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Andre De Toth
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The son of a Hungarian military officer, Andre De Toth studied law at the University of Budapest. His academic career was shelved when De Toth became involved with the Hungarian film industry, where he served in several artistic and technical capacities before graduating to director in 1938. After completing five features in the space of one year, he was brought to England by fellow Hungarian Alexander Korda, who hired DeToth as second unit director on The Thief of Baghdad (1940). A full-fledged Hollywood director by 1943, DeToth specialized in westerns and adventure films; one of these, Slattery's Hurricane (1949), co-starred the director's then-wife Veronica Lake, whose fame was diminishing even as her husband's was descending. DeToth is best known for his brace of 3-D films of the 1950s, House of Wax (1953) and The Stranger Wore a Gun (1953); the fact that DeToth had lost one eye did not diminish his lifelong fascination with stereoscopic photography, nor his expertise in this field. In 1950, DeToth was nominated for an Oscar for his work on the screenplay of The Gunfighter (1950).
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Hungarian-born director, Andre De Toth, has died at the age of 90 in Burbank, California. De Toth was best known for directing the 1953 3-D film "The House of Wax" starring Vincent Price. An interesting fact about De Toth, he only had one eye and could not see the 3-D effects of the film.
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It should come as no surprise that Andre De Toth's career has been resurrected by those who know their cinema. Beloved by Martin Scorsese, De Toth's films are very much studio efforts with as focus on genre fare, and which in hindsight are shown to be leaps and bounds above other programmers that were merely part of some forgotten double-bill. De Toth knew how to keep a story taut and had an eye for framing, which means one of his formulaic pictures grows in stature by its efficiency, while others simply go through the motions. Springfield Rifle (1953) is a perfect example of his gifts. It is by nature a three-star picture — a studio assignment through and through — but the craftsmanship shows that a real talent was behind it. Gary Cooper stars as U.S. Army Maj. Alex Kearny, who's put on trial for cowardice in battle and is dishonorably discharged because he wouldn't defend the horses he was meant to protect from bushwhackers. After a fist-fight with the man who got him kicked out of the service, he's put in military prison with two of the horse thieves and breaks out with them.
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Andre de Toth was born Sasvari Farkasfalvi Tothfalusi-Toth Endre Antai Mihaly at Mako, Hungary, on May 15, 1913. His father, a former Hussar officer, was disappointed when his son made it clear that he did not want to be a Hussar.
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The son of a former Hussar-turned-civil engineer, de Toth disappointed his father by being asked to leave a number of schools and then by deciding not to pursue a military career. Instead, he allegedly showed an early artistic bent, having a one-person art show while in his early teens (he claims to have destroyed the paintings and sculpture).
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Andre De Toth