Dede Allen

This article is about the film editor. For the character "Dee Dee Allen", see The Prom (musical).

Dede Allen
Born	Dorothea Carothers Allen (1923-12-03)December 3, 1923 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Died	April 17, 2010(2010-04-17) (aged 86) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Film editor
Years active	1948–2008
Spouse	Stephen Fleischman ​ (m. 1945)​
Children	2, including Tom Fleischman

Dorothea Carothers"Dede" Allen^[1] (December 3, 1923 – April 17, 2010)^[2][3] was an American film editor.

Allen edited films such as The Hustler (1961), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and Reds (1981). She collaborated with director Arthur Penn, (1967–1976), and worked with directors Sidney Lumet, Robert Wise, Elia Kazan, and George Roy Hill. She was a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Early life

Allen was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Her mother, Dorthea S. Corothers, was an actress, and her father, Thomas Humphrey Cushing Allen III, worked for Union Carbide.^[1][2][3]

At age three, Allen and her sister Manette were placed in boarding school by their mother, who had left her marriage and moved to Europe. The next year, Allen’s father died in an automobile accident while her mother remained in Europe, leaving Allen and her sister in boarding school for another six years. After leaving boarding school, Allen stayed intermittently with her mother, and they bonded through their love of film by attending the local movie theater frequently. When not with her mother, Allen attended College Preparatory School and befriended a teacher named Ruthie Jones, who encouraged her liberal politics and acted as a maternal figure. Allen studied architecture, weaving, and pottery at Scripps College in Claremont, California, where she remained passionate about film.^[4] She left Scripps to start a job as a messenger at Columbia Pictures.^[5]

Career

In 1943, in the summer after her sophomore year of college, Allen’s grandfather secured her a job with Elliot Nugent Sr. at Columbia Pictures, which had just started hiring women because of the shortage of available male employees during World War II. She worked in the position for ten months, and then was hired into the sound effects department at Columbia. While working at Columbia, Allen took classes at The Actor’s Lab in California in acting, directing, and stage managing, which helped her master the importance of proper timing in a scene.^[6]

In 1948, Allen married Stephen Fleischman, who was working as a screenwriter in Hollywood. With Fleischman she moved to Europe and worked as a translator for two years. They moved to New York together in 1950 and Allen worked as a script clerk, even organizing a union, and was hired as an editor for commercials and industrial films at a company called Film Graphics. She began working with Carl Lerner, a screenwriter and editor who she had worked with her first summer at Columbia.^[7] Lerner recommended her to Robert Wise, where Allen edited her first important feature film, Odds Against Tomorrow (1959).^[8]

She worked closely with and was mentored by film director Robert Wise, who had also been a film editor himself (most notably having edited Orson Welles' Citizen Kane). Wise encouraged Dede Allen to be brave and experiment with her editing -- "he was the first person who said, 'No matter how many directions I give you, if it doesn't play, don't show it to me.' He was excited as hell if I came up with something. He had a great influence on me because he was a tremendous editor in his own time so he knew."^[9]

Much like the raw editing of dadaist filmmaking (an approach followed by René Clair early in his career) or perhaps akin to that of the French New Wave, Allen pioneered the use of audio overlaps and utilized emotional jump cuts, stylistic flourishes that brought energy and realism to characters that until that point had not been a part of classic Hollywood film editing technique. Continuity editing and screen direction (being tied to the constraints of place and time) became the low priority, while using cutting to express the micro-cultural body language of the characters and moving the plot along in an artistic, almost three-dimensional manner became her modus operandi.^{[citation needed]}

In 1992, Allen accepted the position of Vice-President in Charge of Creative Development at the Warner Bros. Studio. In 2000 she returned to editing with the film Wonder Boys, for which she was nominated for her third Academy Award.^[10]

On a 2012 listing of the 75 best edited films of all time, compiled by the Motion Picture Editors Guild based on a survey of its members, three films edited by Allen appear: Bonnie and Clyde, Dog Day Afternoon, and Reds. Only George Tomasini had more films on this listing.^[11]

Variety's Eileen Kowalski notes that, "Indeed, many of the editorial greats have been women: Dede Allen, Verna Fields, Thelma Schoonmaker, Anne V. Coates and Dorothy Spencer."^[12]

Personal life

Allen married director and screenwriter Stephen Fleischman [de] in 1948.^[3] She and Fleischman had two children, Tom (1951) and daughter, Ramey (1953).^[7] Allen was a women’s rights activist and an advocate for unions.^[13]

Allen died on April 17, 2010, in Los Angeles, California from a stroke.^[2] Her husband died on June 5, 2011.^[14]

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Director	Co-editors
1959	Odds Against Tomorrow	Robert Wise
1961	The Hustler	Robert Rossen
1963	America, America	Elia Kazan
1967	Bonnie and Clyde	Arthur Penn
1968	Rachel, Rachel	Paul Newman
1969	Alice's Restaurant	Arthur Penn
1970	Little Big Man	Arthur Penn
1972	Slaughterhouse-Five	George Roy Hill
1973	Serpico	Sidney Lumet	Richard Marks, Ronald Roose, and Angelo Corrao
1975	Dog Day Afternoon	Sidney Lumet
	Night Moves	Arthur Penn	Steven A. Rotter
1976	The Missouri Breaks	Arthur Penn	Gerald B. Greenberg and Steven Rotter
1977	Slap Shot	George Roy Hill
1978	The Wiz	Sidney Lumet
1981	Reds	Warren Beatty	Craig McKay
1984	Harry & Son	Paul Newman
	Mike's Murder	James Bridges
1985	The Breakfast Club	John Hughes
1986	Off Beat	Michael Dinner	Angelo Corrao
1988	The Milagro Beanfield War	Robert Redford	Jim Miller
1989	Let It Ride	Joe Pytka	Jim Miller
1990	Henry & June	Philip Kaufman	Vivien Hillgrove Gilliam and William S. Scharf (Interview in two parts)
1991	The Addams Family	Barry Sonnenfeld
2000	Wonder Boys	Curtis Hanson
2002	John Q.	Nick Cassavetes
2004	The Final Cut	Omar Naim	Robert Brakey
2007	Have Dreams, Will Travel	Brad Isaacs
2008	Fireflies in the Garden	Dennis Lee

