Damn! Faulty Landscape just clued me in that Robert Wise kicked off. For editing Citizen Kane alone he'd be remembered; but throw in his direction of The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Haunting, and The Sound of Music and we're talking a major loss. I think he also worked as editor/cinematagrapher on several of those moody and delicious Val Lewton classics.
This guy changed the world, literally. I never knew the power of The Sound of Music until I went to Salzburg and saw Americans everywhere re-enacting entire scenes (my wife and MA included). The long-suffering locals have had to move that gazebo again and again because tourists drive the owners mad with their incessant caterwauling!
RIP Robert--I'm going to watch The Haunting for the umpteenth time tonight in your honor, and I'm sure we'll watch Sound again too this weekend.
Perhaps also his truly bizarre Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
