1939 - BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
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- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Distinguished American cinematographer Ernest Haller started in the industry in 1914 as an actor with Biograph after leaving his first job as a bank clerk. Within one year he discovered his true calling: being on the other side of the camera. By 1920, he had become a full director of photography and would go on to handle prestigious pictures , such as the Samuel Goldwyn-produced Stella Dallas (1925). In 1926, Haller signed with First National and was still there when the studio was absorbed by Warner Brothers in 1930. Despite prolific output, it took him several years to create a reputation, however his breakthrough eventually came with the lavishly produced period drama Jezebel (1938), starring Bette Davis.For this, he received the first of five Academy Award nominations.
It was his work on 'Jezebel' which ultimately prompted David O. Selznick to replace Lee Garmes (with whom he had creative disagreements) with Haller as principal cinematographer for his Technicolour masterpiece, Gone with the Wind (1939). Haller also shot Vivien Leigh's famous first screen test for the role of Scarlett O'Hara. Though his previous work had been almost exclusively in black-and-white, the gamble paid off handsomely, with Haller winning an Academy Award (alongside Ray Rennahan) for Best Colour Cinematography.
Following 'GWTW' , Haller shot some of the best films made at Warner Brothers during the 1940's, his work perfectly suited to the gritty studio look of its product. He was particularly effective with the strong female stars of the company, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis (shooting 14 of her pictures), meticulously balancing make-up and lighting to bringing out their best features. He created an almost expressionistic mood for films like Mildred Pierce (1945) (for which he received another Oscar nomination) and Humoresque (1946). For the remainder of his career, Haller remained at Warners. Even after his contract expired in 1951, he was recalled for special assignments such as Rebel Without a Cause (1955), shot in CinemaScope, and the psychological drama What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), reuniting him once more with Davis and Crawford, albeit this time concerned with photographing them in a decidedly unglamorous fashion. He freelanced during the remainder of the 1960's and was semi-retired when asked by James Goldstone to step in as director of photography for the second pilot of Star Trek (1966), "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Ernest Haller was killed in a car crash in October 1970, aged 74.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Director
Born in Illinois in 1904, the only child of Jennie and Frank Toland, Gregg and his mother moved to California several years after his parents divorced in 1910. Through Jennie's work as a housekeeper for several people in the movie business, Gregg may had gotten a $12-a-week job at age 15 as an office boy at William Fox Studios. Soon he was making $18 a week as an assistant cameraman. When sound came to movies in 1927, the audible whir of movie cameras became a problem, requiring the cumbersome use of soundproof booths. Toland helped devise a tool which silenced the camera's noise and which allowed the camera to move about more freely. In 1931, Toland received his first solo credit for the Eddie Cantor comedy, "Palmy Days." In 1939 he earned his first Oscar for his work on William Wyler's "Wuthering Heights." In the following year he sought out Orson Welles who then hired him to photograph "Citizen Kane." (Toland was said to have protected the inexperienced Welles from potential embarrassment by conferring with him in private about technical matters rather than bringing these up in front of the assembled cast and crew.) For "Kane" Toland used a method which became known as "deep focus" because it showed background objects as clearly as foreground objects. (Film theorist Andre Bazin said that Toland brought democracy to film-making by allowing viewers to discover what was interesting to them in a scene rather than having this choice dictated by the director.) Toland quickly became the highest paid cinematographer in the business, earning as much as $200,000 over a three year period. He also became perhaps the first cinematographer to receive prominent billing in the opening credits, rather than being relegated to a card containing seven or more other names. Tragically, Toland's career was cut short in 1948 by his untimely death at age 44. Toland had a daughter, Lothian, by his second wife and two sons, Gregg jr. and Timothy, by his third. Lothian became the wife of comic Red Skelton.- Cinematographer
- Director
- Actor
While attending Stanford University in 1912, Bert Glennon was hired as an assistant cameraman, and, upon graduation, went into the film business full-time. Becoming a director of photography in 1916, Glennon became one of the industry's most respected craftsmen and worked often for such perfectionist directors as John Ford and Cecil B. DeMille. His success as a cinematographer didn't carry over to his attempts at directing, however; the few films he directed from 1928 to 1932 were increasingly mediocre, and he gave up his attempts at directing to resume his distinguished cinematography career, where he stayed until his retirement in 1963.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Harold G. "Hal" Rosson, a cinematographer known for his subtle and imaginative lighting, was born in Genaseo, New York, on August 24, 1895, although some sources cite his birthday as April 6, 1895, or in 1889.
