Mark Robson

Born on December 4, 1913 in Montreal, Québec, Mark Robson left Canada early to move to the United States to study Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He later studied law at Pacific Coast University.

He started working in the film industry as a clerk in the property department at 20th Century Fox. From there he moved to the art direction department at RKO, where he eventually retrained as an editor. With another young man destined to become a great filmmaker, Robert Wise , he assembled the legendaryCitizen Kane , and alsoThe fourth commandment , which was horribly mutilated as a result of studies.

Robson then signed with producer Val Lewton , at whose factory he edited several of Jacques Tourneur ‘s best films , such asThe Panther Woman orI walked with a zombie . It was Lewton who gave him his first opportunity as a filmmaker in the field of terror, a specialty of the house, with The 7th Victim andThe ghost ship . One of the greats of the genre, Boris Karloff , filmed The Island of the Dead and Bedlam, a Psychiatric Hospital under his orders , where the Canadian also served as a co-writer.

When his association with Lewton ended, he joined another of the great producers of all time, Stanley Kramer , who signed him to directThe Mud Idol , one of his best works, with Kirk Douglas as a waiter-turned-boxer. Kramer produced Home of the Brave and Samuel Goldwyn produced the melodrama My Crazy Heart .

The 50s are the years of splendor for Robson, who begins to produce his projects, and shoots practically all of his best-known titles, such as the comedyPhffft! , the war filmThe bridges of Toko-Ri , the boxing filmHarder will be the fall , which is the last film appearance of Humphrey Bogart , and the serialThe Valley of the Dolls . At that time, he obtained two Oscar nominations for best director, for the melodramaWuthering Lives , with Lana Turner , and for drama with Ingrid Bergman The hostel of the sixth happiness .

Since then, the director – about whom the details of his private life are largely unknown – lavished himself much less, although he tackled all kinds of genres, since he filmed the suspense film indebted to Alfred Hitchcock ‘s cinema The prize , the war filmColonel Von Ryan , the drama Valley of the Dolls and the catastrophic filmearthquake .

while rollingThe spy train in London suffered a heart attack that ended his life. It happened on June 20, 1978, when she was 64 years old. Director Monte Hellman was in charge of finishing his posthumous film.