 It took sixteen years working in the American film industry before Dede Allen edited her first important feature film, "Odds Against Tomorrow" (1959).She worked closely with and was mentored by film director Robert Wise, who had also been a film editor himself (most notably having cut Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane").Wise encouraged Dede Allen to be brave and experiment with her editing -- "he was the first person who said, 'No matter how many directions I give you, if it doesn't play, don't show it to me.'