Episode 1 John Sturges
John Sturges was described as one of the first director of action movies, the epitome of a Hollywood director who knew exactly what he was doing. He brought a new depth to Westerns and every actor wanted to work with him.
He was born in 1910 in Oak Park, Illinois. His family moved to Santa Monica while he was a child. His brother worked at RKO Studios and found John a job in the art department after he graduated. He became an assistant director and worked with David O Selznik making wartime documentaries. After WW2, Sturges joined Columbia to make mass produced B movies which gave him huge experience of the art of making films. In 1950 he was given the opportunity to direct The Magnificent Yankee which gained award nominations. The same year Mystery Street was another low budget success.
In 1951 Sturges directed Te People Against O'Hara starring Spencer Tracy and was called his big breakthrough. Jeopardy in 1953 was a hit at the box office and so was Escape from Fort Bravo in the same year. But it was his 1955 award winning thriller Bad Day at Black Rock, starring Spencer Tracy (again) and Robert Ryan, that made his name. Stephen Armstrong called it "a superb film" and Ian Nathan agreed. Even Sturges himself thought it was his best work and many critics also thought it was his best film. He was nominated for an Oscar as best director.
Another Western followed in 1956 called Backlash with Richard Widmark before Sturges' biggest commercial success came in 1957 that was Gunfight at the OK Corral with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. Many thought this was the definitive version of a story filmed so many times. Another western came in 1958. The Law and Jake Wade with Robert Taylor and Richard Widmark was called classy, very tense and unpredictable. The same year Sturges made The Old Man and the Sea with Spencer Tracy, a strange one actor movie.
Sturges wanted to start his own production company as he became tired of studio interference. In 1959 he released another Western. Last Train from Gun Hill that starred Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn and then Never So Few with Frank Sinatra and Gina Lollobrigida. Apparently a supporting actor called Steve McQueen stole the picture. But in 1960 came the most famous film that Sturges ever made. It was Yul Brynner that had the idea to make a Western version of The Seven Samurai and brought in John Sturges, as the go-to man for Westerns. It was Neil Norman who took us though the background to the making of The Magnificent Seven, one of the most popular films of all time.
After some less than notable films, Sturges teamed up once again with McQueen, Bronson and Coburn for 1963's The Great Escape. Two classic movies shown often on Bank Holidays. Another Western (this time a comedy) followed in 1965: The Hallelujah Trail and the same year came The Satan Bug. In 1968 Sturges directed Ice Station Zebra, another big success with Rock Hudson. A departure came in 1969 with Marooned, a space movie that one contributor called "a forensic documentary".
Sturges was back to Westerns in 1972, this time with Clint Eastwood in Joe Kidd. His final film in 1976 was the successful war film The Eagle Has Landed" that had an all star cast. Derek Malcolm believed that he had made a number of really good films, a studio director for a long time, but when he broke free he made three or four of the best movies of that period. He stands with the best of all action directors because of the thought that went into them and making character key.
Episode 2 Sidney Lumet
Neil Norman described Sidney Lumet as the "master of the metropolitan movie" while Stephen Armstrong found his film making "inspirational". Derek Malcolm thought that he "made several films that have not been bettered since". Bonnie Greer added that he had that "independent director spirit" and Ian Nathan thought the future film makers "owes him a massive debt".
Sidney Lumet was born in Philadelphia in 1924. His family were poor immigrants but all had a theatrical background. At first it seemed young Sidney would became an actor, but when WW2 interrupted his progress, his work as a radar technician certainly helped his future career. After the war he joined the Actor's Studio but soon set up his own theatre company where he could direct stage plays, This led him into television and working for CBS directing a huge number of programmes in the 1950's.
