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George Stevens

 

TSPDT Rating

Director / Producer
1904 - 1975
Born December 18, Oakland, California, USA
Key Production Country: USA
Key Genres: Romantic Comedy, Drama, Romance, Comedy
Key Collaborators: Katharine Hepburn (Leading Player), Cary Grant (Leading Player), Jean Arthur (Leading Player), Pandro S. Berman (Producer), Edgar Buchanan (Leading Character Player), William Mellor (Cinematographer), William Hornbeck (Editor), Henry Berman (Editor), Van Nest Polglase (Production Designer), Lionel Banks (Production Designer)
Recommended: Swing Time (1936), Gunga Din (1939), Penny Serenade (1941), Woman of the Year (1942), The More the Merrier (1943), A Place in the Sun (1951), Shane (1953), Giant (1956)
Links: [ IMDB ] [ All-Movie Guide ] [ Film Reference ] [ Reel Classics Page ] [ Wikipedia ] [ PBS American Masters ]
Books: [ George Stevens: An American Romantic ] [ Giant: George Stevens, A Life on Film ] [ George Stevens: Interviews ]
DVD's: [ Amazon ]
1,000 Greatest Films: A Place in the Sun (1951), Shane (1953)
 
Swing Time (1936)Gunga Din (1939)Shane (1953)Giant (1956)
 
     
  "People always count in a George Stevens film, and it is notable that even in his early comedies (and very good they are too), and in his later melodramas, he never quite allows sentiment to take over from sense, and so retains his capacity to move, rather than merely tug, at the heartstrings." - Mario Reading (The Movie Companion, 2006)  
     
  "It is often said that the war changed Stevens, and made it less easy for him to believe in entertainment...There is no biography as yet, so the question is hard to answer. But something seems to have afflicted Stevens. He was never a great director. But in the thirties he had a feeling for fun, grace, and story. Thereafter, he was always somber - and sometimes heavier than that." - David Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2002)  
     
  "Mainly because of multiple takes and shooting from every possible angle, George Stevens took 22 years to make his last eight films. In the late 1920s, Stevens directed Laurel and Hardy two-reelers, and in the 1930s and early 1940s, a wide range of polished films including three comedies with Katharine Hepburn, a couple of Fred Astaire musicals, and a colonial adventure film, Gunga Din (1939). His later films were more personal, his working methods slower, and his style more deliberate." - Ronald Bergan (Film - Eyewitness Companions, 2006)  
     
  "His earlier work shows a flair for comedy (The More the Merrier, 43), musicals (Swing Time, 36), adventure (Gunga Din, 39), and Americana (Alice Adams, 35). Stevens later lensed big blockbusters containing characters searching for truth and peace, as well as the director's often brilliant use of slowly blossoming narratives, limpid dissolves, and anticlimactic violence." - William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978)  
     
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Last updated: 28/01/2010 10:35 AM.  Contact Us: bill@theyshootpictures.com.
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