Robert Wise On His Films

Each of the thirty-nine films that Wise has directed is presented here in photographs, a complete cast and credits listing, a story synopsis, and, most importantly, Robert Wise's own comments. Robert Wise on His Films is illustrated with 270 photographs and includes a short biographical portrait of Wise that draws heavily on his own words and Forewords by director Arthur Hiller and screenwriter Nelson Gidding.

From his early days as a film editor at RKO studios, where he helped Orson Welles shape Citizen Kane, to his success as a director and producer of musical blockbusters of the 1960s, Robert Wise had a long and illustrious film career. Unlike contemporaries such as Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford or Howard Hawks, however, Wise's films lack any clearly discernible characteristics to signify his work. There are few striking camera angles or visual flourishes that might distract from the primary obligation to present the story. And like Hawks, Wise never specialized in one or two genres, but brought his directing skills to all manner of films. His work as a director resists auteur categorization, and that is a chief reason why some critics have been unduly negative in their consideration of his work. In The Films of Robert Wise, Richard Keenan examines the nearly forty features that represent the director's career—from Curse of the Cat People in 1944 to A Storm in Summer (2001), the only television production Wise ever directed. Keenan offers a reappraisal of Wise's films so that the true quality of his work can be better appreciated. Keenan argues that if there was a flaw in Robert Wise as a director, it was that he lacked the ego and temperament of the artist, which was not necessarily a flaw at all. Indeed, Wise was a conscientious craftsman who saw his work not primarily as a vehicle for his own ideas and visual style, but as an opportunity to present narrative that—quite simply—engages, informs, and entertains. It was this perspective that helped produce a number of memorable films over the years, including the gritty noir Born to Kill, the one-two punch of The Set-Up and Somebody Up There Likes Me, the sci-fi prophecy The Day the Earth Stood Still, and the gripping indictment of capital punishment, I Want to Live!—classics all. Wise also won a pair of Oscars for two of the most memorable—not to mention successful—musicals of all time: West Side Story and The Sound of Music. Drawing on more than 30 hours of interviews with Wise—as well as additional interviews with a number of his collaborators—Keenan offers a welcome reassessment of the director's work. In his analysis of each film, Keenan reveals both Wise the craftsman and the artist. In doing so, The Films of Robert Wise finally confers upon this underappreciated director the recognition he deserves.

One of the most versatile Hollywood filmmmakers, Robert Wise had a number of renowned films under his directorial belt, including The Day The Earth Stood Still, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Nonetheless, Wise remains a rarely studied Hollywood figure--while many filmgoers know and love his films, few recognize his name. This book, the first in-depth analysis of Wise's cinematic achievement, uncovers the elements that link the director's diverse cinematic subjects and examines the ways in which tensions between individuals and their societies are explored. His films are seen from a new perspective that will heighten an appreciation for the range and depth of his overall body of work.

Born in Winchester, Indiana, Robert Wise spent much of his youth sitting in darkened movie theaters enthralled by the swashbuckling heroics of screen legend Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Through these viewings, Wise developed a passion for film—a passion he followed for the rest of his life, making movies in Hollywood. Nationally known film historian Wes D. Gehring explores Wise’s life from his days in the Hoosier State to the beginning of his movie career at RKO studios working as the editor of Orson Welles’s classic movie Citizen Kane. Wise is best known for producing and directing two of the most memorable movie musicals in cinema history, West Side Story (co-director Jerome Robbins) and The Sound of Music, for which he won four Academy Awards—two Best Picture and Best Directors Oscars. But, as Gehring notes, other than Howard Hawks, Wise was arguably Hollywood’s most versatile director of various celebrated genre films.

The first book-length study of the career of the director of such classic films as The Day the Earth Stood Still, West Side Story, and The Sound of Music, this volume combines thorough cast and crew credits, critical responses, awards and nominations, production notes, and comments from the director himself resulting in a unique overview of a remarkable career. In addition, a complete annotated bibliography of all books, articles, and interviews by or about Wise is included. An interesting feature is the examination of many of his unproduced projects. Wise's career began with RKO as an editor for such films as Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), when he then stepped in for director Gunther von Fritsch to complete Curse of the Cat People (1944). At 20th-Century Fox, Wise directed The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), and Run Silent, Run Deep (1958). West Side Story (1961), which Wise codirected with choreographer Jerome Robbins, marked the beginning of the third phase of his career, a period marked by mammoth productions that met with overwhelming approval commercially and critically. West Side Story Audrey Rose (1977).