Arthur Eugene Milford (January 19, 1902 – December 23, 1991) was an American film and television editor with about one hundred feature film credits. Among his most noted films are ''
Lost Horizon
''Lost Horizon'' is a 1933 novel by English writer James Hilton. The book was turned into a film, also called '' Lost Horizon'', in 1937 by director Frank Capra. It is best remembered as the origin of Shangri-La, a fictional utopian lamas ...
'' (directed by
Frank Capra - 1937), ''
On the Waterfront'' (directed by
Elia Kazan - 1954), ''
A Face in the Crowd'' (Kazan - 1957), and ''
Wait Until Dark
''Wait Until Dark'' is a play by Frederick Knott, first performed on Broadway in 1966 and often revived since then. A Wait Until Dark (film), film version was released in 1967, and the play was published in the same year.
Synopsis
Susy Hendrix ...
'' (directed by
Terence Young - 1967).
Milford won the
Academy Award for Best Film Editing
The Academy Award for Best Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. For 33 consecutive years, ...
for ''Lost Horizon'' (with
Gene Havlick
Gene Havlick (March 16, 1894 in Enid, Oklahoma, USA – May 11, 1959 in Los Angeles, California) was an American film editor.
He was nominated for three Academy Awards, winning one.
He worked on over 100 films during his 30-year career.
Early ...
) and for ''On the Waterfront''; he was also nominated for an Academy Award for ''
One Night of Love
''One Night of Love'' is a 1934 American Columbia Pictures romantic musical film set in the opera world, starring Grace Moore and Tullio Carminati. The film was directed by Victor Schertzinger and adapted from the story ''Don't Fall in Love'', by ...
'' (directed by
Victor Schertzinger
Victor L. Schertzinger (April 8, 1888 – October 26, 1941) was an American composer, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. His films include '' Paramount on Parade'' (co-director, 1930), ''Something to Sing About'' (1937) with James C ...
- 1934). He had been elected to the
American Cinema Editors, and he and
Barbara McLean
Barbara "Bobby" McLean (November 16, 1903 – March 28, 1996) was an American film editor with 62 film credits.
In the period Darryl F. Zanuck was dominant at the 20th Century Fox Studio, from the 1930s through the 1960s, McLean was the stud ...
received its inaugural
Career Achievement Awards in 1988.
Partial filmography
![Eva marie saint marlon brando waterfront 10](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Eva_marie_saint_marlon_brando_waterfront_10.jpg)
* 1926: ''
Two Can Play''
* 1927: ''
Say It with Diamonds''
* 1927: ''
Ladies at Ease
''Ladies at Ease'' is a 1927 American silent comedy film directed by Jerome Storm and starring Pauline Garon, Gertrude Short and Gardner James.Munden p.411
Cast
* Pauline Garon as Polly
* Gertrude Short as Mabel
* Gardner James as Bill Brew ...
''
* 1928: ''
The Devil's Cage''
* 1928: ''
Life's Mockery
''Life's Mockery'' is a 1928 American silent drama film directed by Robert F. Hill and starring Betty Compson. It was produced by independent studio Chadwick Pictures who also distributed.
Cast
*Betty Compson as Kit Miller / Isabelle Fullerton
...
''
* 1930: ''
Around the Corner
''Around the Corner'' is a 1930 American comedy-drama film directed by Bert Glennon and starring George Sidney, Charles Murray and Joan Peers.Fetrow p.25 It was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures.
Cast
* George Sidney as Kaplan
...
''
* 1931: ''
Branded''
* 1932: ''
Sundown Rider
''Sundown Rider'' is a 1932 American pre-Code Western film directed by Lambert Hillyer and starring Buck Jones. It was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures. A print is held by the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Con ...
''
* 1932: ''
Forbidden Trail''
* 1933: ''
My Woman''
* 1933: ''
The California Trail''
* 1934: ''
The Ninth Guest''
* 1934: ''
The Man Trailer
''The Man Trailer'' is a 1934 American pre-Code western film directed by Lambert Hillyer and starring Buck Jones and Cecilia Parker. It was a remake of the 1930 film ''The Lone Rider'' which had also starred Jones.Pitts p.207 It was shot at the Iv ...
''
* 1934: ''
One Night of Love
''One Night of Love'' is a 1934 American Columbia Pictures romantic musical film set in the opera world, starring Grace Moore and Tullio Carminati. The film was directed by Victor Schertzinger and adapted from the story ''Don't Fall in Love'', by ...
''
* 1934: ''
The Captain Hates the Sea
''The Captain Hates the Sea'' is a 1934 comedy film directed by Lewis Milestone and released by Columbia Pictures. The film, which involves a '' Grand Hotel''-style series of intertwining stories involving the passengers on a cruise ship, is ...
''
* 1935: ''
Let's Live Tonight''
* 1935: ''
Grand Exit
''Grand Exit'' is a 1935 American detective mystery film with comedy elements, directed for Columbia Pictures by Erle C. Kenton, with screenplay by Bruce Manning and Lionel Houser, based on a story by Gene Towne and Graham Baker. The leads, in ...
