Paths of Glory film editor Eva Kroll
Opinions regarding Kubrick's direction and editing
In spite of issues being raised in various reviews about the film's manner of dialogue, its anticipated marketing challenges, and its ending, in the United States in 1957 and 1958 there was near universal admiration expressed for the directorial abilities and technical expertise that the 29-year-old Kubrick exhibited in the production. Jay Carmody – the drama critic for The Evening Star in Washington, D.C. and winner of the Screen Directors Guild's "Critic of the Year" award for 1956 – commended Kubrick for directing a "film with sting" and doing so with "chilling incisiveness". At the New York Herald Tribune, critic William Zinsser judges the film to be "outstanding" in his December 26, 1957 review and describes Kubrick's direction and editing as first-rate. "His scenes", Zinsser observes, "are vivid and well composed, and he knows the art of cutting – the scenes make their point, with economy and bite, and move on." Even at this relatively early stage in Kubrick's career directing feature films, he had already gained a reputation in the motion picture industry for commanding all aspects of his projects and being, as one colleague described him, "'meticulous with everything, from scripting to editing'". What is notably missing, however, from Zinsser's comments or in other contemporary reviews about the quality of the production's "cutting" are any allusions to Eva Kroll, the film's credited editor, and to her contributions in helping to construct or at least refine the end product.
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