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Edward Dmytryk

Edward Dmytryk was a film director whose career was heavily curtailed due to the blacklist of the 1940s/1950s & HUAC (House Committee on Un-American Activities).

He was born in Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada on 4 September 1908. His parents were both Ukranian & settled in Grand Forks - a few miles north of the American border. When WWI erupted, the Canadian government began interning all immigrants who had been citizens of the Austro-Hungarian empire. As a result his family moved across the border from Canada to the United States to Northport, Washington. They lived there until 1917 when Dmytryk's mother died at the age of 33. His father then moved with his four sons to San Francisco for 2 years. After that his father remarried & they all moved to a suburb of Los Angeles, now called West Hollywood. Dmytryk became a naturalised American citizen in 1939 - the year before he became a "full-fledged film director".

He is known because he is/was one of the "Hollywood Ten". The Hollywood Ten were 7 screenwriters, 2 directors and 1 producer. All of whom were cited for contempt of Congress (they would not 'name names' of other supposed 'communists') as a result of the HUAC (House Committee on Un-American Activities) investigations & all served 1 year federal prison sentences in 1950.

He is best known for his film noir works - Crossfire (1947), Murder my Sweet (US)/Farewell my Lovely (UK) (1944), But prior to them, he made numerous 'B' movies including 'Hitler's Children', which, according to Dymtryk himself in his book Odd Man Out: A Memoir of the Hollywood Ten, was his "passport to fame and fortune". He also made Tender Comrade (1943) which starred Ginger Rogers and was aimed at the wives & women workers of the American wartime economy.

He received his subpoena from HUAC in September 1947. He refused to name names when put in front of the committee & went to prison as a result - just as the other 9 of the Hollywood Ten did. After he served his sentence, however, he went back in front of the committee & did name names (names that were already known, but names nonetheless) so that he could work again. His career as a director never rebounded to its former glory, but he did teach at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) & at the University of Texas at Austin. He died in 1999.



What members say | Filmography

Edward Dmytryk - what members say


  • Obsession
  • Obsession review by from Leeds, West Yorkshire
    Rated - 4.0 stars Excellent British Film Noir 20 December 2007
    ...Edward Dmytryk's excellent film of a book by Alec Coppel (who worked with Hitchcock on a number of projects) exacts precise and macabre revenge on his wife's lover in only th...   Read customer review
  • Murder, My Sweet. Farewell, My Lovely
  • Murder, My Sweet. Farewell, My Lovely review by A customer from Doncaster
    Rated - 3.0 stars Danger Hides in the Shadows 25 October 2010
    ...or, with Anne Shirley and Miles Mander. Well served by intelligent direction by Edward Dmytryk this is one of the earliest 'film noir'....   Read customer review

