Ferris Webster
Ferris Maynard Webster[The Great Escape (film)|] was an American film editor with approximately seventy-two film credits. He was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Film Editing for his work on Blackboard Jungle, The [Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)|The Manchurian Candidate], and
The Great Escape.
Webster was raised in the state of Washington, and was a student at the University of Southern California, where he was an outstanding track and field athlete. Webster was an All-American at 880 yards for the USC Trojans track and field team, finishing 4th at the 1933 NCAA Track and Field Championships. He was trained as an editor at the MGM Studios, and received his first feature-film credit in 1943 for Harrigan's Kid. At MGM, Webster edited six films with director Vincente Minnelli: Undercurrent, Madame Bovary, Father of the Bride, Father's Little Dividend, The Long, Long Trailer, and Tea and Sympathy. Film critic Bruce Eder has written of Madame Bovary that, "the cutting of the film in the gala ball sequence, in particular, was a marvel of the editor's art in the service of old Hollywood's restrained, elegant storytelling." In the mid-1950s, he edited three films with director Richard Brooks: Blackboard Jungle, Something of Value, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ; Webster received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Blackboard Jungle. His last film at MGM was Key Witness.
Bruce Eder has written, "If ever a film editor deserved public recognition in the 1960s, it was Ferris Webster." Webster edited the three films of director John Frankenheimer's "paranoia trilogy": The Manchurian Candidate, Seven [Days in May], and Seconds. Eder writes that The Manchurian Candidate was "the editor's magnum opus. The shooting, cutting, and intercutting of one extended brainwashing sequence, seen from multiple points-of-view, is still striking decades later, and the movie earned Webster his second Academy Award nomination." Frankenheimer cast Webster in his only appearance as a film actor, as Air Force Gen. Bernard "Barney" Rutkowski in Seven Days in May.
Webster was nominated for an Academy Award for the editing of The Great Escape, which was directed by John Sturges. Webster and Sturges' notable collaboration included fifteen films between 1950 and 1972, which is about half of Sturges' films in that period. It started with The Magnificent Yankee and Mystery Street, and included The Law and Jake Wade, The Magnificent Seven, and Ice Station Zebra. The final film of their collaboration was Joe Kidd, which was near the end of Sturges' career.
Joe Kidd starred Clint Eastwood. In the last phase of his career, Webster edited and co-edited eight films that were directed by Eastwood, starting with High Plains Drifter, which was Eastwood's second film as a director. Webster edited Breezy, The Eiger Sanction, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet, Bronco Billy, Firefox and Honkytonk Man. These latter two films with Eastwood concluded Webster's career as an editor, apparently after a falling-out between the two men. Malpaso staffers believed Clint had been spoiled by Webster’s ability to piece together footage so that the sequence always made sense. Clint the actor was as notorious for doing as few camera takes as he was for not repeating his scripted dialogue -- and if they hadn't filmed with multiple cameras running, this time-consuming/unproductive process could wear down a film cutter. Around the time of The Enforcer, Eastwood's anti-post-production idiosyncrasies supposedly became more, and more, time consuming for Webster.
Nevertheless, Webster reportedly had started out "liking" Clint enormously, had spent much of his career working exclusively for the star. He had even moved up near Burney, CA thinking he would edit Malpaso films for the rest of his life. ‘He died brokenhearted,’ according to Malpaso producer, Fritz Manes.
Additional credits include The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lili, Forbidden Planet, Les Girls, Divorce American Style.
Selected filmography
| Year | Film | Director | Role | Notes | Other notes |
| 1954 | The Student Prince | Richard Thorpe | Editor: Widescreen | Third collaboration with Richard Thorpe | Uncredited |
| 1970 | Cannon for Cordoba | Paul Wendkos | Editorial advisor |
| Year | Film | Director | Role | Notes |
| 1964 | Seven Days in May | John Frankenheimer | Gen. Bernard 'Barney' Rutkowski | Uncredited |
TV series
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1966 | The Rat Patrol | Supervising film editor | 1 episode |