Arthur Edeson, A.S.C. (October 24, 1891 – February 14, 1970) was a film cinematographer

Cinematographer

A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...

, born in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

He was nominated for three Academy Awards

Academy Awards

An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

 in his career in cinema.

Career

Edeson began his career as a still photographer, but turned to movies in 1911 as a camera operator at the American Éclair Studio

Eclair (camera)

Éclair was a film production, film laboratory and movie camera manufacturing company established in Épinay-sur-Seine, France by Charles Jourjon in 1907....

 in Fort Lee, New Jersey

Fort Lee, New Jersey

Fort Lee is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 35,345. Located atop the Hudson Palisades, the borough is the western terminus of the George Washington Bridge...

 when it and many other early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based there at the beginning of the 20th century. When the Éclair Studio was reorganized as the World Film Corporation, he was promoted to chief cinematographer assigned to the star Clara Kimball Young

Clara Kimball Young

Clara Kimball Young was an American film actress, who was highly regarded and publicly popular in the early silent film era.-Early life:...

. Throughout the twenties, Edeson photographed a number of important films, including Douglas Fairbanks

Douglas Fairbanks

Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....

' Robin Hood

Robin Hood (1922 film)

Robin Hood is the first motion picture ever to have a Hollywood premiere, held at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre on October 18, 1922. The movie's full title, under which it was copyrighted, is Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood, as shown in the illustration at right...

 (1922) and The Thief of Bagdad

The Thief of Bagdad (1924 film)

The Thief of Bagdad is a 1924 American swashbuckler film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Douglas Fairbanks. Freely adapted from One Thousand and One Nights, it tells the story of a thief who falls in love with the daughter of the Caliph of Bagdad...

 (1924),
and the groundbreaking special effects film The Lost World

The Lost World (1925 film)

The Lost World is a 1925 silent film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel of the same name. The movie was produced by First National Pictures, a large Hollywood studio at the time, and stars Wallace Beery as Professor Challenger. This version was directed by Harry O...

 (1925).

When sound came in, Edeson experimented with camouflaging the microphones in exterior shots. In Old Arizona

In Old Arizona

In Old Arizona is a 1929 American Western film directed by Irving Cummings and Raoul Walsh, nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film, which was based on the character of the Cisco Kid in the story The Caballero's Way by O...

 (1929), the first sound film to be shot outside a studio, provided evidence to Hollywood executives that talking pictures need not be confined to the sound stage

Sound stage

In common usage, a sound stage is a soundproof, hangar-like structure, building, or room, used for the production of theatrical filmmaking and television production, usually located on a secure movie studio property.-Overview:...

. The western was also the first 70 mm wide-screen process, known as "Grandeur."

In the early thirties, perhaps his most memorable creative partnership was formed with director James Whale

James Whale

James Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his work in the horror film genre, having directed such classics as Frankenstein , The Old Dark House , The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein...

, for whom he photographed the first three of Whale's quartet of horror films: Frankenstein

Frankenstein (1931 film)

Frankenstein is a 1931 Pre-Code Horror Monster film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and adapted from the play by Peggy Webling which in turn is based on the novel of the same name by Mary Shelley. The film stars Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles and Boris Karloff, and features...

 (1931), The Old Dark House

The Old Dark House

The Old Dark House is an American comedy horror film directed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff, produced just one year after their success with Frankenstein, also released by Universal Studios.-Background:...

 (1932), and The Invisible Man

The Invisible Man (1933 film)

The Invisible Man is a 1933 science fiction film based on H. G. Wells' science fiction novel The Invisible Man, published in 1897, as adapted by R. C. Sherriff, Philip Wylie and Preston Sturges, whose work was considered unsatisfactory and who was taken off the project...

 (1933).

According to critic M. S. Fonseca, Edeson was one of the "master craftsmen" of the old American school. His principal work was on the side of realism, which is considered by most film historians to represent the "zenith of Hollywood photography." Edeson built on the influence of German Expressionism

German Expressionism

German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s...

