Oscar Profile #556: Russell Metty

Born September 20, 1906, in Los Angeles, California, Russell Metty first worked in the film industry as a lab technician, becoming an apprentice cameraman for Paramount in 1929. He then became a lighting cameraman at RKO. His first credit as cinematographer was for 1934’s West of the Pecos.

Metty’s first major film of note as cinematographer was 1938’s Bringing Up Baby. Other late 1930s films of note included Room Service and The Great Man Votes. His early 1940s films included Irene, No, No, Nanette, Dance, Girl, Dance, Joan of Paris, Tender Comrade, Hitler’s Children, Behind the Rising Sun, and The Story of G.I. Joe. His reputation as one of the screen’s great cinematographers began with 1946’s The Stranger and his subsequent move to Universal in 1947.

In his first five years at Universal, Metty was the cinematographer on such films as A Woman’s Vengeance, Ivy, The Private Affairs of Bel Ami, Ride the Pink Horse, Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid, Arch of Triumph, All My Sons, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, We Were Strangers, Buccaneer’s Girl, Flame of Araby, Because of You, and The World in His Arms.

first worked with director Douglas Sirk on 1952’s Against All Flags. Although George Sherman was the credited director, Sirk worked on most the film after Sherman left to work on another project. Although he would work with other directors at Universal in the 1950s, Metty’s work on Sirk’s films were the standout. He was the cinematographer responsible for Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind, A Time to Love and a Time to Die, and Imitation of Life among other classic Sirk films.

Metty’s non-Sirk films of the 1950s included The Man from the Alamo, Man Without a Star, Man of a Thousand Days, Touch of Evil, and This Earth Is Mine. His cinematography for 1960’s Spartacus earned him his only Oscar. The following year’s Flower Drum Song earned him a second nomination.

Post-Oscar, Metty was the cinematographer on such high profile 1960s films as The Misfits, That Touch of Mink, Captain Newman, M.D. , The Thrill of It All, The War Lord, The Appaloosa, Madame X, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Madigan, and Change of Habit. Switching to TV in the 1970s, he received Emmy nominations for Tribes and The Waltons. He also worked extensively on Columbo and the 1976 mini-series, Rich Man, Poor Man.

Russell Metty was married twice and had three children. He died on April 28, 1978. at 71.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

BRINGING UP BABY (1938), directed by Howard Hawks

An initial flop when first released, this screwiest of the screwball comedies has long since become one of the best loved films of all time. Metty’s camerawork is constantly surprising from the opening scene of Cary Grant working on a dinosaur exhibit to Katharine Hepburn’s confusion over which car is hers at the golf course to Hepburn and Grant delicately moving in tandem through the crowd to cover up Hepburn’s torn dress to all those scenes involving the two leopards, one tame, one wild. Under Hawk’s direction, Metty also captures the bemused expressions of acting legends Charlie Ruggles, May Robson, and Barry Fitzgerald at their best.

THE STRANGER (1946), directed by Orson Welles

Metty’s first work on a Welles film was when he shot additional scenes for The Magnificent Ambersons under Robert Wise after Welles was unceremoniously taken off the project by RKO while working in Mexico on another film. The Stranger was the first Welles film on which he worked directly with Welles. His atmospheric cinematography is the highlight of this dandy film noir staring Loretta Young, Edward G. Robinson, and Welles. He would work again with Welles on 1958’s Touch of Evil for which he is now better remembered. His opening tracking shot on that film is the stuff of legends.

ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955), directed by Douglas Sirk

Metty’s 1950s collaborations with director Sirk is considered the highpoint of his career. Although All That Heaven Allows failed to win any major awards at the time of its release, the autumnal romance of Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson has a better reputation of any of the Sirk-Metty films that garnered awards attraction in their day. It has been more-or-less remade at least twice as Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Ali: Fear Eats the Soul in 1974 and Todd Haynes’ Far from Heaven in 2002. Its beautiful cinematography has also been paid homage to memorably in the 1999 Oscar winner, American Beauty.

SPARTACUS (1960), directed by Stanley Kubrick

One of three technical Oscars won by Spartacus, Metty may have won his only Oscar due to voters’ lack of knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the making of the film. Metty walked off the film early on in a dispute with director Kubrick because he did not like the way Kubrick was micro-managing his work. Kubrick shot most of the film himself, but because Metty’s name remained on the film it was he who got the Oscar. Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov in an Oscar winning performance, John Gavin, Nina Foch, John Ireland, John Dall, Tony Curtis, and Woody Strode starred.

FLOWER DRUM SONG (1961), directed by Henry Koster

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s penultimate Broadway musical was the only one brought to the screen by a studio other than 20th Century-Fox. Although some scenes were shot on location in San Francisco where the film takes place, Metty shot most of it on the Universal lot to great effect. Miyoshi Umeki, reprising her Broadway role, Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta, Jack Soo in a different role than the one he had on Broadway, Benson Fong, Juanita Hall reprising her Broadway role after the death of original choice Anna May Wong, Patrick Adiarte also reprising his Broadway role, and Reiko Sato starred. Kwan and Sato’s singing voices were dubbed.