David Bretherton

David L. Bretherton (February 29, 1924 – May 11, 2000) was an American film editor with more than 40 credits for films released from 1954 to 1996.

David Bretherton
Born	David L. Bretherton (1924-02-29)February 29, 1924 Los Angeles, California, United States
Died	May 11, 2000(2000-05-11) (aged 76) Los Angeles, California, United States
Awards	ACE Eddie 1972 Cabaret ACE Career Achievement 1995

Bretherton, the son of editor/director Howard Bretherton and actress Dorothea McEvoy, was born in Los Angeles. He served with the United States Air Force during World War II. After World War II, he joined the editing department at Twentieth Century-Fox, at first helping other editors, including Barbara McLean, Robert L. Simpson, Louis R. Loeffler, James B. Clark, William H. Reynolds, and, in later years, Dorothy Spencer and Hugh S. Fowler. His first project as a film editor was The Bottom of the Bottle in 1956.^[1] In 1995, Bretherton received the American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award. Bretherton died of pneumonia in Los Angeles in 2000.

L. to R. : Paul Scofield, Michel Simon (background) & Burt Lancaster in The Train.

Bretherton's most noted work was the editing of the film Cabaret (1972), which was directed by Bob Fosse. Bretherton received the Academy Award for Best Film Editing, an ACE Eddie Award, and a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Editing for this film. In his 1972 review, Roger Greenspun gives some insight into Bretherton's achievement:

... the film has a musical part and a nonmusical part (except for Miss Minnelli, none of the major characters sings), and if you add this to the juxtaposition of private lives and public history inherent in the scheme of the Berlin Stories, you come up with a structure of extraordinary mechanical complexity. Since everything has to do with everything else and the Cabaret is always commenting on the life outside it, the film sometimes looks like an essay in significant crosscutting, or associative montage. Occasionally this fails; more often it works.^[2]

Cabaret was listed as the 30th best-edited film of all time in a 2012 survey of members of the Motion Picture Editors Guild.^[3]

Filmography

Editor

Year	Film	Director	Notes
1956	The Bottom of the Bottle	Henry Hathaway
	Hilda Crane	Philip Dunne	First collaboration with Philip Dunne
	The King and Four Queens	Raoul Walsh
	Three Brave Men	Philip Dunne	Second collaboration with Philip Dunne
1957	Bernardine	Henry Levin
	Valerie	Gerd Oswald
	Peyton Place	Mark Robson
1958	Ten North Frederick	Philip Dunne	Third collaboration with Philip Dunne
1959	The Diary of Anne Frank	George Stevens
1960	Let's Make Love	George Cukor
1961	Return to Peyton Place	José Ferrer	First collaboration with José Ferrer
1962	State Fair		Second collaboration with José Ferrer
1964	The Train	John Frankenheimer
1965	The Sandpiper	Vincente Minnelli	First collaboration with Vincente Minnelli
1967	The Honey Pot	Joseph L. Mankiewicz
1968	Villa Rides	Buzz Kulik
1970	On a Clear Day You Can See Forever	Vincente Minnelli	Second collaboration with Vincente Minnelli
	Lovers and Other Strangers	Cy Howard
1971	Fools' Parade	Andrew V. McLaglen
	Los Marcados	Alberto Mariscal
1972	Cabaret	Bob Fosse
	No Drums, No Bugles	Clyde Ware
1973	Save the Tiger	John G. Avildsen	First collaboration with John G. Avildsen
	Slither	Howard Zieff
	Westworld	Michael Crichton	First collaboration with Michael Crichton
1974	Bank Shot	Gower Champion
1975	The Man in the Glass Booth	Arthur Hiller	First collaboration with Arthur Hiller
1976	Harry and Walter Go to New York	Mark Rydell
	High Velocity	Remi Kramer
	Silver Streak	Arthur Hiller	Second collaboration with Arthur Hiller
1978	Coma	Michael Crichton	Second collaboration with Michael Crichton
	The First Great Train Robbery		Third collaboration with Michael Crichton
1979	Winter Kills	William Richert
1980	It's My Turn	Claudia Weill	Uncredited
1982	Cannery Row	David S. Ward
	The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas	Colin Higgins
1983	Man, Woman and Child	Dick Richards
1984	Lovelines	Rod Amateau
1985	Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend	Bill L. Norton
	Clue	Jonathan Lynn
1987	Lionheart	Franklin J. Schaffner
	The Pick-up Artist	James Toback
1989	Sea of Love	Harold Becker	First collaboration with Harold Becker
1993	Malice		Second collaboration with Harold Becker
1996	City Hall		Third collaboration with Harold Becker

Editorial department

Year	Film	Director	Role	Notes
1974	The Super Cops	Gordon Parks	Consulting editor
1980	The Big Red One	Samuel Fuller	Supervising editor
	Caddyshack	Harold Ramis
	The Formula	John G. Avildsen		Second collaboration with John G. Avildsen

Actor

Year	Film	Director	Role	Notes
1970	On a Clear Day You Can See Forever	Vincente Minnelli	A Barber	Uncredited

Additional crew

Year	Film	Director	Role
1970	Emiliano Zapata	Felipe Cazals	Technical supervisor

Documentaries

Editor

Year	Film	Director
1976	That's Entertainment, Part II	Gene Kelly

Shorts

Editor

Year	Film	Director
1955	The Living Swamp	David DaLie
1956	The Dark Wave	Jean Negulesco

TV series

Editor

Year	Title	Notes
1959−60	Five Fingers	2 episodes
1961	Follow the Sun
1962−63	Empire

Additional crew

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1963	Empire	Assistant to the producer	3 episodes

TV specials

Editor

Year	Title	Director
1968	The Bing Crosby Special	Marc Breaux

References

1. David Bretherton at Turner Classic Movies
2. Greenspun, Roger (February 14, 1972). "Liza Minnelli Stirs a Lively 'Cabaret'". The New York Times: 22.
3. "The 75 Best Edited Films". Editors Guild Magazine. 1 (3). May 2012. Archived from the original on 2015-03-17.

Further reading

• Pearlman, Karen (Spring 2009). "Cutting Rhythms in Chicago and Cabaret" (PDF). Cineaste. Vol. XXXIV, no. 2. p. 28.

External links

• David Bretherton at IMDb
• David Bretherton at TheOscarSite.com