Arthur P. Schmidt
Encyclopedia
Arthur P. Schmidt was an American film editor and producer. He had more than sixty film credits for editing from 1934 through 1962. In the 1950s, Schmidt edited five films directed by Billy Wilder
, who has been called one of the great 20th Century filmmakers. In the 1960s, Schmidt was the associate producer for seven Jerry Lewis
comedies.
Schmidt's first editing credits are for films from RKO Pictures
, which was one of the major Hollywood studios in the 1930s; his RKO credits include Anne of Green Gables
(1934). By 1936 he was working at a second studio, Paramount Pictures
, where he remained for twenty years. He worked on several of the Bulldog Drummond
B-movies, The Blue Dahlia
(1946) and When Worlds Collide
(1951). He edited seven films directed by George Marshall
, including three comedies starring Bob Hope
(Monsieur Beaucaire
(1946), Sorrowful Jones
(1949), and Off Limits
(1953)).
At Paramount, Schmit began his notable collaboration with director Billy Wilder
. With Doane Harrison
, he edited Sunset Boulevard (1950), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. Harrison had been the editor for all of Wilder's films since his first American film as a director, The Major and the Minor
(1942); ultimately, the two worked together on films for nearly thirty years. The reasons for Wilder and Harrison adding Schmidt to their team around 1950 apparently haven't been documented. Schmidt also edited Wilder's next film, Ace in the Hole (1951), with Harrison again being credited as "editorial supervisor". Roger Ebert
recently commented on this film that, "There's not a wasted shot in Wilder's film, which is single-mindedly economical. Students of Arthur Schmidt's editing could learn from the way every shot does its duty. There's not even a gratuitous reaction shot."
Schmidt's third film with Wilder was Sabrina
(1954), which was also Wilder's last film under his contract with Paramount; Harrison's credit had changed to "editorial advisor". By 1957 both Schmidt and Wilder were working independently of Paramount. Schmidt edited The Spirit of St. Louis
(1957); by then, Harrison was being credited as a producer. Schmidt's editing of The Spirit of St. Louis still attracts critical attention long after the film's release; the film tells the story of Charles Lindbergh
's historic, first aircraft crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. In 2004, Richard Armstrong wrote, "Lindbergh's takeoff is spellbinding. Like the aircraft, the editing is superbly designed. Editor Arthur Schmidt juggles shots of the runway, the plane, Lindbergh's goggled concentration, the muddying undercarriage, Mahoney, the girl, back to the plane, ... for as long as it takes Lindbergh to clear the telegraph wires and trees. Notice that the shots of the pilot find him visibly connected to the controls. Man and machine have never been more at one. It is an alarming passage, suggesting just how many are being "carried" by that flimsy little aircraft." Gene D. Phillips
wrote in 2010 that, "The takeoff in the rain from Roosevelt Field in Long Island is a virtuoso set piece" that is "superbly edited by Schmidt".
In the same year as Spirit of Saint Louis, Schmidt and Philip W. Anderson
were nominated for the Academy Award for their editing of Sayonara
(1957-directed by Joshua Logan
). Schmidt also edited The Old Man and the Sea
(1958-directed by John Sturges
). Schmidt's fifth, and final, film with Wilder was Some Like It Hot
(1959); Daniel Mandell
had edited Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution (1957), and subsequently edited Wilder's films through the 1960s.
The final phase of Schmidt's career was spent working on Jerry Lewis
comedy films. He edited Cinderfella
(1960) and It's Only Money
(1962), which was his last editing credit. He was the associate producer for seven of Lewis' films, from The Errand Boy
(1961) through The Family Jewels
(1965). Schmidt died suddenly on July 22, 1965 in Los Angeles, California
.
One of Schmidt's sons, Arthur R. Schmidt, is also a notable film editor who has won Academy Awards for Who Framed Roger Rabbit
(1988) and Forrest Gump
(1994).
