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Don Siegel |
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Director / Producer |
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1912 - 1991 |
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Born October 26,
Chicago, Illinois, USA |
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Key
Production Country: USA |
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Key Genres:
Crime, Action Thriller, Action,
Drama, Western,
Chase Movie, Crime Thriller, Police Detective Film, Thriller |
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Key
Collaborators:
Clint
Eastwood (Leading Player), Lalo Schifrin (Composer), Bruce Surtees
(Cinematographer), Sheree North (Character Player), Harry Guardino
(Leading Player), Howard Rodman
(Screenwriter), Dean Riesner (Screenwriter), Hal Mohr (Cinematographer),
Jack Elam (Character Player), Leo Gordon (Character Player) |
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Highly Recommended:
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
(1956)* |
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Recommended:
The
Big Steal (1949), Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), The Lineup (1958)#, Hell is for Heroes
(1962), The Killers (1964), The Beguiled (1971), Dirty Harry (1971)*,
Charley Varrick (1973), The Shootist (1976), Escape from Alcatraz (1979) |
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Worth a Look: The Verdict (1946), The Duel
at Silver Creek (1952), Private Hell 36 (1954)#, Crime in the Streets
(1956), Baby Face Nelson (1957), The Gun Runners (1958), Edge of
Eternity (1959), Coogan's Bluff (1968), Madigan (1968) |
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Approach with Caution: Two Mules for Sister
Sara (1970) |
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Duds: Telefon (1977) |
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* Listed in TSPDT's
1,000 Greatest Films
section; #
Listed in TSPDT's
250 Quintessential Noir Films
section. |
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Links: [
Amazon
]
[
IMDB ] [
TCMDB ] [
All-Movie
Guide ] [
Senses
of Cinema: Great Directors ] [
Film Reference ] [
Classic Film and Television
Home Page ] [
Don Siegel
Tribute ] [
Wikipedia ] |
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Books:
[
A
Siegel Film: An Autobiography ] |
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"His
classically composed and edited images were as clean,
uncluttered and direct as his storylines; his disenchanted but
professional (anti-)heroes tended to express frustration through
violent action rather than words; the world they fought against
was depicted with broad, vivid strokes." -
Geoff
Andrew (The Director's Vision, 1999) |
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"In the late 50s
Siegel was discovered by the young critics (and future
directors) of the Cahiers du Cinema - among them
Godard,
Truffaut, and
Rohmer - who crowned him a gifted
auteur with a consistent style and point of view, much to
his own surprise. In the last 60s, following a mixed bag of
less-than-memorable productions, the director began a fruitful
collaboration with actor
Clint
Eastwood that resulted in 1971 in Dirty Harry." -
(The
MacMillan International Film Encyclopedia, 1994) |
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"Siegel's
style does not encompass the demonic distortions of
Fuller's,
Aldrich's,
Losey's, and, to a lesser extent,
Karlson's. Siegel declines to
implicate the world at large in the anarchic causes of his
heroes. Nor does he adjust his compositions to their
psychological quirks. The moral architecture of his universe is
never undermined by the editing, however frenzied. Nevertheless,
the final car chase in The Lineup and the final shoot-up
in Madigan are among the most stunning displays of action
montage in the history of the American cinema." -
Andrew
Sarris (The American Cinema, 1968)
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"One of the best action directors working today. Siegel imbues
his films with well-motivated violence, brevity, psychological
tension, and humor." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
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"I
think in America I'm looked upon as the equivalent of a European
director -- which is quite laughable. I've never had a personal
publicity man working for me. So all this came out of the blue
-- all this publicity. The cult was not engineered. It festered,
in a sense. And erupted. And it did me a lot of good." -
Don Siegel |
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Please
note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based
only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director
that we haven't seen include Night Unto Night (1949), No Time for
Flowers (1952), China Venture (1953), Count the Hours (1953), An
Annapolis Story (1955), Spanish Affair (1958), Hound-Dog Man (1959),
Flaming Star (1960), Big Jake (1971), The Black Windmill (1974), Rough
Cut (1980), and Jinxed! (1982). |
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