George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey (1984)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

George Stevens Jr.

Release Date:

3 May 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography

Plot:

Biography of director George Stevens by his son. It includes clips from many of his films with commentary...

Plot Keywords:

Director | D Day | Blacklisting | Dachau Germany | WWII

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Jean Arthur	...	Herself (archive footage)
Fred Astaire	...	Himself
Montgomery Clift	...	Himself (archive footage)
James Dean	...	Himself (archive footage)
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.	...	Himself
Cary Grant	...	Himself (voice)
Katharine Hepburn	...	Herself
Rock Hudson	...	Himself (archive footage)
Sam Jaffe	...	Himself (archive footage)
Alan Ladd	...	Himself (archive footage)
Fred MacMurray	...	Himself (archive footage)
Joel McCrea	...	Himself
Jack Palance	...	Himself (archive footage)
Millie Perkins	...	Herself
Ginger Rogers	...	Herself
Elizabeth Taylor	...	Herself (archive footage)
Spencer Tracy	...	Himself (archive footage)
Max von Sydow	...	Himself
Shelley Winters	...	Herself (archive footage)
Warren Beatty	...	Himself
Frank Capra	...	Himself
John Huston	...	Himself
Rouben Mamoulian	...	Himself
Joseph L. Mankiewicz	...	Himself
Alan J. Pakula	...	Himself (as Alan Pakula)
Fred Zinnemann	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Pandro S. Berman	...	Himself
Yvonne Howell	...	Herself (as Yvonne Stevens)
Ivan Moffat	...	Himself
Hermes Pan	...	Himself
Hal Roach	...	Himself
Irwin Shaw	...	Himself
Jack Sher	...	Himself
George Stevens	...	Himself (archive footage)
George Stevens Jr.	...	Himself - Narrator (voice)
Toni Vellani	...	Himself
Charles Coburn	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Brandon De Wilde	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Joan Fontaine	...	Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Oliver Hardy	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Van Heflin	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Adolf Hitler	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Stan Laurel	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Hattie McDaniel	...	Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Victor McLaglen	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Directed by
George Stevens Jr.

Produced by
George Stevens Jr.	....	producer
Antonio Vellani	....	associate producer
Susan Winslow	....	co-producer

Original Music by
Carl Davis

Cinematography by
Harrison Engle
Tom Hurwitz

Film Editing by
Catherine Shields

Production Management
Gail Schumann	....	production manager

Sound Department
Steve Nelson	....	sound mixer
A.C. Warden	....	sound editor

Editorial Department
Michael Day	....	associate editor
Fred Kepler	....	assistant editor
A.C. Warden	....	associate editor
Susan Winslow	....	supervising editor

Music Department
Carl Davis	....	conductor
Kevin Townend	....	orchestrator

Other crew
Caroline Stevens	....	researcher

Production Companies

• Creative Film Center

Distributors

• Castle Hill Productions (1985) (USA) (theatrical)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1988) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• Rosebud Communications Releasing

Runtime:

110 min | USA:58 min (PBS American Masters version.)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:G

Company:

Creative Film Center

Movie Connections:

Edited into He Walks in Beauty: The George Stevens Production 'The Greatest Story Ever Told' (2001) (V)

Tribute to George Stevens narrated by his son...

This lengthy tribute to director George Stevens tries to cover almost too much ground during its one hour and fifty minutes. It even includes the color war footage that he took during the liberation of Paris in WWII and a visit to Germany and the concentration camps. While all of that footage is very interesting, a more compact look at Stevens' career would have been preferable.

His early films interested me the most--especially the film that brought out the kid in all of us--GUNGA DIN. A generous amount of film clips from this film makes for enjoyable viewing, as does the long musical clip from SWING TIME with Astaire and Rogers cavorting around the highly stylized B&W art deco set.

Other enjoyable clips from THE MORE THE MERRIER (the famous love scene where he let Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea improvise), WOMAN OF THE YEAR (Katharine Hepburn trying to make breakfast for Spencer Tracy), and earliest of all, ALICE ADAMS with the breakfast scene that includes Hattie McDaniel as a hapless maid hired to impress Fred MacMurray.

Other clips from A PLACE IN THE SUN, GIANT, SHANE and THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK take up precious time but are worth viewing. And then a sad look at one of his box-office and critical failures--THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD.

Summing up: A not too objective look at his father's career by a doting son, but a tribute that is indeed deserved.