Don Siegel Filmography

Jinxed!

Crew: Director

Actors: Bette Midler, Ken Wahl, Rip Torn, Val Avery, Jack Elam

Synopsis: Jinxed is an apt name for this disastrous project which, sadly, turned out to be Don Siegel's final film. The film takes place in Reno, where blackjack dealer Willie Brodax (Ken Wahl) becomes an innocent victim of a broken-down gambler named Harold Benson (Rip Torn). Such is Willie's luck that Read More

Rough Cut

Crew: Director

Actors: Burt Reynolds, Lesley-Anne Down, David Niven, Patrick Magee, Joss Ackland

Synopsis: Notorious international jewel thief Jack Rhodes (Burt Reynolds) is out to steal $30 million in uncut diamonds in this visually opulent, uneven comedy. Chief Inspector Cyril Willis (David Niven) is Rhodes' nemesis. He wants to retire from Scotland Yard but would like to capture Rhodes as a final Read More

Escape from Alcatraz

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Jack Thibeau, Fred Ward

Synopsis: No one can escape from Alcatraz, right? Try telling that to lifer Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood). This Donald Siegel-directed nailbiter is a reenactment of Frank Morris' 1962 attempt to bust himself and two other cons out of The Rock. Eastwood, as Morris, tilts with nasty warden Patrick McGoohan Read More

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Actors: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, Veronica Cartwright, Jeff Goldblum

Synopsis: This remake of the 1956 horror classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers moves the action from small-town USA to 1970s San Francisco and replaces at least part of the original's psychological horror with special effects. Spores rain forth, unseen, from outer space, and soon strange flowers begin Read More

Telefon

Crew: Director

Actors: Charles Bronson, Lee Remick, Donald Pleasence, Tyne Daly, Alan Badel

Synopsis: Don Siegel took over the directing chores from Peter Hyams on this taut cold war action film, based on the novel by Walter Wager. With the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union thawing, old KGB hard-liner Nicolai Dalchimsky (Donald Pleasence) activates a group of Americans who Read More

The Shootist

Crew: Director

Actors: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, Bill McKinney, James Stewart

Synopsis: About ten minutes into The Shootist, Doctor Hostetler (James Stewart) tells aging Western gunfighter John Bernard Books (John Wayne), "You have a cancer." Knowing that his death will be painful and lingering, Books is determined to be shot in the line of "duty." In his remaining two months, Books Read More

The Black Windmill

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Michael Caine, Donald Pleasence, Delphine Seyrig, Clive Revill, John Vernon

Synopsis: Michael Caine stars as an espionage agent whose young son is kidnapped. Complicating matters is the fact that the kidnappers (John Vernon and Delphine Seyrig) are Caine's own colleagues. They want to secure Caine's aid in rounding up a diamond smuggling ring, and they don't care who they have to Read More

Charley Varrick

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, Felicia Farr, Andrew Robinson, John Vernon

Synopsis: Don Siegel directed this offbeat crime thriller which stars Walter Matthau as the titular Charley Varrick. Varrick is a small-time stick-up man who, in tandem with his partner Harman Sullivan (Andrew Robinson), makes plans to rob a small bank in New Mexico. Varrick and Sullivan are expecting a Read More

Dirty Harry

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni, John Vernon, Andy Robinson, John Larch

Synopsis: "You've got to ask yourself a question: 'do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" Dirty Harry provoked a critical uproar in 1971 for its "fascist" message about the power of one, as it also elevated Clint Eastwood to superstar status through his most enduring screen persona. Harry Callahan (Eastwood Read More

Two Mules for Sister Sara

Crew: Director

Actors: Shirley MacLaine, Clint Eastwood, Manolo Fábregas, Alberto Morin, Armando Silvestre

Synopsis: Director Budd Boetticher wrote the story upon which this comic Western was based. Clint Eastwood stars as Hogan, a tough cowboy who rescues a woman, Sara (Shirley Maclaine) as she's about to be attacked by a trio of rapists. Surprised to learn that his new traveling companion is a nun, Hogan Read More

The Beguiled

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Page, Elizabeth Hartman, Jo Ann Harris, Darlene Carr

Synopsis: The Beguiled is a Freudian mood piece from the team of actor Clint Eastwood and director Don Siegel. Eastwood plays Corp. John McBurney, a wounded Union soldier during the Civil War, who takes refuge in a prim-and-proper Southern girl's school run by Martha Farnsworth (Geraldine Page). Read More

Death of a Gunfighter

Crew: Director

Actors: Richard Widmark, Lena Horne, Carroll O'Connor, David Opatoshu, Kent Smith

