During the rest of the Fifties, Alton averaged about three pictures a year, and he even tried his hand at 3-D filmmaking. The primary concern of those he branded "producers who don't produce" was to ensure that all the shots were in the can. Knockout film noir follows Joe Sullivan (Dennis O'Keefe), a crook serving time after taking the rap for mob boss Rick Coyle (Raymond Burr). "Theirs is an art of knowing what to reveal and what to conceal. Menu. Despite the vast technical advances achieved within the motion picture industry much of the content is still pertinent. Be the first to write a customer review. Majestic images of man in nature, worthy of Ansel Adams, alternate with scenes so dark that at one point practically all that can be seen of Robert Taylor is his cheekbone and a glint of shirt buttons. In the film, a thief turned cop-killer (Richard Basehart) eludes a police dragnet by hiding in the sewers of Los Angeles. After Gantry, Alton decided to take a well-earned vacation. Each of them, she said, would seek his fortune elsewhere — save for the fifth lad. [Audiences] noticed something different. John Alton (October 5, 1901 – June 2, 1996), born Johann Jacob Altmann, in Sopron, Kingdom of Hungary, was an American cinematographer. Hard lighting. Quick View. [When I first read it], I was shooting films in Chicago. Recollected Alton, "The day after the film was finished, the producer, Arthur Freed, said to me, 'John, that's the first time photography saved a picture. The ideas of double open ends and cutters, and of a cucoloris, were revealed to me in the book. The next year, Minnelli tapped Alton for the ballet scenes in An American in Paris (1951). Read reviews and buy John Alton Film Noir Collection (Blu-ray) at Target. In 1960, Alton abruptly quit the industry. The cinematographer's mobile camera used over 20 different movements during that 17-minute sequence, and actively integrated the choreography. (a.k.a. He began as a lab technician in Los Angeles in the 1920s, later becoming a cameraman within four years. Throughout the picture, the mystery of such locations as telephone booths, steam rooms and midnight waterfronts is heightened by their contrast to such everyday edifices as the offices of the Treasury Department and the Los Angeles Farmers' Market. Alton next took charge of the camera department at Joinville Studios in Paris. I don't even know where I left the books!". Van Dyke once said, "You fundamentally still have the old stereoscope as your basis to work from, but somebody's got to get that picture on the wall. They called me back the next day to work. Precise physical details, essential to any mystery story, also lend to this dramatic conflict. Such shots, which were typical for Alton, would soon become standard noir fare. He continued to read voraciously and took up oil painting; he crafted over 100 small canvasses and then gave them all away. It doesn't make any difference if that figure talks or sings; it's still a picture, and the picture will always be the basis of the movies. Perhaps it was for the best that Alton didn't get boxed into making just A-level films. MGM's Border Incident (featuring Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy and Howard da Silva) follows the "procedural" style of T-Men and He Walked by Night, as two agents infiltrate a mob involved in the exploitation of illegal labor from Mexico. "I could see more in the dark than I could in color," he said. The lighting was equally intricate. Indeed it is in the shadowy realm of film noir that he is best known. After the freedom he had experienced in Argentina, the idea of changing careers and becoming a Hollywood producer was rather unappealing. Alton photographed some of the most famous films noir of the classic period. In this case, the criminals are French Revolutionaries engaged in a plot to replace Robespierre with a more politically moderate candidate. In his spare time, he devoured music and books, and absorbed as much as he could of the art flourishing in museums and galleries, on movie screens, and on the streets. Free shipping on orders of $35+ from Target. A replica of the Place de Concorde (made of translucent plastic) was done up in the style of Dufy, and later serves as the site of the tale's climactic pas de deux. The gangster genre, so popular during the Great Depression, used the underworld to mirror corruption on high. In 1962, Alton was fired from "The Birdman of Alcatraz" when director Charles Crichton was replaced by John Frankenheimer. He landed his first studio job at MGM's recently bought Culver City lot, where he quickly became a cameraman. Born in a castle in 1901, in a village on the Austrian border of Hungary, Alton lived to a ripe old age before dying on June 2, 1996 in Santa Monica. These widely circulated retrospectives helped increase awareness of Alton nationwide. "You, I tell different," she said. item 7 John Alton Film Noir Collection Blu-ray ClassicFlix T-Men Raw Deal 7 - John Alton Film Noir Collection Blu-ray ClassicFlix T-Men Raw Deal. to interior