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
, who has been called one of the great 20th Century filmmakers. In the 1960s, Schmidt was the associate producer for seven Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
comedies.
Schmidt's first editing credits are for films from RKO Pictures
RKO Pictures
RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...
, which was one of the major Hollywood studios in the 1930s; his RKO credits include Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Green Gables (1934 film)
Anne of Green Gables is a 1934 film directed by George Nichols Jr., based upon the novel, Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery...
(1934). By 1936 he was working at a second studio, Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, where he remained for twenty years. He worked on several of the Bulldog Drummond
Bulldog Drummond
Bulldog Drummond is a British fictional character, created by "Sapper", a pseudonym of Herman Cyril McNeile , and the hero of a series of novels published from 1920 to 1954.- Drummond :...
B-movies, The Blue Dahlia
The Blue Dahlia
The Blue Dahlia is a 1946 film noir, directed by George Marshall and written by Raymond Chandler. The film marks the third pairing of stars Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake.-Plot:...
(1946) and When Worlds Collide
When Worlds Collide (film)
When Worlds Collide is a 1951 science fiction film based on the 1933 novel co-written by Philip Gordon Wylie and Edwin Balmer. The film was shot in Technicolor, directed by Rudolph Maté and was the winner of the 1951 Academy Award for special effects....
(1951). He edited seven films directed by George Marshall
George Marshall (director)
George E. Marshall was an American actor, screenwriter, producer, film and television director, active through the first six decades of movie history....
, including three comedies starring Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
(Monsieur Beaucaire
Monsieur Beaucaire (1946 film)
Monsieur Beaucaire is a 1946 comedy film starring Bob Hope as the title character, the barber of King Louis XV of France. It is loosely based on the novel of the same name by Booth Tarkington.-Cast:*Bob Hope as Monsieur Beaucaire*Joan Caulfield as Mimi...
(1946), Sorrowful Jones
Sorrowful Jones
Sorrowful Jones is a 1949 film directed by Sidney Lanfield. The film stars Lucille Ball and Bob Hope.Sorrowful Jones was a remake of a 1934 Shirley Temple film, Little Miss Marker. In the film, a young girl is left with the notoriously cheap Sorrowful Jones as a marker for a bet...
(1949), and Off Limits
Off Limits (1953 film)
Off Limits is a 1953 comedy film starring Bob Hope as a manager who enlists in the army to keep an eye on his boxer, who has been drafted. It was released in the UK as Military Policemen, as the characters played by Hope and his friend Mickey Rooney join the military police.-Cast:*Bob Hope as Wally...
(1953)).
At Paramount, Schmit began his notable collaboration with director Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
. With Doane Harrison
Doane Harrison
Doane Harrison was an American film editor and producer whose career spanned four decades. For nearly twenty years, from 1935-1954, Harrison was a prolific editor of films for Paramount Pictures, including eleven films with director Mitchell Leisen...
, he edited Sunset Boulevard (1950), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. Harrison had been the editor for all of Wilder's films since his first American film as a director, The Major and the Minor
The Major and the Minor
The Major and the Minor is a 1942 American comedy film starring Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland. It was the first American film directed by Billy Wilder, and launched his "incomparable" directing career...
(1942); ultimately, the two worked together on films for nearly thirty years. The reasons for Wilder and Harrison adding Schmidt to their team around 1950 apparently haven't been documented. Schmidt also edited Wilder's next film, Ace in the Hole (1951), with Harrison again being credited as "editorial supervisor". Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
recently commented on this film that, "There's not a wasted shot in Wilder's film, which is single-mindedly economical. Students of Arthur Schmidt's editing could learn from the way every shot does its duty. There's not even a gratuitous reaction shot."
Schmidt's third film with Wilder was Sabrina
Sabrina (1954 film)
Sabrina is a 1954 comedy-romance film directed by Billy Wilder, adapted for the screen by Wilder, Samuel A. Taylor, and Ernest Lehman from Taylor's play Sabrina Fair...