Synopsis: Famed anonymous director Alan Smithee (in this case a hybrid of Richard Totten and Don Siegel), directed this turgid western drama concerning Marshal Frank Patch (Richard Widmark), who, even though he has kept the peace in Cottonwood Springs for over twenty years, is now considered a local joke by Read More

Coogan's Bluff

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Lee J. Cobb, Susan Clark, Tisha Sterling, Don Stroud

Synopsis: Clint Eastwood stars as Walt Coogan, an Arizona deputy sheriff who has been sent to New York City to extradite escaped killer James Ringerman (Don Stroud). On arrival, he's forced to wait by NYPD detective Lieutenant McElroy (Lee J. Cobb), who informs him that Ringerman is recovering from a bad Read More

Madigan

Crew: Director

Actors: Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens, Harry Guardino, James Whitmore

Synopsis: It's a seemingly peaceful spring morning in New York City -- graduation day at the Police Academy -- and Police Commissioner Anthony X. Russell (Henry Fonda) is looking forward to giving a speech to the new officers. But all isn't well: Russell's been given apparently incontrovertible evidence Read More

Stranger on the Run

Crew: Director

Actors: Anne Baxter, Dan Duryea, Henry Fonda, Michael Parks

Synopsis: A prime early example of how to make a truly worthwhile TV movie, Stranger on the Run is a tough, minimalist western in the tradition of the theatrical oaters of director Anthony Mann (one of whose favorite actors, Dan Duryea, has a supporting part in Stranger). Michael Parks is painfully Read More

The Hanged Man

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Don Siegal directed this made-for-TV remake of the western drama Ride The Pink Horse, in which Robert Culp stars as Harry Pace, who has set out to avenge the violent death of a good friend. Pace's search leads him to New Orleans during the Mardi Gras celebration, where he meets a beautiful woman Read More

The Killers

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, John Cassavetes, Ronald Reagan, Clu Gulager

Synopsis: Don Siegel directed this intensely pessimistic re-make of Robert Siodmak's 1946 film noir masterpiece The Killers, based upon a story by Ernest Hemingway. As the story opens two professional looking men in business suits -- Charlie (Lee Marvin) and Lee (Clu Gulager) -- push their way into a school Read More

The Twilight Zone: The Self-Improvement of Salvatore Ross

Crew: Director

Actors: Don Gordon, Gail Kobe, Vaughan Taylor, J. Pat O'Malley, Douglas Lambert

Synopsis: Don Gordon stars as Salvatore Ross, a repulsively arrogant young man who thinks that the world owes him a living. When he is rejected by virtuous social worker Leah Maitland (Gail Kobe), Ross vows to improve himself, and to do that he harnesses his newly-found ability to acquire the physical and Read More

The Twilight Zone: Uncle Simon

Crew: Director

Actors: Cedric Hardwicke, Constance Ford, Ian Wolfe, Marvin Miller

Synopsis: Resentful over having to wait on her invalid Uncle Simon (Cedric Hardwicke) hand and foot, Barbara Polk (Constance Ford) perserveres only because she expects to inherit the old man's fortune. But Simon, a famed inventor, has a surprise in store for Barbara after he shuffles off his mortal coil. In Read More

Hell Is for Heroes

Crew: Director

Actors: Steve McQueen, Bobby Darin, Nick Adams, Fess Parker, Harry Guardino, Mike Kellin, James Coburn

Synopsis: Don Siegel's only war film and unfortunately his only teaming with Steve McQueen, an actor whose rebellious persona jibed well with the director's vision, it puts the star in the familiar role of antihero. His character, Reese, is an embittered G.I. who has just been sent back to join his Read More

Flaming Star

Crew: Director

Actors: Elvis Presley, Steve Forrest, Barbara Eden, Rodopho (Rudy) Acosta, Dolores Del Rio, John McIntire, Karl Swenson

Synopsis: Tensely directed by Don Siegel, Flaming Star is the grittiest of Elvis Presley's post-Army films. Elvis plays Pacer Burton, a half-breed youth in the old West, torn between loyalty to the whites, as represented by his father (John McIntyre), and the Indians, represented by his mother (Dolores Del Rio Read More

Hound-Dog Man

Crew: Director

Actors: Fabian, Carol Lynley, Stuart Whitman, Arthur O'Connell, Dodie Stevens, Betty Field

Synopsis: A rustic drama set in the early 20th century, Hound Dog Man is the simple story of a young man, Spud Kinney (Dennis Holmes) constantly in hot water for disobeying his mother (Betty Field). The lad should be watching the family farm, but he falls in with his older brother, Clint (pop music's teen Read More

Edge of Eternity

Crew: Director

Actors: Cornel Wilde, Victoria Shaw, Mickey Shaughnessy, Edgar Buchanan, Rian Garrick