In 1957 he was given the chance to direct his first feature film. Twelve Angry Men was set almost entirely in a jury room and had a fantastic cast. It was critically well received so his very first film was a classic and Lumet was nominated for an Oscar for best director. In 1960 he directed Marlon Brando in The Fugitive Kind, he was great at taking plays and making them cinematic. This was equally so for 1964's The Pawnbroker starring Rod Steiger. It was described as a "very powerful film" and Lumet was "helping actors to become legends". Fail Safe in 1964 was a tense cold war thriller with Henry Fonda. In the following year Lumet directed Sean Connery and a strong British cast in The Hill, a film I remember seeing when it was first released. It was a very dramatic movie and was a great success.
In 1967 came The Deadly Affair, an adaptation of John Le Carre's Call for the Dead. A good thriller set in London in the 1960's where the location photography gave a great sense of the city at that time. One of Lumet's most critically acclaimed films came in 1973 when he replaced the original director for Serpico starring Al Pacino. It was a huge success both critically and at the box office and we were told that it should have won the Oscar instead of the many nominations it garnered. (It was even mentioned last night in a repeat of New Tricks.)
An all star cast was assembled in 1974 for Murder on the Orient Express including many acting against type such as Albert Finney as Poirot. Another famous movie came in 1975 when Lumet was reunited with Al Pacino for Dog Day Afternoon. We were told that it had lots of improvisation and stunning location photography. Another big success that again should have won Oscars instead of nominations for best picture and best director. In 1976 came Network with Peter Finch, again another Oscar nomination for best director. Prince of the City in 1981 was described as "Shakespearean". Lumet was nominated for an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay. The following year he directed Paul Newman in The Verdict. Newman was "perfect as the alcoholic lawyer. Again the film was nominated for best picture and best director. After a string of less than notable movies, Sidney Lumet directed his last film that was Before the Devil Knows You're Dead in 2007, a great thriller that was described as "one of his best films".
So Lumet ended his career with five Oscar nominations, four for best director and one for that screenplay. In 2005, he was awarded an Honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement. No wonder we were told he had "an extraordinary catalogue of movies" that "were all about American society". And finally "he was never part of Hollywood but made Hollywood movies".
Episode 3 Don Siegel
Don Siegel is best remembered for contemporary thrillers, particularly those starring Clint Eastwood with whom he collaborated on a number of films. He was a radical director whose innovations have been replicated over the years. he was born in Chicago in 1912 and his education finished at Jesus College, Cambridge of all places. He went on to RADA and eventually became a film librarian at Warner Brothers. He gained experience in different departments at the studio, most notably creating montages for Casablanca.
In 1945 Siegel made two short films, both of which won Oscars. His first feature was a film noir called The Verdict and he used this experience in making the successful Riot in Cell Block 11. This was a big hit and we were told it had an almost documentary feel. His first science fiction movie was 1955's Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Amongst other crime thrillers that followed was Crime in the Streets in 1956 and Edge of Eternity in 1959 that was shot on location at the Grand Canyon.
The movie Flaming Star actually starred Elvis in what was described as probably his best performance, and he did credit Siegel with this. 1962 saw him direct Hell is for Heroes with Steve McQueen. Then in 1964 a classic that was The Killers. After some westerns came Madigan, another highly regarded police movie set in New York. The critic Stephen Armstrong said Siegel "changed the way people made cop pictures". 1968 saw another classic in Coogan's Bluff , the first of many movies with Clint Eastwood including Two Mules for Sister Sara and The Beguiled.
But it was in 1971 that he had his biggest hit with Eastwood with Dirty Harry. Still a highly controversial film, but undeniably exciting. 1973's Charley Varrick should again have featured Clint Eastwood, but eventually starred Walter Matthau. Then came The Black Windmill with Michael Caine. 1976 saw an all star cast including James Stewart gather for John Wayne's final film The Shootist. We were told that it was threaded through with clips from old Wayne westerns and called a masterpiece.
Siegel's last big success was in 1979 with Escape from Alcatraz again starring Clint Eastwood. Siegel's films were described as exciting, entertaining but with a degree of intelligence that he always had. He was called a master of the cinema.