, brought to the America cinema by German cinematographers during the 1920s.

Edeson was one of the founders of the American Society of Cinematographers

American Society of Cinematographers

The American Society of Cinematographers is an educational, cultural, and professional organization. It is not a labor union, and it is not a guild. Membership is by invitation and is extended only to directors of photography and special effects experts with distinguished credits in the film...

 in 1919.

Filmography

• A Gentleman from Mississippi (1914)
• The Dollar Mark (1914)
• The Deep Purple (1915)
• Wildfire (1915)
• Hearts in Exile
  Hearts in Exile (1915 film)
  Hearts in Exile is a 1915 American film directed by James Young. It was produced by Peerless Studios when it and many other early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based in Fort Lee, New Jersey at the beginning of the 20th century...
  
   (1915)
• His Brother's Wife (1916)
• The Devil's Toy (1916)
• Miss Petticoats (1916)
• The Gilded Cage (1916)
• Bought and Paid For (1916)
• A Woman Alone (1917)
• A Square Deal 1917)
• The Master Hand (1917)
• The Social Leper (1917)
• The Page Mystery (1917)
• In Again—Out Again (1917)
• The Stolen Paradise (1917)
• The Price of Pride (1917)
• Wild and Woolly (1917)
• Souls Adrift (1917)
• Baby Mine
  Baby Mine
  Baby Mine is a 1917 silent film comedy directed by both John S. Robertson and Hugo Ballin and starring Madge Kennedy. The picture marked Kennedy's screen debut and was one of the first films produced by Samuel Goldwyn as an independent after founding his own studio. It is based on a 1910 Broadway...
  
   (1917)
• Reaching for the Moon (1917)
• Nearly Married
  Nearly Married
  Nearly Married is a 1917 silent film comedy produced by Samuel Goldwyn and starring Madge Kennedy. It is based on a 1913 stage play Nearly Married by Edgar Selwyn. Also an early film appearance by future gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. A lost film....
  
   (1917)
• The Road Through the Dark (1918)
• Jack Spurlock, Prodigal (1918)
• The Savage Woman (1918)
• The Hushed Hour (1919)
• Cheating Cheaters (1919)
• The Better Wife (1919)
• For the Soul of Rafael (1920)
• Mid-Channel (1920)
• The Forbidden Woman (1920)
• The Three Musketeers
  The Three Musketeers (1921 film)
  __notoc__The Three Musketeers is an American silent film based on the novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père. It was directed by Fred Niblo and starred Douglas Fairbanks as d'Artagnan. The film originally had scenes filmed in the Handschiegl Color Process...
  
   (1921)
• Hush (1921)
• Good Women (1921)
• Robin Hood
  Robin Hood (1922 film)
  Robin Hood is the first motion picture ever to have a Hollywood premiere, held at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre on October 18, 1922. The movie's full title, under which it was copyrighted, is Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood, as shown in the illustration at right...
  
   (1922)
• The Worldly Madonna (1922)
• Inez From Hollywood (1924)
• The Thief of Bagdad
  The Thief of Bagdad (1924 film)
  The Thief of Bagdad is a 1924 American swashbuckler film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Douglas Fairbanks. Freely adapted from One Thousand and One Nights, it tells the story of a thief who falls in love with the daughter of the Caliph of Bagdad...
  
   (1924)
• The Lost World
  The Lost World (1925 film)
  The Lost World is a 1925 silent film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel of the same name. The movie was produced by First National Pictures, a large Hollywood studio at the time, and stars Wallace Beery as Professor Challenger. This version was directed by Harry O...
  
   (1925)
• Stella Dallas
  Stella Dallas (1925 film)
  Stella Dallas is a 1925 film that was adapted by Frances Marion and directed by Henry King. It stars Ronald Colman, Belle Bennett, Lois Moran, Alice Joyce, Jean Hersholt, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.-Cast:*Ronald Colman - Stephen Dallas...
  
