
Directing
Edward Dmytryk
Born 1908-09-04 · Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada
Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 – July 1, 1999) was an American film director who was amongst the Hollywood Ten, 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 film noirs Crossfire, for which he received a Best Director Oscar nomination, and Murder, My Sweet, the latter an adaptation of Raymond Chandler's Farewell My Lovely. In addition, he made two World War II films: Hitler's Children, the story of the Hitler youth and Back to Bataan starring John Wayne. The late 1940's was the time of the Second Red Scare, and Dmytryk was one of many filmmakers investigated. 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 HUAC had demanded. On April 25, 1951, Dmytryk appeared before HUAC for the second time, answering all questions. He spoke of his own Party past, a very brief membership in 1945, 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. He recounted his experiences of the period in his revealing 1996 book, Odd Man Out: A Memoir of the Hollywood Ten (Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, IL). For a time, Dmytryk moved to England, and Stanley Kramer hired him to direct a trio of low-budget films before handing Dmytryk The Caine Mutiny. He made films for major studios Columbia, 20th Century Fox, MGM and Paramount Pictures, including, among others, Raintree County, The Left Hand of God, The Young Lions, a remake of the Marlene Dietrich classic The Blue Angel, and The Carpetbaggers. Later into the 60' and 70's, he directed Where Love Has Gone, Anzio, Alvarez Kelly, Shalako, and his final film Bluebeard. The films which he directed featured stars such as Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Gene Tierney, Spencer Tracy, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, Sean Connery, Robert Mitchum, Richard Burton, Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda. After his film career tapered off in the 1970s, 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 (such as "On Film Editing") and lectured at various colleges and theaters, such as the Orson Welles Cinema. Dmytryk died from heart and kidney failure on 1 July, 1999, aged 90, in Encino, California.
Acting credits
6.5An examination of the craft of Marlon Brando, narrated by professionals of the film industry. The film follows his career from the stage with "A Streetcar Named Desire", through the Actors Studio and professional relationships with Elia Kazan and Stella Adler to Hollywood. An actor who redefined the limits to which a professional may go in becoming the character not only intellectually but emotionally, Brando changed the meaning of film acting.
Marlon Brando: The Wild One
1994
7.3This film discusses the effect on how major American films in Hollywood were influenced by the Eastern European Jewish culture that most of the major movie moguls who controlled the studios shared. Through clips of various films, the filmmakers illustrate the dominant themes like that of the outsider, the outspoken American patriotism, and rooting for the underdog in society.
Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies and the American Dream
1998
7.2Very few Icons have at once embodied the Myths of their own country while revealing its contradictions: heiress of the Hollywood star system and muse of the French auteur Cinema, Academy Award winning actress and committed producer, feminist and aerobic queen, activist and fearless businesswoman… In a lifetime, Jane Fonda may have reconciled all the facets of America without renouncing her own integrity. Through her portrait, the film tells a social and political story while drawing the picture of a typically American phenomenon.
Citizen Jane Fonda
2020
8.0Faye Dunaway hosts a behind-the-scenes look at the Hollywood star-making machine.
Inside the Dream Factory
1995
7.5A retrospective on the career of Robert Mitchum through interviews with friends and co-workers, scenes from his films and the actor himself.
Robert Mitchum: The Reluctant Star
1991
6.8A brief look at The Hollywood Ten, a group of screenwriters and directors charged with contempt of court after challenging the House Un-American Activities Committee and their controversial and self-incriminatory questions during the red scare. With that act of defiance, they were sentenced to one year in prison simply for speaking their minds and exercising their constitutional rights as concerned citizens. This is their story, their version of the facts, and their opinions.
The Hollywood Ten
1950
7.1Film Noir burrows into the mind; it's disorienting, intriguing and enthralling. Noir brings us into a gritty underworld of lush morbidity, providing intimate peeks at its tough, scheming dames, mischievous misfits and flawed men - all caught in the wicked web of a twisted fate.
Film Noir: Bringing Darkness to Light
2006
7.0Amiable and unassuming, Fred MacMurray went from small-town boy to one of Hollywood and television's most enduring stars.
Fred MacMurray: The Guy Next Door
1996
8.0In the 1942 film "This Gun For Hire," he was only a supporting actor. But his portrayal of a cold, ruthless killer with a core of gentle sadness had an impact on audiences everywhere. Teamed with diminutive Veronica Lake, he became an immediately saleable commodity, and in the process helped launch the age of film noir. By 1954, Photoplay Magazine voted him the world's most popular male film star; his fellow award-winner was Marilyn Monroe. But Alan Ladd's fabulous success already contained within it the mechanism to self-destruct.
Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man
1999
10.0Documentary following the hearings held by the House Un-American Activities Committee of the '40s and '50s.
Blacklist: Hollywood on Trial
1996
7.0Known for his personification of the Western Hero, it was Montana-born Gary Cooper's horse-riding skills that first brought him bit parts in movies. And he never lost his love of the great American outdoors. Though he rarely played a villain and was an adept comedian, Cooper is best remembered for his strong, silent heroes. With his lanky country boy looks and shy hesitancy he created a unique screen presence, though his real life was one of sophisticated elegance.
Gary Cooper: The Face of a Hero
1998
6.5A profile of the life of actor Walter Matthau.
Walter Matthau: Diamond in the Rough
1997
NROne of the first film noir documentaries, made for British Channel Four, and including interviews with Paul Schrader, Robert Wise, John Dahl, Bryan Singer, Edward Dmytryk, Dennis Hopper, John Alton.