''
* 1936: ''
Shakedown
Shakedown may refer to:
* Shakedown (continuum mechanics), a type of plastic deformation
* Shakedown (testing) or a shakedown cruise, a period of testing undergone by a ship, airplane or other craft before being declared operational
* Extortion, ...
''
* 1936: ''
The Music Goes 'Round
''The Music Goes 'Round'' is a 1936 American musical comedy film directed by Victor Schertzinger and starring Harry Richman, Rochelle Hudson and Walter Connolly
Walter Connolly (April 8, 1887 – May 28, 1940) was an American character ac ...
''
* 1936: ''
They Met in a Taxi
''They Met in a Taxi'' is a 1936 American comedy film directed by Alfred E. Green and starring Chester Morris, Fay Wray and Raymond Walburn.Kinnard & Crnkovich p.142 It was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Indu ...
''
* 1937: ''
Lost Horizon
''Lost Horizon'' is a 1933 novel by English writer James Hilton. The book was turned into a film, also called '' Lost Horizon'', in 1937 by director Frank Capra. It is best remembered as the origin of Shangri-La, a fictional utopian lamas ...
''
* 1939: ''
I Was a Convict
''I Was a Convict'' is a 1939 American crime film directed by Aubrey Scotto and written by Robert Hardy Andrews and Ben Markson. The film stars Barton MacLane, Beverly Roberts, Clarence Kolb, Janet Beecher, Horace McMahon and Ben Welden. The fi ...
''
* 1939: ''
Coast Guard
A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...
''
* 1941: ''
Tillie the Toiler
''Tillie the Toiler'' is a newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Russ Westover who initially worked on his concept of a flapper character in a strip he titled ''Rose of the Office''. With a title change, it sold to King Features Syndicate ...
''
* 1944: ''
The Falcon Out West
''The Falcon Out West'' (aka ''The Falcon in Texas'') is a 1944 American mystery film directed by William Clemens and starring Tom Conway, Joan Barclay and Barbara Hale. The film was part of RKO's The Falcon series of detective films, this ti ...
''
* 1945: ''
Having Wonderful Crime
''Having Wonderful Crime'' is a 1945 American screwball comedy and mystery film directed by Eddie Sutherland from a screenplay by Howard J. Green, Stewart Sterling, and Parke Levy, based on the novel of the same name by Craig Rice. In her s ...
''
* 1954: ''
On the Waterfront'' (Kazan)
* 1956: ''
Baby Doll
''Baby Doll'' is a 1956 American dramatic black comedy film directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Carroll Baker, Karl Malden, and Eli Wallach. It was produced by Kazan and Tennessee Williams, and adapted by Williams from his own one-act play '' ...
'' (Kazan)
* 1957: ''
A Face in the Crowd'' (Kazan)
* 1960: ''
The Pusher
"The Pusher" is a rock song written by Hoyt Axton, made popular by the 1969 movie ''Easy Rider'' which used Steppenwolf's version to accompany the opening scenes showing drug trafficking.
The lyrics of the song distinguish between a ''dealer ...
''
* 1961 ''
Splendor in the Grass
''Splendor in the Grass'' is a 1961 American period drama film produced and directed by Elia Kazan, from a screenplay written by William Inge. It stars Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty (in his film debut) as two high school sweethearts, naviga ...
'' (Kazan)
* 1962: ''
Taras Bulba
''Taras Bulba'' (russian: «Тарас Бульба»; ) is a romanticized historical novella set in the first half of the 17th century, written by Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852). It features elderly Zaporozhian Cossack Taras Bulba and his sons And ...
''
* 1966: ''
The Chase'' (
Penn)
* 1967: ''
Wait Until Dark
''Wait Until Dark'' is a play by Frederick Knott, first performed on Broadway in 1966 and often revived since then. A Wait Until Dark (film), film version was released in 1967, and the play was published in the same year.
Synopsis
Susy Hendrix ...
''
* 1970: ''
There Was a Crooked Man...'' (
Mankiewicz)
* 1973: ''
The Man Without a Country
"The Man Without a Country" is a short story by American writer Edward Everett Hale, first published in ''The Atlantic'' in December 1863. It is the story of American Army lieutenant Philip Nolan, who renounces his country during a trial for t ...
''
* 1974: ''
W''
References
Further reading
* An appreciation of the editing of this film, which is possibly the most influential film that Milford edited.
*
* LoBrutto discusses the editing of ''On the Waterfront'' in terms of the transition between styles of acting, with the earlier style reflecting the persona of the actor, and the successor "method" style reflecting an interpretation of the character.
* Discussion of the editing of ''Lost Horizon''. The preview of the film's first cut to an audience in Santa Barbara had been a disaster, and subsequent cuts were very different.
* Piper uses a scene from ''On the Waterfront'' to illustrate editing technique. During a speech to stevedores by the local catholic priest, Milford intercut the reactions of listeners with shots of the priest himself.
External links
*
American film editors
1902 births
1991 deaths
Best Film Editing Academy Award winners
{{film-editor-stub