Rosson entered the movie industry in 1908 as an actor at the Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, New York. Eventually, he quit acting to become an assistant to director of photography Irvin Willat at the Mark Dintenfass Studios. Moving on to the Famous Players Studio in 1912, he served as a "film johnny," or jack-of-all-trades, working as an assistant, extra and handyman, while simultaneously holding down a job as an office boy in a stock brokerage. By 1914, he was employed by a small theater in Brooklyn, where his duties included being the projectionist and manning the ticket booth.
Rosson finally abandoned New York for California in December 1914 and secured employment at Metro Pictures as assistant to both property man Danny Hogan and director of photography Arthur A. Cadwell. He moved back to New York when Metro relocated there, eventually becoming a director of photography in 1915. His first film has been cited as David Harum (1915) for director Allan Dwan (film credits for cinematographers were not inaugurated until 1919, under the influence of the American Society of Cinematographers, which Rosson joined in 1927). As a cinematographer, he also worked for the Kalem Company, Famous Players and Essanay before his career was interrupted by WWI, during which he served in the army.
After being demobilized, he got a job as assistant to cinematographer H. Lyman Broening on The Dark Star (1919), which starred Marion Davies and was shot in Fort Lee, NJ. He became an employee of Davies' production company, Cosmopolitan Productions, which had been set up for her in 1918 by her lover, William Randolph Hearst. In 1920, Rosson was signed by Mary Pickford to shoot movies starring her brother, Jack Pickford.
He eventually rejoined Metro (which in 1924, merged with Goldwyn Studios and then with Louis B. Mayer Productions to become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), where he made his reputation. At MGM he was the lighting cameraman on Red Dust (1932), Red-Headed Woman (1932) and Bombshell (1933), on which his camera work showed off star Jean Harlow's platinum blonde look to maximum advantage. Rosson was married to Harlow for two years, from 1933 to 1935, which was indicative of his high status in the film community. In 1935 he moved to England to work for Alexander Korda's London Film Productions, but eventually he returned to MGM.
Rosson became a noted cinematographer in color, using the skills he had developed shooting in black & white to soften the palette created by the Technicolor process. Due to its need for high light levels, Technicolor often created gaudy images that resembled a child's coloring book. Rosson was able to make the colors more subtle, and was the recipient along with W. Howard Greene of an honorary Academy Award plaque for his color photography on The Garden of Allah (1936) in 1937 (the cinematography category was not split into color and B&W categories until the awards for 1939. The awards for color cinematography made for the 1936, '37, and '38 production years were awarded on the basis of a recommendation of a committee of leading cinematographers that viewed all the color pictures made during the year. For the 1967 awards, the B&W category was eliminated).
Rosson also was hailed for his photography on The Wizard of Oz (1939), for which he received the first of his five Academy Award nominations. When Rosson shot "Oz," he had the aid of two cameramen lent to MGM by Technicolor, and enjoyed the advice of Technicolor consultant Henri Jaffa, whose title was Technicolor Color Director (all early Technicolor films were overseen by a consultant from the company, to ensure that cinematographers and directors didn't use the process in ways Technicolor deemed improper and that violated its aesthetic criteria).
Ironically, four of Rosson's five Oscar nominations for best cinematography were for his B&W work. His B&W cinematography for The Asphalt Jungle (1950), for which he received his fourth Oscar nomination, is noted for creating the stark atmosphere that was central to the story and the overall success of the John Huston picture.
He retired in 1958 after shooting Onionhead (1958) for director Norman Taurog, though he returned to shoot El Dorado (1966) for Howard Hawks. In addition to shooting eight films for Allan Dwan between 1915 and 1929 and The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and The Red Badge of Courage (1951) for John Huston, Rosson also worked many times with directors Josef von Sternberg, Sam Wood, Cecil B. DeMille, W.S. Van Dyke, Howard Hawks, Mervyn LeRoy, Norman Taurog, Fred Zinnemann, and Vincente Minnelli. He shot the "The Trolley Song" number in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) for Minnelli and On the Town (1949) and Singin' in the Rain (1952) for Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. His most famous collaboration was with director Victor Fleming, starting in 1923 with Dark Secrets (1923) and culminating in 1939 with his work on The Wizard of Oz (1939) (in December 1938, under the direction of producer David O. Selznick, Rosson shot the burning of Atlanta sequence for Gone with the Wind (1939), for which Fleming was credited as the director).
