A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Alias:
Lilian Viola Mallory
Viola Mallory
Birthplace:
Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Born:
December 1, 1894
Died:
November 20, 1973
Viola Mallory Lawrence (December 2, 1894, New York – November 20, 1973) is considered by many to be the first woman film editor in Hollywood. She was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing: for Pal Joey (1957), with Jerome Thoms; and for Pepe (1960), with Al Clark. She began working at Vitagraph Studios in Flatbush, Brooklyn as a messenger at the age of 11. At 12, she was holding title cards. In 1915, she became the second female film cutter in cinema history, after Anna McKnight, who also worked at Vitagraph. She married Frank Lawrence, her film cutting teacher at Vitagraph. In 1917, she moved to Hollywood and worked for Universal, First National, Gloria Swanson Productions and Columbia Pictures at various times. She became Columbia's "head editor" or "supervising editor" in 1925. After director Erich von Stroheim was fired from the production of Queen Kelly (1929), star Gloria Swanson herself directed an alternate ending, with the help of cinematographer Gregg Toland and Lawrence. Lawrence edited Samuel Goldwyn Studio's first sound film, Bulldog Drummond (1929). She rejoined Columbia in 1934 and remained there for the rest of her long career, ending with Pepe (1960). Orson Welles biographer Charles Higham wrote that, when Lawrence was assigned to The Lady from Shanghai (1947), she reported to studio boss Harry Cohn that "the footage was a jumbled mess". She also informed Cohn that Welles "had not shot a single close-up"; Welles reluctantly obeyed orders to add some. Following poorly received previews, the studio had Lawrence make drastic cuts, over an hour of footage, shortening the film to 87 minutes.
Editor:
1918 The Heart of Humanity
1919 Blind Husbands
1920 The Virgin of Stamboul
1926 The Winning of Barbara Worth
1927 The Devil Dancer
1928 The Awakening
1928 Two Lovers
1929 Bulldog Drummond
1929 This Is Heaven
1930 What a Widow!
1932 Queen Kelly
1933 Man's Castle
1934 Jealousy
1934 Lady by Choice
1934 No Greater Glory
1935 A Feather in Her Hat
1935 Love Me Forever
1935 Party Wire
1935 The Whole Town's Talking
1936 Craig's Wife
1936 Lady of Secrets
1936 The King Steps Out
1937 Devil's Playground
1937 She Married an Artist
1938 I Am the Law
1938 There's Always a Woman
1938 There's That Woman Again
1939 Blondie Takes a Vacation
1939 Only Angels Have Wings
1939 The Amazing Mr. Williams
1940 Glamour for Sale
1940 The Doctor Takes a Wife
1941 Bedtime Story
1941 Here Comes Mr. Jordan
1941 The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance
1941 You Belong to Me
1942 My Sister Eileen
1942 They All Kissed the Bride
1943 First Comes Courage
1944 Cover Girl
1944 Secret Command
1945 She Wouldn't Say Yes
1945 Tonight and Every Night
1947 Down to Earth
1947 The Lady from Shanghai
1948 The Dark Past
1949 And Baby Makes Three
1949 Knock on Any Door
1949 Tokyo Joe
1950 Harriet Craig
1950 In a Lonely Place
1950 The Flying Missile
1950 The Traveling Saleswoman
1951 Sirocco
1952 Affair in Trinidad
1952 Paula
1952 The First Time
1953 Man in the Dark
1953 Miss Sadie Thompson
1953 Salome
1954 Jesse James vs. the Daltons
1954 The Miami Story
1955 Chicago Syndicate
1955 Queen Bee
1955 Three for the Show
1955 Tight Spot
1956 The Eddy Duchin Story
1957 Jeanne Eagels
1957 Pal Joey
1960 Pepe
1960 Who Was That Lady?
Film Processor:
1918 The Heart of Humanity
1919 Blind Husbands
1920 The Virgin of Stamboul
1926 The Winning of Barbara Worth
1927 The Devil Dancer
1928 The Awakening
1928 Two Lovers
1929 Bulldog Drummond
1929 This Is Heaven
1930 What a Widow!
1932 Queen Kelly
1933 Man's Castle
1934 Jealousy
1934 Lady by Choice
1934 No Greater Glory
1935 A Feather in Her Hat
1935 Love Me Forever
1935 Party Wire
1935 The Whole Town's Talking
1936 Craig's Wife
1936 Lady of Secrets
1936 The King Steps Out
1937 Devil's Playground
1937 She Married an Artist
1938 I Am the Law
1938 Penitentiary
1938 There's Always a Woman
1938 There's That Woman Again
1939 Blondie Takes a Vacation
1939 Only Angels Have Wings
1939 The Amazing Mr. Williams
1940 Glamour for Sale
1940 The Doctor Takes a Wife
1941 Bedtime Story
1941 Here Comes Mr. Jordan
1941 The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance
1941 You Belong to Me
1942 My Sister Eileen
1942 They All Kissed the Bride
1943 First Comes Courage
1944 Cover Girl
1944 Secret Command
1945 She Wouldn't Say Yes
1945 Tonight and Every Night
1947 Down to Earth
1947 The Lady from Shanghai
1948 The Dark Past
1949 And Baby Makes Three
1949 Knock on Any Door
1949 Tokyo Joe
1950 Harriet Craig
1950 In a Lonely Place
1950 The Flying Missile
1950 The Traveling Saleswoman
1951 Sirocco
1952 Affair in Trinidad
1952 Paula
1952 The First Time
1953 Man in the Dark
1953 Miss Sadie Thompson
1953 Salome
1954 Jesse James vs. the Daltons
1954 The Miami Story
1955 Chicago Syndicate
1955 Queen Bee
1955 Three for the Show
1955 Tight Spot
1956 The Eddy Duchin Story
1957 Jeanne Eagels
1957 Pal Joey
1960 Pepe
1960 Who Was That Lady?
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.