IEC
GREAT CINEMATOGRAPHERS
#2: [Right] with Henry King - "This Earth Is Mine" [1958]
WINTON C. HOCH
Born: 31 July 1905 [other sources: 1907], Storm Lake, Iowa, USA.
Died: 20 March 1979, Santa Monica, Calif., USA.
Education: California Institute of Technology [CIT], Pasadena [graduated in 1931].
Career: Moved to California in 1924. After his graduation from CIT he became a research physicist. Joined Technicolor in 1934 [until 1954] to work on its three-color process. He ph a number of Technicolor travelogues, the 'Traveltalk - The Voice of the Globe'-series, prod and narrated by James A. FitzPatrick.
During WW2 served in the US Naval Photographic Science Lab. After leaving Technicolor joined C.V. Whitney Productions.
In 1956, Hoch directed (and ph?) the doc 'Grass', a remake of the 1925 doc dir by Merian Cooper & Ernest Schoedsack, for C.V. Whitney Productions.
Was a member and president [1979] of the ASC.
Awards: 'Oscar' Technical Achievement Award [1939; shared] for an auxiliary optical system; 'Oscar' AA [1948; color; shared] for 'Joan of Arc'; 'Oscar' AA [1949; color] for 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon'; 'Oscar' AA [1952; color; shared] for 'The Quiet Man'; 'Emmy' Award [1965-66] for 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'; 'Emmy' Award nom [1967-68] for 'The Time Tunnel' [ep 'Raiders from Outer Space'].
'The work left behind by Winton Hoch is the vindication of Technicolor as a creative means. Unique of his generation, Hoch rose to director of photography from the chemistry labs where color stock was developed; he never shot a foot of monochrome stock. The best efforts of a cameraman of Hoch's talents will not redeem a leaden 'Joan of Arc' but they can underscore with unforgettable beauty the other qualities of 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon' and 'The Quiet Man'. Where [James Wong] Howe and [Arthur] Miller went for a subtle naturalism in their best color work, Hoch gave full rein to the effects made possible by the filters and manipulative processing he knew better than anyone else. It is known that Hoch and [John] Ford were temperamentally unsuited [pedantic, Ford called him], but inevitably the Hoch reputation rides high on the Ford films, and that is perhaps as it should be. Neither man needed the other, but Ford benefited beyond measure from Hoch's genius, and we have the results...' [Derek Owen in 'Film Dope', No. 24, 1982.]
In the written history of film, John Ford has tended to get credit for most of Winton C. Hoch's accomplishments. Articles and books are churned out that praise Ford's 'eye for color' and 'visual sense.' These attributes he undoubtedly had, but it was Hoch's 'eye for color' - and his peerless technical expertise at putting that eye at the service of Ford's pictorial and narrative concerns - that impart such rare visual beauty to 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon', 'The Quiet Man', and 'The Searchers'.
Hoch never shot a film in black-and-white. His years of experience as a technician in the Technicolor laboratories gave him a unique perspective in the uses and possibilities of color cinematography. Throughout his thirty-year career, he supplied sumptuous color images to many films, but his five pictures for John Ford remain the backbone of his work. In '3 Godfathers', 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon' [for which he won his only solo 'Oscar'], 'The Quiet Man', 'Mister Roberts', and 'The Searchers', Hoch provided the director with some of his most elegant and striking images. The three westerns were shot on Ford's favorite location - Monument Valley, a spot which has proved unusually receptive to any number of visual approaches. Winton Hoch was responsible for capturing its unworldly beauty in Technicolor that was by turns stark, luscious, symbolic, and rousing. Hoch's seasoned eye saw the links between the red of blood and clay and the blue of sky and cavalry uniform. Monument Valley, through Hoch's lens, could be flag, desert, hellish void, nourishing Eden. Hoch's brilliant use of the medium should stand forever at the art's highest plane. [From article by Frank Thompson.]