(1954), which was also Wilder's last film under his contract with Paramount; Harrison's credit had changed to "editorial advisor". By 1957 both Schmidt and Wilder were working independently of Paramount. Schmidt edited The Spirit of St. Louis
The Spirit of St. Louis (film)
The Spirit of St. Louis is a 1957 biographical film directed by Billy Wilder and starring James Stewart as Charles Lindbergh. The screenplay was adapted by Charles Lederer, Wendell Mayes, and Billy Wilder from Lindbergh's 1953 autobiographical account of his historic flight, which won the Pulitzer...
(1957); by then, Harrison was being credited as a producer. Schmidt's editing of The Spirit of St. Louis still attracts critical attention long after the film's release; the film tells the story of Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...
's historic, first aircraft crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. In 2004, Richard Armstrong wrote, "Lindbergh's takeoff is spellbinding. Like the aircraft, the editing is superbly designed. Editor Arthur Schmidt juggles shots of the runway, the plane, Lindbergh's goggled concentration, the muddying undercarriage, Mahoney, the girl, back to the plane, ... for as long as it takes Lindbergh to clear the telegraph wires and trees. Notice that the shots of the pilot find him visibly connected to the controls. Man and machine have never been more at one. It is an alarming passage, suggesting just how many are being "carried" by that flimsy little aircraft." Gene D. Phillips
Gene D. Phillips
Gene D. Phillips is an American author, educator, and Catholic priest. Phillips has been a prolific author of biographical books on filmmakers, and has published extended interviews with many filmmakers including Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Fritz Lang, and Joseph Losey.Phillips was raised...
wrote in 2010 that, "The takeoff in the rain from Roosevelt Field in Long Island is a virtuoso set piece" that is "superbly edited by Schmidt".
In the same year as Spirit of Saint Louis, Schmidt and Philip W. Anderson
Philip W. Anderson (editor)
Philip W. Anderson is an American film editor with more than fifty film credits commencing with the 1939 films, Marine Circus and Dark Magic. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for three films: Giant , Sayonara Philip W. Anderson is an American film editor with more than...
were nominated for the Academy Award for their editing of Sayonara
Sayonara
Sayonara is a 1957 color American film starring Marlon Brando. It tells the story of an American Air Force flier who was an "ace" fighter pilot during the Korean War....
(1957-directed by Joshua Logan
Joshua Logan
Joshua Lockwood Logan III was an American stage and film director and writer.-Early years:Logan was born in Texarkana, Texas, the son of Susan and Joshua Lockwood Logan. When he was three years old his father committed suicide...
). Schmidt also edited The Old Man and the Sea
The Old Man and the Sea (1958 film)
The Old Man and the Sea is a 1958 film starring Spencer Tracy, in a portrayal for which he was nominated for a best actor Oscar. The screenplay was adapted by Peter Viertel from the novella of the same name by Ernest Hemingway, and the film was directed by John Sturges...
(1958-directed by John Sturges
John Sturges
John Eliot Sturges was an American film director. His movies include Bad Day at Black Rock , Gunfight at the O.K. Corral , The Magnificent Seven , The Great Escape and Ice Station Zebra .-Career:He started his career in Hollywood as an editor in 1932...
). Schmidt's fifth, and final, film with Wilder was Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot is an American comedy film, made in 1958 and released in 1959, which was directed by Billy Wilder and starred Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and George Raft. The supporting cast includes Joe E. Brown, Pat O'Brien and Nehemiah Persoff. The film is a remake by Wilder and I....
(1959); Daniel Mandell
Daniel Mandell
Daniel Mandell was an American film editor with more than 70 film credits. His career spanned films from The Turmoil in 1924 to The Fortune Cookie in 1966...
had edited Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution (1957), and subsequently edited Wilder's films through the 1960s.