Stanley Donen
Stanley Donen was best known for a string of successful musicals, one contributor called him the greatest of all directors of musicals when they were at their height. Donen was born in 1924 in Colombia, South Carolina. In his youth he would visit the local cinema whenever he could. It was said he watched the 1933 movie Flying Down to Rio with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers thirty to forty times, bunking off school to avoid anti-semetic chants, despite himself being an atheist. He was already making 8mm films of his own.
After finishing school in 1940, he found his way to New York to try a career in dance, having already taken dance lessons before he left. He ended up as a chorus boy in the Broadway production of Pal Joey where he met the star Gene Kelly and somehow they struck up a friendship. Donen was interested in choreography and in 1943 he moved to Hollywood where MGM hired him to work in the choreography department. Gene Kelly was also at MGM and when he was hired out to Columbia, he invited Stanley to help out with the routines for two musicals.
With Kelly on Cover Girl, Donen formulated three dance sections and designed that innovative reflections dance. Apparently it took a year to edit. Then on Anchors Away it was Donen who came up with the idea for Kelly to dance with an animated Jerry mouse.
Kelly and Donen came to the conclusion that they wanted to direct their own movies. After WW2, they got their chance to direct the dance routines with 1947's Living in a Big Way and 1949's Take Me Out to the Ball Game. The same year the pair were given the chance as official directors with On the Town with Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munchin as the three sailors on leave. The famous opening number New York, New York was filmed on location, pioneered many techniques and inspired many filmmakers.
The film was a huge financial and critical success and led to Donen being give a seven year contract with MGM. In 1951 he found himself directing his boyhood idol Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding. Donen was at his creative best yet again with the dance routine where Fred appears to dance up the walls and along the ceiling. Donen was proving yet again the master of innovation in dance. In 1952, Donen teamed up again with Gene Kelly for the classic musical Singin' in the Rain. It was a hit at the time but only became recognised as truly great in the following decade.
After the comedy Fearless Fagan and the musical Give the Girl a Break came 1954's Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. This became one of the biggest hits of Donen's career and is still a classic today. In 1955 Donen collaborated with Gene Kelly for the third and final time with It's Always Fair Weather which saw the end of Donen's contract with MGM.
On to Paramount Studios, he released the musical Funny Face, his last collaboration with Fred Astaire that also starred Audrey Hepburn. It was not a big success at the time but it's reputation grew over the years. That same year of 1957, Donen worked with Doris Day on The Pyjama Game. His next movie Kiss Then for Me with Cary Grant was not a success but 1958's Indiscreet, again with Cary Grant and this time Ingrid Bergman was a critical and commercial success. Also in 1958 Donen directed the low budget Damn Yankees that did well financially.
In the early 1960's Donen made his home in England after two disappointing movies and in 1960 he directed The Grass is Greener with Cary Grant, Jean Simmons and Deborah Kerr but it was only successful in the UK. However His 1963 movie Charade with Grant and Audrey Hepburn. It was a comedy-romantic-thriller that influenced many future movies and was Donen's biggest financial and success. (And the first of our Saturday night movie nights). He followed this with another like project in 1966's Arabesque with Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren successfully repeated the formulae. In 1967's Two For the Road, Donen paired Audrey Hepburn with Albert Finney. They were both described as marvelous performances but the film was only a moderate in critical and commercial aspects.
In 1967 Donen directed Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Raquel Welch in Bedazzled. It became a classic in it's own way and Donen thought it among his favourites. When Donen moved back to Hollywood in 1970, he directed the disaster musical that was The Little Prince and followed this with the unsuccessful Lucky Lady and others unworthy of note.
Donen started off quite young and was described as "a genius in his own way" and a "magnificent director". He made those interesting dance routines with innovative cinematic devices that are now classics. His collaboration with Gene Kelly is movie history. In 1998 he won his only Academy Award with an Honorary Oscar.
