Born February 17, 1904 in Brooklyn, New York, Milton Krasner entered the film industry as an assistant cameraman in 1917 at the age of 13. While working at the Vitagraph and Biograph studios in New York City, he was promoted to camera operator. He became a cinematographer in 1933.

Krasner’s first film of note as a director of photography was the 1939 W.C. Fields comedy, You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man, directed by George Marshall. He followed that with such successes as 1940’s The Invisible Man Returns, The House of Seven Gables and The Bank Dick, 1941’s Buck Pirates, 1942’s The Ghost of Frankenstein and Arabian Nights, for which he received his first Oscar nomination.

Krasner’s post-Oscar nomination films of the 1940s included Gung Ho!, The Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, The Dark Mirror, The Egg and I, The Farmer’s Daughter, A Double Life, The Accused, The Set-Up, House of Strangers and Holiday Affair. His 1950 output alone included Three Came Home, No Way Out and All About Eve, for which he received his second Oscar nomination.

Krasner’s first job in cinemascope was a segment of 1953’s O. Henry’s Full House, after which his work 1954’s Three Coins in the Fountain earned him the first Oscar for photographing a film in the new widescreen process. Subsequent 1950s films included Demetrius and the Gladiators, Garden of Evil, The Seven Year Itch, An Affair to Remember (for which he received his fourth Oscar nomination), The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker and Count Your Blessings.

The ace cinematographer’s 1960s films included Home from the Hill, Bells Are Ringing, King of Kings, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Sweet Bird of Youth, Two Weeks in Another Town, How the West Was Won (for which he received his fifth Oscar nomination), The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Love with the Proper Stranger (for which he received his sixth Oscar nomination), Fate Is the Hunter (for which he received his seventh and final Oscar nomination), The Singing Nun, Hurry Sundown and The Sterile Cuckoo.

Krasner’s last theatrical film was 1970’s Beneath the Planet of the Apes, after which he photographed an episode of TV’s Columbo and 28 of the 38 episodes of McMillan and Wife from 1972 through 1977.

Milton Krasner died on July 16, 1988 at the age of 84.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

ALL ABOUT EVE (1950), directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Krasner was equally at home photographing films in black-and-white and color. His first Oscar nomination was for the 1942 full color adventure film, Arabian Nights. His black-and-white cinematography was first recognized at the 1949 Cannes Film Festival where he won for the boxing drama, The Set-Up. His second Oscar nomination and first for a black-and-white film was one of fourteen nominations overall for this classic, which won six of those it was nominated for. That Krasner lost the Oscar to similarly named Robert Krasker for the masterful Carol Reed film, The Third Man was hardly an insult.

THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN (1954), directed by Jean Negulesco

As television became the go-to medium for drama-hungry audiences in the 1950s, Hollywood upped its game in a big way by going to widescreen presentations and by filming on location in places most audiences couldn’t afford to otherwise spend time in. This film, for which Krasker won his only Oscar, was the first film made in cinemascope to win an Oscar for cinematography. It was also one of the first to exploit scenic beauty outside of a travelogue documentary. Filmed on location in Rome, the sappy businesswomen looking for love and marriage scenario was secondary to the sights and sounds of the city.

AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957), directed by Leo McCarey

McCarey’s remake of his own 1939 film, Love Affair, was made for cinemascope and the travelogue aspects it afforded as Kasker’s camera follows Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr on a cruise ship from New York to the French Riviera and back again, followed by that iconic scene atop the Empire State Building. A comedy, a romance, a tearjerker supreme and a travelogue all in one film, what could be more irresistible? Audiences flocked to it then, lapped it up for decades on TV and home video and younger audiences discovered it through the 1993 Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan comedy, Sleepless in Seattle.

HOME FROM THE HILL (1960), directed by Vincente Minnelli

Minnelli and Krasner took a long time to find one another, but theirs proved to be a cinematic marriage made in heaven, with Krasner the d.p. on seven of Minnelli’s last ten films. The films themselves, ran the gamut from this engrossing family drama to the beloved musical Bells Are Ringing to the failed remake of the classic The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to The Bad and the Beautiful sequel, Two Weeks in Another Town to the reincarnation comedy, Goodbye, Charlie to the Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton vanity piece, The Sandpiper.

LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER (1963), directed by Robert Mulligan

Krasner received the sixth of his seven Oscar nominations for this charming comedy-drama that evoked fond memories of numerous other films. It was the first film produced by Alan J. Pakula and directed by Mulligan after To Kill a Mockingbird. It was Natalie Wood’s first film since Gypsy in which she worked as a salesgirl at Macy’s, a job once held by Gypsy co-star Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame. It also evoked memories of Wood at Macy’s in Miracle on 34th Street. The interface between Wood’s family and Steve McQueen seems right out of The Apartment.

MILTON KRASNER AND OSCAR

• Arabian Nights (1942) – nominated – Best Cinematography – Color
• All About Eve (1950) – nominated – Best Cinematography – Black-and-White
• Three Coins in the Fountain (1954) – Oscar – Best Cinematography – Color
• An Affair to Remember (1957) – nominated – Best Cinematography – Color
• How the West Was Won (1963) – nominated – Best Cinematography – Color
• Love with the Proper Stranger (1953) – nominated – Best Cinematography – Black-and-White
• Fate Is the Hunter (1964) – nominated – Best Cinematography – Black-and-White