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Don Siegel (1912-1991)



[China Venture], which I thought was pretty good,
attracted no attention whatsoever. It was a typical
Siegel picture of the time. You had to catch it the
first day at your neighborhood theater, or it would
be gone, only to arise years later in a mutilated form,
squashed in a television box.

~ Don Siegel (A Siegel Film, 1993)


Filmography

Star in the Night (short, 1945) Warner (R1) included as extra on Christmas in Connecticut/Classic Holiday Collection

Hitler Lives (uncredited, 1945)

The Verdict (1946)

Night Unto Night (1949)

The Big Steal (1949) Warner (R1) as double feature with Illegal and as part of Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 4 (tbr 31st July, 2007) / Universal (R2 UK) colorized version! / Editions Montparnasse (R2 FR) / Manga Films (R2 ES) / Columbia (R2 IT)

The Duel at Silver Creek (1952) Universal (R1) / Universal (R2 UK)

The Doctor (2 TV series episodes, 1952)

No Time for Flowers (1952)

Count the Hours (1953)

China Venture (1953)

The Lineup (TV series episode, 1954)

Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954)

Private Hell 36 (1954)

An Annapolis Story (1955)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Artisan (R1) / Kinowelt (R2 DE)

Crime in the Streets (1956)

Spanish Affair (1956)

Baby Face Nelson (1957)

The Lineup (1958)

The Gun Runners (1958)

Adventure Showcase (TV series episode, 1959)

Edge of Eternity (1959)

Hound-Dog Man (1959)

Flaming Star (1960) Fox (R1)

Bus Stop (TV series episode, 1961)

Hell is for Heroes (1962) Paramount (R1) also included in American Heroes Collection / Paramount (R2 UK)

Breaking Point (TV series episode, 1963)

The Twilight Zone (2 TV series episodes, 1963-1964) Image Entertainment (R1) as part of The Twilight Zone: The Definitive Edition, Season 5

Destry (TV series episode, 1964)

The Killers (1964) Criterion (R1)

The Hanged Man (TV, 1964)

The Legend of Jesse James (TV series episode, 1965)

Stranger on the Run (TV, 1967)

Madigan (1968) Universal (R1) / Universal (R2 UK)

Coogan's Bluff (1968) Universal (R1) / Universal (R2 UK)

Death of a Gunfighter (as Alan Smithee, 1969)

Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970) Universal (R1) also included in Clint Eastwood: Western Icon Collection / Universal (R2 UK)

The Beguiled (1971) Universal (R1)

Dirty Harry (1971) Warner (R1) also included in The Dirty Harry Series: Clint Eastwood Collection and in Clint Eastwood Selection 3-Pack / Warner (R2 UK) also included in The Dirty Harry Collection / Warner (R2 DE) / Warner (R2 FR)

Charley Varrick (1973) Universal (R1)

The Black Windmill (1974) Universal (R2 UK)

The Shootist (1976) Paramount (R1) also included in The John Wayne Western Collection and in various other John Wayne collections from Paramount / Paramount (R2 UK)

Telefon (1977)

Escape from Alcatraz (1979) Paramount (R1) / Paramount (R2 UK) / Paramount (R4 AU)

Rough Cut (1980)

Jinxed! (1982) MGM (R1)


General Discussion

Police in the Movies includes comments on Siegel's cycle of Dirty Harry films


Recommended Web Resources

Chartist Review of Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Pete Smith

Filmsite Review of Dirty Harry by Tim Dirks

Gadfly Online Invasion of the Body Snatchers: A Tale for Our Times

Why isn´t BABY FACE NELSON on dvd yet? Seems like a natural for a PD edition at least. Also heard there´s only one print left of this film. It needs a thread!

I was very impressed by The Lineup (the 1958 movie, not the TV series). Eli Wallach plays a psychotic hoodlum and Robert Keith is his gay "handler". Their job is to recover heroin smuggled into San Francisco by innocent "mules". Siegel opens with a car crash and keeps the pace and tension building nicely to the end. The film has fatalistic noirish elements but a more openair, daylight feel than a typical noir, with some great use of San Francisco locations. The dialogue is sharp and witty, notably in the exchanges between Wallach and Keith. When Wallach shoves a wheelchair guy over a balcony, he remarks dryly: "He pushed me too far and I pushed him just far enough."

There's a DVD for sale here, probably a bootleg.

davidhare wrote:I also suspect, despite the Close Shots this is an open matte print that Columbia would have normally matted to 1.85 by the late 50s.

Yes, the bootleg I have is matted to 1.85.

Both "Stranger on the Run" and "Death of a Gunfighter" DVD's are available in France.

Anyone know anything about this Spanish blu-ray of Siegel's The Lineup?

The back says it's 83 minutes long (the US cut is 86 minutes, I believe).

The fact it's three minutes shorter - and states "PAL" on the cover - indicates to me a PAL upscale. And everything about it, including "BD-R" and regions "1-6" (not even the correct zoning system for Blu-ray), strongly suggests a bootleg...