Episode 5 George Stevens
It was Derek Malcolm who called George Stevens "an expert at comedy" and that he had such a "light touch". Ian Nathan said he was a "monumental figure in Hollywood" and Bonnie Greer added that he was a "actor's director". Stevens was born in Oakland, California in 1904. His parents ran a touring theatre group so it was natural George would follow in their footsteps.His uncle and aunt were also in the theatre. The family moved to Hollywood where Steven's father became a film actor. George found his first job as an assistant cameraman and, at the same time,learning all the different trades.
He was doing some writing and allowed to make some short films, and in 1934 he made Kentucky Kernels for RKO , a vehicle for a vaudeville act. The following year RKO trusted him enough to make the movie Alice Adams starring Katherine Hepburn and Fred McMurray. This was a decent hit and was nominated for some awards. He made Annie Oakley in 1935 but it was the following year that he directed Swing Time, the first of many movies with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Derek Malcolm thought it one of the best musicals of it's time. It was also called the "beginning of the dance movie" and "one of the greatest dance films ever made".
Quality Street in 1937 with Katherine Hepburn again didn't do so well. In 1939 Stevens released the action movie Gunga Din then Vigil in the Night the following year. But it was 1942's Woman of the Year with Katherine Hepburn, again, and Spencer Tracy that was described as a sparkling movie. The same year he made The Talk of the Town with Cary Grant. 1943 saw the last of Steven's situation comedies with The More the Merrier.
During WW2, he joined the US Army Signal Corp, leading a film unit from 1943 to 1946 recording a number of momentous events including Dachau concentration camp that would effect his post war career. In 1951 George Stevens directed A Place in the Sun starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. It became a critical and commercial hit and won six Academy Awards including best director for Stevens, and nominated for best film, actor and actress. Then in 1953 came the classic western Shane with Alan Ladd. Again a big success, it received five Oscar nominations including best picture and best director. Stevens wanted to make a real drama and ended with something very dark.
He was on a roll and his next movie in 1956 was Giant, another big success, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean, and winning lots of awards. It was the film Stevens always thought would define his history. As a "classic Oscar film", it won best film and best director and nine other nominations. In 1959 came The Diary of Anne Frank, with Stevens recalling the horrors of WW2, Stephen Armstrong said you "sense that this is the film George Stevens has been waiting to make".
1965 saw the release of The Greatest Story Ever Told, a huge biblical epic with an amazing all star cast. The gap from his previous movie showed how the development of the script and the huge production and post production took their time. Steven's final film was 1970's The Only Game in Town with Warren Beatty and Elizabeth Taylor. We were told it was a flop, possibly because of the screenplay as the small drama had huge performances from the cast. Stevens would never work again.
It seemed the contributors could not agree on his legacy. Derek Malcolm sad his best work was in comedy before the war, but others preferred his big successes of the 1950's.
Episode 6 John Frankenheimer
This episode was only the second from all the series that I watched. However all I wrote down were the names of six films that John Frankenheimer directed, so I had to watch it again to record some more detail.
Neil Norman started of by saying that Frankenheimer made "truly intelligent entertainment" while Stephen Armstrong said he was "one of the best action directors". Derek Malcolm thought he had an "independent spirit" and "knew about editing and camera work". Bonnie Greer called him "a complicated film maker" and Ian Nathan was impressed that he "tackled subjects that weren't easy".
John Frankenheimer (who I call JF from now on) was born in Queens, New York City and came to movies a film fan. He joined the US Air Force and ended up in their new motion picture squadron in Burbank, California making documentaries and training films. ( It is so interesting how each of these directors found their careers in different ways). He moved to New York and joined CBS where he started as an assistant cameraman then assistant director before he came to direct many TV shows during the 1950's. In 1961 he moved onto feature films with The Young Savages in 1961 Burt Lancaster, Telly Savalas and Shelley Winters.
!962 saw JF direct Warren Beatty and an all star cast in All Fall Down. The same year he made The Birdman of Alcatraz, again with Burt Lancaster with whom he had struck up a close partnership. It was called "a smashing success" and had "original camera shots". JF followed this with The Manchurian Candidate that is now a classic. It starred Frank Sinatra, Lawrence Harvey and Angela Lansbury and was a big success. In 1963 came Seven Days in May, with Lancaster again and Kirk Douglas that was described as a superb, amazing picture.
