American Graffiti [SEP] film editor
insisted on hiring Verna Fields, who had just finished editing Steven Spielberg's "The Sugarland Express". Fields worked on the first rough cut of the film before she left to resume work on "What's Up, Doc?" After Fields' departure, Lucas struggled with editing the film's story structure. He had originally written the script so that the four (Curt, Steve, John, and Toad) storylines were always presented in the same sequence (an "ABCD" plot structure). The first cut
Doc?" (1972). For the next six months, Marcia edited "American Graffiti" alongside her husband and sound editor Walter Murch to its contractual runtime of 110 minutes. In 1974, Marcia Lucas and Fields were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for their work on "American Graffiti". 
After "American Graffiti" was released, Martin Scorsese asked Marcia to edit his first studio film, "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (1974). Sandra Weintraub recalled, "We knew