| FILMS | |
|---|---|
|
1935 |
Beautiful Banff and Lake Louise [Benjamin D. Sharpe] c; doc/8m |
|
1936 |
Victoria and Vancouver - Gateways to Canada [Benjamin D. Sharpe] c; doc/9m |
|
1936 |
St. Helena and It's "Man of Destiny" [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/8m |
|
1936 |
Colorful Islands - Madagascar and Seychelles [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/8m |
|
1936 |
Picturesque South Africa [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/10m |
|
1936 |
Rio de Janeiro "City of Splendour" [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/7m |
|
1936 |
Yellowstone Park "Nature's Playground" [James H. Smith] c; doc/9m |
|
1936 |
Quaint Quebec [Benjamin D. Sharpe] c; doc/9m |
|
1936 |
India on Parade [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/10m |
|
1937 |
Colorful Bombay [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/9m |
|
1937 |
Glimpses of Java and Ceylon [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/9m |
|
1937 |
Hong Kong "The Hub of the Orient" [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/8m |
|
1937 |
Serene Siam [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/9m |
|
1937 |
Rocky Mountain Grandeur [James H. Smith] c; doc/8m |
|
1937 |
Glimpses of Peru [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/9m |
|
1937 |
Chile "Land of Charm" [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/10m |
|
1937 |
Land of the Incas [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/9m |
|
1937 |
Copenhagen [Ralph F. Donaldson] c; doc/9m |
|
1937 |
Stockholm "Pride of Sweden" [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/9m |
|
1937 |
Rural Sweden [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/8m |
|
1938 |
Natural Wonders of the West [James H. Smith] c; doc/9m |
|
1938 |
Glimpses of Austria [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/10m |
|
1938 |
Beautiful Budapest [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/9m |
|
1938 |
Rural Hungary [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/10m |
|
1938 |
Czechoslovakia on Parade [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/10m |
|
1938 |
Glimpses of New Brunswick [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/9m |
|
1939 |
Dr. Cyclops/Doctor Cyclops [Ernest B. Schoedsack] c; assoc ph; ph: Henry Sharp |
|
1940 |
The Reluctant Dragon/A Day at Disneys/Behind the Scenes at Walt Disney Studio/A Day at the Studio (20m excerpt) [(live action) Alfred L. Werker & (anim) Hamilton Luske, Ub Iwerks, a.o.] b&w-c; anim + live action; color ph (live action); b&w ph (live action): Bert Glennon |
|
1941 |
Memories of Europe [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/776 ft; cph: Ray Rennahan & Ray Fernstrom; comp of previous ep of 'Traveltalk'-series |
|
1941 |
Dive Bomber [Michael Curtiz] c; cph: Bert Glennon; aph: Elmer Dyer; sfx ph: Byron Haskin & Rex Wimpy |
|
1941 |
Captains of the Clouds [Michael Curtiz] c; co-aph; ph: Wilfred M. Cline & Sol Polito |
|
1944 |
Over the Andes [James A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/9m |
|
1946 |
So Dear to My Heart [Harold Schuster & (anim) Hamilton Luske] c; anim + live action; live action ph; released in 1949 |
|
1947 |
Rhapsody in Wood [George Pal] c; 'Puppetoon'-short (live action + puppet anim)/9m |
|
1947 |
Melody Time [seg 'Pecos Bill' dir by Clyde Geronimi] c; anim + live action/75m; ph live action |
|
1947 |
Tap Roots [George Marshall] c; cph: Lionel Lindon |
|
1947 |
Joan of Arc [Victor Fleming] c; co-Technicolor ph; ph: Joseph Valentine; spec pfx: Jack Cosgrove & John P. Fulton |
|
1948 |
Carbon Arc Projection [Norman Wright] c; comm doc/38m; for National Carbon Co., Inc. |
|
1948 |
3 Godfathers/Three Godfathers [John Ford] c; 2uc: Charles P. Boyle |
|
1948 |
Tulsa [Stuart Heisler] c |
|
1948 |
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon [John Ford] c; 2uc: Charles P. Boyle & (uncred) Archie Stout |
|
1949 |
The Sundowners/Thunder in the Dust [George Templeton] c |
|
1949 |
Jet Pilot [Josef von Sternberg; re-shaped & re-edited by Howard Hughes] RKO-Scope/c; aph: Philip C. Cochran, William H. Clothier & Paul Mantz; released in 1957 |
|
1950 |
Halls of Montezuma [Lewis Milestone] c; cph: Harry Jackson; spec pfx: Fred Sersen |
|
1950 |
Bird of Paradise [Delmer Daves] c |
|
1951 |
The Quiet Man [John Ford] c; 2uc: Archie Stout |
|
1952 |
The Redhead From Wyoming [Lee Sholem] c |
|
1952 |
Salome [: The Dance of the Seven Veils] [William Dieterle] c; loc ph; ph: Charles Lang Jr. |
