Gene Milford

Gene Milford
Born	Arthur Eugene Milford January 19, 1902 Lamar, Colorado
Died	December 23, 1991 (aged 89) Santa Monica, California
Occupation	Film editor

Arthur Eugene "Gene" 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 (directed by Frank Capra - 1937), On the Waterfront (directed by Elia Kazan - 1954), A Face in the Crowd (Kazan - 1957), and Wait Until Dark (directed by Terence Young - 1967).^[1][2]

Milford won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for Lost Horizon (with Gene Havlick) and for On the Waterfront; he was also nominated for an Academy Award for One Night of Love (directed by Victor Schertzinger - 1934). He had been elected to the American Cinema Editors, and received its inaugural Career Achievement Award in 1988.

Partial filmography

• The Ninth Guest (1934)
• Let's Live Tonight (1935)
• The Falcon Out West (1944)
• The Pusher (1960)

References

1. Honan, William H. (January 7, 1992). "Arthur Milford, 89, Film Editor, Is Dead; Winner of 2 Oscars". The New York Times.
2. Gene Milford at the Internet Movie Database

Further reading

• Braudy, Leo (2005). On the Waterfront. British Film Institute Classics 78. Macmillan. p. 34. ISBN 9781844570720. Of course, all traditional narrative films try to make the cuts invisible and create the illusion of a continuous space. But here particularly that illusion is connected to the ethos of a community, the illusory comfort of D 'n D and the embrace of the group. An appreciation of the editing of this film, which is possibly the most influential film that Milford edited.
• LoBrutto, Vincent (2012). "On the Waterfront (1954)". The Art of Motion Picture Editing: An Essential Guide to Methods, Principles, Processes, and Terminology. Skyhorse Publishing Inc. p. 112. ISBN 9781581158816. Milford had to understand the changing role of acting in American film. After a career of cutting more conventional actors, and a more mannered Hollywood style of performance, the editor working with Kazan learned how to apply the right editing strategy to sustain and capture the method style of On the Waterfront. 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.
• McBride, Joseph (2011). Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 362. ISBN 9781604738384. 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, Jim (2001). Get the Picture?: The Movie Lover's Guide to Watching Movies. Skyhorse Publishing. p. 63. ISBN 9781581150810. 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.