Retrospective honors ‘Hollywood Ten’ member
Melnitz series displays films directed by controversial figure,
Edward Dmytryk
By Lael Loewenstein
Daily Bruin Staff
Few directors have crossed as many boundaries in their work and
in their politics as Edward Dmytryk.
Dmytryk, the longtime director and member of the "Hollywood
Ten," will be honored with a retrospective at Melnitz Theater
beginning tonight and continuing through next week.
"It’s a great opportunity to see the work of a director who was
ahead of his time," says Jim Friedman, director of Melnitz
Movies.
It is also a rare chance to see the director in person. Dmytryk,
86, seldom makes public appearances these days but he will be
present both tomorrow and next Wednesday to answer questions after
the screenings.
Sponsored by the UCLA Film Archive and Melnitz Movies, the
series is being presented as part of an upcoming documentary film
on the life of Dmytryk.
It seems altogether fitting that Dmytryk should be so honored,
and the tribute is long overdue. It comes so late in part because
Dmytryk’s artistic accomplishments have long been obscured by his
controversial political record.
Dmytryk is often most famously remembered for having been a
member of the "Hollywood Ten," the group of filmmakers and writers
blacklisted by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC) in
1947 when anti-Communist paranoia was sweeping the country.
Having joined the Communist party in 1945, Dmytryk served time
in prison for contempt of Congress. He later became the only member
of the Ten to act as a "friendly" witness and name names, which was
an unpopular move in the filmmaking community.
But although his political reputation has preceded him,
Dmytryk’s artistic contribution deserves recognition as well. A
projectionist, film editor and director, he has also written a
book, "On Directing" and taught film studies at USC. The many
genres he tackled include drama, film noir and war films, and his
films tend to reflect his faith in common people, his belief in
cooperation and his respect for traditional American ideals.
Featuring several of Dmytryk’s personal favorites, the series
starts off with one of his more famous films. Crossfire, starring
Robert Mitchum, Robert Young, Gloria Grahame and Robert Ryan, was
based on the Richard Brooks novel "The Brick Foxhole," which dealt
with intolerance and homosexuality. In the Production
Code-dominated Hollywood of 1947, however, no studio would release
a film dealing with gay issues. The film focused on anti-Semitism
instead and was one of the first serious attempts to deal with the
issue of discrimination, earning Dmytryk respect for his thoughtful
adaptation.
The second film tonight is Give Us This Day, which he directed
in England in 1949 after he had been blacklisted by HUAC. Having
served time in jail for contempt of Congress, Dmytryk went into
self-imposed exile. Among the three films he directed abroad, Give
Us This Day is the standout, yet it is rarely shown in the United
States. Dmytryk has said he enjoyed making this film more than any
other. Its story, about an Italian immigrant bricklayer’s struggle
to find a home for his wife and family, deals with just the sort of
humanist and socially conscious themes that were important to the
director.
Tomorrow night’s film, one of his best known, is Murder My Sweet
(1944), based on the Raymond Chandler novel "Farewell My Lovely." A
classic film noir, Murder featured riveting performances from Dick
Powell as Detective Philip Marlowe and Claire Trevor as the
dangerous femme fatale he must find. This hard-boiled drama was one
of the first and most prominent of the noir cycle, a gripping tale
of lust, greed and murder.
On Friday, the double feature begins with The Sniper (1952). A
taut psychological drama about a man whose hostile feelings drive
him to murder, the film maintains tension by intertwining
psychological and police elements.
The second film, The Caine Mutiny (1954), has a stellar cast led
by Humphrey Bogart, Fred MacMurray and Jose Ferrer. Bogart plays
Captain Queeg, who manages to save his ship during a fierce storm
at sea when his officers mutiny. Court-martialed for his actions,
the officer must stand trial. The classic courtroom scene has
inspired countless imitations.
Next week’s feature is The Young Lions, hailed as one of the
best films ever made about World War II. In this 1958 feature,
Dmytryk again returned to the issue of anti-Semitism. This original
film closely follows two Americans and a German into combat until
their paths eventually cross.
Although he continued directing well into the 1970s, Dmytryk’s
career never regained the steam of the ’40s and ’50s. Unpopular for
his politics and maligned for having testified, Dmytryk had to
overcome many misperceptions. Consequently, some of his best works
are rarely seen. Perhaps this retrospective will help to put him
back on the map.
FILM SERIES: "Dmytryk on Dmytryk." Jan. 25-Feb. 2, Melnitz.
Admission is free and participants may be videotaped as part of the
documentary. For more info call 825-2345.