Academy Awards and nominations

• 1976 – Dog Day Afternoon, nominated for Academy Award, Best Editing
• 1982 – Reds, nominated for Academy Award, Best Editing (w/ co-editor Craig McKay)
• 2001 – Wonder Boys, nominated for Academy Award, Best Editing

Other awards and nominations

• 1962 – The Hustler, nominated for American Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddie, Best Edited Feature Film
• 1968 – Bonnie and Clyde, nominated for American Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddie, Best Edited Feature Film
• 1975 – Dog Day Afternoon won BAFTA Film Award, Best Editing
• 1982 – Reds, nominated for American Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddie, Best Edited Feature Film (w/ co-editor Craig McKay)
• 1982 – recipient, Women in Film Crystal Award for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry^[15]
• 1994 – honored with American Cinema Editors (ACE), Career Achievement Award
• 1999 – honored at Hollywood Film Festival, Outstanding Achievement in Music Editing
• 2000 – honored by Las Vegas Film Critics Association, Career Achievement Award
• 2005 – Scripps College Distinguished Alumna of the Year^[16]

References

1. "Dede Allen Biography (1924?-)".
2. Luther, Claudia (April 18, 2010). "Dede Allen dies at 86; editor revolutionized imagery, sound and pace in U.S. films". Los Angeles Times. p. AA39. This obituary incorrectly states that she was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, which was subsequently acknowledged in an online correction.
3. Lee, Felicia R. (April 19, 2010). "Dede Allen, Pioneering Film Editor, Dies at 86". The New York Times. p. A24.
4. Meuel, David. Women Film Editors (PDF). McFarland & Company Inc. pp. 109–110. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
5. "Pioneering film editor Dede Allen dead at 86". The Oklahoman. April 18, 2010. Obituary from the Associated Press.
6. Gentry, Ric (October 1992). "An Interview with Dede Allen" (PDF). Film Quarterly. 46 (1). University of California: 12–22. doi:10.2307/1213023. JSTOR 1213023. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
7. Canby, Vincent (May 14, 1972). "Dede is a Lady Editor". New York Times. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
8. Faller, Greg S. (2000). "Dede Allen". In Pendergast, Tom; Pendergast, Sara (eds.). International Dictionary of Film and Filmmakers, Edition 4. St. James Press. ISBN 978-1-55862-449-8. Retrieved January 5, 2008.
9. Women and the cinema : a critical anthology. Kay, Karyn., Peary, Gerald. (1st ed.). New York: Dutton. 1977. ISBN 0525474595. OCLC 3315936.
10. DiMare, Philip C., ed. (2011). "Dede Allen". Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 550. ISBN 9781598842968.
11. "The 75 Best Edited Films". Editors Guild Magazine. 1 (3). May 2012. Archived from the original on March 17, 2015.
12. Kowalski, Eileen (November 14, 2001). "Tina Hirsch". Variety.
13. Gentry, Ric (October 1992). "An Interview with Dede Allen" (PDF). Film Quarterly. 46 (1). University of California: 12–22. doi:10.2307/1213023. JSTOR 1213023. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
14. "Stephen E. Fleischman dies at 92". Variety. June 8, 2011.
15. "Past Recipients". Women in Film. Archived from the original on August 30, 2011. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
16. "Distinguished Alumna of the Year". Scripps College. Retrieved February 13, 2021.

Further reading

• Carlson, Michael (June 3, 2010). "Dede Allen: Pioneering film editor who worked with Sidney Lumet and Arthur Penn". The Independent. Dede Allen, who has died aged 86, was the most important film editor in the most explosive era of American film. Between Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and 1978's The Wiz, Allen edited or co-edited 11 films, all but one for Arthur Penn, George Roy Hill or Sidney Lumet, that helped redefine the way that Hollywood cut – using jump cuts, overlapping sound, and abrupt changes of pace to capture the inner qualities of characters and highlight narrative tension.
• Commire, Anne; Klezmer, Deborah, eds. (1999). "Dede Allen". Women in world history : a biographical encyclopedia. Vol. 1 Aak - Azz. Waterford, Connecticut: Yorkin Publishing. ISBN 9780787640804. OCLC 247326732.
• Chang, Justin (2012). FilmCraft: Editing. Octopus Books. ISBN 9781908150684. Dede Allen was the first editor, male or female, to receive a solo title card on a film—a fitting distinction for someone who made a persuasive case for film editing not merely as a technical discipline, but an art worth considering in its own right. A solo title card means that her name appears alone on the screen while the credits are shown; the film in question was Bonnie and Clyde (1967).
• Kunkes, Michael (2008). "Fellowship and Service Award -- 2008 Recipient". Motion Picture Editors Guild. Biography of Allen and remarks about her by many of her editing colleagues. These were compiled on the occasion of her receipt of the Motion Picture Editors' Guild "Fellowship and Service Award" in 2008.

External links

• Dede Allen at IMDb