Andrew Marton

Andrew Marton's first directorial experience was as an assistant on two Max Linder silent comedies, filmed while Marton was an editor at Austria's Vita studios. Marton was brought to Hollywood in 1923 as principal editor to director Ernst Lubitsch; he would receive his first solo directing credit in 1929. Returning to Germany to assume the chief editor's post at Tobin Studios, Marton fled to England when Hitler came to power in 1933, then settled in Hollywood for good in 1940. Many of Marton's "solo" American films were medium-budget actioners: two of these, Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion (1965) and Africa Texas Style (1966), were spun off into television series. A great many Marton projects were helmed in collaboration with other directors, notably King Solomon's Mines (1950), and the Cinerama Corporation's Seven Wonders of the World (1954). Marton's greatest fame rests upon his second-unit direction of such notable productions as Mrs. Miniver (1942), A Farewell to Arms (1957), Ben-Hur (1959), Cleopatra (1963) The Longest Day (1963) and Catch 22 (1970). A series of in-depth interviews of Andrew Marton conducted by Joanne d'Antonio were published shortly after Marton's death in 1992.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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