Edward Dmytryk
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Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 - July 1, 1999) was an American film director who was amongst the Hollywood 10, a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who served time in prison for being in contempt of Congress during the McCarthy era red scare.
Although born in Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada, Dmytryk grew up in San Francisco when his Ukrainian parents moved to the United States. At the age of 31, he became a naturalized citizen.
His best known films from the pre-McCarthy period of his career were Crossfire, for which he received an Best Director Oscar nomination, and Murder, My Sweet, the latter an adaptation of Raymond Chandler's Farewell My Lovely. Summoned to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), he refused to cooperate and was sent to jail. After spending several months behind bars, Dmytryk made the decision to testify again and give the names of his fellow members in the American Communist Party as the HUAChad demanded. On April 25, 1951, Dmytryk appeared before HUAC for the second time, answering all questions including the naming of twenty-six former members of left-wing groups. He explained how John Howard Lawson, Adrian Scott, Albert Maltz and others had pressured him to include communist propaganda in his films. His testimony damaged several court cases that others of the so-called "Hollywood 10" had filed.
For a time, Dmytryk moved to England where he made a trio of films before returning to the United States. He made films for major studios Columbia, 20th Century Fox, MGM and Paramount, with expensive stars of the calibre of Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, Montgomery Clift and Marlon Brando, but apart from the memorable Western Warlock (1959), which he also produced, his work had lost much of the emtional urgency and psychological thrust represented by his early film noir "Crossfire." After his film career tapered off in the 70s, he entered academia and taught at the University of Texas at Austin, and at the University of Southern California. He wrote several books on the art of filmmaking.
Filmography of selected films
- Hitler's Children (1943)
- Behind the Rising Sun (1943)
- Tender Comrade (1944)
- Murder, My Sweet (1944)
- Back to Bataan (1945)
- Cornered (1945)
- Till the End of Time (1946)
- Crossfire (1947)
- The Sniper (1952)
- Eight Iron Men (1952)
- The Juggler (1953)
- The Caine Mutiny (1954)
- Broken Lance (1954)
- The End of the Affair (1954)
- Soldier of Fortune (1955)
- The Left Hand of God (1955)
- The Mountain (1956)
- Raintree County (1957)
- The Young Lions (1958)
- Warlock (1959)
- Walk on the Wild Side (1962)
- The Carpetbaggers (1964)
- Where Love Has Gone (1964)
- Mirage (1965)
- Alvarez Kelly (1966)
- Anzio (1968)
- Shalako (1968)
- Bluebeard (1972)
- The Human Factor (1975)