In 1964 JF teamed up with Burt Lancaster again, this time for The Train, a WW2 movie where he replaced the original director. In 1966 came Seconds, this time sci fi thriller staring Rock Hudson. Then Grand Prix, another classic that became a box office hit.
However, what followed was the toughest period of his life when his great friend Bobby Kennedy was killed. JF had actually driven Bobby to the hotel where he was assassinated and this had a profound effect on him as a person. JF left the US for Paris and made a couple of films that were not successful. But he teamed up for the fifth time with Burt Lancaster, and also Deborah Kerr and Gene Hackman to make The Gypsy Moths in 1969. But it was not well received. Neither were I Walk The Line or The Horseman that took two and a half years to make. The 1973 movie The Iceman Cometh had a big cast, great performances bu ran for three and a half hours!
It was only because JF had fluent French and knew the country so well that he was asked to direct French Connection 11 in 1975, that some believe is better than the original, and was JF's first big success for years. He carried on to rebuild his reputation with 1977's political thriller Black Sunday and continued in this genre on a number of movies. In 1998 he directed Ronin which was his last big success. It had a great cast and I always thought it was a superb film and have watched it more than once.
John Frankenheimer was described as a compelling director, exceptional in his development of radical techniques. He and his films were nominated for all sorts of awards, but he never broke into Oscar recognition. In retrospect, maybe The Manchurian Candidate should have been the movie that did just that.
Episode 7 Robert Wise
Now here is a director I did know having seen his biggest movies in the cinema. Robert Wise was born in Wichester, Indiana in 1914. It was his elder brother David who found him a job at RKO Pictures. From assistant to the sound effects editor to assistant film editor, Wise was gaining an invaluable education. He salvaged some discarded movie footage to make a ten minute short. After two films as the actual editor, he worked with Orson Welles on 1947's Citizen Kane for which he was nominated for an Oscar for film editing.
His first credited movie was when he replaced the original director on 1944's The Curse of the Cat People. This stood him in good stead for 1945's The Body Snatcher starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Wise worked as director on a number of movies for RKO and his last film for them was 1949's The Set Up that inspired films by Stanley Kubrick and Quentin Tarrantino.
During the 1950's he made some commercially successful films including 1951's The Day the Earth Stood Still and 1958's I Want to Live, directing Susan Hayword to a best actress Oscar. this was followed by Executive Suite that won many awards. The 1960's were even more successful with those two massive musicals The Sound of Music and West Side Story both winning the Oscars for best picture and best director amongst many other awards. But Wise was more interested in developing 1966's The Sand Pebbles that went on to be nominated for another best picture Oscar.
1971 saw the release of The Andromeda Strain that I remember well. His last big picture was Star Trek; The Motion Picture in 1979. But he will always be remembered for the two biggest musicals of all time.
Episode 8 Alan J Pakula
Yet another director whose name I could not remember. Alan J Pakula was born in 1928 and started his career at Paramount Pictures. In 1962 he produced the award winning To Kill a Mockingbird. From 1957 to 1968 he produced movies in association with director Roberts Mulligan and in 1969 he directed his first film The Sterile Cuckoo starring Liza Minnelli. In 1971, at such an early time in his career, he directed the marvellous Klute starring Donald Sutherland and Jane Fonda who won an Osar for her role.
In 1974 Wise released The Parallax View starring Warren Beatty and to complete this "paranoia" trilogy, 1976 saw All the President's Men starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, a huge commercial success. Another hit was Sophie's Choice in 1982 with Meryl Streep who won awards for best actress. Future box office hits included The Pelican Brief and Presumed Innocent. His final film was The Devil's Own with Harrison Ford. If you wanted a safe pair of hands for your thriller, Pakula was your man. He died in a car accident in 1998.
