Edward Dmytryk

Edward Dmytryk was born in British Columbia, Canada, on 4th September, 1908. After an education at the California Institute of Technology, he became a messenger boy at Paramount Pictures.

Dmytryk became a film editor in 1929 and directed his first film, The Hawk, in 1935. Over the next eight years he directed 23 films. This included Mystery Sea Raider (1940), Her First Romance (1940), Golden Gloves (1940) Secrets of the Lone Wolf (1941) and The Blonde from Singapore (1941).

Dmytryk, who joined the Communist Party in 1944, was involved in making several politically oriented films such as the anti-fascist Hitler's Children (1943). Murder, My Sweet (1944) was a film where he helped to create the genre later known as "film noir". Crossfire (1947) was one of the first Hollywood movies to tackle anti-Semitism, won four Academy Awards.

Blacklisted by the Hollywood studios, he moved to England where he directed two films, The Hidden Room (1949) and Give Us This Day (1949). However, Dmytryk had financial problems as a result of divorcing his first wife. Faced with having to sell his plane and encouraged by his new wife, Dmytryk decided to try to get his name removed from the blacklist.

Dmytryk's first move was to meet with a journalist, Richard English, who specialized in writing anti-communist articles for the American press. With English's help, Dmytryk wrote What Makes a Hollywood Communist? for the Saturday Evening Post (17th May, 1951). This explained how he now completely rejected his communist past.

Edward Dmytryk died in Encino, California, on 1st July, 1999.

The Young Lions (1958), dir. Edward Dmytryk



An interesting think about Edward Dmytryk is his 7 rules of editing.

• "Rule 1: Never make a cut without a positive reason."
• "Rule 2: When undecided about the exact frame to cut on, cut long rather than short."
• "Rule 3: Whenever possible cut 'in movement'."
• "Rule 4: The 'fresh' is preferable to the 'stale'."
• "Rule 5: All scenes should begin and end with continuing action."
• "Rule 6: Cut for proper values rather than proper 'matches'."
• "Rule 7: Substance first—then form."

From watching parts of The Young Lions (1958) it is obvious that he followed them aswell.



The Hollywood Ten - McCarthyism Communist Hunts