rooms. He began as a lab technician in Los Angeles in the 1920s, later becoming a cameraman within four years. Sometimes Alton would wrap a scene in ebony blackness (as if there were another frame within the frame of the screen) to invest its minimal patches of light with a higher intensity. Then we went on location. Alton attended the premiere and was hailed by dozens of contemporary luminaries of cinematography. The initial pairing of Anthony Mann and John Alton resulted in this classic noir actioner, with a pair of dedicated Treasury agents (Dennis O'Keefe, Alfred Ryder) assigned to infiltrate a … In its pages, Alton maintained that films come in one of three categories: comedy, drama, and mystery. In this film, Alton's exterior artistry is as expert as his interior work, with landscapes assuming an active importance. Lighting setups often shifted abruptly in mid-shot, from noon to midnight or from blue to red. In Combo, a deaf man being murdered sees the gunfire. I'd say 'You don't 'pump' light into a scene. In 1932, he moved to Argentinawhere he shot many Spanish-language films and designed the country's firs… All of a sudden a door opened, and a man grabbed me by the shoulders and said, 'Hurry up! These films were offbeat dramas in which dark and light, good and evil, were touched by the finger of Fate and switched roles. Gantry roars with fire and brimstone — real, imagined and implied. His style is most notable in the films noir: He Walked by Night, The Big Combo, The Amazing Mr. X, T-Men, and Raw Deal. In that genre, Alton possessed the rare ability to photograph exterior shots as effectively as studio work. He returned to Hollywood in the late 1930s, with two dozen film credits, and became one of the most sought-after cinematographers of the time.[3]. What do you mean? Get it today with Same Day Delivery, Order Pickup or Drive Up. The "frame within the frame" motif recurs throughout film, especially in one indoor image of a man and woman engaging in conversation with a gleaming window situated between them. That was the difference between my pictures and some of the others: [in mine], each mood was different. In the Hollywood of Alton's era, "art" was a dirty word, yet his compositions invariably beg comparison with such master painters as Rembrandt, da Vinci, de la Tour and Caravaggio. Movies / TV: Suspense-Film Noir: 851968007064 Be the first to write a review. Add to Wishlist. You just pump a lot of light in!' He proposed such innovations as an all-purpose conglomeration of lights arranged in a circular fashion, based on an apparatus (which he dubbed a "streamlight") that he had seen at the UFA Studio in Germany. To do this, he would often incorporate dark, negative space that Jakob called "an active aesthetic element in the frame.". John Alton, whose cinematography helped define film noir and who later shared an Academy Award for ''An American in Paris,'' died on June 2 … Though his film work is later represented by such iconic noirs as Border Incident and The Big Combo, the three features in this collection present the incomparable John Alton at the peak of his art.T-MEN (1947, 92 min. In the annals of film noir, the collaborations of the cinematographer John Alton and the director Anthony Mann are legendary: T-MEN and RAW DEAL represent high points for these artists. Alton honed his cinematographic skills shooting Westerns for "Woody" Van Dyke, a man who valued the input of his cameramen and often defended their interests when no one else would. When the PFA was showcasing Alton's work, their officials didn't even know which continent he lived on. Haskell Wexler, ASC has testified to the book's influence on his own work, noting, "John Alton wasn't really a well-known cameraman, but Painting with Light was a manual by a cinematographer. Working with William Cameron Menzies as designer and Mann as director, Alton was inspired to pull off some of his most memorable shots, some of which seem three-dimensional. He found work at RKO, Paramount and then Republic, averaging about four B-pictures a year. "Mind you, I was fighting for their own good. In The Amazing Mr. X, Turhan Bey plays a charismatic psychic who preys on dowagers. Having applied noir to the French Revolution in The Black Book, Alton used the style to great effect in Anthony Mann's admirable first Western, Devil's Doorway. Alton eventually returned to MGM, where he'd already worked for 18 years. The Spiritualist), He Walked by Night, Hollozu Triumph (a.k.a. Perimeter lighting. He argued for studio lighting emulating natural lighting in direction and texture. The table of contents includes chapters such as "Mystery Lighting", "Special Illumination", and "Visual Symphony". His seminal essay singled out Alton as "the greatest master of noir... an Expressionist cinematographer who could re-light Times Square at noon if necessary." Remarked director Vincente Minnelli, "[People] interpreted John's continental poise as effete and arrogant. He'd say, 'I've never sat down with a cameraman to talk about these things. In 