|
1952 |
Return to Paradise [Mark Robson] c |
Judy Garland, Jack L. Warner, George Cukor, WCH & [George de] Hoyningen Huene - "A Star Is Born"
|
1953 |
A Star Is Born [George Cukor] started as ph (replacing Harry Stradling Sr.) in October; prod was halted after 8 days; a change in format from Warner Scope to CinemaScope resulted in his replacement by Sam Leavitt |
|
1954 |
Mister Roberts [John Ford & (replaced J. Ford) Mervyn LeRoy; (some scenes uncred) Joshua Logan] cs/c |
|
1955 |
The Searchers [John Ford] vv/c; 2uc: Alfred Gilks |
|
1957 |
The Missouri Traveler [Jerry Hopper] c |
|
1957 |
The Young Land [Ted Tetzlaff] c; cph: Henry Sharp |
|
1958 |
Darby O'Gill and the Little People [Robert Stevenson] c; spec pfx: Peter Ellenshaw & Eustace Lycett |
|
1958 |
This Earth Is Mine [Henry King] cs/c; cph: Russell Metty; started the film, but fell ill and was replaced by R. Metty; spph: Clifford Stine |
|
1959 |
The Big Circus [Joseph M. Newman] cs/c |
|
1960 |
The Lost World [Irwin Allen] cs/c; spec pfx: L.B. Abbott, James B. Gordon & Emil Kosa Jr. |
|
1960 |
A Light in Nature [Ramsay Short & (USA) Michael Orrom] c; doc/33m; ph USA seq; ph: Alan Fabian; prod Shell Film Unit; the film was made to coincide with the 300th anniversary of The Royal Society, London, UK |
|
1961 |
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea [Irwin Allen] cs/c; uwph: John Lamb; spec pfx: L.B. Abbott |
|
1961 |
Sergeants 3 [John Sturges] p/c |
|
1962 |
Five Weeks in a Balloon [Irwin Allen] cs/c; spec pfx: L.B. Abbott & Emil Kosa Jr. |
|
1964 |
Robinson Crusoe on Mars [Byron Haskin] ts/c; process ph: Farciot Edouart |
|
1966 |
Aliens from Another Planet [Irwin Allen (pilot 'Rendezvous with Yesterday') & Sobey Martin (ep #18 'Visitors from Beyond the Stars' & #24 'Chase Through Time')] c; comp of 3 ep of tv-series 'The Time Tunnel'; released in 1982 |
Director of photography Winton C. Hoch, ASC [left, directly behind the camera] sets up for double coverage on star and co-director John Wayne while filming the Vietnam War saga "The Green Berets" on location in the jungle-like wilds of Georgia. [Courtesy of the American Society of Cinematographers]
|
1967 |
The Green Berets [John Wayne & Ray Kellogg; (uncred) Mervyn LeRoy] p/c; battle seq ph: Vincent & Ted Saizis |
|
1970 |
Necromancy/The Witching/Rosemary's Disciples/The Toy Factory [Bert I. Gordon] c; reissued in 1983 as 'The Witching' |
| TELEVISION | |
|---|---|
|
1959 |
Walt Disney Presents [ep #124 'I Captured the King of the Leprechauns' dir by Harry Keller & Robert Stevenson] series (ABC-tv); cph: William Snyder |
|
1964 |
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea [29 ep (incl pilot 'Eleven Days to Zero' dir by Irwin Allen) dir by various] 110-part science fiction series/b&w-c, 1964-68 (ABC-tv); 1st season/b&w, 1964-65; other ph: Robert Bronner, Sam Leavitt & Carl Guthrie; uwph: John Lamb; spec pfx: L.B. Abbott & Howard Lydecker |
|
1965 |
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea [22 ep (e.g. #35 '...And Five of Us Are Left' dir by Harry Harris) dir by various] 2nd season/c, 1965-66; see 1964 |
|
1965 |
Lost in Space [unaired pilot 'No Place to Hide/Space Family Robinson' dir by Irwin Allen, ep #26 'All That Glitters' dir by Harry Harris, #28 'A Change of Space' dir by Sobey Martin & #29 'Follow the Leader' dir by Don Richardson] pilot + 83-part science fiction series/b&w-c, 1965-68 (CBS-tv); first season/b&w, 1965-66 |
|
1966 |
The Time Tunnel [30 ep dir by various] 30-part science fiction series, 1966-67 (ABC-tv); spec pfx: L.B. Abbott |
|
1968 |
The Banana Splits Adventure Hour/The Banana Splits and Friends Show [ep 'A Fair Day for Tooly' dir by Tom Boutross & Richard Donner (Danger Island seq)] 58-part series, 1968-69 (NBC-tv); other ph: Robert Hauser & John M. Stephens |
|
1969 |
Nanny and the Professor [14 ep dir by various] 54-part sitcom series, 1970-71 (ABC-tv); 1st season, 1970 |
| MISCELLANEOUS | |
|---|---|
|
1937 |
[Walter Wanger's] Vogues [of 1938]/All This and Glamour Too [Irving Cummings] c.op; ph: Ray Rennahan |
|
1938 |
Sweethearts [W.S. Van Dyke II & (uncred fill-in) Robert Z. Leonard] c; uncred co-1st cam; ph: Oliver T. Marsh; Technicolor ph: Allen Davey |
|
1938 |
Gone with the Wind [Victor Fleming; (uncred) George Cukor & Sam Wood] Technicolor cons; ph: Ernest Haller & (uncred) Lee Garmes |
|
1978 |
Tiger Man/Tigerman/Fist of Don Won [Matt Cimber] scope/3-D/c; 3-D process; ph: Ken Gibb |
