# David Bretherton

David L. Bretherton (February 29, 1924 – May 11, 2000) was an American film editor with more than 40 credits for films released from 1954 to 1996.
Bretherton, the son of editor/director Howard Bretherton and actress Dorothea McEvoy, was born in Los Angeles. He served with the United States Air Force during World War II. After World War II, he joined the editing department at Twentieth Century-Fox, at first helping other editors, including Barbara McLean, Robert L. Simpson, Louis R. Loeffler, James B. Clark, William H. Reynolds, and, in later years, Dorothy Spencer and Hugh S. Fowler. His first project as a film editor was The Bottom of the Bottle in 1956. In 1995, Bretherton received the American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award. Bretherton died of pneumonia in Los Angeles in 2000.
Bretherton's most noted work was the editing of the film Cabaret (1972), which was directed by Bob Fosse. Bretherton received the Academy Award for Best Film Editing, an ACE Eddie Award, and a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Editing for this film. In his 1972 review, Roger Greenspun gives some insight into Bretherton's achievement:
   ... the film has a musical part and a nonmusical part (except for Miss Minnelli, none of the major characters sings), and if you add this to the juxtaposition of private lives and public history inherent in the scheme of the Berlin Stories, you come up with a structure of extraordinary mechanical complexity. Since everything has to do with everything else and the Cabaret is always commenting on the life outside it, the film sometimes looks like an essay in significant crosscutting, or associative montage. Occasionally this fails; more often it works.
Cabaret was listed as the 30th best-edited film of all time in a 2012 survey of members of the Motion Picture Editors Guild.

## Filmography

Editor :
| Year | Film | Director | Notes |
| 1956 | The Bottom of the Bottle | Henry Hathaway | |
| 1956 | Hilda Crane | Philip Dunne | First collaboration with Philip Dunne |
| 1956 | The King and Four Queens | Raoul Walsh | |
| 1956 | Three Brave Men | Philip Dunne | Second collaboration with Philip Dunne |
| 1957 | Bernardine | Henry Levin | |
| 1957 | Valerie | Gerd Oswald | |
| 1957 | Peyton Place | Mark Robson | |
| 1958 | Ten North Frederick | Philip Dunne | Third collaboration with Philip Dunne |
| 1959 | The Diary of Anne Frank | George Stevens | |
| 1960 | Let's Make Love | George Cukor | |
| 1961 | Return to Peyton Place | José Ferrer | First collaboration with José Ferrer |
| 1962 | State Fair | José Ferrer | Second collaboration with José Ferrer |
| 1964 | The Train | John Frankenheimer | |
| 1965 | The Sandpiper | Vincente Minnelli | First collaboration with Vincente Minnelli |
| 1967 | The Honey Pot | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | |
| 1968 | Villa Rides | Buzz Kulik | |
| 1970 | On a Clear Day You Can See Forever | Vincente Minnelli | Second collaboration with Vincente Minnelli |
| 1970 | Lovers and Other Strangers | Cy Howard | |
| 1971 | Fools' Parade | Andrew V. McLaglen | |
| 1971 | Los Marcados | Alberto Mariscal | |
| 1972 | Cabaret | Bob Fosse | |
| 1972 | No Drums, No Bugles | Clyde Ware | |
| 1973 | Save the Tiger | John G. Avildsen | First collaboration with John G. Avildsen |
| 1973 | Slither | Howard Zieff | |
| 1973 | Westworld | Michael Crichton | First collaboration with Michael Crichton |
| 1974 | Bank Shot | Gower Champion | |
| 1975 | The Man in the Glass Booth | Arthur Hiller | First collaboration with Arthur Hiller |
| 1976 | Harry and Walter Go to New York | Mark Rydell | |
| 1976 | High Velocity | Remi Kramer | |
| 1976 | Silver Streak | Arthur Hiller | Second collaboration with Arthur Hiller |
| 1978 | Coma | Michael Crichton | Second collaboration with Michael Crichton |
| 1978 | The First Great Train Robbery | Michael Crichton | Third collaboration with Michael Crichton |
| 1979 | Winter Kills | William Richert | |
| 1980 | It's My Turn | Claudia Weill | Uncredited |
| 1982 | Cannery Row | David S. Ward | |
| 1982 | The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas | Colin Higgins | |
| 1983 | Man, Woman and Child | Dick Richards | |
| 1984 | Lovelines | Rod Amateau | |
| 1985 | Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend | Bill L. Norton | |
| 1985 | Clue | Jonathan Lynn | |
| 1987 | Lionheart | Franklin J. Schaffner | |
| 1987 | The Pick-up Artist | James Toback | |
| 1989 | Sea of Love | Harold Becker | First collaboration with Harold Becker |
| 1993 | Malice | Harold Becker | Second collaboration with Harold Becker |
| 1996 | City Hall | Harold Becker | Third collaboration with Harold Becker |
Editorial department :
| Year | Film | Director | Role | Notes |
| 1974 | The Super Cops | Gordon Parks | Consulting editor | |
| 1980 | The Big Red One | Samuel Fuller | Supervising editor | |
| 1980 | Caddyshack | Harold Ramis | Supervising editor | |
| 1980 | The Formula | John G. Avildsen | Supervising editor | Second collaboration with John G. Avildsen |
Actor :
| Year | Film | Director | Role | Notes |
| 1970 | On a Clear Day You Can See Forever | Vincente Minnelli | A Barber | Uncredited |
Additional crew :
| Year | Film | Director | Role |
| 1970 | Emiliano Zapata | Felipe Cazals | Technical supervisor |

### Documentaries

Editor :
| Year | Film | Director |
| 1976 | That's Entertainment, Part II | Gene Kelly |

### Shorts

Editor :
| Year | Film | Director |
| 1955 | The Living Swamp | David DaLie |
| 1956 | The Dark Wave | Jean Negulesco |

### TV series

Editor :
| Year | Title | Notes |
| 1959−60 | Five Fingers | 2 episodes |
| 1961 | Follow the Sun | 2 episodes |
| 1962−63 | Empire | 2 episodes |
Additional crew :
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1963 | Empire | Assistant to the producer | 3 episodes |

### TV specials

Editor :
| Year | Title | Director |
| 1968 | The Bing Crosby Special | Marc Breaux |