30 days, I became a millionaire [by my standards]. A child prodigy who sketched constantly, he had his own darkroom by the age of five. A groundbreaking look at the camera's role in the making of motion pictures, the book was also the first written by a Hollywood cinematographer. It was this kind of mastery that inspired writer Philip Kemp to submit that; In the case of a picture like Black Book, it's tempting to imagine Mann acting as "ground control" (managing script, actors, crew and post-production) while extreme stylists Alton and Menzies concocted their spells for the actual images. Alton photographed some of the most famous films noir of the classic period. Within a month of his arrival, he married a former beauty queen-turned-journalist who had interviewed Alton aboard a ship during his passage to South America. Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, "John Alton: Cinematography's Outlier, Part One", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Alton&oldid=998034377, Best Cinematographer Academy Award winners, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Write a Review (0 reviews) Write a review and get bonus points. Though their attempts to interview him were thwarted (unbeknownst to Alton), the finished film — which included many striking examples of his work — lured the great cameraman out of his long exile. The year 1950 marked the beginning of a creative relationship with director Vincente Minnelli. Reviews. His virginal pen pal (Marsha Hunt) gets mixed up in the escape, creating a twist on the usual romantic triangle. Three years later, the Berkeley-based Pacific Film Archives (PFA) scoured film depots and vaults for rare prints of the lesser-known films Alton had made at such long-defunct studios as Eagle-Lion, Monogram and Republic, and booked them with his more famous noirs. But he is best remembered for his book (Painting with Light), and his low key film-noire work. Reviews. It was time for me to move on.". Alton's cinematography on the picture evoked the work of many famous painters, including Renoir, Utrillo, Rousseau, Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec. Sale! Albert Dekker stars in this fantastic b-movie from 1947. ", It helped that Alton wasn't "afraid of the dark," as he put it. It was the only contact I had with what Hollywood [cinematographers] did, and it provided my first visual comprehension [of that world]. At 18, he set sail for New York to live with a prosperous uncle, and to take up studies in photochemistry. 851968007064. In 1972, director Paul Schrader critically championed the form in his essay "Notes on Film Noir" in Film Comment. Blu-ray John Alton Film Noir Collection (t-Men / Raw Deal / He Walked By Night) $ 39.95 $ 29.96. Whereas Alton previously had to justify this "expressionistic chiaroscuro" to producers, his work on T-Men went over like gangbusters with the public, who flocked to the film in droves. He also advanced the somewhat controversial idea of obtaining depth by placing the brightest light in the background, farthest from the camera. All of his film noirs pack a wallop, with fast-paced action and shocking violence. Mann was one of the great film noir directors of the late '40s and early '50s, before he turned to big-budgeted westerns with James Stewart. The latter film is a nightmare journey into the underworld, in which terror is contrasted with idyllic pastoral scenes. Their first title, T-Men, was a crime procedural based on federal records, which the duo rendered in a noir stylization. That lucky lad was John Alton, a cinematographer whose art has been lauded at recent film festivals in Vienna, Japan, Argentina, Telluride, and San Francisco, as well as in retrospectives at the American Museum of the Moving Image and the Pacific Film Archives. The mood had to be done with lighting. [2] He moved to France with Ernst Lubitsch to film backgrounds for The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927) and ended up staying for one year heading the camera department of Paramount Pictures's Joinville Studios. The book later went out of print, but the critical re-evaluation of Alton's work led to its reprinting, and it is now a highly respected tome in cinematography circles. There were very few people I could discuss this with, but the world discovered it. [On] The Black Book, I copied the masters. We're waiting for you! The way I had to work, the problem was always to create enough light to get exposure for slow film and slow lenses. While T-Men, shot in Detroit and L.A., was made in some six weeks, Raw Deal shaved that production schedule in half. Widely regarded as epitomizing the visual style of high film noir as it approached its baroque period from the late 1940s, cinematographer John Alton’s work in the genre took a thoughtful approach to light, shadow, and their mysterious rapprochement in … I didn't realize that the big-time cameramen spent as much time taking things off as they did putting them on. The characters also include a thug (John Ireland) and his boss (Raymond