Biography
Italian-born Tony Gaudio came from a family of photographers. While in charge of Vitagraph's film labs in 1925, Gaudio was called upon to direct a brace of feature films. Vitagraph was soon afterward absorbed by Warner Bros., the studio where Gaudio would do his best work--not as director but as cinematographer. Never one to let an opinion pass unspoken, Gaudio was known to clash with directors, and on at least one occasion (
Lewis Milestone's
The Front Page [1930]) he was virtually fired on the spot. Still, Gaudio remained in high demand, especially after winning the Academy Award for
Anthony Adverse. Contemporary TV fans cannot fully assess the brilliance of Gaudio's black-and-white photography, inasmuch as many of his best films (
The Fighting 69th [1940],
High Sierra [1941]) have been computer-colorized by the minions of Ted Turner. If one would like to see how Tony Gaudio himself handled color, one is referred to the superlatively photographed
The Red Pony (1949). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide