Barbara McLean
Encyclopedia
Barbara McLean was an American film editor with 62 film credits. In the period Darryl F. Zanuck
was dominant at the 20th Century Fox
Studio, from the 1930s through the 1960s, McLean was the Studio's most conspicuous editor and ultimately the head of its editing department.
She won the 1944 Academy Award for Film Editing
for the film Wilson
. She was nominated for the same award for six additional films including the "classic", All About Eve
(1950). Her total of seven nominations for editing during her career has never been surpassed and has been equaled, only twice.
She had a notable collaboration with the director Henry King
that extended over twenty-nine films, including Twelve O'Clock High
(1949). Her impact was summarized by Adrian Dannatt
in 1996: McLean was "a revered editor who perhaps single-handedly established women as vital creative figures in an otherwise patriarchal industry."
; she was the daughter of Charles Pollut, who ran a film laboratory. As a child she worked on release prints from the adjacent studio of E. K. Lincoln, who was an early producer of films. No doubt the early experience in processing of film was helpful to McLean when she became an assistant film editor, but McLean later commented that her musical training as a child also was very important.
In 1924 she married J. Gordon McLean, who was a film projectionist and later, a cameraman. After marrying, the couple moved to Los Angeles, California. McLean found work as an assistant editor at First National Studio. She subsequently joined Twentieth Century Pictures, where initially, she assisted the editor Alan McNeil. In 1933 she received her first editing credit for Gallant Lady; her work on Les Misérables
(directed by Richard Boleslawski, 1935) was nominated for the Academy Award for Film Editing
.
. Darryl F. Zanuck
was the head of the merged studio and McLean became the chief editor under his sponsorship. She retained this position until her retirement in 1969. McLean had more authority over the editing of the studio's films than is typical for contemporary film editors; as Lizzie Francke described it, "McLean worked during a period when the editor was often left to his or her own devices in the cutting room. The pressures of production turn-over during the hey-day of the studio system often meant that the director could not be around to supervise since they were on to their next production."
Darryl Zanuck not only entrusted McLean with the editing of 20th Century Fox's most important projects, he depended on her judgment in many other areas of filmmaking, including, casting and production. In 1940, a Los Angeles Times story noted that "Barbara McLean, one of Hollywood's three women film editors, can make stars — or leave their faces on the cutting room floor." She was also instrumental in the careers of such other film editors as Hugh S. Fowler
, William H. Reynolds
, and Robert Simpson.
McLean began her long association with the director, Henry King
, with the films The Country Doctor (1936) and Lloyd's of London
(1936); she received her second nomination for an Academy Award for the latter film. McLean received three further nominations for editing films directed by King: for Alexander's Ragtime Band
(1938), The Song of Bernadette
(1943), and Wilson
(1944). The latter film was something of an editorial tour de force. As Tom Stempel has described it, "she had to cut down the enormous amount of footage from the 1912 Democratic convention into a workable sequence, and she condensed several bill-signing sequences into montage sequences." Wilson, which rarely is seen anymore, was the only film for which McLean won an Academy Award for Film Editing.
It may be that King and McLean's greatest accomplishment was the film Twelve O'Clock High
(1949); Sean Axmaker has written "Twelve O'Clock High was one of the first and arguably the greatest of the Hollywood films to examine the pressures of command and the psychological toll of making life and death decisions for men they come know and care for." While the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture
, neither King nor McLean received personal Academy Award recognition for their work in making that film. Twelve O'Clock High was entered into the U.S. National Film Registry
in 1998.
(1939), which was the only time she worked with director Clarence Brown
. She edited one of John Ford
's films, Tobacco Road
(1941), and one of George Cukor
's, Winged Victory
(1944). In 1950-1951, McLean edited three of Joseph L. Mankiewicz
's films, including All About Eve, for which she received her final Academy Award nomination. Her nomination was among the fourteen nominations for the film, another Academy Award record that has never been surpassed. All About Eve was archived at the National Film Registry in 1990 and was thus among the first fifty films to be archived.