Burr), a mob kingpin given to dangerously smoldering moods. He even compared photography to music: "A beautiful feminine close-up can be compared to a violin solo, and a strong characteristic picture of masculine beauty to a cello solo.". Sale! John Alton Film Noir Collection [Blu-ray] UPC. Over the years, he remained a figure of mystery, even when critical recognition finally began to come his way. Matte paintings were used to re-create the Parisian skyline on the Culver City lot. He Walked by Night also helped to inspire the Dragnet television series. John Alton Film Noir Collection (t-Men / Raw Deal / He Walked By Night) $ 29.95 $ 22.46. The scene seems routine until one notices a small statuette of Abraham Lincoln that casts an exaggerated, ink-black shadow; the shadow undercut the traditional centrality of the speaking figure, and also provided a visual pun, implying that government agents were "shadowing" mobsters. Alton soon found himself thrust into the movie business in his newly adopted city. In his swift lighting designs, he would establish a shot with only three lights, and then subtract one and then another. Schrader stressed visual style. One day, he saw a man on the street grinding a little box; inside the box, pictures danced on a screen. "I was tired of fighting [with the studios]," he confessed. Since 1930, Alton had been a contributor to International Photographer, so Painting was the fruition of both Alton's studio work and his journalism. Yet again, an agent infiltrates a mob. At the event, he summed up his achievements with the wisdom of his 94 years, exclaiming, "I took something, improved it, made something with it and I offered it on a platter for the public to enjoy.". (During a 1994 interview, he called this move his one regret, but amends were made when the ASC saluted Alton with a special dinner in 1995.) I call it 'work,' but I just stood next to Marion Davies, the star. Buy John Alton Film Noir Collection (T-Men / Raw Deal / He Walked by Night [DVD] [Restored] at MoviesUnlimited.com. This film-noir piece, told in semi-documentary style, follows police on the hunt for a resourceful criminal who shoots and kills a cop. Alton's influential legacy was not always so celebrated, however; in fact, his achievements nearly slipped into oblivion before being rediscovered in the past several years. They noticed that one scene was like this, one scene was like that. Painting with Light (1949) contains essential reading for any budding filmmaker with detailed information and ideas for lighting several difficult interior and exterior setups and situations. For much more on the famous noir-architect, check out the three-part article John Alton: Cinematography’s Outlier, an appreciation and history penned by John Bailey, ASC in 2013. In one scene, the clever placement of 30 extras to look like a mob is a miraculous visual coup. Alton resigned from the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) in January 1944, reportedly due to conflicts with ASC founding member and MGM camera department head John Arnold. From catwalks, up high. Top Film Noir Cinematographers: John Alton. Over the next decade, he made some 34 films. In the March 1979 PFA calendar, filmmaker Dennis Jakob wrote, “Why do we feature John Alton? But Alton maintained that he, Menzies and Mann all worked as equals in a creative troika, tending their respective pastures for a common purpose. As the story begins, worldly Claire Trevor helps her hard-case lover (Dennis O'Keefe) escape from prison. Mann already had a dozen B-pictures under his belt, along with a recently completed RKO noir film (Desperate) photographed by George E. Diskant, ASC. [1] Alton won an Academy Award for the cinematography of An American in Paris (1951), becoming the first Hungarian-born person to do so in the cinematography category. Reign of Terror), is an entertaining melange of genres — a "historical romantic action thriller." What is concealed is heightened." In 1932, he moved to Argentina where he shot many Spanish-language films and designed the country's first sound film studio for Lumiton and Argentina Sono Film. Alton also photographed many color movies including Slightly Scarlet (a color film noir). John Alton Film Noir Collection [DVD] UPC. "In the morning, when many cameramen came in, they didn't have any plans for what they were going to do, so they just lit [everything] up," he said. And to rough-and-ready American film crews, that could be the greatest affront of all.". This similarity helps the Feds to understand their prey, but it also gives them a hint of menace. "Nobody knew it, though. The book put forth several controversial theories for the day, such as depth is created by placing the brightest object in the scene furthest from the camera, and that studio lighting must always simulate natural light in texture and direction. "But when I'd take most any director aside and ask him to sit down with me, he'd look at me as if I were crazy. No other individual defines the foreboding film style known as noir more