The final phase of Schmidt's career was spent working on Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
comedy films. He edited Cinderfella
Cinderfella
Cinderfella is a comedy film version of the classic Cinderella story, with several of the roles reversed. It was released December 16, 1960 by Paramount Pictures and stars Jerry Lewis as Fella.-Plot:...
(1960) and It's Only Money
It's Only Money
It's Only Money is a comedy film directed by Frank Tashlin and starring Jerry Lewis. It was filmed from October 9 to December 17, 1961 and was released on November 21, 1962 by Paramount Pictures.-Plot:...
(1962), which was his last editing credit. He was the associate producer for seven of Lewis' films, from The Errand Boy
The Errand Boy
The Errand Boy is a 1961 American comedy film directed, co-written and starring Jerry Lewis.-Plot:Paramutual Pictures decides that they need a spy to find out the inner workings of their studio. Morty Tashman is a paperhanger who happens to be working right outside their window. They decide that...
(1961) through The Family Jewels
The Family Jewels (film)
The Family Jewels is a 1965 American comedy film. It was filmed from January 18-April 2, 1965 and was released by Paramount Pictures on July 1, 1965. The film was co-written, directed, and produced by Jerry Lewis who also played seven roles in the film...
(1965). Schmidt died suddenly on July 22, 1965 in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
.
One of Schmidt's sons, Arthur R. Schmidt, is also a notable film editor who has won Academy Awards for Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...
(1988) and Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump is a 1994 American epic comedy-drama romance film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright and Gary Sinise...
(1994).
Filmography (Editor)
Based on the Internet Movie Database.
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Fly-by-Night Fly-by-Night is a 1942 American thriller film directed by Robert Siodmak, starring Richard Carlson and Nancy Kelly. It was Siodmak's first American film.-Cast:*Richard Carlson as Dr. Geoffrey Burton*Nancy Kelly as Pat Lindsey*Albert Bassermann as Dr... Aloma of the South Seas (1941 film) Aloma of the South Seas is a 1941 island romance adventure starring Dorothy Lamour and Jon Hall and directed by Alfred Santell. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is based on the 1925 Broadway play by LeRoy Clemens and John B. Hymer. It is a remake of the 1926 film of the same name... Million Dollar Legs (1939 film) Million Dollar Legs is a 1939 American comedy film starring Betty Grable, John Hartley, Donald O'Connor, and Jackie Coogan.-Cast:* Betty Grable as Carol Parker* John Hartley as Greg Melton Jr.* Donald O'Connor as Sticky Boone... Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police is a 1939 American country house murder mystery film directed by James Patrick Hogan, based on an H. C. McNeile novel.... (as Arthur Schmidt) Disbarred (1939 film) Disbarred is a 1939 film about a crooked lawyer starring Gail Patrick and Robert Preston. The supporting cast includes Otto Kruger and Sidney Toler. The movie was directed by film noir specialist Robert Florey.... Dangerous to Know Dangerous to Know is a 1938 crime film starring Anna May Wong, Akim Tamiroff, Gail Patrick, Lloyd Nolan, and Anthony Quinn. The movie was directed by Robert Florey... Bulldog Drummond's Revenge Bulldog Drummond's Revenge is a 1937 black-and-white detective film directed by Louis King, produced by Stuart Walker, and written by Edward T. Lowe Jr. and Herman C... Hotel Haywire Hotel Haywire is a 1937 comedy film written by Preston Sturges with uncredited rewrites by Lillie Hayward. It was directed by Arthur Archainbaud and stars Leo Carillo, Lynne Overman, Spring Byington, Benny Baker and Colette Lyons.-Plot:... Anne of Green Gables (1934 film) Anne of Green Gables is a 1934 film directed by George Nichols Jr., based upon the novel, Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery... (as Arthur Schmidt) Finishing School (film) Finishing School is a 1934 romantic drama film starring Frances Dee as a young woman who gets into trouble after being sent to a finishing school by her neglectful parents.This film was condemned by the Legion of Decency.-Plot:... |