Editing Cy Endfield (section)

==Early life and career==
Cyril Endfield was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania on November 10, 1914, the first of three children. His parents were first generation Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe; his father ran a fur business. A bright boy, Cyril developed an early interest both in chess and sleight-of-hand card magic, publishing a routine in a magicians’ magazine at the age of 16. In 1932 he won a scholarship to [[Yale University|Yale]], but delayed his arrival by a year because of the collapse of his father’s business during the Depression. While in Scranton, he first met Israel Shapiro ([[Paul Jarrico]]), a politically conscious screenwriter-to-be who would become a life-long friend.<sup>[i]</sup>

In his two years at Yale, Endfield’s attitude to his studies was ‘rather lackadaisical’ (his own description in a letter to Jarrico), although he read widely, and developed an extra-curricular interest in new science fiction.<sup>[ii]</sup> Much of his time in [[New Haven, Connecticut|New Haven]] was devoted to the intertwined worlds of theatre and radical politics: he joined the local Unity Theatre and was an active member of the Young Communist League. Rather than graduate, Endfield left Yale in early 1936, moving to New York and taking classes at the leftist [[New Theatre League (New York City)|New Theatre League]], supporting himself by taking acting jobs and contributing magic acts to new theatre movement revues. 

At age 23 he joined the League as a teacher, before spending a year directing an amateur theatre group in Montreal, where he met writers and playwrights including – briefly – Clifford Odets. It was also here that he married actress Fanny Shurack (stage name Osborne). 

In 1940, with a baby due, the couple moved to Hollywood, and Endfield looked for work in the studios. His first assignment, a short-lived engagement with [[Orson Welles]]’s Mercury Theatre unit at RKO, followed a random meeting with Welles at a Los Angeles magic shop. During this period, Endfield was one of the few people to view the original, uncut version of Welles’s ''The Magnificent Ambersons'' (1942). Eventually he secured a position with the short subject department at MGM. But his first film, ''Inflation'' (1943), a well-regarded propaganda short approved by the [[Office of War Information]], was quickly withdrawn from distribution following criticism from the Chamber of Commerce.<sup>[iii]</sup> The United States' entry into World War II had made studios very sensitive to criticism.

Endfield remained at MGM until he was called up to a year of military service at Camp Crowder, in Missouri. After the war he returned to the studio, before writing and directing several low budget Joe Palooka features (based on the comic strip) for Monogram. What he later called his first ‘auteur effort,’  ''The Argyle Secrets'' (1948), was made after nine days of shooting, from his own short¹ radio play for the CBS Suspense series. Endfield’s career revived in 1950, with the release of two well-received crime features, ''The Underworld Story'' and ''The Sound of Fury'' (''Try and Get Me!'').