André De Toth(1913-2002)
- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Although he obtained a law degree from the Royal Hungarian University,
Andre De Toth decided to become an actor, and spent several years on
the stage. He then entered the Hungarian film industry, obtaining work
as a writer, editor, second unit director and actor before finally
becoming a director. He directed a few films just before the outbreak
of WW II, when he fled to England. Alexander Korda gave him a job there, and
when De Toth emigrated to the US in 1942, Korda got him a job as a
second unit director on The Jungle Book (1942). De Toth made his debut as a director
in American films in 1944. He was known for his tough, hard-edged
pictures, whether westerns or urban crime dramas, and showed no
compunction about depicting violence in as realistic a manner as
possible, an unusual and somewhat controversial attitude for the time.
Probably his best known film is House of Wax (1953), a Vincent Price horror film shot in
3-D. As De Toth only had one eye, that put him in the somewhat odd
position of shooting a film in a process in which he would never be
able to see the result. That didn't seem to matter, though; the film
was a critical and financial success, and is generally considered to be
the best 3-D film ever made.
