TSPDT - Robert Siodmak

Robert Siodmak

Key Noir Filmmaker

Expressive Esoterica

►501 Movie Directors: A Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers

See Also

Jules Dassin

H. Bruce Humberstone

Fritz Lang

Joseph H. Lewis

Anatole Litvak

Joseph Losey

Roy William Neill

Don Siegel

Douglas Sirk

Jacques Tourneur

Director / Producer / Screenwriter

1900 - 1973

Born August 8, Dresden, Saxony, Germany

Key Production Countries: USA, Germany

Key Genres: Film Noir, Crime Drama, Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Crime Thriller

Key Collaborators: John Goodman (Production Designer), Arthur Hilton (Editor), H.J. Salter (Composer), Samuel S. Hinds (Character Player), Burt Lancaster (Leading Player), Ella Raines (Leading Player), Elwood Bredell (Cinematographer), Martin Obzina (Production Designer), Joan Harrison (Producer), Dean Harens (Leading Character Player)

Highly Recommended: Phantom Lady (1944), The Spiral Staircase (1946), The Killers (1946), Criss Cross (1949)

Recommended: People on Sunday (1929) [co-directed by Edgar G. Ulmer], The Suspect (1944), The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945), The Dark Mirror (1946), Cry of the City (1948), The File on Thelma Jordon (1949), The Crimson Pirate (1952)

Links: [ IMDB ] [ TCMDB ] [ All-Movie Guide ] [ Senses of Cinema: Great Directors ] [ Film Reference ] [ Classic Film and Television Home Page ] [ Modern Times Article ] [ Village Voice Article ]

Books: [ The File on Robert Siodmak in Hollywood: 1941-1951 ] [ Robert Siodmak: A Biography with Critical Analyses of His Film Noirs and a Filmography of All His Works ]

DVD's: [ Amazon ]

1,000 Greatest Films: People on Sunday (1929) [co-directed by Edgar G. Ulmer]

250 Quintessential Noir Films: Christmas Holiday (1944), Phantom Lady (1944), The Suspect (1944), The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945), The Dark Mirror (1946), The Killers, The (1946), Cry of the City (1948), Criss Cross (1949), The File on Thelma Jordon (1949)


	"Siodmak's most successful projects - Phantom Lady, Christmas Holiday, The Suspect, Uncle Harry, The Spiral Staircase, The Killers - represent a fortuitous conjunction of such attractive actresses as Ella Raines, Dorothy McGuire, Ava Gardner, and even an absurdly lurid Deanna Durbin, with perverse subjects and expert technicians all whipped together with a heavy Teutonic sauce and served to the customers as offbeat art." - Andrew Sarris (The American Cinema, 1968)

	"Being Jewish, Siodmak had to flee the Nazis, arriving in Hollywood in 1940. Film noir gave him the opportunity to use his pictorial sense and his narrative skills, and he directed a string of atmospheric thrillers, including Phantom Lady (1944), The Killers and The Dark Mirror (both 1946), Cry of the City (1948) and Criss Cross (1949)." - (The Movie Book, 1999)

	"An innovative and cinematic director, he explored the criminal or psychotic impulses in his characters through the ambience of his elegant mise-en-scène. The control of all cinematic tools at his command - camera angle, lighting, composition, movement, and design - was used to establish effectively a world of fate, passion, obsession, and compulsion. Although his reputation has been elevated in recent years, his name deserves to be better known." - Jeanine Basinger (International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, 1991)

	"During the 1940s, Siodmak developed into a formidable director of suspense and crime films. He was influenced by the German schools of expressionism and realism prevalent in the 20s. Both rubbed off into a blend which distinguishes his Hollywood period." - William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978)