Directing
Irving Lerner
Born 1909-03-07 · New York City, New York, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Irving Lerner (7 March 1909, New York City - 25 December 1976, Los Angeles) Before becoming a filmmaker, Lerner was a research editor for Columbia University's Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, getting his start in film by making documentaries for the anthropology department. He then made films for the Rockefeller Foundation and other academic institutions, later becoming a film editor and second-unit director involved with the emerging American documentary movement of the late '30s. Lerner produced two documentaries for the Office of War Information during WW II and after the war became the head of New York University's Educational Film Institute. In 1948, Lerner and Joseph Strick shared directorial chores on a short documentary, Muscle Beach. Lerner then turned to low-budget, quickly filmed features. When not hastily making his own thrillers, Lerner worked as a technical advisor, a second-unit director, a co-editor and an editor. Lerner was cinematographer, director, or assistant director on documentary films such as One Third of a Nation (1939), Valley Town (1940), The Land (1942) directed by Robert Flaherty, and Suicide Attack (1950). Lerner was also producer of the OWI documentary Hymn of the Nations (1944), directed by Alexander Hammid, and featuring Arturo Toscanini, and co-director with Joseph Strick of the short documentary Muscle Beach (1948). Irving Lerner was also an important director and film editor with directing credits such as Studs Lonigan (1960) and editing credits such as Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960) and Martin Scorsese's New York, New York (1977). Lerner died during the cutting of New York, New York, and the film was dedicated to him. The "Blacklist": Irving Lerner was an American citizen and an employee of the United States Office of War Information during World War II who worked in the Motion Picture Division. Lerner was allegedly involved in espionage on behalf of Soviet Military Intelligence (GRU); Arthur Adams was Lerner's key contact. In the winter of 1944, a counterintelligence officer caught Lerner attempting to photograph the cyclotron at the University of California, Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, which was part of the Manhattan Project. The cyclotron had been used in the creation of plutonium and Lerner was acting without authorization. Lerner resigned and went to work for Keynote Recordings, owned by Eric Bernay, another Soviet intelligence contact. Arthur Adams also worked at Keynote. Description above from the Wikipedia article Irving Lerner, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Acting credits
4.5In a fictitious South American country there's lots of political tension, the labor-unions have all their members on strike. The public demands the return of politician B. from exile. However private trucker Pal can't afford to strike, so he's beaten up and his truck burned. In the headlines he's described as strike-breaker. This is only part of an intrigue which shall get him to murder B.
B. Must Die
1975
6.6At a skid row mission, a cleric opines as men wait to eat. After his sermon, he brings out a pie and cuts it into small slices. The two men at the end of the line get none. They leave the mission and head for a garbage dump where junk becomes props for their play. A dress form becomes Mae West; a rusted car gives them a wild ride. Then, one dresses as a priest and promises pie in the sky. By the end, they sport metal halos.
Pie in the Sky
1935
Behind the camera
4.7The title character is a US army Captain of Native American descent who is asked to investigate the murder of an Indian agent. His only clue is "April morning", the last words spoken by the victim. Can he unravel the mystery before the clock runs out?
Captain Apache
1971
6.8Claude is a ruthless and efficient contract killer. His next target, a woman, is the most difficult.
Murder by Contract
1958
6.1The Spanish explorer Pizarro captures the Inca god-chief Atahualpa and promises to free him upon the delivery of a hoard of gold. But Pizarro finds himself torn between his desire for conquest and his sense of honor after friendship and respect develops between captive and captor.
The Royal Hunt of the Sun
1969
7.0Three women come to Hollywood to break into the movies.
Man Crazy
1953
4.5A young man tries to escape the South Side of 1920s Chicago.
Studs Lonigan
1960
6.31943 documentary with Ingrid Bergman.
Swedes in America
1943
5.9A psychopathic young beachcomber pretends to befriend a mother and two daughters living at their summer home.
Edge of Fury
1958
6.3An escaped convict gets a hold of some radioactive material after his escape. Authorities desperately try to find the man that unknowingly is threating the lives of everyone in the city.
City of Fear
1959
4.8During World War II, the spoiled son of a wealthy businessman finds himself involved in the guerrilla movement fighting against the Japanese, and finds romance and adventure.
Cry of Battle
1963
5.8Muscle Beach was shown in competition at Cannes in 1949 and won a prize at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 1951. The short became a cult favorite, screening at film clubs around the world. Strick used an army surplus movie camera to shoot the film during weekends in the fall of 1948. The songs in “Muscle Beach,” composed and sung by political folk singer Earl Robinson, with lyrics by screenwriter and poet Edwin Rolfe, accent the film’s three-movement structure as it transitions between soaring gymnastics shows, flirty beachgoers and children playing near the now-demolished pier at Ocean Park. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2009.
Muscle Beach
1948
6.0Inner city squalor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the subject of this documentary, which focuses on a child returning from school to his home, a cramped and squalid apartment in a rat-infested slum neighborhood.
A Place to Live
1941
6.0Inner city squalor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the subject of this documentary, which focuses on a child returning from school to his home, a cramped and squalid apartment in a rat-infested slum neighborhood.
A Place to Live
1941
This film was cobbled together from Japanese newsreels and propaganda films, to boost home-front morale, filmed during World War Two.
Suicide Attack
1951
4.5A short film about Pete Seeger and the birth of banjo music throughout the Southern United States.
To Hear Your Banjo Play
1947
4.5A short film about Pete Seeger and the birth of banjo music throughout the Southern United States.
To Hear Your Banjo Play
1947
5.7The invention and use of a jeep are described, from the viewpoint of one of the vehicles.
The Autobiography of a 'Jeep'
1943
5.7The invention and use of a jeep are described, from the viewpoint of one of the vehicles.
The Autobiography of a 'Jeep'
1943
5.3Commissioned by the U.S. Office of War Information, this short film features conductor Arturo Toscanini leading the NBC Symphony Orchestra, tenor Jan Peerce, and the Westminster Choir in Verdi’s Inno delle nazioni. Originally composed in the 1860s as a musical tribute to Europe, Toscanini expanded the score to include The Star-Spangled Banner and The Internationale in honor of the Allied struggle and Italian partisans. Filmed in NBC’s Studio 8H, the documentary interweaves performance with scenes of Toscanini at home, emphasizing his anti-fascist stance and celebrating the liberation of Italy. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010.
Hymn of the Nations
1944
5.5Raw footage received from photographer Harry Dunham revealed never before seen images of Mao Tse-Tung and the Eighth Route Army, inspiring Frontier to collectively shape a new film from desperate images, and to refine its dialectic editing.
China Strikes Back
1937