than John Alton, the Academy Award-winning cinematographer (An American in Paris) who established his reputation as one of the movie industry's finest by plying his unique talents in the arena of B-movies. What you see with the eye is the important thing that governs your thinking and [that's] what people are looking at.". You're going to make it.". The films weren't always that good, but the images were captivating. "Naturalism," or "realism," refers to an experience such as a walk on foggy night that fills one with a certain sense of awe. On He Walked by Night, Anthony Mann took over the directing reins from Alfred Werker near the end of production. Alton's light throughout is modulated yet harsh. The Scar), and Raw Deal. Film noir was a style that registered a certain social discontent before and after World War II. He moved to France with Ernst Lubitsch to film backgrounds for The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927) and ended up staying for one year heading the camera department of Paramount Pictures's Joinville Studios. Filters, particularly for moonlit effects, are used effectively, as are high-contrast and deep-focus techniques. In an effort to avoid paying Joe the $50,000 he owes him, Coyle arranges an escape in the hopes the con will be killed in the break-out. No ratings or reviews yet No ratings or reviews yet. The coming of sound had left the thriving Argentinean film industry high and dry, and he stayed there for six years. - John Alton No other individual defines the foreboding film style known as noir more than John Alton, the Academy Award®-winning cinematographer (An American in Paris) who established his reputation as one of the movie industry's finest by plying his unique talents in the arena of B-movies. He was soon trekking across Europe and Asia, where he shot short subjects and foreign-language features. Of course, lighting, and light in itself, is a mystery!" Write a Review (0 reviews) Write a review and get bonus points. Alton wrote Painting with Light (1949), one of the first books written by a working studio cinematographer. 70. Alton recalled thinking, "At last, here is a director I can really sit down and talk with." I didn't know anything about gobos. Critic Manny Farber cites the film's climax, in which Murphy's character is mulched by a tractor and plow, as one of his favorite scenes in all of cinema. Particularly memorable is a quick close-up of O'Keefe flinching and lowering his head as off-screen gunshots signal the cold-blooded murder of his partner. In 1932, Alton was offered the opportunity to design and supervise a five-acre studio in Buenos Aires. The man explained, "These are motion pictures, pictures that move." Despite his experience, he couldn't find a niche in A-films — perhaps because he appeared cocky to many. At the end of the day, they gave me a check. It addresses both conventional and unconventional methods of studio motion-picture lighting. John Alton Film Noir Collection available in DVD Ship This Item — Qualifies for Free Shipping Buy Online, Pick up in Store is currently unavailable, but this item may be available for in-store purchase. Though he defined and diagrammed the essentials of cinematography in his book, he remained mute as to specifically how he had achieved his signature shots. Starring Dennis O'Keefe and Alfred Ryder as agents of the Treasury Department who infiltrate a counterfeiting ring, the film captured a new, post-war realism through its deft compositions, which offered compelling depth and space. Shadowy cinematography by John Alton. When the article appeared, film criticism was divided largely between the schools of auteur theory and social value. That's my profession — not the lighting and how to light, but bringing out the mood.". So when the time came for shooting, I was ready. Another classic from 1949, The Black Book (a.k.a. The filmmakers planned not only to sing Alton's praises, but to showcase some of his work. And... Alton proved himself to be the greatest film noir cameraman of all time. Then I'd go home and, even though it took me a lot of time, I'd work out every scene — [including] which lights and tricks to use. In 1949, Alton made two more classics with Mann. The climactic chase scene prefigured inspired similar scenes in many subsequent films, most notably Carol Reed's The Third Man. To reveal and what to reveal and what to conceal a long and creative career as a lab technician Los. Pictures that move. t-Men, was a crime procedural based on federal records, which became a millionaire by... Indeed it is in the 1920s, later becoming a cameraman within four years 1948 ) B with... Drama, and his low key film-noire work prefigured inspired similar scenes many. March 1979 PFA calendar, filmmaker Dennis Jakob wrote, “ Why do we John! He 'd already worked for 18 years 35+ from Target 1972, director Paul Schrader critically championed form! Define a high-water mark of pictorial storytelling ; Alton and Mann worked together guns... 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