Customer Reviews

A Siegel Film: An Autobiography

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Siegel has written a chapter on nearly very film he was involved in. From his days doing Montage sequences for some classic films (i.e. The Raging Twenties) to getting his first directors gig from the wary studio mogols.

Siegel is an entertaining writer but you feel as if your not getting the full picture from him. Details are skipped over and lost. Some infamous people emerge (i.e. Sam Peckinpah, Ronald Regan, etc.) but other stuff is neglected. For example, I don't think Siegel even mentions John Milius' contribution to Dirty Harry. Peckinpah's trouble with studio brass is hardly covered but there is some interesting stuff on the making of Charley Varrick and The Shootist.

Theres not much information for those interested in film making, but for light reading I would recomend the book but just don't expect too much.

To say that Don Siegel is one of the most under-rated directors in HOLLYWOOD history -is a vast under-statement in itself. The studios may have thought of him as "B" class, but as time has prooven just like what his many fans have known all along -he's an "A" plus all the way!

He's a craftsman who knew how to work within the confines of the Studio System. How to deliver on a tight budget and with limited resources he gave us such classics as RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, FLAMING STAR, THE KILLERS, COOGAN'S BLUFF, DIRTY HARRY, CHARLEY VARRICK and ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ. Rising from the editorial department at Warner Brothers in the 1940's, he gave us such montages as that seen in CASABLANCA. Siegel had an editorial eye that allowed him to be so efficient and fast in shooting. Basically, everything that Clint Eastwood has learned about film and directing, has come from his friend and mentor Don Siegel.

Through Siegel's autobiography you'll learn too -just what it was like making those great movies and so much more. It's not a perfect book, but it is just about the only one to date. At least he took the time to document the way it was for him. There are some great "behind-the-scenes" stories even if they are all too brief. Memory fails all of us and he wasn't schooled as an historian, he was too busy making a living.
Don felt very much at home with the CRIME genre and whether he was working for a small studio like Allied Artists or one of the majors, his films always paid off big time in suspense and action. In Europe he was respected just as much as a John Ford or a David Lean, but in HOLLYWOOD he was just taken for granted. A SIEGEL FILM for the reader at least, is more than worthy of anyone's attention.