Synopsis: A well-dressed older man drives a car along the winding mountain road adjacent to the Grand Canyon. Another man lies in wait for him where the road ends. They fight, and the car and one of the men plunge into the mile-deep gorge. Thus begins a series of four killings that fall into the lap of Read More

The Gun Runners

Crew: Director

Actors: Audie Murphy, Eddie Albert, Patricia Owens, Everett Sloane, Gita Hall

Synopsis: The third and (as of 2005) the last film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's short story To Have and Have Not, The Gun Runners was as topical as this morning's news when it came out in 1958. Audie Murphy plays Sam Martin, a charter-boat skipper based in Key West, whose bad luck has enlarged from the Read More

The Lineup

Crew: Director

Actors: Eli Wallach, Robert Keith, Warner Anderson, Richard Jaeckel, Mary Laroche

Synopsis: A steamship docks in San Francisco, and as one of the passengers, Philip Dressler (Raymond Bailey), is waiting for a cab after clearing customs, a baggage handler suddenly grabs one of his cases and throws it into a taxi, which takes off. In the ensuing getaway, a police officer is killed, but not Read More

Spanish Affair

Crew: Director

Actors: Richard Kiley, Carmen Sevilia, José Guardiola, Jesus Tordesillas, Jose Manuel Martin

Synopsis: A jealous man is confronted with his worst fear in this thriller. Merritt Blake (Richard Kiley) is an architect from the United States who is invited to work on a project in Spain. Since he cannot speak Spanish, Blake is in need of an interpreter, and he hires Mari Zarubia (Carmen Sevilla), a Read More

Baby Face Nelson

Crew: Director

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Carolyn Jones, Cedric Hardwicke, Christopher Dark, Leo Gordon, Anthony Caruso

Synopsis: Fittingly directed by Illinois native and bad-guy filmmaker Don Siegel, this action-packed film stars Mickey Rooney as the unflinching, trigger-happy member of the infamous Dillinger gang that besieged the Midwest circa 1933. Rooney is Lester "Baby Face Nelson" Gillis and Carolyn Jones his gun Read More

Crime in the Streets

Crew: Director

Actors: James Whitmore, John Cassavetes, Sal Mineo, Mark Rydell, Denise Alexander, Virginia Gregg

Synopsis: Frankie Dane (John Cassavetes) is the leader of the hornets, a local street gang that has had its share of rumbles and other trouble with the police. When one of his members is fingered to the police by a neighbor (Malcolm Atterbury) for having a gun, Frankie vows revenge, and when the same man Read More

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Crew: Director

Actors: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan, Carolyn Jones

Synopsis: Don Siegel's classic exercise in psychological science fiction has often been interpreted as a cautionary fable about the blacklisting hysteria of the McCarthy era. It can be read as a political metaphor or enjoyed as a fine low-budget suspense movie, and it works well either way. Kevin McCarthy Read More

An Annapolis Story

Crew: Director

Actors: John Derek, Diana Lynn, Kevin McCarthy, Alvy Moore, Patrick Conway

Synopsis: The faces are new and the settings up-to-date, but otherwise An Annapolis Story is the tried-and-true "two guys and one girl" formula. Filmed on location at the titular Maryland naval academy, the story centers upon two sibling cadets, Tony (John Derek) and Jim (Kevin McCarthy). The boys battle Read More

Riot in Cell Block 11

Crew: Director

Actors: Neville Brand, Emile G. Meyer, Frank Faylen, Leo Gordon, Robert Osterloh

Synopsis: The best film of Don Siegel's career to date, this surprisingly intelligent B-picture describes the dramatic arc of an organized rebellion at Folsom prison. The inmates, who are sick of living conditions which include rundown cells, brutal guards, dreadful food, and the presence of the seriously Read More

Private Hell 36

Crew: Director

Actors: Ida Lupino, Steve Cochran, Howard Duff, Dean Jagger, Dorothy Malone

Synopsis: Private Hell 36 was one of the last feature-length efforts by Filmmakers, a company created by producer Collier Young and his then-wife Ida Lupino. Young and Lupino also wrote the script for this grim crime melodrama, wherein two detectives Cal Bruner (Steve Cochran) and Jack Farnham (Howard Duff Lupino Read More

China Venture

Crew: Director

Actors: Edmond O'Brien, Barry Sullivan, Jocelyn Brando, Leo Gordon, Richard Loo

Synopsis: In late 1944, an American guerilla unit led by Capt. Matt Reardon (Edmond O'Brien) learns that a Japanese plane carrying Admiral Amara (Philip Ahn) has crashed in China, in warlord-held territory. Reardon and his men are placed under the command of Naval Intelligence officer Commander Bert Read More