Edward Dmytryk - filmography


  • The Human Factor on DVD (1975)
    Starring: George Kennedy,  John Mills,  Raf Vallone
    Director: Edward Dmytryk
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    George Kennedy stars in this 1970s revenge film as John Kinsdale, a military employee stationed in Naples who uses state-of-the-art (for the time) computer technology to track down the terrorists who killed his family. Local police inspector Dr. Lupo (Raf Vallone) and Kinsdale’s commander (Arthur ..read more »
    2.5 stars out of 5 54% from 40 members
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  • Shalako on DVD (1969)
    Starring: Sean Connery,  Brigitte Bardot,  Stephen Boyd
    Director: Edward Dmytryk
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    In late-19th-century New Mexico, a hunting party of decadent European aristocrats wanders onto the reservation of some angry Apaches, and it's up to the mysterious wanderer, Shalako (Sean Connery), to save them from getting slaughtered. The group includes Honor Blackman (Pussy Galore in GOLDFINGER) ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 57% from 328 members
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  • Anzio on DVD (1968)
    Starring: Robert Mitchum,  Peter Falk,  Arthur Kennedy
    Director: Edward Dmytryk
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    Classic World War II story of the Allied landing at Anzio Beach in Italy, the first and most costly battle of the Italian Campaign. Robert Mitchum stars as an American news correspondent covering the landing, under fire, of British and American troops. Based on a novel by Wynford Vaughan-Thomas.
    3 stars out of 5 60% from 850 members
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  • Alvarez Kelly on DVD (1966)
    Starring: William Holden,  Victoria Shaw,  Janice Rule
    Director: Edward Dmytryk
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    William Holden (NETWORK, SUNSET BOULEVARD) stars in this rugged Western--based on an actual incident--as a Mexican-Irish rancher who sells his herd to the Union army during the Civil War. An eye-patch-wearing Confederate colonel (Richard Widmark) tries to buy the cattle, but apolitical Kelly doesn'..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 58% from 224 members
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  • Walk On The Wild Side (1962)
    Starring: Laurence Harvey,  Capucine,  Jane Fonda
    Director: Edward Dmytryk
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    At the Dolls House, a 1930's bordello, Hallie is the main attraction for both the clients and for Jo, the Madame. Her comfortable if not tedious existence is disrupted by the arrival in town of Dove Linkhorn, her true love of 3 years before who has been searching for her. When Linkhorn learns the ..read more »
    2 stars out of 5 43% from 14 members
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  • Warlock (1959)
    Starring: Richard Widmark,  Henry Fonda,  Anthony Quinn
    Director: Edward Dmytryk
    Certificate: Certificate: U
    Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
    The town of Warlock is plagued by a gang of thugs, leading the inhabitants to hire Clay Blaisdell, a famous gunman, to act as Marshal. Various townspeople, concerned by the illegality of Blaisdell's position, induce one of the thugs, who has reformed, to accept the post of Sheriff in rivalry to the ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 66% from 293 members
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  • The End Of The Affair on DVD (1955)
    Starring: Deborah Kerr,  Peter Cushing,  Christopher Lee
    Director: Edward Dmytryk
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    Recently freed from his MGM contract, Van Johnson headed to England to star in a series of pictures, the first of which was The End of the Affair. Adapted by Lenore Coffee from the novel by Graham Greene, the film casts Johnson as Maurice Bendrix, the clandestine lover of married Briton Sarah Miles ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 64% from 141 members
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  • Broken Lance on DVD (1954)
    Starring: Spencer Tracy,  Robert Wagner,  Jean Peters
    Director: Edward Dmytryk
    Certificate: Certificate: U
    Cattle baron Matt Devereaux raids a copper smelter that is polluting his water. When questioned about the raid, to spare his father, his son, Joe takes responsibility and is sentenced to three years in prison. Matt dies from a stroke, and so when Joe is released, he plans his revenge.
    3 stars out of 5 62% from 173 members
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  • The Caine Mutiny - Blu-ray (1954)
    Starring: Humphrey Bogart,  Van Johnson,  Jose Ferrer
    Director: Edward Dmytryk
    Certificate: Certificate: U
    In director Edward Dmytryk's classic seafaring drama, privileged mama's boy Ensign Keith (Robert Francis) gets assigned to the Caine, a rusty old minesweeper with a haggard, undisciplined crew during the latter days of WWII. Soon the paranoid, strawberry-loving Captain Queeg (Humprey Bogart) takes ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 65% from 4 members
    Due for release on 2nd July 2012
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  • The Caine Mutiny on DVD (1954)
    Starring: Humphrey Bogart,  Van Johnson,  Jose Ferrer
    Director: Edward Dmytryk
    Certificate: Certificate: U
    Robert Francis is at the center of the story as Willis Keith, a newly minted ensign assigned to the U.S.S. Caine. Keith has an uneasy relationship with his skipper, Lt. Comdr. DeVries (Tom Tully), partly through his own ineptitude and as a result of his disapproval of the slovenly way DeVries seems ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 69% from 802 members
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  • Mutiny on DVD (1952)
    Starring: Mark Stevens,  Angela Lansbury,  Patric Knowles
    Director: Edward Dmytryk
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
    Director Edward Dmytryk returned from a few unhappy years on the Blacklist in the early 1950s, to direct a handful of programmers before being restored to A pictures. Dmytrk's Mutiny is set during the War of 1812. Mark Stevens, captain of the American ship Concord, finds himself at the mercy of ..read more »
    1.5 stars out of 5 30% from 2 members
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  • Obsession on DVD (1948)
    Starring: Sally Gray,  Phil Brown,  Robert Newton
    Director: Edward Dmytryk
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    In the thriller Obsession, Robert Newton stars as a possessed doctor humilitaed by his faithless wife's love for a younger man. He plans to rid himself of her lover by means of an acid bath murder...
    3.5 stars out of 5 69% from 297 members
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  • Crossfire on DVD (1947)
    Starring: Robert Young,  Robert Ryan,  Robert Mitchum
    Director: Edward Dmytryk
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    Years of police work have taught Detective Finlay that where there's crime, there's motive. But he finds no usual motive when investigating the beating death of a man. The man was killed because he was a Jew. "Hate," Finlay says, "is like a gun." Robert Young portrays Finlay, Robert Mitchum is a ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 68% from 390 members
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  • Cornered on DVD (1945)
    Starring: Dick Powell,  Walter Slezak,  Micheline Cheirel
    Director: Edward Dmytryk
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    The war's over but ex-POW Lt. Lawrence Gerard (Dick Powell) has a score to settle and he doesn't mean to do things by the book. His bride was in the French resistance; she was one of fifty freedom fighters murdered by shadowy Vichy collaborator Marcel Jarnac. People tell him that Jarnac's dead ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 61% from 17 members
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Edward Dmytryk facts

5 most recent films

The Human Factor - 2.5 stars
Shalako - 3.0 stars
Anzio - 3.0 stars
Alvarez Kelly - 3.0 stars
Mirage - 3.0 stars

5 highest-rated films

Murder, My Sweet. Farewell, My Lovely - 3.5 stars
The Caine Mutiny - 3.5 stars
Obsession - 3.5 stars
Crossfire - 3.5 stars
Warlock - 3.5 stars

5 lowest-rated films

Mutiny - 1.5 stars
Walk On The Wild Side - 2.0 stars
The Falcon Strikes Back - 2.0 stars
The Human Factor - 2.5 stars
Mirage - 3.0 stars

Most frequent co-stars

Richard Widmark - 4 times - show films
Anthony Quinn - 3 times - show films
Van Johnson - 3 times - show films
Marlon Brando - 2 times - show films
Robert Ryan - 2 times - show films

Most frequent directors

Henry Koster - 2 times - show films