Phantom Siodmak
Unfortunately in the medium of cinema, there does exist many an auteur that would, despite their greatness,
go entirely unsung. One such director was Austro-German émigré Robert Siodmak. Siodmak left an indelible mark on the genre of film noir and was every bit as instrumental in shaping it, as were contemporaries Fritz Lang and Otto Preminger. Perhaps it was the fact that he was more so, a contracted director than the independent Mr. Lang was, that his own voice would make but a squeak in the genre.
However, Siodmak was certainly no shirker. In the 1944 noir thriller, Phantom Lady, he would historically make his way past the almighty censors with a most provocative montage that bordered on Bacchanalia. In this film there was also an unusual tempo, and a sensitive use of actors (Ella Raines, Franchot Tone), in this breakthrough film that would inspire directors to come.
Nothing ever Raines on Ella's parade
Mr. Siodmak got his start in Germany with Menschen am Sontag (People On Sunday, 1929), which he directed along with Edward G Ulmer. This film was revolutionary in it's documentary stylization. A few years after the release of this film, he fled to France as a result of the Nazi occupation, where he would continue developing his directorial skills, ultimately arriving in America in 1939.
Another 1944 release of note was Siodmak's The Suspect, where the director's fervour would draw the passion and sensitivity from his stars. In this case, it was a contumacious Charles Laughton who was enticed into rendering one of his most powerful performances. Philip Marshall; a genteel soul who kills his harridan wife after years of aural torture.
There would be a theme recurrent in Siodmak's releases, that encapsulated imbalanced family life, a lack of security in the home. This signature is never more apparent than in Christmas Holiday, another 1944 film in which Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly
would portray the archetypal contented couple but the gold and glitter clearly are at war here.
The Spiral Staircase (1946) is where we find Dorothy McGuire, a sensitive deaf-mute who could never be privy to more threats than she is confronted with , in the home she should naturally and intrinsically feel safe in.
Siodmak was somewhat of an incongruity , after his days of helming noir films, he would soon veer into other genres , namely swashbucklers, as he did with 1952's The Crimson Pirate. These films would pale comparatively, to the pioneering vision he once had in his eleven o'clock number ; Phantom Lady. Perhaps it would be that the title of this film would be most ironic and apropos, given the fact that his irrefutable genius had escaped the masses so - for he, himself could be seen as this - a phantom.
go entirely unsung. One such director was Austro-German émigré Robert Siodmak. Siodmak left an indelible mark on the genre of film noir and was every bit as instrumental in shaping it, as were contemporaries Fritz Lang and Otto Preminger. Perhaps it was the fact that he was more so, a contracted director than the independent Mr. Lang was, that his own voice would make but a squeak in the genre.
However, Siodmak was certainly no shirker. In the 1944 noir thriller, Phantom Lady, he would historically make his way past the almighty censors with a most provocative montage that bordered on Bacchanalia. In this film there was also an unusual tempo, and a sensitive use of actors (Ella Raines, Franchot Tone), in this breakthrough film that would inspire directors to come.
Mr. Siodmak got his start in Germany with Menschen am Sontag (People On Sunday, 1929), which he directed along with Edward G Ulmer. This film was revolutionary in it's documentary stylization. A few years after the release of this film, he fled to France as a result of the Nazi occupation, where he would continue developing his directorial skills, ultimately arriving in America in 1939.
Another 1944 release of note was Siodmak's The Suspect, where the director's fervour would draw the passion and sensitivity from his stars. In this case, it was a contumacious Charles Laughton who was enticed into rendering one of his most powerful performances. Philip Marshall; a genteel soul who kills his harridan wife after years of aural torture.
There would be a theme recurrent in Siodmak's releases, that encapsulated imbalanced family life, a lack of security in the home. This signature is never more apparent than in Christmas Holiday, another 1944 film in which Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly
would portray the archetypal contented couple but the gold and glitter clearly are at war here.
The Spiral Staircase (1946) is where we find Dorothy McGuire, a sensitive deaf-mute who could never be privy to more threats than she is confronted with , in the home she should naturally and intrinsically feel safe in.
Siodmak was somewhat of an incongruity , after his days of helming noir films, he would soon veer into other genres , namely swashbucklers, as he did with 1952's The Crimson Pirate. These films would pale comparatively, to the pioneering vision he once had in his eleven o'clock number ; Phantom Lady. Perhaps it would be that the title of this film would be most ironic and apropos, given the fact that his irrefutable genius had escaped the masses so - for he, himself could be seen as this - a phantom.
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This place is simply fabulous-- a treasury of historical mentions and graphics that clearly depict and elucidate an era of film whose sultry precision pressed for specifics, in which the art of expressing the motive and motion of a character heavily depended on the actor's every murmur or twitch of a muscle. A bright contrast this era is artfully, to the fast and flashing era of modern film, with all of its visual tricks and state-of-the art digital techniques. One might say the contrast is comparable to the differences between the once prevalent mystical and glamorous casino aura of old and the mickey-mouse attitude of the modern Las Vegas Strip. Cheers! :)
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