Ted D. McCord

Ted McCord learned his craft 'on the job' as a camera assistant at the Hobart Bosworth Productions Company in 1917. His first credited film as fully-fledged cinematographer was Sacred and Profane Love (1921), billing himself as 'T.D.McCord'. During the 20's, he worked on a wide variety of subjects, from romantic comedy (Irene (1926)) to westerns (The Code of the Scarlet (1928)) to melodrama (The Crash (1928)). Almost from the outset, his work displayed a mastery of lighting, specifically in his use of deep shadows. McCord later said to have been influenced, at once by the paintings of Rembrandt, and by the mentoring of pioneer cinematographers James Van Trees and Gregg Toland. Between 1924 and 1929, McCord worked at First National, which later became a subsidiary of Warner Brothers. During the early 30's, he had brief spells at Universal (shooting several films for cowboy star Ken Maynard), Columbia and RKO-Pathe, before finally settling at Warner Brothers for the bulk of his career (1936-57). During World War II, he served as a captain with the U.S.Army Photographic Unit and was among the first troops to enter devastated Berlin, filming inside Hitler's ruined chancellery. After the war, McCord was given several A-grade projects which enhanced his reputation. Among them, were superior melodramas like Johnny Belinda (1948) and Flamingo Road (1949). He also won critical plaudits for his excellent shooting of John Huston's seminal western epic, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). This prompted Elia Kazan to request his services for East of Eden (1955), which was shot in Technicolor and CinemaScope. During the 50's and 60's, McCord excelled at other Technicolor assignments: most memorable are his rich saturation and sharp detail used for the gripping outdoor western The Hanging Tree (1959), and his Oscar-nominated romantic, soft-focus visuals for The Sound of Music (1965), shot in 65 mm Todd-AO wide-screen format.