   (1925)
• The Talker (1925)
• Her Sister From Paris (1925)
• One Way Street (1925)
• Waking Up the Town (1925)
• Just Another Blonde (1926)
• Partners Again (1926)
• Sweet Daddies (1926)

• The Bat
  The Bat (1926 film)
  The Bat is a silent film based on the 1920 hit Broadway play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, directed by Roland West and starring Jack Pickford and Louise Fazenda...
  
   (1926)
• Subway Sadie (1926)
• The Drop Kick
  The Drop Kick
  The Drop Kick was a 1927 silent film directed by Millard Webb written by Katherine Brush about a college football player who finds his reputation on the line when he pays an innocent visit to a woman whose husband kills himself. It was one of the early films of John Wayne who was only aged 20 in...
  
   (1927)
• McFadden's Flats (1927)
• The Patent Leather Kid
  The Patent Leather Kid
  The Patent Leather Kid is a 1927 silent film which tells the story of a boxer who scoffs at fighting outside the ring... particularly for the United States once it enters World War I. Eventually, he is drafted, is shipped overseas, and performs a heroic act, which results in his being severely...
  
   (1927)
• The Gorilla
  The Gorilla (1927 film)
  The Gorilla is a 1927 American silent horror film directed by Alfred Santell based on the play of the same name by Ralph Spence. The film stars Charles Murray, Fred Kelsey, and Walter Pidgeon. The plot of the film revolves around a series of murders committed by a man in an ape suit...
  
   (1927)
• In Old Arizona
  In Old Arizona
  In Old Arizona is a 1929 American Western film directed by Irving Cummings and Raoul Walsh, nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film, which was based on the character of the Cisco Kid in the story The Caballero's Way by O...
  
   (1928)
• Me, Gangster 1928
• A Thief in the Dark (1928)
• Romance of the Rio Grande (1929)
• The Cock-Eyed World
  The Cock-Eyed World
  The Cock-Eyed World is a musical film made by Fox Film Corporation, directed and written Raoul Walsh, based on the Flagg and Quirt story by Maxwell Anderson, Tom Barry, Wilson Mizner and Laurence Stallings...
  
   (1929)
• Girls Gone Wild (1929)
• The Big Trail
  The Big Trail
  The Big Trail is a lavish early widescreen movie shot on location across the American West starring John Wayne in his first leading role and directed by Raoul Walsh....
  
   (1930) (70mm version)
• All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
• Waterloo Bridge (1931)
• Always Goodbye (1931)
• La Piste des Geants (1931)
• Frankenstein
  Frankenstein (1931 film)
  Frankenstein is a 1931 Pre-Code Horror Monster film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and adapted from the play by Peggy Webling which in turn is based on the novel of the same name by Mary Shelley. The film stars Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles and Boris Karloff, and features...
  
   (1931)
• The Man Who Came Back
  The Man Who Came Back
  The Man Who Came Back is a 1931 American drama film directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. The movie was adapted to screen by Edwin J...
  
   (1931)
• Doctors' Wives (1931)
• Those We Love (1932)
• Fast Companions (1932)
• The Impatient Maiden (1932)
• Strangers of the Evening
  Strangers of the Evening
  Strangers of the Evening is a 1932 American film directed by H. Bruce Humberstone.The film is also known as The Hidden Corpse .- Cast :*Zasu Pitts as Sybil Smith...
  
   (1932)
• The Last Mile (1932)
• Flesh
  Flesh (1932 film)
  Flesh is a 1932 black-and-white drama film directed by John Ford and starring Wallace Beery as a German wrestler. Some of the script was written by Moss Hart and an uncredited William Faulkner.-Cast :...
  
   (1932)
• The Old Dark House
  The Old Dark House
  The Old Dark House is an American comedy horror film directed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff, produced just one year after their success with Frankenstein, also released by Universal Studios.-Background:...
  
