“I know what you’re thinking. Did he fire six shots, or only five?” Clint Eastwood was a western icon for the fistful of spaghetti westerns and cynical American copycats. When he strapped on his .44 Magnum to stride the streets of San Francisco as Inspector Harry Callahan, known to the squad as “Dirty Harry,” Eastwood […]
Tag: Don Siegel
‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ – the original pod people on Criterion Channel and Kanopy
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) – The original version of the oft-filmed science fiction horror is still the most insidious alien invasion film ever made. This is an invasion from within. Small town family doctor Kevin McCarthy returns to his small California coastal community from an out-of-town trip to find everything just a bit […]
‘Riot in Cell Block 11’ on Criterion Blu-ray and DVD
It may not have been obvious at the time but Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954) was a perfect match of film and filmmaker. Don Siegel later made a name for himself with his gritty Clint Eastwood collaborations (not to mention his brilliant Invasion of the Body Snatchers) but was just a promising journeyman director […]
‘The Gun Runners’ on Amazon Prime
Don Siegel’s low-budget 1958 adventure The Gun Runners is not exactly a remake of To Have and Have Not but it is the third screen adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway novel. Audie Murphy takes the lead here as independent skipper Sam Martin, who rents his cabin cruiser to tourists looking to fish the waters of […]
‘Hell is for Heroes’ on Netflix
A decade before he directed Dirty Harry and The Shootist, Don Siegel brought his tough world view and crisp, no-nonsense direction to Hell is for Heroes (1962), a quintessential World War II drama of an undermanned American platoon in France holding off a German advance through sheer bluff and bravery. Steve McQueen is curt and […]