Hello, my name is Justin LeClew, and I'm here today with Will Sloan.

And you're listening to The Important Cinema Club. And today, we're talking about one of Hollywood's two-fisted directors, Don Siegel.

I wouldn't have it any other way. Oterism is a slippery slope.

When those heroic French critics in the 1950s were making the case that Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, were capital A artists, it seemed pretty radical at the time.

It doesn't anymore.

Well, the slippery slope led to recognizing the artistry and personal style

of one Don Siegel. Now, you make that sound a little bit negative in the framing that you just provided.

I don't mean to. But I think Don Siegel is one of those names that I hear it and I think

great director. Like, it's automatic that he has invasion of the body snatchers,

escape from Alcatraz, the shootist, rough cut starring Bert Reynolds, one of his last films.

Okay, maybe not that last one. But Dirty Harry. Like, come on, the original The Beguiled.

I mean, your parents have seen 80% of Don Siegel's filmography, and they have no idea

it was all directed by the same man, but they love those movies. Absolutely. And I think that

Don Siegel is a guy that maybe I took for granted a little bit too much that I'm like,

oh, he's a great director. He's over there directing directing and there's a whole filmography for me to get to.

Now, the surprising thing for me this week is I discovered Don Siegel is a guy that likes to work.

And that was the most surprising thing because for the longest time, Don Siegel is a guy that

taught Clint Eastwood how to direct. He is a guy that's out there. He was detached from the

studio system after a run and he was an independent guy, but then you look at his filmography,

and it is mostly made up of things that is made by a guy who's very good, unshoey.

One of the reasons that you would never know that he made them is that they can often be pretty

anonymous.

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