Frank P. Keller

American film editor (1913-1977) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Frank P. Keller Jr. (February 4, 1913 – December 25, 1977) was an American film editor with 24 feature film credits from 1958 to 1977.^[1]^[2] He was noted for his work with director Peter Yates, particularly for the film Bullitt (1968), which earned him the Academy Award for Best Film Editing.^[3]^[4] He received an additional three nominations for the films Beach Red (1967), The Hot Rock (1972), and Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973).

BornFebruary 4, 1913

Pennsylvania, U.S.

DiedDecember 25, 1977 (aged 64)

Los Angeles, California, U.S.

OccupationFilm editor

Yearsactive1943-1977

Quick facts Born, Died ...

Frank P. Keller
Born	(1913-02-04)February 4, 1913 Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	December 25, 1977(1977-12-25) (aged 64) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Film editor
Years active	1943-1977

Career

From 1942 to 1945, during the Second World War, Keller worked with editor Norval Crutcher on cataloging the film shot by combat cameramen in Europe.^[5] In 1949, Keller was editor Al Clark's assistant on All the King's Men (1949).^[6] From 1952 to 1956, Keller worked as an editor with Frank Capra on the first four films of The Bell Laboratory Science Series, sponsored by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Their work culminated with the 1956 televising (in color) of Our Mr. Sun, which was the first film of the series.^[7] Keller later edited the seventh and eighth films in the series, Thread of Life (1960) and About Time (1962), which were produced by Owen Crump for Warner Bros.

Keller's first editing credit on a feature film was for The Bonnie Parker Story (1958), which was a film noir directed by William Witney. In 1961 Keller edited Pocketful of Miracles, which was the last film directed by Frank Capra. Keller's television work included episodes from the series The Avengers (1962) and two episodes from the first season of Star Trek (1967–69). Keller is noted for editing six of the early films directed by Peter Yates, from Bullitt (1968) through Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976).^[8] His last feature film was for Rolling Thunder (directed by John Flynn-1977).

In 1976, Keller was elected to the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.^[9]

Bullitt

The car chase from Bullitt is likely the scene from Keller's work that is best remembered, and it has been extensively discussed over the years.^[3]^[4]^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14] Leonard Maltin has called it a "now-classic car chase, one of the screen's all-time best."^[13] Emanuel Levy wrote in 2003 that, "Bullitt contains one of the most exciting car chases in film history, a sequence that revolutionized Hollywood's standards. Chasing the hoodlums, McQueen drives up and down the hills of San Francisco, while an impressive hand-held camera records the perilous pursuit and traffic in thrilling minutia detail, as his sexy vehicle narrowly misses intersecting cars and trucks; other barriers during the chase are pedestrians, buildings, and so on."^[3] Paul Monaco has written, "The most compelling street footage of 1968, however, appeared in an entirely contrived sequence, with nary a hint of documentary feel about it -- the car chase through the streets of San Francisco in Bullitt, created from footage shot over nearly five weeks. William A. Fraker, the cinematographer for the film, attributed the success of the chase sequence primarily to the work of Keller. At the time, Keller was credited with cutting the piece in such a superb manner that he made the city of San Francisco a "character" in the film."^[12]

Death

Keller died in Los Angeles on Christmas Day 1977, aged 64.

Filmography

Film

More information Year, Film ...

Year	Film	Director	Notes	Ref.
1958	The Bonnie Parker Story	William Witney
1959	The Five Pennies	Melville Shavelson
1959	Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow	William J. Hole Jr.
1961	Pocketful of Miracles	Frank Capra
1962	Safe at Home!	Walter Doniger
1963	Papa's Delicate Condition	George Marshall
1963	Come Blow Your Horn	Bud Yorkin
1964	For Those Who Think Young	Leslie H. Martinson
1966	Tarzan and the Valley of Gold	Robert Day
1966	Cyborg 2087	Franklin Adreon
1967	Beach Red	Cornel Wilde
1968	Bullitt	Peter Yates	1st of 6 collaborations with Yates
1969	John and Mary
1971	Murphy's War
1972	The Hot Rock
1973	Jonathan Livingston Seagull	Hall Bartlett
1974	For Pete's Sake	Peter Yates
1976	Mother, Jugs & Speed	Peter Yates
1977	Rolling Thunder	John Flynn
1977	Beyond Reason	Telly Savalas	Unreleased until 1985	^[15]^[16]

Television

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Notes
1961	The Avengers	N/a
1961	Outlaws	1 episode
1964−65	The Bing Crosby Show	5 episodes
1966	Star Trek: The Original Series	2 episodes
1968	The Ghost & Mrs. Muir	1 episode
1969	Room 222	1 episode

TV movies and specials

More information Year, Film ...

Year	Film	Director	Notes
1956	Our Mr. Sun	Frank Capra William T. Hurtz	1st of 4 collaborations with Capra
1957	Hemo the Magnificent
1957	The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays
1958	The Unchained Goddess	Richard Carlson William T. Hurtz
1960	The Thread of Life	Owen Crump Robert McKimson
1962	About Time	Owen Crump Phil Monroe
1971	The Forgotten Man	Walter Grauman
1972	Gargoyles	Bill L. Norton
1975	The Daughters of Joshua Cabe Return	David Lowell Rich

Awards and nominations

More information Award, Year ...