Dark and Deadly: Fifty Years of Film Noir
1995
No synopsis available yet.
Anthony Quinn - A Lust for Life
1998
Behind the camera
7.2When a US Naval captain shows signs of mental instability that jeopardize his ship, the first officer relieves him of command and faces court martial for mutiny.
The Caine Mutiny
1954
6.8A band of murderous cowboys has imposed a reign of terror on the town of Warlock. With the sheriff humiliatingly run out of town, the residents hire the services of Clay Blaisedell as de facto town marshal. He arrives along with his friend, Tom Morgan, and sets about restoring law and order on his own terms whilst also overseeing the establishment of a gambling house and saloon.
Warlock
1959
6.8A band of murderous cowboys has imposed a reign of terror on the town of Warlock. With the sheriff humiliatingly run out of town, the residents hire the services of Clay Blaisedell as de facto town marshal. He arrives along with his friend, Tom Morgan, and sets about restoring law and order on his own terms whilst also overseeing the establishment of a gambling house and saloon.
Warlock
1959
5.6While guiding a hunting party of clueless European aristocrats, cowboy Bosky Fulton leads them into hostile Apache territory. Becoming separated from the group, Countess Irina Lazaar experiences the first run-in with an Apache, which results in the tracker Shalako coming to her rescue. Despite Shalako's warning to leave the area immediately, the pampered foreigners fail to take him seriously, leaving them in grave danger.
Shalako
1968
6.8The lives of three young men, a German and two Americans, during WWII.
The Young Lions
1958
7.2After being hired to find an ex-con's former girlfriend, Philip Marlowe is drawn into a deeply complex web of mystery and deceit.
Murder, My Sweet
1944
6.2In 1864, during the American Civil War, Mexican cattleman Alvarez Kelly supplies the Union with cattle until unexpected circumstances force him to change his customers.
Alvarez Kelly
1966
6.1A U.S. Army colonel leads local fighters in a guerrilla campaign against the Japanese in the Philippines.
Back to Bataan
1945
6.7Eddie Miller struggles with his hatred of women, he's especially bothered by seeing women with their lovers. He starts a killing spree as a sniper by shooting women from far distances. In an attempt to get caught, he writes an anonymous letter to the police begging them to stop him.
The Sniper
1952
6.5Tensions erupt within an Arizona cattle baron's household when his three sons vie for control of the ranch.
Broken Lance
1954
7.0After a blackout in his office building, accountant David Stillwell emerges outside to find out a man he did not know either jumped or was pushed out a window to his death — and that he can't remember the past two years of his life. Enlisting the help of a rookie private eye and a reluctant old flame, Stillwell uncovers the mystery detail by unexpected detail.
Mirage
1965
6.2A World War II veteran hunts down the Nazi collaborators who killed his wife.
Cornered
1945
6.0An American woman arrives in Hong Kong to unravel the mystery of her missing photographer husband. After getting nowhere with the authorities, she is led by some underground characters to an American soldier of fortune working in the area against the Communists. He promises to help find her husband.
Soldier of Fortune
1955
6.6At a 1930s New Orleans bordello, Hallie is the main attraction for both clients and the shrewd madam. The arrival of Dove Linkhorn, her lovesick sweetheart from three years ago, disrupts the normal and triggers a chain of events involving a number of people, including the young woman he travelled with, who is now the Doll House's newest employee.
Walk on the Wild Side
1962
6.7A man is murdered, apparently by one of a group of soldiers just out of the army. But which one? And why?
Crossfire
1947
5.6American troops land unopposed on Italian beaches during World War II, but instead of pushing on to Rome, they dig in and the Germans fight back ferociously.
Anzio
1968
5.4Baron von Sepper is an Austrian aristocrat noted for his blue-toned beard, and his appetite for beautiful wives. His latest spouse, an American beauty named Anne, discovers a vault in his castle that's filled with the frozen bodies of several beautiful women.
Bluebeard
1972
5.4Baron von Sepper is an Austrian aristocrat noted for his blue-toned beard, and his appetite for beautiful wives. His latest spouse, an American beauty named Anne, discovers a vault in his castle that's filled with the frozen bodies of several beautiful women.
Bluebeard
1972
6.4In 1859, idealist John Wickliff Shawnessey, a resident of Raintree County, Indiana, is distracted from his high school sweetheart Nell Gaither by Susanna Drake, a rich New Orleans girl. This love triangle is further complicated by the American Civil War, and dark family history.
Raintree County
1957
5.9Jonas Cord is a disagreeable young tycoon who's building planes, directing films, and catting around on the corporate make in 1930s Hollywood.
The Carpetbaggers
1964
6.9Selfish Chris Teller pressures his older brother, a retired climber, to accompany him on a treacherous Alpine climb to loot the bodies of plane crash victims.
The Mountain
1956
6.9Selfish Chris Teller pressures his older brother, a retired climber, to accompany him on a treacherous Alpine climb to loot the bodies of plane crash victims.
The Mountain
1956
6.3A man in priestly robes, seemingly the long-awaited Father O'Shea, arrives at a little-frequented Catholic mission in 1947 China. Though the man seems curiously uncomfortable with his priestly duties, his tough tactics prove very successful in the Seven Villages, as around them China disintegrates in civil war and revolution. But he has a secret, and his friendship with mission nurse Anne (an attractive war widow) seems to be taking on an unpriestly tone.
The Left Hand of God
1955
5.7Jo Jones, a young defense plant worker whose husband is in the military during World War II, shares a house with three other women in the same situation.
Tender Comrade
1944