Edward Dmytryk September 4 1908 July 1 1999 was an American film director who was amongst the Hollywood Ten a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who served time in prison for being in contempt of Congress during the McCarthyera red scare Although born in Grand Forks British Columbia Canada Dmytryk grew up in San Francisco when his Ukrainian parents moved to the United States At the age of 31 he became a naturalized citizen His best known films from the preMcCarthy period of his career were film noirs Crossfire for which he received a Best Director Oscar nomination and Murder My Sweet the latter an adaptation of Raymond Chandlers Farewell My Lovely In addition he made two World War II films Hitlers Children the story of the Hitler youth and Back to Bataan starring John Wayne The late 1940s was the time of the Second Red Scare and Dmytryk was one of many filmmakers investigated Summoned to appear before the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities HUAC he refused to cooperate and was sent to jail After spending several months behind bars Dmytryk made the decision to testify again and give the names of his fellow members in the American Communist Party as the HUAC had demanded On April 25 1951 Dmytryk appeared before HUAC for the second time answering all questions He spoke of his own Party past a very brief membership in 1945 including the naming of twentysix former members of leftwing groups He explained how John Howard Lawson Adrian Scott Albert Maltz and others had pressured him to include communist propaganda in his films His testimony damaged several court cases that others of the socalled Hollywood 10 had filed He recounted his experiences of the period in his revealing 1996 book Odd Man Out A Memoir of the Hollywood Ten Southern Illinois University Press Carbondale IL For a time Dmytryk moved to England and Stanley Kramer hired him to direct a trio of lowbudget films before handing Dmytryk The Caine Mutiny He made films for major studios Columbia 20th Century Fox MGM and Paramount Pictures including among others Raintree County The Left Hand of God The Young Lions a remake of the Marlene Dietrich classic The Blue Angel and The Carpetbaggers Later into the 60 and 70s he directed Where Love Has Gone Anzio Alvarez Kelly Shalako and his final film Bluebeard The films which he directed featured stars such as Humphrey Bogart Clark Gable Gene Tierney Spencer Tracy Elizabeth Taylor Bette Davis Montgomery Clift Marlon Brando Sean Connery Robert Mitchum Richard Burton Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda After his film career tapered off in the 1970s he entered academia and taught at the University of Texas at Austin and at the University of Southern California He wrote several books on the art of filmmaking such as On Film Editing and lectured at various colleges and theaters such as the Orson Welles Cinema Dmytryk died from heart and kidney failure on 1 July 1999 aged 90 in Encino California
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