In the 1940s, McLean and her first husband divorced. In 1951 she married Robert D. Webb
, who had been working as King's assistant director. In 1952, McLean edited one of Elia Kazan
's films, Viva Zapata, and in 1954 she edited Michael Curtiz
's The Egyptian
. She also edited the first movie produced in CinemaScope
, Henry Koster
's The Robe
(1953). McLean's last editing credit was for Untamed (1955), which was her twenty-ninth collaboration with Henry King. Her later work was primarily supervisorial and administrative. McLean retired from 20th Century Fox in 1969, apparently because of her husband's poor health. She received the inaugural American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award
in 1988. She died in Newport Beach, California
in 1996.
Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...
was dominant at the 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
Studio, from the 1930s through the 1960s, McLean was the Studio's most conspicuous editor and ultimately the head of its editing department.
She won the 1944 Academy Award for Film Editing
Academy Award for Film Editing
The Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing...
for the film Wilson
Wilson (film)
Wilson is a 1944 biographical film in Technicolor about President Woodrow Wilson. It stars Charles Coburn, Alexander Knox, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Thomas Mitchell and Sir Cedric Hardwicke.The movie was written by Lamar Trotti and directed by Henry King...
. She was nominated for the same award for six additional films including the "classic", All About Eve
All About Eve
All About Eve is a 1950 American drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, based on the 1946 short story "The Wisdom of Eve", by Mary Orr.The film stars Bette Davis as Margo Channing, a highly regarded but aging Broadway star...
(1950). Her total of seven nominations for editing during her career has never been surpassed and has been equaled, only twice.
She had a notable collaboration with the director Henry King
Henry King (director)
Henry King was an American film director.Before coming to film, King worked as an actor in various repertoire theatres, and first started to take small film roles in 1912. He directed for the first time in 1915, and grew to become one of the most commercially successful Hollywood directors of the...
that extended over twenty-nine films, including Twelve O'Clock High
Twelve O'Clock High
Twelve O'Clock High is a 1949 American war film about aircrews in the United States Army's Eighth Air Force who flew daylight bombing missions against Nazi Germany and occupied France during the early days of American involvement in World War II. The film was adapted by Sy Bartlett, Henry King ...
(1949). Her impact was summarized by Adrian Dannatt
Adrian Dannatt
Adrian Dannatt is the son of architect Trevor Dannatt, he was educated at St Chad's College, Durham University. Before arriving at university he had previously been the child star of the London Weekend Television series Just William , based on the novels of author Richmal Crompton...
in 1996: McLean was "a revered editor who perhaps single-handedly established women as vital creative figures in an otherwise patriarchal industry."
Early life and career
McLean was born in Palisades Park, New JerseyPalisades Park, New Jersey
Palisades Park is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 19,622....
; she was the daughter of Charles Pollut, who ran a film laboratory. As a child she worked on release prints from the adjacent studio of E. K. Lincoln, who was an early producer of films. No doubt the early experience in processing of film was helpful to McLean when she became an assistant film editor, but McLean later commented that her musical training as a child also was very important.
In 1924 she married J. Gordon McLean, who was a film projectionist and later, a cameraman. After marrying, the couple moved to Los Angeles, California. McLean found work as an assistant editor at First National Studio. She subsequently joined Twentieth Century Pictures, where initially, she assisted the editor Alan McNeil. In 1933 she received her first editing credit for Gallant Lady; her work on Les Misérables
Les Misérables (1935 film)
Les Misérables is a 1935 American drama film based upon the famous Victor Hugo novel of the same name. It was adapted by W. P. Lipscomb and directed by Richard Boleslawski...
(directed by Richard Boleslawski, 1935) was nominated for the Academy Award for Film Editing
Academy Award for Film Editing
The Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing...
.
20th Century Fox
In 1935, 20th Century Pictures merged with the Fox Film Corporation to form 20th Century Fox20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
. Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...
was the head of the merged studio and McLean became the chief editor under his sponsorship. She retained this position until her retirement in 1969. McLean had more authority over the editing of the studio's films than is typical for contemporary film editors; as Lizzie Francke described it, "McLean worked during a period when the editor was often left to his or her own devices in the cutting room. The pressures of production turn-over during the hey-day of the studio system often meant that the director could not be around to supervise since they were on to their next production."