Episode 9 Carol Reed
Carol Reed was described as one of the four best British directors of all time. He was born in Putney in 1906 and was the son of (the mainly absent) actor/producer Sir Herbert Beerbohn Tree. He followed his father into the theatre with the Edgar Wallace company. During the day he was adapting Wallace's plays for the stage and in the evenings he was the stage manager. He then joined Associated Talking Pictures (better known as Ealing Studios), working his way up to assistant director.
Reed's first film as director was Midshipman Easy in 1935 but it wasn't until 1938 that he made any film of note and that was Bank Holiday with Margaret Lockwood. During the war years his films included Night Train to Munich in 1940. Then after the war, Reed made his name with three great movies in succession. Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol and The Third Man all gained awards including the BAFTA for best British film.The last of those three with Orson Welles is now such a classic, it is surprising it failed at the Oscars.
By 1956, Reed was in Hollywood making Trapeze with Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida. It was a big success and I remember going to see it in Norwich while away on a camping holiday. 1959's Our Man in Havana with Alec Guiness Noel Coward and was equally well received. Reed left Mutiny on the Bounty in pre-production and his The Agony and the Ecstasy failed at the box office. Unlike his next film that was the Oscar winning Oliver. The best director Academy Award was the icing on the cake of a tremendous career.
Episode 10 Sergio Leone
Neil Norman started the ball rolling with describing Sergio Leone as "the most important film maker of the late 20th century". Stephen Armstrong said "he changed film making completely" and Ian Nathan added that it was a "tragedy he died after making so few films". Bonnie Greer said that he was "one of the greatest film makers that ever lived" whilst Derek Malcolm thought that he was " an extraordinary film maker - when you saw one of his scenes you know immediately - Sergio Leone".
Born in Rome in 1929, Sergio Leone's family was firmly established in the visual arts. His father was a silent film director and his mother was an actress. His parents wanted him to follow a different career and so he started at law school. But he dropped out and found his way to Cinecitta Studios where he was helping with anything where he could be useful. He started writing and eventually was given the chance in 1959 to direct Steve Reeves in The Last Days of Pompeii. He didn't receive a credit even though he stepped in when the original director was replaced. In 1961 he directed what would be the last of these "swords and sandals" movies with The Colossus of Rhodes.
However in 1964 came a turning point in his career (and a turning point for all such films) when he made his name with A Fistful of Dollars starring Steve McQueen. We were told that Leone wanted to make a western based on Akira Kurosawa's Jojimbo that would be set in arid Italian locations. Steve McQueen was only noted for TV work so this was his breakthrough into movies as a lead actor. The contributors described the many innovations that Leone made for this genre and how the music by Ennio Morricone helped in it's enormous success. The film was followed in 1965 with it's sequel For a Few Dollars More. These movies were described as "new kind of westerns" that were "beautifully made" with "cowboys living off their wits".
The final film in this trilogy came in 1966 with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. For the third time Ennio Morricone composed the music, the main theme is unforgettable and "almost operatic". There are many sequences without dialogue when the music is as important as the visuals. In 1968 Leone directed Henry Fonda against type in One Upon a Time in the West that had a big cast of famous actors. The music was again equally good and the movie was called "amazing" and "the most perfect of his westerns".
Unfortunately another western in 1971 Duck You Sucker was not well received. So it took until 1984 for Leone's next, and last, film to be released. This time a huge epic in Once Upon a Time in America, the big gangster movie that Leone had always wanted to make. It starred Robert de Niro and James Woods. He had actually turned down the chance to direct The Godfather to work instead on his own project. Here it was called "one of the greatest gangster films ever made". It was "superbly shot" and was called "a beautiful thing, but far too long". For the American market it had to be cut hard from it's original four hours and was a flop despite it's huge acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival. Later it was restored to it's original length, with it's important flash backs, and is now called a masterpiece, "his greatest film", and "a work of art".
Sergio Leone died far too early in 1989 at the age of 60. Neil Norman summed up his career with the words "his influence is unbelievable".