Rosson died on September 6, 1988, in Palm Beach, Florida, well into his 90s. His long life was a fitting cap to a long and productive career.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Actor
Frank Capra's favorite cinematographer began his working life as an electrical engineer who collaborated with Lee De Forest on building the first wireless transmitter. However, it was his interest in moving picture photography which led him to work in film laboratories where his numerous pioneering inventions included the first lens adjustment mechanisms (zoom lenses), a camera and flash lamp synchronizing device, oblique image superimposition projection devices and a panoramic television camera. During World War I, Walker gained valuable hands-on experience filming aerial scenes, newsreels and other documentary footage, often for the Red Cross or Gaumont News. All the while, he continued to accumulate patents, such as the Double Exposure System and the Facial Make-Up Meter.
Once qualified as a lighting cameraman, Walker started to work in Hollywood. His first film, Back to God's Country (1919), was shot under difficult conditions near the Arctic Circle. After involvement in several low budget affairs as a free-lance cinematographer, he joined Columbia in 1927. Walker was to have a profound impact in elevating the status of this studio during the next two decades, inextricably linked with Columbia's best and commercially most successful films, until his retirement in 1952. He directed Capra's first for the studio, THAT CERTAIN THING (1928), as well as Columbia's first 'A' production, the action thriller Submarine (1928), a silent film with a music and sound effects track, which was also directed by Capra. Walker and Capra worked out a way to use miniature toys and a discarded aquarium found in the props department to conjure up 'special effects'. An artistic understanding developed between the two men, and, from Capra's picture Flight (1929), Walker worked on each of the director's films for the next decade, winning an Academy Award nomination for You Can't Take It with You (1938).
Not only an expert craftsman in composition, camera movement and perspective, as well as consummately skilled in the use of wide-angle and zoom lenses (of which he had a vast personal collection), Walker also excelled at lighting his sets. His most memorable scenes include the moonlit hay field of It Happened One Night (1934), the torchlit funeral procession of Lost Horizon (1937), and, of course, who could forget George Bailey running along the snow-covered main street of Bedford Falls in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) ? Known in the industry as a 'woman's photographer', Walker consistently captured the best attributes of his leading ladies through his close-ups, shot with his own patented 4-inch lenses. Though he worked primarily on black-and-white features, Joe Walker was equally adept at the medium of color and won his third of four Oscar nominations for Columbia's A-grade biopic, The Jolson Story (1946).
After his retirement, Walker's ever-active mind developed and manufactured the Electro-Zoom Lens for RCA (expanding on his earlier, basic design of 1932), later used as standard equipment by TV cameramen in the 1960s. In 1982, he became the inaugural recipient of the Gordon E. Sawyer Award, bestowed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for outstanding technological contributions to the industry. He detailed his memoirs two years later in his autobiography, entitled "The Light on Her Face".- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Multi-Academy Award-nominated cinematographer (13 in all), Harry Stradling was unique in that he established his reputation both in America and in Europe. He was the nephew of Mary Pickford's cameraman Walter Stradling, who provided the connections for his first job in Hollywood. Walter died in 1918 and Harry went on to serve his apprenticeship, working on B-movies and short subjects for lesser companies, like Pathe and Arrow. In 1930, he journeyed to France where he established a fruitful collaboration with the director Jacques Feyder, working on films which have become classics of French cinema: Le grand jeu (1934), La dame aux camélias (1934) and, his first noteworthy success, bringing to life the Flemish paintings of Carnival in Flanders (1935).
The visual quality of this film so impressed producer Alexander Korda, that he hired both Feyder and Stradling for his London Films production, Knight Without Armor (1937), starring Marlene Dietrich - hired by Korda for the then princely sum of $350,000. Despite budgetary constraints, which meant that many sets had be improvised and stylised, Stradling's low key lighting gave the film an impressionistic feel and made it look more 'expensive' than it was. It ended up furthering Dietrich's career and led to other prestige assignments in England, including South Riding (1938), The Citadel (1938) and Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn (1939). With an impressive portfolio thus in hand, Stradling returned to Hollywood and soon worked with 'Hitch' again on Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) and Suspicion (1941). Who can forget that indelible scene of Cary Grant ascending a staircase with that suspicious glass of warmed milk for poor Joan Fontaine (the contents of the glass rendered even more dubious by being lit from the inside with a light bulb)? The ever- innovative Stradling also impressed critics and audiences alike with his application of double exposure, creating realistic-looking twins of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. for The Corsican Brothers (1941).