Darryl Zanuck not only entrusted McLean with the editing of 20th Century Fox's most important projects, he depended on her judgment in many other areas of filmmaking, including, casting and production. In 1940, a Los Angeles Times story noted that "Barbara McLean, one of Hollywood's three women film editors, can make stars — or leave their faces on the cutting room floor." She was also instrumental in the careers of such other film editors as Hugh S. Fowler
Hugh S. Fowler
Hugh S. Fowler was an American film editor.Fowler spent his virtually his entire editing career at Twentieth Century-Fox. After spending years helping other film editors, including Louis Loeffler, Barbara McLean, William H...
, William H. Reynolds
William H. Reynolds
William H. Reynolds was an American film editor whose career spanned six decades. His credits include such notable films as The Sound of Music, The Godfather, The Sting, and The Turning Point...
, and Robert Simpson.
Collaboration with Henry King
| "For all her focus on keeping the narrative moving, McLean's editing could dazzle if called for. In A Bell for Adano A Bell for Adano A Bell for Adano is a film directed by Henry King starring John Hodiak and Gene Tierney. The film was adapted from the novel A Bell for Adano by John Hersey, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1945. In his 1945 review of the film, Bosley Crowther wrote, "... this easily vulnerable picture, which came... (1945), she took material director Henry King shot on the return of the Italian POWs to their village and put it together with such a pure sense of emotion that when she cut at exactly the right moment to King's overhead shot of the prisoners and villagers coming together in the square, the cut was more heart-stopping than conventional close-ups would have been." |
| — Tom Stempel |
McLean began her long association with the director, Henry King
Henry King (director)
Henry King was an American film director.Before coming to film, King worked as an actor in various repertoire theatres, and first started to take small film roles in 1912. He directed for the first time in 1915, and grew to become one of the most commercially successful Hollywood directors of the...
, with the films The Country Doctor (1936) and Lloyd's of London
Lloyd's of London (film)
Lloyd's of London is a 1936 American drama film directed by Henry King. It stars Tyrone Power, Madeleine Carroll, and Guy Standing. The supporting cast includes Freddie Bartholomew, George Sanders, Virginia Field, and C. Aubrey Smith. Loosely based on history, the film follows the dealings of a man...
(1936); she received her second nomination for an Academy Award for the latter film. McLean received three further nominations for editing films directed by King: for Alexander's Ragtime Band
Alexander's Ragtime Band (film)
Alexander's Ragtime Band is a film released by Twentieth Century Fox that takes its name from the 1911 Irving Berlin song "Alexander's Ragtime Band" to tell a story of a society boy who scandalizes his family by pursuing a career in Ragtime instead of in "serious" music...
(1938), The Song of Bernadette
The Song of Bernadette (film)
The Song of Bernadette is a 1943 drama film which tells the story of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, who, from February to July 1858 in Lourdes, France, reported 18 visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was directed by Henry King....
(1943), and Wilson
Wilson (film)
Wilson is a 1944 biographical film in Technicolor about President Woodrow Wilson. It stars Charles Coburn, Alexander Knox, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Thomas Mitchell and Sir Cedric Hardwicke.The movie was written by Lamar Trotti and directed by Henry King...
(1944). The latter film was something of an editorial tour de force. As Tom Stempel has described it, "she had to cut down the enormous amount of footage from the 1912 Democratic convention into a workable sequence, and she condensed several bill-signing sequences into montage sequences." Wilson, which rarely is seen anymore, was the only film for which McLean won an Academy Award for Film Editing.
It may be that King and McLean's greatest accomplishment was the film Twelve O'Clock High
Twelve O'Clock High
Twelve O'Clock High is a 1949 American war film about aircrews in the United States Army's Eighth Air Force who flew daylight bombing missions against Nazi Germany and occupied France during the early days of American involvement in World War II. The film was adapted by Sy Bartlett, Henry King ...
(1949); Sean Axmaker has written "Twelve O'Clock High was one of the first and arguably the greatest of the Hollywood films to examine the pressures of command and the psychological toll of making life and death decisions for men they come know and care for." While the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
, neither King nor McLean received personal Academy Award recognition for their work in making that film. Twelve O'Clock High was entered into the U.S. National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
in 1998.
