Don Siegel

Oh, I've been meaning to mention a Clint Eastwood connection.

He was in a Don Siegel cop film before Dirty Harry Madigan.

He plays a role in that.

So I had to crowbar that in there.

So, John, would you like to once again tell people where they can find you?

Everyone can find me at DirtyHarryMinute.com, available on all your normal podcast providers.

Obviously, we go through Dirty Harry, the 1971 classic directed by Don Siegel, starring Clint Eastwood.

And, yeah, that's where you can find me.

It's just not his kind...

And they're like, "You know, he's a cop from somewhere, he comes to New York." And, and he's like, "Oh, you mean like the Don Siegel picture Coogan's Bluff?"

[laughs]

And they were like, "No, Beverly Hills..." Stop it.

...

Clint Eastwood, hasn't he? And the, I suppose there are links to Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel, who directed the original, which we'll get to-

Yeah

...

[laughs] Yeah.

He's the main character in, from the first film.

And then you've got Don Siegel, who plays the taxi driver, who was, um, the director of the original.

Uh, but yeah, Leonard Nimoy.

beyond.

I also checked out, never seen it, Don Siegel's 1964 film The Killers.

I haven't seen this one.

The Lancaster one?

He's not good for anything.

No,

he should have stayed in B-movies or Don Siegel movies.

He should have kept doing that.

Tons of alien invasion movies were released around this time.

Freddie Francis' They Came from Beyond, Terence Fisher's The Earth Dies Screaming, Steve Sekely's The Day of the Triffids, Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Maury Dexter's The Day Mars Invaded Earth.

The list goes on indefinitely.

And it wasn't just movies.

Andrew Robinson could really just manic it up.

But Charlie Varick is a Don Siegel film, and it is just a crackerjack pit of criminal entertainment.

It feels very much like a Parker movie, if you know that character, where it's just everyone is really fucking good at their jobs.

And Walter Matthau, who at this point...

No.

Not for anybody.

We both picked Andrew Robinson films directed by Don Siegel.

I just realized this.

is one of the ones that she appears in, but was directed by someone else.

In this case, the great Don Siegel.

And it's her and husband number two or three, Howard Duff.

And, you know, and is a terrific Marxist noir.

It culturally, not just because of the issues it raised at the time and the amount of arguments it created between the left and right, Democrats, Republicans, all that sort of thing, but the moral agenda that it threw up, the moral quandaries it threw up, Clint is absolutely coolest and coldest.

Don Siegel, lean mean to the bone.

That man cuts his films like Waterhill.

Well, preceding Waterhill.

He's a major figure.

And then, Josh, you delightfully put down our man, Don Siegel, who we keep learning is one of the most eclectic filmmakers of the 20th century.

He made his first feature here.

But we talked about The Killers in 1946.

Well, for those who need to know, there was a time where this film club was going, and I went through a breakup, and my ex and I used to go to the film club, and I was just so depressed.

I couldn't really do it.

Josh, you say that the verdict by Don Siegel might not be worth watching, but I challenge you, Josh, considering the two stars are two awesome movie year all-stars, Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre.

Well, that does sound good.