Vale film editor Stanley (Stan) Moore, who died on 19 February. Recognised by producer-director Tony Buckley as “my great mentor and one of Australia’s top film editors”, Moore worked with the ‘Cinesound Review’ newsreel as a cameraman during World War 2, and by the early 1950s was that newsreel’s principal editor. In the late 1950s he edited the Australian/French co-produced features ‘The Stowaway’ (1958) and ‘Dust in the Sun’ (1959), with the Australian partner being Southern International, founded by Lee Robinson and Chips Rafferty. After returning to Cinesound for several years in the early 1960s, Stan headed the editing department of Ajax Films, followed by a period as manager of the Ajax Film Centre in the former Cinesound studio at Bondi Junction. His final two features as editor were the Japanese-produced ‘The Drifting Avenger’ (1968) and the Australian/US co-production, ‘Squeeze a Flower’ (1970). He subsequently edited for ABC-TV and taught film editing at the North Sydney TAFE.
In 2001 Stan was the subject of an oral history for NFSA, conducted by fellow editors Graham Wieland and Keith Kanaar. NFSA also holds Stan’s unpublished 1992 autobiography, ‘The Dark Ages: My Experiences in Australian Film Production, 1944-1976’. Additionally, State Library of NSW holds Neville Govett’s 1989 oral history with Stan.
Photo (courtesy of Tony Buckley) shows Stanley Moore, seated at Westrex editing machine as he edits ‘The Stowaway’ (1958) and Tony Buckley files the off-cuts.