   (1932)
• The Big Brain (1933)
• His Double Life (1933)
• The Constant Woman (1933)
• A Study in Scarlet
  A Study in Scarlet (1933 film)
  A Study in Scarlet is a drama film directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes and Anna May Wong as Mrs. Pyke. The title comes from Arthur Conan Doyle's novel of the same name, the first in the Holmes series, but the screenplay by Robert Florey was original.Despite her...
  
   (1933)
• The Life of Jimmy Dolan (1933)
• The Invisible Man (1933)
• Here Comes the Navy
  Here Comes the Navy
  Here Comes the Navy is a 1934 American romantic comedy film starring James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Gloria Stuart, and Frank McHugh. The movie was written by Earl Baldwin and Ben Markson, and directed by Lloyd Bacon....
  
   (1934)
• The Merry Frinks (1934)
• Palooka (1934)
• Mutiny on the Bounty
  Mutiny on the Bounty (1935 film)
  Mutiny on the Bounty is a 1935 film starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable, and directed by Frank Lloyd based on the Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall novel Mutiny on the Bounty.The film was one of the biggest hits of its time...
  
   (1935)
• While the Patient Slept (1935)
• Maybe it's Love (1935)
• Dinky (1935)
• Devil Dogs of the Air
  Devil Dogs of the Air
  Devil Dogs of the Air is a 1935 Warner Bros. propaganda film, directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring James Cagney and Pat O'Brien, reprising their earlier roles as buddies after making their debut as a "buddy team" in Here Comes the Navy. Devil Dogs of the Air was the second of nine features that...
  
   (1935)
• Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936)
• China Clipper (1936)
• Hot Money (1936)
• Satan Met a Lady
  Satan Met a Lady
  Satan Met a Lady is a 1936 American detective film directed by William Dieterle and starring Bette Davis.The screenplay by Brown Holmes is a loose adaptation of the 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, which previously was filmed in 1931 under its original title.-Plot:Private...
  
   (1936)
• The Golden Arrow
  The Golden Arrow
  The Golden Arrow is a 1936 American comedy film directed by Alfred E. Green. The screenplay by Charles Kenyon is based on a story of the same title by Michael Arlen published in the September 14, 1935 issue of Liberty...
  
   (1936)
• Ceiling Zero (1936)
• They Won't Forget
  They Won't Forget
  They Won't Forget is a 1937 film directed by Mervyn LeRoy . It was based on a novel by Ward Greene called Death in The Deep South, which was in turn a fictionalized account of a real life case: the trial and subsequent lynching of Leo Frank after the murder of Mary Phagan in 1913...
  
   (1937)

• Mr. Dodd Takes the Air (1937)
• Submarine D-1 (1937)
• The Go Getter (1937)
• The Footloose Heiress (1937)
• The Kid Comes Back (1937)
• Racket Busters (1938)
• Swing Your Lady (1938)
• Mr. Chump (1938)
• Cowboy From Brooklyn (1938)
• Each Dawn I Die
  Each Dawn I Die
  Each Dawn I Die is a 1939 gangster film featuring James Cagney and George Raft in their only movie together as leads, although Raft had made an unbilled appearance in a 1932 Cagney vehicle called Taxi! in which he won a dance contest against Cagney, after which he and Cagney brawl...
  
   (1939)
• Kid Nightingale (1939)
• Secret Service of the Air (1939)
• Sweepstakes Winner (1939)
• Wings of the Navy
  Wings Of The Navy (film)
  Wings of the Navy is a 1939 Warner Bros. drama directed by Lloyd Bacon, starring Olivia de Havilland and John Payne. Like many of the Warner Bros. features in the pre-World War II era, it was intended to serve as propaganda for the U.S...
  
   (1939)
• Nancy Drew, Reporter (1939)
• No Place to Go (1939)
• Tugboat Annie Sails Again (1940)
• They Drive by Night
  They Drive by Night
  They Drive by Night is a black-and-white film noir starring George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino, and Humphrey Bogart, and directed by Raoul Walsh. The picture involves a pair of embattled truck drivers and was released in the UK under the title The Road to Frisco. The film was based on A. I...
  
   (1940)
• Castle on the Hudson (1940)
• Lady with Red Hair (1940)
• The Maltese Falcon
  The Maltese Falcon (1941 film)
  The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 Warner Bros. film based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett and a remake of the 1931 film of the same name...
  
   (1941)
• Sergeant York
  Sergeant York
  Sergeant York is a 1941 biographical film about the life of Alvin York, the most-decorated American soldier of World War I. It was directed by Howard Hawks and was the highest-grossing film of the year....
  
   (1941)
• Kisses for Breakfast
  Kisses for Breakfast
  Kisses for Breakfast is a 1941 screwball comedy directed by Yves Mirande, starring Dennis Morgan, Jane Wyatt and Shirley Ross. The film is a remake of the 1930 pre-Code comedy The Matrimonial Bed, which was produced by Warner Brothers Pictures from an English stage play adaptation by Seymour Hicks...
  
   (1941)
• The Male Animal (1942)
• Casablanca
  Casablanca (film)
  Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Dooley Wilson. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in...
  
   (1942)
• Across the Pacific
  Across the Pacific
  Across the Pacific is a 1942 spy film set on the eve of the entry of the United States into World War II. The film was directed first by John Huston, then by Vincent Sherman after Huston joined the United States Army Signal Corps...
  
   (1942)
• Thank Your Lucky Stars
  Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943 film)
  Thank Your Lucky Stars is a film made by Warner Brothers as a World War II fundraiser. It was directed by David Butler and starred Eddie Cantor, Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie, Edward Everett Horton and S. Z...
  
   (1943)
• Shine on Harvest Moon (1944)
• The Mask of Dimitrios
  The Mask of Dimitrios
  The Mask of Dimitrios is an American film noir directed by Jean Negulesco and written by Frank Gruber, based on the 1939 novel of the same name written by Eric Ambler . Ambler is known as a major influence on writers and an inventor of the modern thriller genre...
  
   (1944)
• The Conspirators (1944)
• The Time, the Place and the Girl (1946)
• Nobody Lives Forever (1946)
• Never Say Goodbye (1946)
• Three Strangers
  Three Strangers
  Three Strangers is a Warner Bros. crime drama, starring Peter Lorre, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and Sydney Greenstreet, featuring Joan Lorring and Alan Napier. It was directed by Jean Negulesco from a script by John Huston and Howard Koch.-Plot:...
  
   (1946)
• Two Guys From Milwaukee (1946)
• Stallion Road (1947)
• My Wild Irish Rose (1947)
• Two Guys From Texan (1948)
• The Fighting O'Flynn (1948)

Awards

Nominations

• Academy Awards
  Academy Awards
  An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
  
  : Oscar, Best Cinematography, for In Old Arizona; 1929.
• Academy Awards: Oscar, Best Cinematography, for All Quiet on the Western Front; 1930.
• Academy Awards: Oscar, Best Black and White Cinematography, for Casablanca
  Casablanca
  Casablanca is a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Grand Casablanca region.Casablanca is Morocco's largest city as well as its chief port. It is also the biggest city in the Maghreb. The 2004 census recorded a population of 2,949,805 in the prefecture...
  
  ; 1943.

External links

..

• Arthur Edeson at Film Reference.
• Arthur Edeson: seven trailers at Spike TV
  Spike TV
  Spike is an American cable television channel. It launched on March 7, 1983 as The Nashville Network , a joint venture of WSM, Inc...
  
   (iFilm
  IFilm
  ifilm.com was an online archive of short films, movie trailers, and other video clips of interest. Ifilm.com was originally founded by independent filmmaker Raphael Raphael in 1997 as an independent film and media collective...
  
  )