pictures and recognition from his peers established him as RKO's leading director.

Dmytryk was among those called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947.

In 1951, however, Dmytryk testified to the HUAC and named individuals, including Arnold Manoff, whose careers were then destroyed for many years, to rehabilitate his own career.

First hired again by independent producer Stanley Kramer in 1952, Dmytryk is likely best known for directing The Caine Mutiny (1954), a critical and commercial success.

The second-highest-grossing film of the year, it was nominated for Best Picture and several other awards at the 1955 Oscars.

Dmytryk was nominated for a Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures.