Happy Birthday, Edward Dmytryk! Born today in 1908, this Canadian-born American film director was known for his 1940s noir films.
After his mother passed when he was six, Dmytryk's father, a severe disciplinarian, bounced between jobs as truck driver, smelter worker, and motorman.
When his father later remarried, the family later moved to San Francisco, California, and then to Los Angeles.
Years later, Dmytryk worked as a messenger boy at Famous Players-Lasky (a forerunner of Paramount Pictures) for six dollars a week while attending Hollywood High School.
He eventually progressed to projectionist to film editor, working for American film director and producer Henry Hathaway ['Peter Ibbetson']). By the age of thirty-one, Dmytryk was a director and a naturalized citizen of the United States.
In the early 1940s, Dmytryk directed the film of which he is best known. This was the 1944 American black and white noir/crime film 'Murder, My Sweet' (released as 'Farewell, My Lovely' in the United Kingdom).
The film follows gumshoe Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell), who is hired by the oafish Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) to track down his former girlfriend. He is also hired to accompany an effeminate playboy buy back some jewels.
When the exchange results in the playboy's murder, Marlowe can't leave the case alone, and soon discovers it's related to Malloy's.
As he gets drawn deeper into a complex web of intrigue by a mysterious blonde; the seductive Helen Grayle (Claire Trevor), the detective finds his own life in increasing jeopardy.
The film was based on American-British novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler's titular 1940 mystery crime noir detective fiction novel.
'Murder, My Sweet' was first film to feature Chandler's primary character, the fictional, Los Angeles hard-boiled private detective Philip Marlowe.
Two years later, Marlowe would be portrayed by Humphrey Bogart in Howard Hawks' 1946 American black and white noir/mystery film 'The Big Sleep'.
Later that same year, Dmytryk became one of the "Hollywood Ten" in 1948. This was a group of film-industry individuals blacklisted for their alleged communist affiliations.
Although accused of having ties to the communist party, Dmytryk was its only member to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) during the McCarthy-era 'Red Scare'.
Because of this, he was sentenced to a year in prison for contempt of U.S. Congress.
Because of this, he was sentenced to a year in prison for contempt of U.S. Congress.
Following his incarceration, Dmytryk was refused work in the United States. Due to the current situation at hand, he instead directed three films in England, United Kingdom but returned to America in 1951.
Upon his return, Dmytryk went before the HUAC again, this time as a "friendly" witness. Now that his name was dropped from the blacklistthen, he resumed his to his American career.
The following year, it was nominated for Best Picture and several other awards. Dmytryk was nominated for a Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures. However, he did not win. This occurred at the 27th Academy Awards in late March 1955.
Three years after his return to America, Dmytryk is likely best known for directing the 1954 American Technicolor war/drama film 'The Caine Mutiny'. Upon release, it was a critical and commercial susses.; the second-highest-grossing film of 1954.
Dmytryk eventually went on to direct four films for American film director and independent producer Stanley Kramer ('The Defiant Ones').
The character of Marlowe would later be portrayed by Elliott Gould in Robert Altman's 1973 American neo-noir thriller noir/mystery film 'The Long Goodbye'.
In the 1980s, Dmytryk entered academic life. He taught about film and directing at the University of Texas at Austin, and later at the University of Southern California film school.
He also later wrote several books on the art of filmmaking, most notably the 1984 book On Film Editing and the 1985 reference work book On Screenwriting.
Dmytryk also later appeared on the lecture circuit, speaking at various colleges and theaters, such as the Orson Welles Cinema.
Nicknamed Eddie, Dmytryk passed from heart and kidney failure in Encino, California on July 1, 1999. He was 90.
Dmytryk had been active from 1929–1979.
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