Award	Year	Category	Work	Result
Academy Awards	1968	Best Film Editing	Beach Red	Nominated
	1969		Bullitt	Won
	1973		The Hot Rock	Nominated
	1974		Jonathan Livingston Seagull	Nominated
American Cinema Editors Awards	1962	Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic	Pocketful of Miracles	Nominated
	1968		Beach Red	Nominated
	1969		Bullitt	Won
	1970	Best Edited Drama Series	Room 222 ("Richie's Story")	Nominated
	1970	Best Edited Miniseries or Motion Picture for Television	Gargoyles	Nominated
	1974	Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic	Jonathan Livingston Seagull	Nominated
British Academy Film Awards	1970	Best Editing	Bullitt	Nominated
Primetime Emmy Awards	1957	Best Editing of a Film for Television	Our Mr. Sun^[17]	Won

References

[1]
Birthdate confirmed at the Social Security Death Index.
[2]
Filmography and awards based on Frank P. Keller at IMDb.
[3]
Levy, Emanuel (2008). "Bullitt". emanuellevy.com. Retrieved 2010-11-06. Bullitt contains one of the most exciting car chases in film history, a sequence that revolutionized Hollywood's standards.
[4]
Hartl, John. "Top 10 car chase movies". msnbc.com. Archived from the original on 2010-09-16. Retrieved 2010-11-07. Bullitt (1968). Philip D'Antoni, who went on to produce The French Connection, warmed up for it with this Steve McQueen crime drama, set in San Francisco, where the steep hills seem to yearn for cars to go sailing over them. The director, Peter Yates, makes the most of the locations, especially during a gravity-defying chase sequence that earned an Oscar for its editor, Frank P. Keller.
[5]
LoBrutto, Vincent (1994). Sound-on-film: interviews with creators of film sound. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-275-94443-8.
[6]
Parrish, Robert (1977). Growing up in Hollywood. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. pp. 180–183. ISBN 978-0-15-637315-9.
[7]
Capra, Frank (1997). The name above the title: an autobiography. DaCapo Press. p. 443. ISBN 978-0-306-80771-8. Those four films about science, hand woven with bits of celluloid, were sprightly patterns of poesy and fact; fresh ideas were their main charm, a rather elegant charm, we thought, much like the light-hearted but disciplined charm of a Mozart composition.^{[permanent dead link]} The four films were Our Mr. Sun, Hemo the Magnificent (1957), The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays (1957), and Meteora: The Unchained Goddess (1958).
[8]
Wakeman, John, ed. (1988). "Peter Yates" (PDF). World Film Directors Volume II 1945-1985. H. W. Wilson. p. 1190. ISBN 978-0-8242-0757-1. The car chase impressed another racing driver, Steve McQueen, who invited Yates to Hollywood to direct his next picture, Bullitt (1968). Adapted from Robert L. Pike's novel Mute Witness and splendidly photographed on location in San Francisco by William A. Fraker, it was the first of many Yates films edited by Frank P. Keller.
[9]
"Academy Elects 12 Members to the Board of Governors". The Los Angeles Times. May 29, 1976. p. B8. Paid access.
[10]
Rosenblum, Ralph; Karen, Robert (1979). When the Shooting Stops ... The Cutting Begins. Viking Press. p. 3. ISBN 0-670-75991-0. And thus those who care about such things may know that during the filming of the climactic chase scene in Bullitt, an out-of-control car filled with dummies tripped a wire which prematurely sent a costly set up in flames, and that editor Frank Keller salvaged the near-catastrophe with a clever and unusual juxtaposition of images that made the explosion appear to go off on time.
[11]
Schaefer, Dennis; Salvato, Larry (1986). Masters of light: conversations with contemporary cinematographers. University of California Press. p. 133. ISBN 978-0-520-05336-6.
[12]
Monaco, Paul (2003). Harpole, Charles (ed.). The Sixties. History of the American Cinema. Vol. 8. University of California Press. p. 99. ISBN 0-520-23804-4.
[13]
Maltin, Leonard, ed. (2004). Leonard Maltin's 2004 Movie and Video Guide. Penguin Group. p. 195. Taut action-film makes great use of San Francisco locations, especially in now-classic car chase, one of the screen's all-time best; Oscar-winning editing by Frank Keller.
[14]
Dirks, Tim. "Best Film Editing Sequences of All-Time, From the Silents to the Present: Part 5". filmsite.org. AMC Corp.
[15]
Monush, Barry, ed. (2003). Encyclopedia of Hollywood Film Actors: From the silent era to 1965, Volume 1. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 664. ISBN 9781557835512. In 1977, he directed, wrote, produced, and starred in Beyond Reason, playing a psychiatrist having an affair with a patient, but after sitting on the shelf for years, it ended up going directly to cable outlets and video shelves.
[16]
"New Releases - Albums". Billboard. June 8, 1985.
[17]
"Primetime Emmy Award Database". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2012-05-01. This database lists the film as the "AT&T Science Series"; Our Mr. Sun was the first of nine programs in the series.