Robert Siodmak

[Scharphedin2]

Robert Siodmak (1900-1973)

FILMOGRAPHY

Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday) (1930) BFI (R2 UK)

Die Tragödie des Untermieters (1930)

Abschied (1930)

Autour d'une enquête (1931)

Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht (1931)

Voruntersuchung (1931)

Stürme der Leidenschaft (1932)

Tumultes (1932)

Quick (1932)

Brennendes Geheimnis (The Burning Secret) (1933)

Le Sexe faible (The Weaker Sex) (1933)

La Crise est finie (The Depression Is Over) (1934)

Parisian Life (1936)

Mister Flow (1936)

Le Grand refrain (Symphonie D'Amour) (1936)

La Vie parisienne (The Parisian Life) (1936)

Cargaison blanche (Woman Racket) (1937)

Mollenard (1938)

Pièges (Personal Column) (1939)

West Point Widow (1941)

Fly-By-Night (1942)

The Night Before the Divorce (1942)

My Heart Belongs to Daddy (1942)

Someone to Remember (1943)

Son of Dracula (1943) Universal (R1) – included in Dracula: The Legacy Collection

Phantom Lady (1944) Carlotta (R2 FR) – also included in Coffret Robert Siodmak

Cobra Woman (1944) Carlotta (R2 FR) – also included in Coffret Robert Siodmak

Christmas Holiday (1944) DD Video (R2 UK) – also included in The Deanna Durbin Collection

The Suspect (1944)

The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945) Suevia (R2 ES)

The Spiral Staircase (1945) MGM (R1) / Anchor Bay (R1) / Prism Leisure (R2 UK)

The Killers (1946) Criterion (R1) / Universal (R2 UK) / Carlotta (R2 FR) – also included in Coffret Robert Siodmak

The Dark Mirror (1946) Wild Side (R2 FR) / Suevia (R2 ES)

Time Out of Mind (1947)

Cry of the City (1948) Carlotta (R2 FR) / Suevia (R2 ES)

Criss Cross (1949) Universal (R1)

The Great Sinner (1949)

The File on Thelma Jordon (1950)

Deported (1950)

The Whistle at Eaton Falls (1951)

The Crimson Pirate (1952) Warner Brothers (R1)

Le Grand jeu (Flesh and the Woman) (1954)

Die Ratten (The Rats) (1955)

Mein Vater, der Schauspieler (1956)

Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam (The Devil Strikes at Night) (1957)

O.S.S. (TV series, 1957)

The Rough and the Smooth (Portrait of a Sinner) (1959)

Dorothea Angermann (1959)

Katia (Magnificent Sinner) (1959)

Mein Schulfreund (My School Chum) (1960)

L'Affaire Nina B. (The Nina B. Affair) (1961)

Escape from East Berlin (1962)

Der Schut (Yellow Devil) (1964) UFA (R2 DE) – included in Karl May Edition 1: Orient Box

Der Schatz der Azteken (1965) Universum (R2 DE) – included in Karl May Edition 3: Mexiko Box

Die Pyramide des Sonnengottes (Pyramid of the Sun God) (1965) Universum (R2 DE) – included in Karl May Edition 3: Mexiko Box

Custer of the West (1967) MGM (R1)

Kampf um Rom I (The Last Roman) (1968) Universum (R2 DE) – included in Kampf um Rom Collection

Kampf um Rom II: Der Verrat (1969) Universum (R2 DE) – included in Kampf um Rom Collection


RECOMMENDED WEB RESOURCES

Classic Film and Television – overview of Siodmak's seminal films of the mid- to late forties

Culture Court – article on Criss Cross

Dark City – articles on several of Siodmak's films noir

Filmportal.de – German site with focus on Siodmak's films made in Germany (site mainly in German)

Modern Times – analyses of The Killers and Criss Cross

Senses of Cinema – article on The Dark Mirror

Senses of Cinema – article on Phantom Lady

Senses of Cinema – general profile on Siodmak


DVD

Cobra Woman (Siodmak, 1944)

The Killers (Criterion)

[Knappen]

Mollenard (1938) was shown on French tv last week to much acclaim from imdb veteran Didier Dumonteil.

[rockysds]

Les Documents Cinématographiques is releasing Mister Flow on dual format. English subs included.

[Stefan Andersson]

The Whistle at Eaton Falls has recently been restored by David Strohmaier.
Glenn Erickson spoke with Mr. Strohmaier about the resto (funded by Flicker Alley), and reviewed the film here:
https://trailersfromhell.com/the-whistl ... ton-falls/

Online viewing option (for a fee) for a limited time:
https://watch.eventive.org/afivsr/play/ ... 00991b6c9e

[L.A.]

Beaver’s review for Deported (1950)

[FrauBlucher]

In reading Foster Hirsch’s The Dark Side of the Screen:Film Noir he writes a little about Christmas Holiday (1944) starring Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly which I’ve never heard of till now. The premise sounds interesting and very noiry but I can’t envision these leads. Has anyone seen this? Is it worth a viewing?

[domino harvey]

My thoughts from the noir list

Christmas Holiday (Robert Siodmak 1944) This mishmash could qualify for at least four of our genre lists-- is it a musical? A war film? A religious film? A noir? The answer does not matter, as it is not good enough to merit inclusion on any list in any category. Deanna Durbin, frowsy as ever, tries to go against type as the self-prostituting lounge singer punishing herself to answer for her jailbird husband's crimes. Gene Kelly in an early non-musical role as her convict spouse is as hammy as ever, and everyone else in the film fails to register at all. The plot unfolds in weirdly organized non-chronological flashbacks, unnecessarily so, with perhaps the idea being that by throwing so many wrenches into a straight-forward telling the audience wouldn't notice that they don't care. Not quite.