Count the Hours

Crew: Director

Actors: Teresa Wright, MacDonald Carey, Dolores Moran, Adele Mara, Edgar Barrier

Synopsis: Director Don Siegel keeps the events in Count the Hours moving so quickly that no one has time to ponder the film's huge lapses in logic. MacDonald Carey stars as a defense attorney Doug Madison who races against time to save migrant ranchhand George Braden (John Craven) from execution. While Read More

No Time for Flowers

Crew: Director

Actors: Viveca Lindfors, Paul Christian, Ludwig Stossel, Adrienne Gessner, Peter Preses

Synopsis: Basically a low-budget reworking of Ninotchka, this romantic comedy drama contains a strong anti-communist message as it tells the story of a Czechoslovakian secretary and the government official she works for. Both are loyal party members, particularly the secretary. One day, her boss, having Read More

The Duel at Silver Creek

Crew: Director

Actors: Audie Murphy, Faith Domergue, Stephen McNally, Susan Cabot, Gerald Mohr

Synopsis: A group of vicious claim-jumpers is killing the miners in a Western settlement. Their latest victim is Cromwell (Harry Harvey), who is shot to death at his mine just after his son Luke (Audie Murphy) leaves for town. Luke has three passions in life -- poker, guns, and the silver ornamentation he Read More

The Big Steal

Crew: Director

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, William Bendix, Patric Knowles, Ramon Novarro

Synopsis: This breezy and unpretentious film noir from director Don Siegel starts off with fireworks. Duke Holliday (Robert Mitchum), an American army lieutenant, is on his way to Mexico by boat when he's confronted in his cabin by Blake (William Bendix), gun in hand, who plans on taking him back to the Read More

Night Unto Night

Crew: Director

Actors: Ronald Reagan, Viveca Lindfors, Broderick Crawford, Rosemary de Camp, Osa Massen

Synopsis: Filmed in 1947, Warner Bros. Night Unto Night wasn't released until 1949. Based on a novel by Philip Wylie, the film stars Ronald Reagan as John, a young scientist suffering from epilepsy (In 1951, Reagan would play another epileptic, baseball star Grover Cleveland Alexander, in The Winning Team). Viveca Lindfors Read More

The Verdict

Crew: Director

Actors: Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Joan Lorring, George Coulouris, Arthur Shields, Rosalind Ivan

Synopsis: The novel The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill had been filmed in 1928 as The Perfect Crime and again in 1934 as The Crime Doctor. This 1946 version was the best and marked the directorial debut of Don Siegel. It also paired the popular duo of Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet for the last Read More

The Adventures of Mark Twain

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Fredric March, Alexis Smith, Donald Crisp, Alan Hale, C. Aubrey Smith

Synopsis: Dismissed by critics as corny and obvious in 1944, this overlong but sincere biopic looks pretty good when seen today, cliches notwithstanding. Fredric March, 47 at the time, convincingly plays American author Sam Clemens, aka Mark Twain, from his early 20s to his death at 75. In typical Read More

Edge of Darkness

Crew: Special Effects

Actors: Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, Walter Huston, Tom Fadden, Judith Anderson, Nancy Coleman, Helmut Dantine

Synopsis: The Norwegian resistance to the Nazi occupation of their country inspired several wartime films from Hollywood, including this Warner Bros. production, filmed in and around Monterey, California. In October 1942, a German observation airplane discovers a seaside village named Trollness where the Read More

Northern Pursuit

Crew: Special Effects

Actors: Errol Flynn, Julie Bishop, Helmut Dantine, John Ridgely, Gene Lockhart

Synopsis: The fact that star Errol Flynn had been recently embroiled in a real-life rape trial only served to increase the box-office "pull" of Warner Bros. Northern Pursuit. Flynn is cast as Canadian mountie Steve Wagner, assigned to track down and capture downed Nazi pilot Hugo von Keller (Helmut Dantine) Read More

Mission to Moscow

Crew: Consultant/advisor

Actors: Walter Huston, Ann Harding, Oscar Homolka, Gene Lockhart, George Tobias, Eleanor Parker

Synopsis: More so than most wartime films, Mission to Moscow must be viewed within the context of its times. Requested by President Roosevelt to make a film supportive of America's Russian allies, Warner Bros. turned to the memoirs of Ambassador Joseph H. Davies, who spent several years prior to WWII in the Read More

Casablanca

Crew: Special Effects

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre

Synopsis: One of the most beloved American films, this captivating wartime adventure of romance and intrigue from director Michael Curtiz defies standard categorization. Simply put, it is the story of Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a world-weary ex-freedom fighter who runs a nightclub in Casablanca during Read More