Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 – July 1, 1999) was a Canadian-born American film director and editor. He was known for his 1940s noir films and received an Oscar nomination for Best Director for Crossfire (1947). 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-eraRed Scare. They all served time in prison for contempt of Congress. 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.[1] 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.[2] Dmytryk was nominated for a Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures.
Background
Dmytryk was born on September 4, 1908, in Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada. His Ukrainian immigrant parents were Frances (Berezowski) and Michael Dmytryk,[3] a severe disciplinarian who bounced among jobs as truck driver, smelter worker, and motorman.[4] The family moved to San Francisco, California, and then to Los Angeles. After his mother died, his father remarried.
Career
Dmytryk worked as a messenger at Famous Players–Lasky (forerunner of Paramount Pictures) for $6 per week while attending Hollywood High School.[citation needed] He progressed to projectionist, film editor, and by age 31, a director and a naturalized citizen of the United States.[citation needed]
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.[6][7]
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.[8]
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.
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.
Hollywood Ten
Dmytryk was among those called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947. Dmytryk briefly had been a Communist Party member in 1944 and 1945. He was persuaded by his former party associates to join nine other Hollywood figures in a public refusal to testify. The Hollywood Ten were cited for contempt of Congress and sentenced to prison terms.[9] Dmytryk was fired from RKO.
Dmytryk fled to England and unofficially was ostracized by the American film industry and his former friends in it. In England, he made two films for producer Nat Bronstein: a thriller Obsession (1949), and Give Us This Day (1949), a neo-realistic movie sympathetic to the working man, based on the novel Christ in Concrete. The latter movie, which was successful in Europe, was released as Christ in Concrete in the United States and quickly suppressed. When his U.S. passport expired, Dmytryk returned to the United States, where he was arrested and imprisoned. He served four months and 17 days in Millspoint Prison, West Virginia.
Kramer then selected Dmytryk to direct Humphrey Bogart and Van Johnson in Columbia's The Caine Mutiny (1954), a World War II naval drama adapted from Herman Wouk's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. It proved to be a great critical and commercial success, ranking second among high-grossing films of the year, and in 1955, received Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Actor.[citation needed]
In the 1980s, Dmytryk entered academic life. He taught about film and directing at the University of Texas at Austin and at the University of Southern California film school. He wrote several books on the art of film-making (such as On Film Editing and On Screenwriting). He also appeared on the lecture circuit, speaking at various colleges and theaters, such as the Orson Welles Cinema.[citation needed]