Final cuts
Nearly half of the sixty-two films crediting McLean as editor were directed by Henry King. The other films she edited at 20th Century Fox involved many different directors, including many highly notable ones. She was nominated for an Academy Award for editing The Rains CameThe Rains Came
The Rains Came is the title of a novel by Louis Bromfield, published in 1937, as well as the 1939 20th Century Fox film version which followed it...
(1939), which was the only time she worked with director Clarence Brown
Clarence Brown
Clarence Brown was an American film director.-Early life:Born in Clinton, Massachusetts, to a cotton manufacturer, Brown moved to the South when he was 11. He attended Knoxville High School and the University of Tennessee, both in Knoxville, Tennessee, graduating from the university at the age of...
. She edited one of John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
's films, Tobacco Road
Tobacco Road (film)
Tobacco Road is a 1941 film directed by John Ford starring Charley Grapewin, Marjorie Rambeau, Gene Tierney, William Tracy and Dana Andrews. It was based on the novel of the same name by Erskine Caldwell, but the plot was rewritten for the film.-Cast:...
(1941), and one of George Cukor
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
's, Winged Victory
Winged Victory (film)
Winged Victory is a 1944 drama film directed by George Cukor, a joint effort of 20th Century Fox and the U.S. Army Air Forces. Based upon the successful play with the same name by Moss Hart, who also wrote the screenplay, the film only opened after the play's theatre run.-Plot:Frankie Davis , Allan...
(1944). In 1950-1951, McLean edited three of Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Joseph Leo Mankiewicz was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career and is best known as the writer-director of All About Eve , which was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won six. He was brother to screenwriter and drama critic Herman J...
's films, including All About Eve, for which she received her final Academy Award nomination. Her nomination was among the fourteen nominations for the film, another Academy Award record that has never been surpassed. All About Eve was archived at the National Film Registry in 1990 and was thus among the first fifty films to be archived.
In the 1940s, McLean and her first husband divorced. In 1951 she married Robert D. Webb
Robert D. Webb
Robert D. Webb was an American film director. He directed 16 films between 1945 and 1968.-Selected filmography:* Beneath the 12-Mile Reef * Seven Cities of Gold * White Feather...
, who had been working as King's assistant director. In 1952, McLean edited one of Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...
's films, Viva Zapata, and in 1954 she edited Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz was an Academy award winning Hungarian-American film director. He had early creditsas Mihály Kertész and Michael Kertész...
's The Egyptian
The Egyptian (film)
The Egyptian is an American 1954 epic film made in CinemaScope by 20th Century Fox, directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. It is based on Mika Waltari's novel and the screenplay was adapted by Philip Dunne and Casey Robinson...
. She also edited the first movie produced in CinemaScope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
, Henry Koster
Henry Koster
Henry Koster was born Hermann Kosterlitz in Berlin, Germany. He became a film director and later moved to Hollywood. Koster's father, a salesman, left home when Henry was a young man...
's The Robe
The Robe (film)
The Robe is a 1953 American Biblical epic film that tells the story of a Roman military tribune who commands the unit that crucifies Jesus. The film was made by 20th Century Fox and is notable for being the first film released in the widescreen process CinemaScope.It was directed by Henry Koster...
(1953). McLean's last editing credit was for Untamed (1955), which was her twenty-ninth collaboration with Henry King. Her later work was primarily supervisorial and administrative. McLean retired from 20th Century Fox in 1969, apparently because of her husband's poor health. She received the inaugural American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award
American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award
The American Cinema Editors gives one or more Career Achievement Awards each year. The first awards were given in 1987; the winners have been:*2011: Michael Kahn and Michael Brown*2010: Paul LaMastra and Neil Travis*2009: Sidney Katz and Arthur Schmidt...
in 1988. She died in Newport Beach, California
Newport Beach, California
Newport Beach, incorporated in 1906, is a city in Orange County, California, south of downtown Santa Ana. The population was 85,186 at the 2010 census.The city's median family income and property values consistently place high in national rankings...
in 1996.