Robert Aldrich

Robert Aldrich’s family was one of the traditional pillars of society, Nelson Rockefeller was a cousin, but he distanced himself from his family and his films always presented traditional pillars of society as forces of oppression. He is best known for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), The Dirty Dozen (1967) and The Longest Yard (1974). Throughout his career he was driven by the desire to achieve complete control over his work, so he used the profits from The Dirty Dozen to buy his own studio. He also served two terms as president of the Directors Guild, where he worked tirelessly to improve directors’ control over the their films. (please click here to read more)

Michael Curtiz

It may seem surprising that the director of films such as Casablanca (1942), Captain Blood (1935), and the Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) is considered by many critics to be a technically skilled director, but nothing more than a loyal member of the studio system, who was unwilling to challenge himself artistically. Curtiz did little to change this view, and rarely gave interviews. (please click here to read more)


Edward Dmytryk

Edward Dmytryk is less famous for his films than for being one of the Hollywood Ten. He served six months in prison, and then enjoyed a successful career where his best known films are probably The Caine Mutiny (1954), The Young Lions (1957) and Anzio (1968). His movies avoided obvious messages but had human characters and seemed to show that progress, and life in general, was messy, complex and not always fair. (please click here to read more)

Anthony Mann

Anthony Mann’s best-known films were El Cid (1961) and Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), but the ten westerns that he directed between 1950 and 1960 were his greatest accomplishment. In most people’s minds the director most associated with Jimmy Stewart is probably Alfred Hitchcock or Frank Capra but it should be Mann. The westerns they made together were more like film noir with horses, which reflected his background in film noir. Mann’s sudden death in 1967 prevented him from receiving the recognition that he deserved. (please click here to read more)

Lewis Milestone

Best known for the anti-war classic All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), he directed several patriotic war movies during WWII, but was labeled a Communist sympathizer during the witch hunt after the war, which limited his career. (please click here to read more)



William Wellman

Although he was a contemporary of John Ford, Howard Hawks, and Raoul Walsh, Wellman is not that well-known because he has long been regarded as a studio hack, which is odd since much of his personal life, especially his experiences as a pilot in WWI, found their way into his films. He is probably best known for Wings (1927) or The Public Enemy (1931), but my personal favorites are The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) and Battleground (1949). (please click here to read more)


William Wyler

Wyler’s films have won twice as many Oscars as those of his nearest rival and he himself received three Oscars but few people would name him if they were asked to describe Hollywood’s greatest directors. Famous for demanding endless takes, his perfectionism produced beautiful films like Mrs. Miniver, Roman Holiday and Ben Hur. His reluctance to repeat himself drove him to make as wide a range of films as possible, which makes it hard to classify him. (please click here to read more)