I believe our former member david hare was a fan, though

[hearthesilence]

FWIW, people can follow David on social media or just read his posts on Film Alert 101 - not quite the same, but at least he continually posts his insights.

[FrauBlucher]

Hirsch writes Durbin is remarkably persuasive as a lowlife noir psychotic, but calls Kelly a lightweight. He said of Kelly it looks like the nice Kelly trying to be mean

[knives]

Is there any book that covers Siodmak’s whole career?

[Godot]

Is there any book that covers Siodmak’s whole career?

Yes, there are two in English and a handful in other languages. My favorite dedicated book in English is J. Greco's The File on Robert Siodmak in Hollywood 1941-1951, very readable and interesting insights. A minor annoyance: movie titles are underlined rather than bolded or italicized; the photos look like scanned copies, so maybe the book is published on demand? It feels at times like I'm reading an extremely detailed term paper, albeit one with critical perspectives on mise en scene and directorial choices. There are also some noir books with great chapters focusing on Siodmak, such as The Book of Film Noir (Ian Cameron, Ed.) with a chapter written by Michael Walker, and Film Noir: the Directors (Silver & Ursini, Ed.) with a chapter by Todd Erickson. I have always enjoyed the writings of the Movie crowd, and Walker's observations were very enlightening to me. Both of those compendium books have beautiful pictures to complement the analyses.

There is also a dedicated book that sells for $$$, I haven't seen it low enough (<$100) to gamble on it, by Deborah Lazaroff Alpi, Robert Siodmak: A Biography, With Critical Analyses of His Films Noirs and a Filmography of All His Works which does get some crap from reviewers for being a close replica of a French/Spanish book by Herve Dumont. She lives about 15 miles from me, maybe I'll run into her at the library.

[Maltic]

Adrian Martin has been on a mission with Siodmak, with commentaries for The Dark Mirror (Arrow), Time Out of Mind (Indicator), Cry of the City (BFI), People on Sunday (BFI), and Criss Cross (MoC).

There's also Eddy Von Mueller on Deported (Kino), Daniel Kremer on Deported (Indicator), Troy Howarth on The Suspect (Kino), Imogen Sara Smith on The Spiral Staircase (Kino), Frank Kutnik on The Killers (selected scenes, Arrow) and Lee Gambin and Eloise Ross also on Time Out of Mind (Kino).

[knives]

So nothing on his two German periods then?

[domino harvey]

I can’t help you with books but to Maltic’s list I can note that Kino released three of Siodmak’s German films and they all have commentaries as well

[Maltic]

There's always another Kino. I missed Cobra Woman as well.

[knives]

Thanks for noting that Dom. Now just to wait for the next Kino sale.

[FrauBlucher]

Hey Dom or anyone have anything to say about THE SUSPECT (1944)? I was watching a Charles Laughton film last night and wondered what his output was in the 40s, especially in the Noir genre. So, going through IMDB I noticed this film and it had a pretty respectable rating (sorry Dom) and saw it was Siodmak at the helm which really peaked my interest. I think of Laughton being a type for noir much like Sydney Greenstreet. But his output for noir seems less than I would have hoped.

I also noticed this Siodmak thread can’t even make a full page

[Maltic]

It's not a flamboyant performance by Laughton's standards (a la Greenstreet). The setting reminded me of Hobson's Choice, though in The Suspect, Laughton's character is not outright unsympathetic. As a noir, the film is more Hitchcock than hard-boiled.

[domino harvey]

Hey Dom or anyone have anything to say about THE SUSPECT (1944)? I was watching a Charles Laughton film last night and wondered what his output was in the 40s, especially in the Noir genre. So, going through IMDB I noticed this film and it had a pretty respectable rating (sorry Dom) and saw it was Siodmak at the helm which really peaked my interest. I think of Laughton being a type for noir much like Sydney Greenstreet. But his output for noir seems less than I would have hoped.

I also noticed this Siodmak thread can’t even make a full page

Here are my thoughts on it and the Strage Affair of Uncle Harry from the noir list:

So, Siodmak is turning into the surprise MVP of my provisional list. Indulged in two more of his films today, the Suspect and the Strange Affair of Uncle Harry, to great results. These pictures really function as sister films, as both feature emasculated male characters played by established British character actors who find an escape from an overbearing female in their life in the form of Ella Raines, only to have their second chance at happiness blocked by all avenues but murder. Of the two, I favored the Suspect more, if only for the total pathetic charm Charles Laughton gives his henpecked and slovenly clerk. Certainly the film fulfills a bit of audience wish fulfillment in Raines' aggressive pursuit of a nice, unassuming man nowhere in her league, but the picture has a real sentimental attachment to its protagonist and skirts the production code's punishment requirements at the end in quite a charming way.

Raines is given more to do in the Strange Affair of Uncle Harry, and it's nice to see her livened up in contrast to her other noir work:



but she's overshadowed by Geraldine Fitzgerald as George Sanders' overbearing sister. There's subtext and then there's literal incestual lust, and that's, shockingly, what's going on with this one. The film carries its perversity into its ending

Spoiler

the "It's all a dream"-ness of which, while not working as brilliantly as in the Woman in the WIndow, has a sense of total falseness and narrative incongruity that it can and must be read symbolically as a fevered hallucination caused by suicide, probably by poisoning-- think, who shows up to greet him but his dead sister and lost love? But not his sister who he genuinely has no interest in seeing again, even before his death. Before the intrusion of the ending, the film hinted at Leave Her to Heaven and the later the Gunfighter in its implications, but if the dream is kept and read as false, it's yet another way around the code that works wonders!

...And if you take it all literally, it's one of the worst endings of all time. You choose!