Between 1942 and 1949, Harry worked at MGM, where his close-ups of the changing face of Hurd Hatfield, in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), further established him as one of the most versatile cinematographers in the business. For Republic, he imbued Nicholas Ray's off-beat Trucolor western Johnny Guitar (1954) with an immense visual style which adds to the almost lyrical quality of the picture. Glamour and technicolour were also key ingredients in Stradling's musicals for MGM, foremost among them The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) and Guys and Dolls (1955). In 1955, Harry went across to Warner Brothers . During his nine year-long tenure there, he earned four Academy Award nominations, culminating in a second Oscar for his much lauded 70 mm filming of My Fair Lady (1964). Towards the end of his career, he contributed to boosting Barbra Streisand's, particularly through his meticulous soft-focus photography of Hello, Dolly! (1969) and Funny Girl (1968). Harry died on the job, during filming of another Streisand vehicle, The Owl and the Pussycat (1970), and was replaced by Andrew Laszlo.- Director
- Cinematographer
- Producer
British director Bernard Knowles started his career as a newspaper photographer, and in the 1920s journeyed to the US and worked as a photographer for the Detroit News. Upon his return to England in 1922 he was hired by Gainsborough Pictures as an assistant cameraman, and it didn't take long for him to become a full-fledged Director of Photography. He gained a reputation as an innovator in photographic techniques and for his mastery of moody, atmospheric black-and-white photography, most notably on such classic films as The 39 Steps (1935), King Solomon's Mines (1937) and Gaslight (1940). After World War II he set out to fulfill his ambition of becoming a director, and his debut was the well-received ghost story A Place of One's Own (1945). However, his next film, The Magic Bow (1946), a "biopic" of 19th-century violinist/composer Nicolo Paganini, was a critical and commercial flop, being derided as heavy-handed and slow-moving. His film career faded somewhat after that, and in the mid-'50s he turned to television, making the occasional foray back into feature films.- Cinematographer
- Actor
Jean Bachelet was born on 8 October 1894 in Dole, Jura, France. He was a cinematographer and actor, known for The Rules of the Game (1939), La réponse du destin (1926) and Nana (1926). He died on 26 February 1977 in Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes, France.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Jean-Paul Alphen was born on 20 April 1911 in Paris, France. He was a cinematographer, known for The Rules of the Game (1939), La Marseillaise (1938) and Life Is Ours (1936). He died on 28 April 1993.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Production Manager
Jacques Lemare was born on 14 December 1912 in Paris, France. Jacques was a cinematographer and production manager, known for The Rules of the Game (1939), Ça va barder (1955) and The Hands of Orlac (1960). Jacques died on 2 June 1988 in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France.- Camera and Electrical Department
- Actor
- Cinematographer
After World War II, Alain Renoir entered college at the University of Santa Barbara. There he met the woman he was to marry, Jane, who was obtaining a degree in nutrition. One of his required classes was nutrition, and he had an assignment to describe a nutritious meal. With Jane's help, he and a friend devised a meal with the least nutrition possible. It drove his professor crazy.
Despite not being able to speak English until after he joined the American Army, Renoir was admitted to the Department of English at Harvard University's graduate school. While there, where he obtained a doctorate in Old English Literature under the brilliant (and slightly wacky) Francis P. Magoun, Jr.
Upon receiving his Ph.D., Renoir came to the University of California, Berkeley, where he remained a professor of English until his retirement in 1989. He co-founded the Department of Comparative Literature there, where it still thrives. A number of important scholars of Old English received their doctorates under his guidance. He was a formidable figure in the field of Oral-Formulaic theory, where his experience as a cinematographer helped bring to life the ancient techniques of storytelling of 7th-10th century England.
He often spoke with great fondness of his father, Jean Renoir, to his students, but he never permitted anyone to discuss his grandfather. Occasionally he would make reference to Pierre-Auguste Renoir (whom he never met) by saying, "I had a grandfather who painted pictures."
Alain Renoir died at his country estate in Northern California on December 12, 2008 in the presence of his late-life companion, Pat Powers.